HOUSTON, Texas – As much as we’re amazed by the advances of medicine, in 2015 many diseases remain incurable or are often fatal.
“We definitely have a long way to go in curing disease and preventing disease as well” said Luis Ostrosky, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at UTHealth School of Medicine.
Ebola, Polio, Cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer’s, Diabetes, Asthma, Malaria and Dengue are some of them. But your neighborhood doctor can’t do much for the flu or a simple cold either.
“Influenza is very concerning” warns Dr. Ostrosky, “It is a disease that has associated mortality.”
The good news is that some illnesses can be prevented or treated, and the affected people can learn to live with them.
“In the case of Diabetes, there’s recent research that shows that if you control your blood glucose intensively, you can prevent some of the complications” explained the expert . “Also, now we can manage HIV as a chronic disease and people can have full lives with it.”
In other cases, the virus can be stopped from spreading.
“Polio is a disease that can be prevented by a vaccine” he said. “The world made incredible strides in trying to prevent this disease with massive vaccination campaigns.”
Ten countries are currently infected with Polio, including Pakistan, Syria, Cameroon, Nigeria, Somalia and Equatorial Guinea, according to the World Health Organization.
It looks like when possible, prevention and early detection is the best strategy.
“And that’s why vaccines are very, very important; and general hygiene is very important as well” concluded Dr. Ostrosky.
