This document is an output of a WHO cross-programme initiative aiming to improve the prevention, diagnosis and management of anaemia and thereby accelerate reduction in its prevalence. It comes at an important time, midway through the era of the Sustainable Development Goals, when progress in reducing anaemia has stagnated. This …
Anaemia is a widespread condition in India. The biggest cause is malnourishment and iron-poor diets. Though the best remedy is a good diet, anaemia has spawned a huge market for iron supplements, usually of the expensive variety (see box: Market slice). A 2006 market survey by the Drug Action Forum-Karnataka …
The third National Family Health Survey (nfhs) was carried out during 2005 and 2006. Preliminary findings reveal: Child n In Madhya Pradesh, 60.3 per cent of the children under three are underweight. This is the highest in the country: the problem exists in both urban and rural areas. 53.5 per …
A health camp conducted in Sama, 60 km north of Bageshwar in Uttaranchal in November, revealed that anaemia, chronic infections, gout, tuberculosis and rheumatoid arthritis are the common ailments there. And, 80 per cent of the 250 people who had come for the check up, suffered from these. Most women, …
long time exposure to benzene has always been considered detrimental to human health, but now researchers from the Kurukshetra University, Haryana, have found that even an occasional exposure to benzene of an hour a day is sufficient to bring about adverse changes in genetic material of humans. Benzene is a …
stem cells are set to take root in the Indian drug market. They will be launched as a constituent of umbilical cord blood (ucb) to help treat fatal diseases such as thalassemia, anaemia and leukaemia. Reliance Life Sciences (rls), a subsidiary of the Reliance group of Industries, has become the …
complications may arise during pregnancy when a foetus has red blood cells that carry proteins inherited from the father, but the mother's red blood cells lack these proteins. Because of this mismatch between mother and foetus, antibodies produced by the mother's immune cells can destroy the foetus' red blood cells, …
a strain of genetically modified (gm) rice has been created by scientists to combat Vitamin A deficiency, the main cause of blindness that effects as many as 250 million children the world over. Swiss biotechnologist Ingo Potrykus, who led the Vitamin A research, said his team was also completing work …
an abnormal craving for a certain food item, or even a nutrient such as clay or starch that may have undesirable health effects, is defined as pica. Patients with food pica typically ingest large amounts of crunchy foods like celery, carrots, peanuts, seeds or crackers. Pica occurs in up to …
Anaemia is a major health concern among women, especially pregnant ones, of developing countries like India. A serious iron deficiency can damage the health of unborn babies and their mothers. However, administering anti-malarial drugs during pregnancy has been shown to reduce the incidence of anaemia among expectant women by nearly …
Jaques Fresco of Princeton University, New Jersey, USA, and his colleagues have found a cunning way to repair the mutation that causes sickle-cell anaemia. They have designed a DNA strand that hooks on to the mutant gene, b -globin. When exposed to radiation, a chemical called psoralen attached to the …
Cutting back on blood transfusions for the critically ill can actually improve some patients' chances of survival, according to a study that may have a far-reaching impact on the treatment of the critically ill. After studying over 830 critically ill and anaemic patients in hospitals across Canada, Paul C Hebert …
FOR the first time since modern medical practice tried to come to grips with the problem of sickle cell anaemia, a ray of hope has appeared for persons suffering from this inherited genetic disorder of the blood. The disease manifests itself by sudden and excruciating bouts of pain, referred to …
DOCTORS in Africa are debating whether severely anaemic children should be given blood transfusions because of the risk of their getting AIDS-infected blood. Researchers, however, have found ways to reduce the frequency of transfusions by 55 per cent without increasing mortality (The Lancet, Vol 340 No 8818). Severely anaemic children …
