A deadly form of plague has broken out on Uganda's border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and several people are thought to have died of the disease, the World Health Organization said earlier this week. The agency praised Ugandan health workers for vigilance and prompt action in …
At a recent meeting of the World Medical Association in usa, doctors warned that terrorists could very easily get hold of biological weapons. Donald Henderson, senior advisor on bioterrorism to the us government, said: "At the top of the list is smallpox, followed by anthrax, plague and botulinum toxin.' According …
Most people go about their lives unaware of the world of rats and the ingenious ways of this common rodent. Not Ishwar Prakash, principal investigator, desert regional station, Zoological Survey of India, Jodhpur. Prakash is, in fact, one of the few rat experts in the country. Every detail he collected …
for the past several decades, a killer had been let loose in Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh. Perfidiously, ruthlessly it strangled its victims. None dared to charge him guilty. But now it has been caught red handed. For the first time, a report has nailed down exposure to pesticides as …
THE contagion appears to have been contained before it could assume epidemic proportions. But it has still claimed four lives. The recent outbreak of plague in the Rohru-Jubbal belt of Himachal Pradesh (HP) highlights how a surveillance mechanism is conspicuously absent in India. While the disease is said to have …
If nothing else, the incidence of plague in Himachal Pradesh served to focus attention on the entire gamut of disease management in the country. At the end of it, at least one message was clear
The rash of leptospirosis cases in Mumbai during the current monsoon points towards the gradual breakdown of health services in burgeoning metropolises Another monsoon has crossed Mumbai coast and a second round of leptospirosis among other water-borne diseases has taken its toll. The epidemic has claimed around 40 lives so …
a group of French researchers has come across a bubonic plague bacterium that is resistant to multiple antibiotics. The bacterium, called Yersenia pestis (y pestis), was isolated from a 16-year-old boy from Madagascar in southern Africa. It has developed resistance to all first-line antibiotics and principal alternate drugs used to …
it is heartening to note that in the present decade, the intellectuals and academicians of the nation are not pontificating and publishing in just the realm of abstract theory but are directly linking their expertise and studies to the very real situations and problems faced by people. Ghanshyam Shah is …
when a 16-year-old boy was treated for bubonic plague in Madagascar two years ago, the scientific community was unaware of what was in store. Some French researchers have recently published their findings in the New England Journal of Medicine . They say the strain of Yersinia pestis , the bacterium …
A MAN in Connecticut died recently of a newly identified tick-borne disease called human granulocytic erlichiosis,, caused by a hitherto unknown bacte rium. A student in New York contracted a serious case of hanta infection, caused by a rare virus carried by r9dents. There was a fresh outbreak ofthe deadly …
FLEET-FOOTED and wary, the rodent is an adversary humans can undoubtedly do well without. But so far, no device has yet proven to be combative enough for this nuisance that has per~Bandicoota bengalensis .td..tt. , SIS e smce ancien Imes. Apparently, even the Egyptians and Mesopotamians (if archaelogical findings are …
IT is now a year since the infamous Surat outbreak, which focussed the world's attention on the state of India's health conditions. It damaged India's reputation and made many Indians feel ashamed. Our neighbours, of course, took every possible opportunity, with or without any scientific basis, to rub India's face …
AS defence scientists and health ministry experts rack their brains to get to the bottom of a "newsmen's hypothesis" which says that the Surat plague was caused by a test dose of biological warfare, the prime task of continued surveillance has been effectively sidetracked. Pathologists and microbiologists in New Delhi …
Among the oldest artefacts dating from the early days of the British Raj is a woodcut-print showing hectic (by the standards of the time) trading activity in the port city of Surat. Situated on the banks of the Tapi river in Gujarat, the city has always been an important one. …
Much before the spread of the plague there were warnings. Why did the country's health machinery fail to activate itself? Why did government agencies fail to coordinate after the outbreak? The situation could have been tackled since India has the capability in terms of scientists and laboratories. The whole thing …
The plague mystery still foxes the high level technical advisory committee constituted by the Centre. In its 7 page interim report, the committee headed by V Ramalingaswamy, former director general of health, has stated that the isolating of Yersinia pestis from humans through DNA fingerprinting has confirmed that it was …
Confusion reigns among scientists over the identity of the epidemic that claimed over 60 lives in Surat and the Beed district recently, with medical experts changing their verdict from viral pneumonia to pneumonic plague and now averring that the disease was melioidosis. And all along, the National Institute for Communicable …
ONE full month after the medieval scourge ran through India, Yersinia pestis, the plague bacillus, continues to elude the army of experts who toured the epidemic hit areas of Maharashtra and Gujarat. Experts have only been able to isolate "plague-like bacilli" during serological tests from the blood samples collected in …
IN ANCIENT times, it was seen as a curse from the gods. The Romans believed it to be a blast hurled down by one of their angered deities. In the 2nd century, at the height of the plague during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the toll is said to have …
