Consumer columnist and West Hartford resident Harlan Levy has more than 20 years of experience writing stories about everyday experiences that anyone could encounter.

By Harlan Levy

Today I want to write about two medical initiatives that will affect consumers concerned about cervical cancer and the autoimmune disease lupus, which had no known cause until now, a study found.

Cervical cancer

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women globally with around 660,000 new cases and around 350,000 deaths in 2022. About 14,000 people in the United States receive a cervical cancer diagnosis each year. Women between the ages of 35 and 44 are most likely to receive a diagnosis.

Cervical cancer is a growth of cells that starts in the cervix, the lower part of the uterus that connects to the vagina. Various strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV) – a common infection passed through sexual contact – cause most cervical cancers.

Regular screenings and the HPV vaccine are vital, because it’s highly treatable when found in the early stages. It’s treated with surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and other cancer medications.

The new development is that screening for cervical cancer many soon be possible within the privacy of your own home.

On May 9, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the Teal Wand, a tampon-like tool people can use to collect cells from their vagina. It’s the first self-collection device approved for at-home use in the United States and could broaden access to cervical cancer screening.

The concept: Patients swab themselves with the wand then send it back to Teal Health, the company that makes the device, for analysis. It’s looking for traces of HPV, the virus to blame for nearly all cervical cancer cases. According to Teal Health, the item will begin its rollout this month in California and later nationwide.

Lupus

Scientists have finally discovered a cause of the autoimmune disease lupus and a possible way to reverse it, according to a study published in the journal Nature..

We have a friend who has been suffering from lupus for decades, so this is personally significant.

Lupus is a horrible chronic long-term disease that can cause inflammation and pain in any part of your body. It’s caused when your immune system’s T cells that usually fight infections – attack healthy tissue instead.

This attack causes inflammation, and in some cases permanent tissue damage, which can be widespread affecting the skin, joints, heart, lung, kidneys, circulating blood cells, and brain.

Anyone can get lupus. However, women get the disease about nine times more often than men. It occurs most often in people between ages 15 and 45, but lupus can occur in childhood or later in life as well.

The symptoms of lupus vary from person to person and can range from mild to severe. Symptoms may come and go, and you may develop new symptoms over time.

Lupus causes inflammation throughout the body, which can cause kidney damage and kidney failure, seizures and memory problems, heart problems, inflammation of blood vessels, blood clots, low blood cell counts, inflammation of the tissue that surrounds the lungs making it painful to breathe, and coronary artery disease

Symptoms include:

Arthritis, causing painful and swollen joints and morning stiffness; fevers; fatigue; a rash on the face or round, scaly rashes anywhere on the body; sensitivity to the sun; hair loss; sores in the nose and mouth; swollen glands; abdominal pain; and swelling in the legs or around the eyes.

Lupus cause

The study found that lupus is caused by a molecular abnormality, a fundamental imbalance in the types of T-cells that patients with lupus make, said Deepak Rao, one of the study authors. He’s quoted as saying, “People with lupus have too much of a particular T cell associated with damage in healthy cells and too little of another T cell associated with repair.”

The positive news that the study found is that this could be reversed. A protein called interferon is mainly to blame for the T-cell imbalance, the study concluded. Too much interferon blocks another protein called the aryl hydrocarbon receptor, which helps regulate how the body responds to bacteria or environmental pollutants. In turn, too many T-cells are produced that attack the body itself. The study found that giving people with lupus anifrolumab, a drug that blocks interferon, prevented the T-cell imbalance that likely leads to the disease.

Good news indeed.

Illegal online casino

The state Department of Consumer Protection Gaming Division announced a few days ago a settlement with Online Gaming Service Provider, High5Games, following an investigation into the licensee’s operation of an unlicensed online casino, High5Casino.

High5Games provides online slot content for the legal gaming platforms in Connecticut. High5Games has ceased operation of its online casino in Connecticut, and its Online Gaming Service Provider license was reinstated, effective May 22.

High5Games has agreed to pay nearly $1.5 million as part of the settlement. That includes more than $643,000 in restitution to consumers who lost money to High5Casino, and nearly $800,000 for use in consumer complaint resolution programs, consumer education, consumer protection enforcement and litigation.

Gamblers: There are only two licensed online casinos in Connecticut: DraftKings/Foxwoods and FanDuel/Mohegan Sun.

Now you know.

NOTE: If you have a consumer problem, contact me at [email protected] (“Consumer” in subject line), and, with the power of the press, maybe I can help.

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