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International columnist, political analyst and senior journalist Ahmed Mohiuddin Siddiqui’s articles are published across Asia, Africa and Europe. He writes for The Moroccan Times, The Tunis Times, India Tomorrow, Kohram News, The Etemaad Urdu Daily and for news papers published from Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. You can follow him on Twitter at: @journopolana[/symple_box]
Muscat, Oman—Bosnia Herzegovina, a tiny impoverished country in Europe, which was rocked by the Genocide of Muslims by the Serbs in the 1990s, is on the road to recovery. It is making rapid strides in the field of medicine. The University Clinical Hospital (SKB) Mostar, Bosnia has made international medical headlines with successful surgeries on patients to implant special devices for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. The project involved a team of the Mostar Hospital led by Dr Sanda Vlatkovic and an expert research team from the Netherlands, United States and Austria.
According to statistics available, Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) afflicts 0.5 to 1 per cent of the adult population worldwide. China has about 4 million RA patients, followed by Japan with 380,000 patients and Taiwan with 69,000 ones. India also has millions of RA patients. Two to three times as many women as men suffer from the horrible disease which cripples the human joints and bones. The RA patients lose an average of 39 working days each year. This reduces their income too. Australia spends about Aus $24 billion each year in healthcare, lost time at work, shortened lives and years spent with disability.
In the U. S, the average medical cost per annum associated with RA is US $ 5, 720 per patient of which in-patient cost is the largest component. Thailand accounts for US $ 2,682, which is 41.4 % of a patient’s average annual income. Treating only the symptoms of RA can reduce the life span of the RA patient by about 10 years. This disease gives pains and there are no gains.
In December 2014, doctors in the United Kingdom (UK) used tiny pace-maker devices embedded in the necks of patients with severe RA to ‘’hack’’ into their nervous systems. The implant stimulates the Vagus nerve. It connects the brain to the major organs and is responsible for many ‘automatic’ functions of the body such as breathing and heart rate. The scientists were able to reduce the activity of the spleen, a key body organ in the immune system. The spleen produced fewer chemicals and other immune cells that cause the abnormal inflammation in the joints of RA patients within a matter of some days. There was a significant improvement in more than 50 per cent of the patients. Some patients were able to get back to normal life with no pain and swelling. They could go biking, walk the dog and drive a car. There are an estimated 400,000 RA patients in the UK.
The British pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline, seeing the vast potential for “bio-electronics,’” has invested $5o million in the implant technology. The company has already started experimenting with next-generation smart devices the size of a grain of rice. The implants could prevent the airway spasms of asthma, control appetite in obesity. They could restore normal insulin production in diabetes. The implants can eliminate the need for patients to take drugs and help them to reverse chronic conditions including asthma, obesity and diabetes. The implant technology could revolutionize the medical field in the next 10 years and change our outlook towards diseases and their treatments. This can save a lot of money that is spent on healthcare. The family budget will start looking ‘healthy’ again. The money saved can be utilized for improving the standard of living of the people in the developing as well as the developed countries. The ultimate objective is to reduce human pain and suffering.
