Health in the cosmos

Health Matters newsletter: Health in the cosmos - on the impact of space exploration on Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore’s health

(In this week’s Health Matters newsletter, Zubeda Hamid discusses the impact of space exploration on the body, the latest vaccine updates, current global health issues, and more.)

Imagine going on a work trip that becomes longer than it was intended to be. Now imagine that trip was out of this world. Literally. That’s what has happened to the crew of Boeing’s new Starliner capsule, with seasoned astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams’ stay onboard the International Space Station extended to February 2025 – by which time, what was meant to be a weeklong test flight, would have lasted more than eight months.

The decision to keep the crew on the ISS until next year, and to have Starliner return to Earth without the astronauts to avoid any unnecessary risks, came from U.S. space agency NASA after nearly three months of helium leaks, technical glitches, space debris threats and other issues.

What happens to your body when you stay in space for a long period of time? Vasudevan Mukunth tells us that while there still isn’t sufficient research, what has been found is that the bones, digestion, eyes, heart, muscles and nerves could all be affected. In microgravity, bones become weaker, which might force the body to deposit the ‘excess’ mineral content in the kidneys, leading to renal stones. Food may move more slowly through the gut and lead to weight gain. Around 70% of those involved in long-duration spaceflight develop a disease called spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome: more fluids enter the head and build up at the back of the eye, affecting eyesight. Because of the body’s weightless experience, the heart is required to do less work and could shrink. Similarly, other parts of the musculature could shed muscle mass and strength.

And while we hope for the astronauts’ safe and healthy return, on terra firma this week, there have been multiple developments when it comes to diagnostics, drugs and vaccines. In the battle against mpox, currently surging across several African countries and with cases detected in several other countries, including five cases so far in neighbouring Pakistan, India has granted approval to Siemens Healthineers for the manufacture of RT-PCR testing kits for the viral disease, writes Bindu Shajan Perappadan. There have been three other significant developments in the country: Indian Immunologicals Ltd, in partnership with Griffith University, developed a needle-free intra-nasal booster vaccine against SARS-CoV-2; N. Ravi Kumar writes that Bharat Biotech International launched a single-strain oral cholera vaccine it has developed under licence from Hilleman Laboratories and, continuing its action against irrational fixed dose combination drugs, the government banned 156 more this month.

While we’re on the subject of vaccines though, the troubling issue of vaccine inequity has again come up: Kashish Aneja, Sam Halabi and Lawrence Gostin write that one of the most glaring shortcomings exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic was the inadequacy of vaccine manufacturing capabilities in the Global South, exacerbated by the lack of technology transfers and the know-how to produce vaccines developed in the West. So far, they say, global response to the mpox outbreak appears to be following a similar trajectory. Compounding the lack of vaccine availability is the fact that Africa has secured less than 10% of the estimated USD 245 million it needs to fight a surging mpox outbreak on the continent. And I write about a new research paper that highlighted the multiple barriers faced by persons with disabilities and transpersons in accessing the Covid-19 vaccine in India.

Segueing from one viral disease to another, R. Amanda Miriam Fernandez and Vignesh Radhakrishnan, show us through data that India is getting complacent in its fight against polio. Data from National Family Health Surveys show that the pace of administration of the polio vaccine has slowed: coverage of the last dose remains relatively poor, they point out. Coverage levels are at the lowest in the north-east, and among the poorest households where education levels of the female head of the family were not advanced. And while we’re on the subject of polio, the WHO reached a deal with Israel for a limited pause in the fighting in Gaza to allow for polio vaccinations for hundreds of thousands of children, after a baby contracted the first confirmed case of polio in 25 years in the Palestinian territory.