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. …
an experimental vaccine against the lethal Ebola virus has been administered to humans for the first time in November 2003. If the trial proves successful, then the vaccine will be commercialised by 2006, a decade sooner than the time, it was thought, it would take to develop the inoculation. The …
This article is a history of the last stage of the global smallpox eradication programme, christened in India as the National Smallpox Eradication Programme (NSEP). Here I have attempted to show how the Intensive Campaign of the NSEP was forced to abandon its erstwhile language of targets and returns, whose …
West Africa is hell-bent on eradicating polio. In a remarkable effort, via "synchronized' national immunization day (nid) programmes from October 19 to 26, thousands of volunteers and health workers fanned out to administer the oral polio vaccine to 15 million children in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Niger and Togo, and …
a recent study may intensify the ongoing controversy about the inclusion of hepatitis b vaccine in India's universal immunisation programme (uip). The study shows that vaccinating only children born to hepatitis b-positive mothers is 19 times cheaper than immunising all kids. Since the main mode of transmission of the hepatitis …
following the conflict in Iraq, four soldiers are threatening to sue the us ministry of defence claiming they are suffering symptoms akin to the Gulf war syndrome. The anonymous soldiers blame their ailments
The origin of human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) has generated considerable interest and controversy amongst scientists the world over. Flaming this interest is the theory put forth by Edward Hooper, a British journalist based in Africa, who in his book, The River, proposed that the origin of the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome …
poultry farms across north India are facing a mysterious viral disease. As many as two million birds have fallen prey to the illness and the economic loss has already mounted to more than Rs 60 crore. Even as the authorities' final diagnosis is long overdue, a chicken-and-egg controversy
fifty years ago, on February 28, 1953, two young men walked into the Eagle, a dingy pub in Cambridge, and announced that they had discovered the secret of life. James D Watson and Francis Crick had found that the dna was the key to evolution. Like many others, Crick's wife, …
India is the shining star in the global battle to eradicate smallpox. It is also a branded villain as far as polio is concerned. How is it that we managed so well against a disease more virulent than polio? Why does Uttar Pradesh today contribute to about 88 per cent …
the first ever aids vaccine to be tested on a large number of people has not been able to protect them from hiv infection, admitted Vaxgen, the vaccine's us-based manufacturer. But controversially, it tried to put a positive spin to this failure by announcing the vaccine, called Aidsvax, seemed to …
The polio virus (pv) is possibly the most innocuous virus that affects humans. The improvement of sanitation standards across the world has meant fewer people are afflicted by polio as infants, upsetting the historical balance between virus and host. But, since poorer sections still live in squalor and consume water …
a revolution in the treatment of rabies might be in the offing. The world's first combination dna veterinary vaccine against rabies, produced by scientists from the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Sciences (iisc), is ready for trials. This is good news for many countries, especially the poorer ones, where the disease …
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 …
participants: chris curtis, professor of medical entomology at the london school of tropical medicine & hygiene, london; nirbhay kumar, professor at school of hygiene and public health, john hopkins university, usa; rob ridley, coordinator of product research and development, world health organisation, geneva; p v venugopal, director (international operations) medicines …
the yellow international vaccination card that most western tourists carry describes malaria as "a serious and sometimes fatal disease, endemic in many tropical and subtropical countries. You cannot be vaccinated against it, but you can protect against mosquito bites, and take antimalaria tablets regularly. If you get a fever within …
the recent upsurge of polio in Uttar Pradesh has once again accentuated the failure of its eradication programme in the country. Out of 370 new cases detected this year, 313 have occurred in up alone. Experts say that the situation is worse this year as compared to 2001. While 28 …
scientists from the Dhaka-based International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (icddr,b) have recently initiated clinical trials to study the efficacy of an oral diarrhoea vaccine in Bangladesh. The vaccine is being manufactured by the international pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. It has been developed by Baltimore-based John Hopkins University. The vaccine would …
transgenic potatoes may be used in the future to vaccinate women against cancer of cervix caused by the human papilloma virus (hpv). It is the most common form of cancer afflicting Indian women. The vaccine was developed by a team of scientists from us-based University of Rochester, Cornell University and …
