Questões de Inglês

TREATMENT TO RESTORE VISION BY INJECTING STEM CELLS INTO THE EYE COULD ‘HELP PEOPLE WITH DAMAGED EYESIGHT’

By Tom Bawden

(1^st §) An effective new treatment to restore vision that works by injecting genetically modified stem cells into the eye to mend the damaged retina is on the horizon.

(2^nd §) Stem cells can be transplanted into the eye, releasing therapeutic molecules with neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory properties that promote the survival, proliferation and self-repair of retinal cells. The stem cells can also generate new retinal cells, replacing lost or damaged ones.

(3^rd§) “One of the main hurdles in using stem cells to treat damaged eyesight is low cell migration and integration in the retina,” says Pia Cosma, at the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona. “After the cells are transplanted, they need to reach the retina and integrate through its layers. Yet, we have found a way to enhance this process using stem cells commonly found in the bone marrow, which, in principle, can be used with any transplanted cells,” Dr Cosma said.

(4^th§) “There is still considerable work to be done, but our findings could make stem cell transplants a feasible and realistic option for treating visual impairment and restoring eyesight,” she said. The technique holds promise for improving sight in people with poor vision – and potentially even to cure blindness altogether – but the researchers cautioned that any such development requires much bigger studies to confirm their findings.

Adapted from: https://inews.co.uk. Accessed 10 November, 2021.

Responda à questão com base nas tirinhas a seguir:

    O texto a seguir é uma reprodução da carta contida na tirinha:

    Dear Friends,

    I have been fortunate to draw Charlie Brown and his friends for almost 50 years. It has been the fulfillment of my childhood ambition.

    Unfortunately, I am no longer able to maintain the schedule demanded by a daily comic strip. My family does not wish Peanuts to be continued by anyone else, therefore I am announcing my retirement.

    I have been grateful over the years for the loyalty of our editors and the wonderful support and love expressed to me by fans of the comic strip.

    Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy... how can I ever forget them...

Texto-base para a questão.

Eight-year-old’s handwritten novel takes Idaho town by storm

Good things come to those who wait – but with a bit of hustle, success can come sooner than you think.

    That is the lesson learned by eight-year-old Dillon Helbig, whose first book has become a surprise hit in his Idaho town of Boise. He snuck his 81-page handwritten Christmas tale onto a bookshelf at his local library without anyone noticing. But to the surprise of both himself and his parents, 56 people have joined the library’s waitlist to read it.

    The fictional novel tells the story of how Dillon was decorating his Christmas tree when it exploded, magically transporting him back to the year 1621. The year is a reference to when the Thanksgiving holiday was first celebrated in the US, a fact he checked with his mother while working on the book over the winter holidays.

    The book was written by hand over four days in a journal and illustrated with drawings – also by the author. He gave it the title The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis, and named the author as Dillon Helbig His Self.

    But the only reason the self-produced novel became known outside of Dillon’s home was because of how it ended up in the local library system. While on a trip to the library with his grandmother shortly after finishing the book, Dillon took a risk. He decided to place the only copy of the book on a shelf when nobody was looking.

    “There was a lot of librarians that I had to sneak past, so do you know what I did? I covered up this part and covered the back with my body and just snuck it in,” Dillon explained to a local television station. “I always be sneaky, like how I get chocolate,” he added.

    When the local branch discovered the book they decided to process it and include it in their collection. “Dillon’s book definitely fit all the criteria that we would look for to include a book in our collection,” the library manager, Alex Hartman, said.

    As for Dillon, he already has plans for a sequel. He told interested reporters that his next book will be “based on actual events.” And he has already decided on a title for it – The JacketEating Closet.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60229749

Global monkeypox outbreak was "waiting to happen"

by Emily Craig

25/5/2022

    Eradicating smallpox may have left the world vulnerable to monkeypox, experts have warned amid growing fears about the current outbreak sweeping the world.

    Britons were routinely offered smallpox Jabs until the 1970s, when the scheme was deemed no longer necessary because the virus had been beaten into submission. Similar programmes were wound down across the world at the same time.

    Scientists say the waning immunity from the mammoth inoculation campaigns may help explain why monkeypox outbreaks are becoming more common across the world.

    Although not purposefully made for monkeypox, the Imvanex jab — made by Danish-based Bavarian Nordic — is up to 85 per cent effective because the two viruses are so similar. Antivirals and therapies for smallpox also work for monkeypox.

    Dr Romulus Breban, a researcher at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, said the current global outbreak was 'waiting to happen¹ because of the world's 'almost zero' immunity levei. Nineteen countries have detected cases in the past month, which has sparked alarm because infections usually only occur in west and central África.

    Professor Neil Mabbott, an immunopathologist from the University of Edinburgh, told MailOnline over-50s are the only group protected against monkeypox. 'Although the levei of immunity will wane in time, smallpox vaccination provides long-lasting protection,' he said. 'Some estimates suggest this may last for decades.'

    There are signs that monkeypox was becoming more common even before the latest outbreak, with studies in África suggesting the rates increased 20-fold between the 1980s and mid-2000s.

    Experts believe larger populations and more interaction with infected animais are behind the rise.

    At least 221 monkeypox cases have been confirmed across the world since the first patient was sickened in the UK on May 6, with most infections among gay and bisexual men. The United Arab Emirates, Czech Republic and Slovenia are the latest countries to log infections.

    The Czech man showed symptoms of the disease after returning from a festival in Antwerp, Belgium in early May. Several monkeypox cases have since been linked with Darklands-a large-scale fetish festival, held from May 5-8.

    The UK Health Security Agency is contacting high-risk contacts of confirmed cases and advising them to self-isolate at home for three weeks and avoid contact with children.

    They are also being offered the Imvanex vaccine.

    This strategy, known as ring vaccination, involves jabbing and monitoring anyone around an infected person to form a buffer of immune people to limit the spread of the disease.

    But the winding down of the campaign, which also kept monkeypox under control, has left unjabbed Britons exposed to the virus.

    As the proportion of the UK population with immunity against monkeypox has declined, it has theoretically given the virus room to circulate and be transmitted easier.

    Dr Breban told the Guardian: 'This outbreak was really waiting to happen. Our immunity levei is almost zero. People aged 50 and above are likely to be immune but the rest of us not, so we are very, very susceptible.'

    In a paper published in the journal Bulletin of the World Health Organization in September 2020, Dr Breban and colleagues warned monkeypox 'is an emerging infectious disease for which outbreak frequency and expected outbreak size in human populations have steadily increased'.

    The team pinpointed the spread of cases beyond west and central África as a pattern fuelled by the decline in immunity against orthopox viruses, a family of viruses that also includes smallpox and monkeypox, due to the end of the vaccination scheme.

(...)

Source: Daily Mail (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10849635/Global-monkeypox-outbreak-wa iting-happen-scientists-say.html)

Global monkeypox outbreak was "waiting to happen"

by Emily Craig

25/5/2022

    Eradicating smallpox may have left the world vulnerable to monkeypox, experts have warned amid growing fears about the current outbreak sweeping the world.

    Britons were routinely offered smallpox Jabs until the 1970s, when the scheme was deemed no longer necessary because the virus had been beaten into submission. Similar programmes were wound down across the world at the same time.

    Scientists say the waning immunity from the mammoth inoculation campaigns may help explain why monkeypox outbreaks are becoming more common across the world.

    Although not purposefully made for monkeypox, the Imvanex jab — made by Danish-based Bavarian Nordic — is up to 85 per cent effective because the two viruses are so similar. Antivirals and therapies for smallpox also work for monkeypox.

    Dr Romulus Breban, a researcher at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, said the current global outbreak was 'waiting to happen¹ because of the world's 'almost zero' immunity levei. Nineteen countries have detected cases in the past month, which has sparked alarm because infections usually only occur in west and central África.

    Professor Neil Mabbott, an immunopathologist from the University of Edinburgh, told MailOnline over-50s are the only group protected against monkeypox. 'Although the levei of immunity will wane in time, smallpox vaccination provides long-lasting protection,' he said. 'Some estimates suggest this may last for decades.'

    There are signs that monkeypox was becoming more common even before the latest outbreak, with studies in África suggesting the rates increased 20-fold between the 1980s and mid-2000s.

    Experts believe larger populations and more interaction with infected animais are behind the rise.

    At least 221 monkeypox cases have been confirmed across the world since the first patient was sickened in the UK on May 6, with most infections among gay and bisexual men. The United Arab Emirates, Czech Republic and Slovenia are the latest countries to log infections.

    The Czech man showed symptoms of the disease after returning from a festival in Antwerp, Belgium in early May. Several monkeypox cases have since been linked with Darklands-a large-scale fetish festival, held from May 5-8.

    The UK Health Security Agency is contacting high-risk contacts of confirmed cases and advising them to self-isolate at home for three weeks and avoid contact with children.

    They are also being offered the Imvanex vaccine.

    This strategy, known as ring vaccination, involves jabbing and monitoring anyone around an infected person to form a buffer of immune people to limit the spread of the disease.

    But the winding down of the campaign, which also kept monkeypox under control, has left unjabbed Britons exposed to the virus.

    As the proportion of the UK population with immunity against monkeypox has declined, it has theoretically given the virus room to circulate and be transmitted easier.

    Dr Breban told the Guardian: 'This outbreak was really waiting to happen. Our immunity levei is almost zero. People aged 50 and above are likely to be immune but the rest of us not, so we are very, very susceptible.'

    In a paper published in the journal Bulletin of the World Health Organization in September 2020, Dr Breban and colleagues warned monkeypox 'is an emerging infectious disease for which outbreak frequency and expected outbreak size in human populations have steadily increased'.

    The team pinpointed the spread of cases beyond west and central África as a pattern fuelled by the decline in immunity against orthopox viruses, a family of viruses that also includes smallpox and monkeypox, due to the end of the vaccination scheme.

(...)

Source: Daily Mail (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10849635/Global-monkeypox-outbreak-wa iting-happen-scientists-say.html)

Global monkeypox outbreak was "waiting to happen"

by Emily Craig

25/5/2022

    Eradicating smallpox may have left the world vulnerable to monkeypox, experts have warned amid growing fears about the current outbreak sweeping the world.

    Britons were routinely offered smallpox Jabs until the 1970s, when the scheme was deemed no longer necessary because the virus had been beaten into submission. Similar programmes were wound down across the world at the same time.

    Scientists say the waning immunity from the mammoth inoculation campaigns may help explain why monkeypox outbreaks are becoming more common across the world.

    Although not purposefully made for monkeypox, the Imvanex jab — made by Danish-based Bavarian Nordic — is up to 85 per cent effective because the two viruses are so similar. Antivirals and therapies for smallpox also work for monkeypox.

    Dr Romulus Breban, a researcher at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, said the current global outbreak was 'waiting to happen¹ because of the world's 'almost zero' immunity levei. Nineteen countries have detected cases in the past month, which has sparked alarm because infections usually only occur in west and central África.

    Professor Neil Mabbott, an immunopathologist from the University of Edinburgh, told MailOnline over-50s are the only group protected against monkeypox. 'Although the levei of immunity will wane in time, smallpox vaccination provides long-lasting protection,' he said. 'Some estimates suggest this may last for decades.'

    There are signs that monkeypox was becoming more common even before the latest outbreak, with studies in África suggesting the rates increased 20-fold between the 1980s and mid-2000s.

    Experts believe larger populations and more interaction with infected animais are behind the rise.

    At least 221 monkeypox cases have been confirmed across the world since the first patient was sickened in the UK on May 6, with most infections among gay and bisexual men. The United Arab Emirates, Czech Republic and Slovenia are the latest countries to log infections.

    The Czech man showed symptoms of the disease after returning from a festival in Antwerp, Belgium in early May. Several monkeypox cases have since been linked with Darklands-a large-scale fetish festival, held from May 5-8.

    The UK Health Security Agency is contacting high-risk contacts of confirmed cases and advising them to self-isolate at home for three weeks and avoid contact with children.

    They are also being offered the Imvanex vaccine.

    This strategy, known as ring vaccination, involves jabbing and monitoring anyone around an infected person to form a buffer of immune people to limit the spread of the disease.

    But the winding down of the campaign, which also kept monkeypox under control, has left unjabbed Britons exposed to the virus.

    As the proportion of the UK population with immunity against monkeypox has declined, it has theoretically given the virus room to circulate and be transmitted easier.

    Dr Breban told the Guardian: 'This outbreak was really waiting to happen. Our immunity levei is almost zero. People aged 50 and above are likely to be immune but the rest of us not, so we are very, very susceptible.'

    In a paper published in the journal Bulletin of the World Health Organization in September 2020, Dr Breban and colleagues warned monkeypox 'is an emerging infectious disease for which outbreak frequency and expected outbreak size in human populations have steadily increased'.

    The team pinpointed the spread of cases beyond west and central África as a pattern fuelled by the decline in immunity against orthopox viruses, a family of viruses that also includes smallpox and monkeypox, due to the end of the vaccination scheme.

(...)

Source: Daily Mail (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10849635/Global-monkeypox-outbreak-wa iting-happen-scientists-say.html)