Infant Formulas Sold in Nigeria Found Toxic

Infant formulas sold in Nigeria are useful alternatives to breast milk in many circumstances but may pose health risks to infants and children due to contamination by potentially toxic metals, a study has said.

In the study published in the 2020 Sultan Qaboos University Medical Journal, scientists tested different brands of both locally manufactured and imported infant formulas and found their content of arsenic was higher than the provisional tolerable level, suggesting a cause for public health concern.

Arsenic can cause cancer in many organs, including the skin, lungs, bladder, kidney and liver; it is also capable of influencing the neurological, respiratory and cardiovascular systems.

The study also compared the estimated daily intake of aluminium, arsenic and mercury with the provisional tolerable daily intake acceptable by the Joint Food and Agricultural Organisation/World Health Organisation Expert Committee on Food Additives in 26 infant formulas purchased in March, 2017 from stores in Port Harcourt.

This sample represented approximately 75 per cent of infant formulas available on the Nigerian market. It consists of infant formulas and follow-on formula samples which were soy-based, milk and rice-based, rice, wheat and mixed cereal gruel (all sold as powder), vegetable meals, and fruit-based desserts.

Aluminium and mercury levels were within permissible limits, but arsenic concentrations in the infant formulas exceeded established safe limits.

The concentrations of aluminium and mercury were highest in milk-based infant formulas compared to other types, whereas arsenic was lowest in milk-based infant formulas compared to other analysed types.

The levels of arsenic were higher in cereal-based formulas compared to milk-based formulas, but the difference was not significant.

The intake levels of aluminium, arsenic and mercury in infant formulas were found to be 8.02–14.2 per cent, 437.1–771 per cent and 23.7–41.8 per cent of the provisional tolerable daily intake of the JECFA threshold values, respectively.

According to them, food regulatory agencies in developing nations should maintain regular and periodic checks of foods to ensure permissible limits of contaminants.

They declared that further studies with larger sample sizes including metal speciation analyses will shed more light on the public health impact of infant formula consumption in Nigeria.

Currently, there is no guideline for arsenic content in baby food, including infant formulas, but the food industry has been advised to adhere to a 0.2 mg/kg arsenic level to ensure the safety of infants and young children.

Infant formulas derived from rice have been shown to contain arsenic, which potentially has health risks for infants due to long-term exposure starting at a young age.

Source: https://tribuneonlineng.com/infant-formulas-on-sale-in-nigeria-high-in-arsenic-toxic-substance/

Chinese Drug Laboratory Stops Coronavirus

A Chinese drug laboratory has been developing a drug it believes has the power to bring the coronavirus pandemic to a halt.

The outbreak first emerged in China late last year before spreading across the world, prompting an international race to find treatments and vaccines.

A drug being tested by scientists at China's prestigious Peking University could not only shorten the recovery time for those infected, but even offer short-term immunity from the virus, researchers say.

Sunney Xie, director of the university's Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics, told AFP that the drug has been successful at the animal testing stage.

"When we injected neutralising antibodies into infected mice, after five days the viral load was reduced by a factor of 2,500," said Xie.

"That means this potential drug has (a) therapeutic effect."

The drug uses neutralising antibodies -- produced by the human immune system to prevent the virus infecting cells -- which Xie's team isolated from the blood of 60 recovered patients.

A study on the team's research, published Sunday in the scientific journal Cell, suggests that using the antibodies provides a potential "cure" for the disease and shortens recovery time.

Xie said his team had been working "day and night" searching for the antibody.

"Our expertise is single-cell genomics rather than immunology or virology. When we realised that the single-cell genomic approach can effectively find the neutralising antibody we were thrilled."

He said he hopes that the drug will be ready for use later this year and in time for any potential winter outbreak of the virus, which has infected 4.8 million people around the world and killed more than 315,000.

"Planning for the clinical trial is underway," said Xie, adding it will be carried out in Australia and other countries since cases have dwindled in China, offering fewer human guinea pigs for testing.

"The hope is these neutralising antibodies can become a specialised drug that would stop the pandemic," he said.

China already has five potential coronavirus vaccines at the human trial stage, a health official said last week.

But the World Health Organization has warned that developing a vaccine could take 12 to 18 months.

Scientists have also pointed to the potential benefits of plasma -- a blood fluid -- from recovered individuals who have developed antibodies to the virus enabling the body's defences to attack it.

More than 700 patients have received plasma therapy in China, a process which authorities said showed "very good therapeutic effects".

"However, it (plasma) is limited in supply," Xie said, noting that the 14 neutralising antibodies used in their drug could be put into mass production quickly.

- Prevention and cure -

Using antibodies in drug treatments is not a new approach, and it has been successful in treating several other viruses such as HIV, Ebola and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).

Xie said his researchers had "an early start" since the outbreak started in China before spreading to other countries.

Ebola drug Remdesivir was considered a hopeful early treatment for COVID-19 -- clinical trials in the US showed it shortened the recovery time in some patients by a third -- but the difference in mortality rate was not significant.

The new drug could even offer short-term protection against the virus.

The study showed that if the neutralising antibody was injected before the mice were infected with the virus, the mice stayed free of infection and no virus was detected.

This may offer temporary protection for medical workers for a few weeks, which Xie said they are hoping to "extend to a few months".

More than 100 vaccines for COVID-19 are in the works globally, but as the process of vaccine development is more demanding, Xie is hoping that the new drug could be a faster and more efficient way to stop the global march of the coronavirus.

"We would be able to stop the pandemic with an effective drug, even without a vaccine," he said.

Source: https://www.afp.com/en/news/15/scientists-china-believe-new-drug-can-stop-pandemic-without-vaccine-doc-1rt4xh4