The number of lives lost due to viral hepatitis infections is increasing and already accounts for 3,500 deaths daily, according to this report by the World Health Organization (WHO). This is the first consolidated WHO report on viral hepatitis epidemiology, service coverage and product access, with improved data for action. …
The upsurge in the incidence of polio in Uttar Pradesh (up) is threatening to derail the World Health Organisation's (who) goal of eradicating the disease from the planet by 2005, asserts who Director General Gro Harlem Brundtland. At least 15 per cent of up's children are believed to be "under-immunised' …
at a time when the Pulse polio immunisation drive is in full swing, rumours are rife about the presence of polio virus in some goats in Gumbli village in Tamil Nadu's Thiruvellur district. Experts fear this can affect the already floundering national polio eradication programme. According to news reports, around …
The foot and mouth disease (FMD) is a recurring menace for the people of Chhukha dzongkhag (district) in Bhutan. Fed up with the frequent outbreaks, Chhukha has embarked upon a mass immunisation programme that would shield its entire livestock. The district has a livestock population of 1,53,348, and has encountered …
with the recent genome decoding of both the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum and its vector Anopheles gambiae, scientists have got a vital framework for exploring new ways to block disease transmission at molecular and cellular levels. The feat is particularly significant as both the parasite and the vector are associated …
an aids-like epidemic wiped out huge numbers of chimpanzees around two million years ago, leaving modern chimps resistant to the aids virus and its variants. This hypothesis would explain why chimps, which share more than 98 per cent of their dna with humans, don't develop aids. The hypothesis stems from …
europe has been declared polio-free. For some 870 million people living in the region's 51 member states, this declaration is an important public health milestone in the new millennium. The European Regional Commission for the Certification of the Eradication of Poliomyelitis confirmed that the disease had been eradicated in the …
Starting September 2002, about two million children would be vaccinated free of cost against Hepatitis b in 15 cities and 32 districts in the country. The move follows the inclusion of the vaccination in the Universal Immunisation Programme (uip) by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (mhfw), which took …
Hepatitis B is a communicable disease with a high strike rate the germ: "The Hepatitis B virus kills 20 out of every 100 infected people each day. This works out to 400 times the people who die of AIDS daily,' points out S K Sarin, president, Indian Association for Study …
When the body is exposed to a foreign substance, such as a virus or bacteria, the immune system responds by making cells and agents that fight off the invaders. But sometimes physicians want to be able to turn off the immune response, such as during bone marrow or organ transplants …
killing cells laden with the hiv may form a key part of future aids vaccination strategies. A new aids vaccine, which does exactly that holds good promise, say researchers. Vaccinated monkeys survived a usually lethal infection with a monkey-human hybrid virus, shiv. Their primed immune system kept virus levels below …
researchers might have to rethink their strategy for developing an effective vaccine against Human Immunodeficiency Virus (hiv) reveals a study published in Nature . Researcher Dan Barouch of Harvard Medical School in Boston and his team have shown that hiv can mutate and evade the protection provided by vaccines. The …
A chemical involved in immune system signalling may be able to reverse some types of skin damage caused by sunlight. It could reduce sunburn by activating DNA-repair mechanisms, suggests a new study by researchers from Germany-based University of Munster. This finding raises the possibility that the chemical might be used …
seventeen children have died and thousands of others have reported sick after being administered the pulse Vitamin A dose in different districts of Assam. The dose was given as part of an immunisation programme organised by the state government and aided by the United Nations Children's Fund (unicef). Even as …
AIDS activists are suing the South African government for its failure to distribute an anti-HIV drugs that could save the lives of about 35,000 newborn babies each year. The lawsuit will be filed by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), which played a leading role earlier this year in forcing multinational …
The UN has launched a four-year study to examine the damage to the Earth's environment and identifying ways to contain them. Some 1,500 scientists will undertake the study Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. "All the world's ecosystems will be studied to bring the world's best science to bear on the pressing choices …
a new refrigerator run on solar power, developed by Hyderabad-based public sector giant Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (bhel), could go along way in eradicating polio in remote areas of the world besides helping in other vaccine programmes. Vaccines are transported and stored from the place of manufacture up to the …
A newly-formed organisation in Bangladesh, Forum for Arsenic Patients (fap), has threatened to sue the United Nations Children's Fund (unicef) for compensation on behalf of millions of unsuspecting victims of arsenic poisoning. The hand-pump system, introduced to wean the vast majority of Bangladeshis off contaminated surface water, was identified as …
Pakistan plans to boost its measles immunisation programme. The campaign may gain strong grounds under the Expanded Programme on Immunisation. Several non-governmental organisations and communities interested in creating demand for measles control are supporting the programme. Besides, they want to build up socio-political pressure to press for their demand. The …
