A modelling group convened by the World Health Organization and UNAIDS has estimated that if efforts are not made to mitigate and overcome interruptions in health services and supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic, a six-month disruption of antiretroviral therapy could lead to more than 500 000 extra deaths from AIDS-related …
In 1816, when a young French physician Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec fashioned a paper tube out of 24 sheets of paper and used it to hear voices from a patient's chest, a new era in medical diagnosis was inaugurated. For, Laennec's tube was actually the progenitor of the modern stethoscope, …
Tuberculosis (tb) kills two million people worldwide, one-third of the world's population is currently infected, of them roughly eight million develop active tb each year. But at the Stop tb Partnership Summit held in New Delhi on 24-26 March 2004, moods were buoyant. The World Health Organization's (who), The 2004 …
the most comprehensive report of the tuberculosis menace worldwide has unveiled worrying levels of drug-resistant strains of the infectious disease. Patients in Kazahkstan, Uzbekistan and Estonia are 10 times more likely to have multi-drug resistant (mdr) tuberculosis than those residing in other countries, reveals the report of the World Health …
The WHO estimates that between 100 and 150 million people around the globe have asthma and the figure is increasing. Over 180,000 people die worldwide each year due to asthma. India has an estimated 15-20 million asthmatics. Belgium's UCB Institute of Allergy estimates that asthma has doubled in Western Europe …
The World Bank has approved a grant wherein giant pouched rats will help detect tuberculosis (tb) bacteria in human saliva. The project will be carried out in Tanzania, Africa; tg cases there are expected to quintuple, to 8 million, by 2015. The rat (Cricetomys gambianus) can sniff about 120-150 human …
the Union government has drawn up ambitious plans for hiv/aids. A decision to merge the aids programmes with those of tuberculosis (tb) and family welfare was taken at the eighth conference of the Central Council Of Health And Family Welfare in Delhi. The council is the highest decision-making body on …
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, …
A recent review of editorial boards of ten leading international psychiatry journals has revealed almost nil representation from developing countries. Shekhar Saxena, coordinator, mental health unit of World Health Organization (who), conducted this review, searching for board members from low-income and middle-income countries using the income criteria set by who. …
the diagnosis of tuberculosis is likely to be faster and more reliable in the future with researchers from the uk-based University of Oxford developing a new diagnostic kit called elispot. A study carried out to compare the results of elispot with that of the conventional skin-prick test shows that the …
Pakistan's federal health minister, Nasir Khan, revealed that the country ranks eighth among 22 countries worst hit by tuberculosis (TB). He conceded that TB control has a remained a low priority for the government. Khan promised that his ministry would promote a World Health Organisation (WHO)-initiated TB control programme called …
here, children are resigned to walking with a limp. And women, weighed down by sheer pain, have stopped looking skywards. In fact, age and sex appear to be no bar as infirmity pervades the entire area. Welcome to the Kachnarwa panchayat in Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh, where disability has …
On November 19, the Allahabad High Court (HC) ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to file an affidavit within three weeks indicating steps taken to prevent, treat and control fluorosis in Chopan block of Sonbhadra district. It also demanded details of the measures taken to rehabilitate the affected villagers. The court …
an informal round of World Trade Organisation (wto) talks was held in Sydney, Australia on November 14 and 15, 2002. A select group of 25 countries including Brazil, China, India, Senegal, the eu and the us attended the talks. The issue of developing countries' access to inexpensive medicines, enabling them …
UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS If you have been effectively treated for tuberculosis or an ear infection, you may have to try three or more antibiotics before you find one that works. What will be the fall-out of a nuclear attack? Are there any practical solutions to global warming? Do fuel-cell …
scientists have accomplished a feat that could one day lead to better treatments for cancer. They have sequenced the genome of the bacterium, Streptomyces coelicolor. This feat is expected to aid the development of several new antibiotics as the bacterium S coelicolor and its relatives are sources of nearly two-thirds …
The global fund to combat aids, tuberculosis and malaria is finally set to become a reality with disbursements due to begin shortly. A grant of us $378 million will be given to governments of 31 developing countries over two years to fight these deadly diseases. More two-year grants worth us …
