This year marks the 200th anniversary of the first successful human-to-human blood transfusion, conducted by James Blundell, an English obstetrician working just across the Thames from The Economist’s offices. Today blood is big business—with global exports worth more, in 2016, than global exports of aeroplanes. But that trade is distorted …
according to a recent study, one in every 500 bottles of voluntarily donated blood in Mumbai, screened for the hiv virus could transmit aids . The study could pose fresh problems for the State Health Department, already struggling to comply with the Supreme Court's ban on professional blood donors. The …
the scarcity of blood throughout the world has prompted researchers to devise methods so that its use could be minimised. A team of researchers led by Lawrence Goodnough at the Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, usa , reports that new drugs and techniques can make many transfusions unnecessary. …
Genetically engineered pigs would produce the human blood-clotting protein factor 8 in their milk. Administration of the protein is very important to haemophilia patients. Haemophilia is an inherited disease marked by defective clotting of blood. Such patients tend to bleed heavily following an injury. Bill Drohan and his colleagues at …
Blood donation may reduce the risk of heart attack in men, say researchers at the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases, Kansas University Medical Center, USA. A study conducted on blood donors and non-donors shows that those who had never given blood were twice as likely to have sustained a heart attack …
in the wake of a large number of complaints over the quality of blood supplied by the government and private blood banks for transfusion, a ban will be issued on professional blood donation from January 1 next year. The proposed ban is a follow up to a Supreme Court direction …
Experiments have confirmed that licking a wound promotes healing and reduces bacterial contamination. A recently published report says that it also helps reduce pain and stop bleeding. Saliva contains anti-microbial substances, including some salts and an enzyme called lysozyme that destroy cell walls of certain bacteria. Salivary glands contain concentrates …
the contraceptive pill, discovered in the 1960s, has a success rate of 99.9 per cent and is one of the most popular contraceptives. It is said to have revolutionised women's lifestyles. But it is now known that the pill can cause problems such as weight gain, headaches, and disturbance in …
ppl therapeutics, the Scottish firm that last year helped Edinburgh's Roslin Institute clone Dolly the sheep, is developing a chemical technology to alter the plasma (the pale yellow protein-rich liquid in which the cells of the blood are suspended) genes of sheep and cows, replacing them with the human equivalent. …
A new method of treating or preventing malaria has come to light with the discovery of the protein that makes the disease lethal. The parasite Plasmodium falciparum , that causes cerebral malaria, annually infects about 300 million people, of which two to three million die. The parasite invades red blood …
the possibility of developing a universally acceptable blood type has risen following the coating of red blood cells with a polymer. Researchers from the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, and the Albany Medical College, New York, achieved this by disguising the red blood cell surface with polymer coatings. Such a …
when it comes to building new structures, human ingenuity is no match for nature, especially living cells. Even at the simplest level, molecules assemble into amino acids, then into proteins, which in turn form a variety of different structures. But now, with the work of Samuel Stupp of the University …
RESEARCHERS from the Albany Medical Centre (AMC) in New York, have devised a new technique which will lead to a blood type that would be compatible with all blood types. They have developed a process to coat red blood cells with a polymer called polyethylene glycol, or PEG, that would …
Two and a half-year-old Avsar Khan was diagnosed for acute megakayo blastic leukemia (a rare form of blood cancer) at the Aga Khan hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan, in 1987. He was then referred to the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. The doctors gave him three months' time. December 27, …
The AIDS management programme in Bangladesh should have a four-pronged methodology, according to the UN body on AIDS (UNAIDS). With the situation becoming more alarming, UNAIDS has suggested that a national AIDS policy be framed followed by a national AIDS awareness programme. The third step will require the ministry of …
LEUKAEMIA affects thousands of children all over the world, accounting for over a third of all cancers diagnosed for children. The bone marrow tissue, which produces blood cells, churn out faulty products in these kids. The only option is replacement of the marrow. But replacement of bone marrow requires a …
After Japan and the us , it is the turn of China. Months of secrecy later, Chinese health officials have confirmed that a certain brand of a common blood product called serum albumin, produced by a military factory, was contaminated with the aids virus. Four months ago, the ministry of …
US haemophiliacs who contracted the AIDS virus from contaminated blood-clotting products have decided to accept a tentative US $650 million class action settlement of the lawsuit brought against the companies involved in the issue. Nearly 6,500 haemophiliacs have decided to join the settlement plan, of whom about 800 had earlier …
The objective of the study is to study the relationship of hemoglobin to exposure to motor vehicle exhaust. http://tih.sagepub.com/content/12/5/629.abstract
William Snyder went through an open-heart surgery at St Joseph's Hospital in Paterson, US, in August 1984, and came out HIV -positive due to a pint of tainted blood that he received during the operation. Early last month, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the organisation was negligent for …
HAEMOGLOBIN, the blood's red pigment which was until now thought to transport only oxygen to and bring out carbon dioxide from the body's tissues, has now been credited with yet another major function. In a finding that could mean a new look at treating disorders like blood pressure and a …
