5 health innovations curing the world’s ills

It’s been a good year for medical breakthroughs: from cancer-detecting blood tests to a vaccine for Ebola, a slew of high-tech innovations are helping to solve some of the world’s most challenging health problems.

Here are five of the most exciting.

1. A vaccine for Ebola

An end to the waning Ebola epidemic in West Africa could be in sight, after trials of an experimental new vaccine in Guinea was declared 100% effective. The world’s deadliest outbreak of the disease – which began in Guinea in March 2014 and spread to the neighbouring countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and beyond – has so far killed 11,000 people. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has hailed the vaccine as a game-changer: “It will change the management of the current outbreak and future outbreaks,” said Director-General Margaret Chan.

2. The Alzheimer’s predictor

A new test could determine whether you’re likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease – years before symptoms of cognitive decline appear. Researchers addressing the annual Alzheimer’s Association International Conference said that different substances in saliva had allowed them to tell a person who is ageing normally from a person with the sort of mild dementia that can lead to Alzheimer’s. While still in the preliminary stages, the saliva test could be the cheapest, least invasive and most effective screening method developed so far.

3. A blood test for cancer

An annual blood test that detects cancer while it’s still in the early stages, and still curable, could soon be in circulation. Dr Dennis Lo at the Chinese University of Hong Kong is working on a “liquid biopsy” that allows him to sequence the DNA in a few drops of blood and diagnose various types of cancer long before symptoms begin to appear. There are about 14 million new cases of cancer each year – with the number expected to rise by roughly 70% in the next 20 years, according to WHO.

4. Pre-hospital stroke care

A new ambulance unit that delivers fast, life-saving assistance to victims of stroke is now in use in Germany and the United States. Equipped with CT scanners and digitally connected to hospital-based specialists, Mobile Stroke Treatment Units (MSTUs) dramatically reduce the time it takes to diagnose and treat patients, greatly improving their chances of recovery. Ischemic stroke – in which obstructed blood supply to the brain can lead to permanent disability or death – affects 15 million people a year worldwide.

5. A new cholesterol-lowering drug

A new drug may be poised to overtake statins as the best way of lowering LDL cholesterol (so-called “bad” cholesterol) in the blood. PCSK9 inhibitors – which work by targeting a specific protein in the liver, and need to be injected every two to four weeks – are 10-20% more effective than taking a course of statin tablets. Raised cholesterol levels lead to atherosclerosis (hardened arteries) and heart disease, and cause 2.6 million deaths a year. Taken together, statins and PCSK9 inhibitors could significantly ease the burden of these conditions, both on the individual and on global healthcare costs.

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Author: Anna Bruce-Lockhart is an editor at the World Economic Forum

Image: A laboratory technician prepares proteins from tobacco plants to mass produce an Ebola vaccine in Halle, August 14, 2014. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt