Medicine

Only one trained healthcare provider is available for every 16 villages. Although, more than 70% of India's population lives in rural areas, only 20% of the total hospital beds are located in rural area.

The reconstructed version of the flu virus that caused the 1918 world pandemic will be mailed to registered labs in the US that ask for it; A US patent has been granted for an antigravity device. Watchdogs can sometimes provoke scientific misconduct

Despite the improvement in newborn health care services neonatal and infant mortality rate has not significantly declined. In India 26 million babies are born every year, out of which 1.2 million die before completing the first four weeks of life.

The commonest method for committing homicide in Benin City was by firearms, while ingestion of poisons, particularly ‘Otapiapia’ an insecticide, is the commonest method for committing suicide in this region.

Quality control and standarization of herbal and other natural products are the fundamental step towards developing and modernizing such products into evidence based medicines.

WCS has played a key role in the vaccine currently being developed for avian flu, using birds our vets recently sampled in Mongolia. Drs. Billy Karesh (expedition leader to Mongolia in August) and Bob Cook are available for interviews on this breakthrough

Campylobacter jejuni is one of the major causes of diarrhoea in human and animals especially in developed countries. EZ Campy DNA kit was designed and developed to detect for Campylobacter jejuni within 3 hours.

Doctors think they have hit on a way to double supplies of the scarce antiviral drug Tamiflu, reports a news exclusive in Nature this week.

Discussions on avian influenza dominated this inter-governmental conference that took place from 23-27 October.

3rd Session of the meeting of the Parties to the Agreement on the conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA), 23 – 27 October 2005, Dakar, Senegal

This study was formulated with an objective of studying the factors influencing the utilization of health services in the spectrum of antenatal, intranatal and postnatal periods of a mother.

Scientists caution against premature finger-pointing at migratory wild birds, indicating that more needs to be known about their precise migratory routes and where they stop, and to understand which species may be more susceptible to such a virus.

Dr Taej Mundkur and Dr. Sharifah Syed Hassan

The deadly H5N1 bird flu virus is expected to be carried by migrating birds into east Africa within weeks; US doctors have launched a clinical trial to assess the effects of allowing couples to choose the sex of their unborn children

A simplified strategy for modifying complex sugar molecules, could dramatically increase the ease and speed with which scientists tackle important issues relating to tumor detection and the pathology of infectious diseases.

Highlights of Papers in Nature Vol 437 No 7062 Date 20 Octobed 2005

Academics and physicians who write the rules on how to prescribe drugs have extensive financial connections with the pharmaceutical industry, according to an investigation by Nature.

Some patients who suffer a right-hemisphere stroke develop a syndrome called 'neglect', in which they ignore the entire left side of their bodies. Researchers have found that this is caused by intact areas of the brain connected to the damaged areas.

A study was conducted in 96 females suffering from PMS. Behavioral symptoms appearing during PMS were noticed. It was found that there is a substantial link between PMS and behavior alterations. Depression, aggression, irritability etc.

Young boys were allegedly kidnapped and kept under illegal custody for months together. After demoralization had set in due to prolonged confinement, surgery was done on their private parts and female hormones were given to the persons.

The age of ossification of different centers at wrist joint i.e. Carpals and lower ends of radius and ulna have been studied in pediatric age group in central Rajasthan. The study included 244 healthy children of both sexes up to 12 years of age

The paper raises the possibility that the current prophylactic regimen for Tamiflu (oseltamivir) may have contributed to the emergence of partial resistance to the drug in a Vietnamese patient.

Males preferred poisoning and hanging whereas females preferred self-immolation (burns) to end their own lives.

New journal launched at www.indianjournals.com

Prof. Dr M.A. Miyan is the founder of South Asian Disaster Management Center (SADMC); Prof. Dr. Mohammed Nasimul Islam worked for the UN as a forensic pathologist; Prof. Masahiro Fukaya is a Professor in the Faculty of Policy Management

New free full text journal launched at www.indianjournals.com

R & D in animal health is the major activity of VRI, with special emphasis on livestock of economic and public health (zoonotic) importance. It also spearheads R&D of novel vaccines and biologicals for veterinary use.

The 'Spanish flu' virus that killed about 50 million people in 1918-1919 had elements that were new to humans of the time, making it highly virulent and geneticists have compiled the genetic sequences of more than 200 different flu samples

The I-ELISA is very suitable for large scale surveillance for avian influenza and can be used to detect antibody positive chickens if an outbreak of Avian Influenza Virus is suspected or for surveillance purposes post-outbreak at a particular location.

This paper discusses the measures that were put in place before, during and after the peak period of bird flu outbreaks in East Asia in early 2004.