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. …
While it is common knowledge that physiological reasons - a good meal, an inherent biological clock, or fatigue - induce sleep, how did sleep evolve in the first place? An interesting theory on the evolutionary origin of sleep, that relates this nodding habit to gut immunity, has been published recently …
Oral vaccines are convenient to administer, and are preferred to injections. But a more important consideration for scientists while developing any vaccine is to ensure long-term protection. The key to prolonged immune protection by vaccination lies in the body's ability to develop an 'immuno-logical memory' - which means that the …
the successful trial of an experimental vaccine developed by a British healthcare group has given a major boost to researchers looking for an effective remedy for malaria. The SmithKline Beecham group based in Brentford, uk, says that the vaccine was tried on volunteers at the Walter Reed Army Institute of …
asthma is a chronic and debilitating disease, causing the inflammation of airways, making them contract suddenly and violently. Asthmatics, therefore, get attacks of shortness of breath and wheezing that can sometimes be life threatening. In a potentially lethal overreaction of the immune system, things as harmless as dust, mites or …
In 1996 there has been a significant development in drugs for the treatment of AIDS. Even as Americans and Europeans are optimistic about the success of anti-AIDS drugs, a report by United Nations Programme on AIDS serves as a grim reminder that more than 90 per cent of the world's …
Efforts to vaccinate children in eastern Africa against polio have been so successful that the region is expected to be polio-free by 2000, according to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Altanta, US. The incidence of polio in east Africa dropped by 91 per cent between 1988 and …
Ministers and top government representatives from over 100 countries assembled at the 19th session of the governing council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya, which began on January 20, to commemorate its 25th anniversary. The ministers will also determine the changes required in the governing structures …
The new policy of the National Foot and Mouth Disease control programme in Bhutan lays down that migrating animals will now need to be compulsarily vaccinated and will be provided movement permits. The disease affects a number of livestock and reduces animal productivity to a large extent. According to J …
for the millions suffering from tuberculosis, especially in the Third World countries, the development of a new vaccine offers a glimmer of hope. Scientists at the Medical Research Council, uk, have reported success in preventing mice in laboratory tests from falling prey to the tuberculosis bacterium. This could be the …
A vaccine developed &om; genetically engineered cells has been found to eradicate tumours from the brains of laboratory rats. Developed by cancer scientists at the University of California in Los Angeles, US, the vaccine is expected to be tested on humans this year. Lead researcher Habib Fakhrai explained that the …
Scientists are now working towards developing efficient vaccines out of 'complements', proteins which safeguard against disease-causing pathogens (New Scientist, Vo1149, No 2014). Douglas Fearon and his team at the University of Cambridge, UK, and immunologists from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, US, are experimenting with the complement protein C3. …
SERIOUS efforts are on in the us to develop vaccines to fight cancer. Cancer could be described as the inability of the body's immune system to recognise a sudden, inexplicable mutation of cells and the manufacture of killer T-CeIIs to destroy these cells. Scientists are not entirely sure as to …
Scientists in Switzerland have Begun preparations to test a new oral vaccine for stomach ulcers. The vaccine is the result of a joint venture between the Boston-based biotechnology group Oravaz and Pasteur Merieux Serums and Vaccins of France. The companies have obtained protocol approval for the tests from the Food …
SOMETIMES the mode of administering a vaccine into the human body may affect its efficacy considerably. This has been reinforced by American scientists working on the effectiveness of polio vaccine. According to recent reports it is being sugges ed that there should be a gradual transition from oral polio vaccine …
Scientists at the US-based National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases recently suggested a new vaccine for blood flukes (Schistosoma mansoni) that cause snail fever in humans. The disease manifests itself by an excessive deposition of connective tissue in the liver, a condition known as fibrosis; the research team has …
Scientists at the Australia-based Queensland Institute of Medical Research have given the green light to the establishment of "DNA Vaccines" as the obvious choice of the future (Biotechnology, Vol 3, No 5). While the 2 earlier developments in vaccination included, first, using attenuated or killed forms of organisms, and second, …
A HAU-INCH long parasite that thrives on blood extracted ftom the gut of the host, the hookworm is playing havoc with the health of about 900 million people worldwide, predominantly in the Third World. According to the World Health Organization, the parasite affects 132 million people in Africa, 104 million …
THIS year, the World Health Organization (who) set apart April 7 as World Health Day to highlight the international campaign for polio eradication and to provide necessary momentum to it for an envisaged polio-free world. But even while the who director-general, Hiroshi Nakajima, in his message on the occasion, called …
Caught in the debate over that thin boundary line between life and void is a promising Indian birth control vaccine. The National Institute of Immunology's (nii) unique vaccine "immunises" women against human chorionic gonadotropin (hcg) hormone, which is produced by the cluster of cells that develops from a fertilised egg, …
