Order of the Supreme Court of India in the matter of Network of People Living With HIV/AIDS & Others Vs Union of India & Others dated 24/02/2025. The Supreme Court (SC), February 24, 2025 has directed all states to file their affidavits addressing concerns raised about antiretroviral therapy (ART) drugs …
SOME AYURVEDIC hospitals in Kerala report their research into a novel method of tackling AIDS is showing promising early results, but they caution against raising hopes because their studies are far from conclusion. Unlike the generously funded research being undertaken at some of the world's most prestigious labs on eliminating …
MEMBER-states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation have drawn up a joint action plan to combat AIDS. At a recent seminar in New Delhi, delegates stressed the need to share information, provide guidelines on policy matters and develop a uniform surveillance system. The seminar was the first of …
THERE is more to health policy than just policy for the health sector. But the World Development Report 1993 clearly shows the mandarins -- read health experts -- of the World Bank have trivialised the issue because holism is a philosophy they still have to learn. Surely, for a hungry …
THE WORLD Health Organisation asked governments and other groups at the Ninth International AIDS Conference held in Berlin in June, to provide it with $2.5 billion annually, to combat the AIDS epidemic and save 10 million people all over the world this decade. The World Bank also endorsed the plan, …
THE NUMBER of people in Bombay who are infected with the AIDS-causing human immunodeficiency virus- 1 (HIV-1) are increasing at an alarming rate, says a recent study (The National Medical Journal Of India, Vol 6, No 1). H A Kamat and D D Banker of Bombay's Sir Hurkisondas Nurrotumdas Hospital, …
FIVE-DAY-OLD Andrew Gobea became the first newborn to undergo gene therapy when surgeons at a Los Angeles hospital injected him recently with gene-altered cells obtained from his mother's placental blood to cure a usually fatal defect in his immune system. Andrew suffers from bubbly bay disease and lacks an enzyme …
Medical researchers seem to have worried unduly that their grants from funding agencies would be affected because a fire at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on April 27 destroyed their research material. S D Seth, head of the pharmacology department at AIIMS, says, "We have received assurances …
NOW THAT Hiroshi Nakajima has been confirmed as director of the World Health Organisation (WHO), at the organisation's annual general assembly held in early May, he has to start setting his house in order -- a formidable task by all accounts. At the WHO annual general assembly, 93 countries voted …
THE EFFICACY of azidothymidine (AZT) in delaying the onset of AIDS symptoms is in serious doubt following a three-year study in Europe, which indicates it makes little difference whether AZT treatment starts early or late. The Anglo-French study, called Concorde, found 29 per cent of the volunteers who took AZT …
IT IS SAD that the World Health Assembly did not accept the suggestion of AIDS campaigner Jonathan Mann, that the candidate for the director-generalship of the World Health Organisation take part in a globally broadcast debate on health issues. Mann, a candidate himself, was interested, of course, in pursuing his …
AN INDIAN-born biologist, Prafulla K Bajpai, and his colleagues at the University of Dayton, Ohio, have developed a novel drug delivery system that will bypass the harmful side-effects of AZT -- the primary drug used in AIDS treatment. AZT, which is usually taken orally as pills, causes swollen tongues, bleeding …
GAYS AND lesbians in their thousands demonstrated in Washington recently, demanding an end to discrimination and escalation of the war against AIDS, and dramatised their protest by lying on the street for five minutes. Not many of the demonstrators, whose numbers greatly exceeded the Vietnam war protest of 1969 and …
SCIENTISTS at the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) in Bombay say they now have the expertise to culture the AIDS virus in the laboratory. "This is a first for the country," adds Robin Mukhopadhyaya, who set up a state-of-the-art AIDS research laboratory at CRI about two-and-a-half years ago. This is considered …
Practitioners of siddha -- a traditional system of medicine, which originated in Tamil Nadu and uses metals such as iron, zinc, copper, gold and silver in treatment -- assert their therapeutic knowledge could fruitfully tackle AIDS. But medical and paramedical voluntary workers involved in AIDS relief programmes funded by the …
VARIOUS studies indicate that the risk of contracting AIDS during receiving or providing dental treatment is negligible because in the past decade worldwide, only 5 patients -- and all from a single dental practice -- are known to have become infected by dentists and only 2 dental care staff out …
SCIENTISTS at the Malaria Research Centre (MRC), New Delhi, say neem oil used in low concentrations effectively repels malaria-carrying mosquitoes that are resistant to pesticides. This is welcome news because malaria has re-emerged as a major public health threat because the malaria-causing microorganism, Plasmodium falciparum, is increasingly resistant to chloroquine …
INDIAN scientists are exploring the possibility that neem could provide a non-toxic AIDS therapy. In Ayurveda and Unani, neem is prescribed for diverse ailments ranging from skin diseases to diabetes. Scientists at the National Institute of Immunology (NII), New Delhi, postulate neem's efficacy is not so much because of its …
A TIENTS who do not respond to AZT -the primary AIDS therapeutic drug produced and patented almo worldwide by Burroughs Wellcome Co -now have hope. Studies at the US Nationi Institutes of Health at Bethesd Maryland, show two other drugs . le DDC produced by Hoffmann at Roche Inc and …
INDIA'S miracle neem (Azadirachta indica) is moving from the laboratory to the market and many US and Australian firms are getting involved in manufacturing neem-based pesticides. Says Michael O'Shea, managing director of Neemoil Australia Pvt Ltd, "Indian suppliers have been swarming about us like flies around honey." In USA, a …
JAPANESE scientists hail environmental technology as the new frontier of science. Surveyed on breakthroughs they consider likely in the next generation, scientists listed 1,149 topics in 16 fields. The survey was conducted by the Japanese Science and Technology Agency. Among their predictions: the first major discovery will probably be a …
