Hyderabad, September 18: Only hours had passed when the news broke out that Nalgonda District Collector S A M Rizvi had contracted swine flu that State officials broke into a veritable frenzy to tackle the situation. Officials at the Health and Administration departments had started chalking out a possible recourse, when an order was issued for a meeting between all the District Collectors in the State, scheduled for Thursday.
Pune, September 18:Three more persons have died of swine flu here, taking the death toll in the viral infection in the city to 52, health officials said today.
The three who died last night in different hospitals were Prabhakar Gawde (38), Naresh Bhatia (35) and Sagar Bhalerao (7), hospital sources said.
In many cases, the test results for the infection were coming after the death of the patients as National Institute of Virology (NIV) was coping with an increasing number of samples.
IANS also reports as follows:
London, September 17: Food aid is at a 20-year low despite the number of critically hungry people soaring this year to its highest level ever, the United Nations relief agency said Wednesday.
year to its highest level ever, the United Nations relief agency said Wednesday. The number of hungry people will pass 1 billion this year for the first time, the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) said, adding that it is facing a serious budget shortfall.
To date the WFP has confirmed $2.6 billion in funding for its 2009 budget of $6.7 billion.
London, September 17: Nearly 4.5 million more children in impoverished nations could die in 2010 if developed countries fail to deliver additional funds to them to combat climate change, a new report warned on Wednesday.
In a report titled ‘Beyond Aid – Ensuring adaptation to climate change works’, charity Oxfam said an additional new funding of at least USD 50 billion per year must be mobilised to help developing countries to adapt to climate changes.
Washington, September 17: More than 8 million Americans seriously consider suicide each year, according to a new government study.
About 32,000 suicides occur in the United States each year, but a new study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration indicates that many more give the idea serious thought.
The new SAMHSA report is based on a survey of 46,190 people aged 18 and older. In the past, the question about suicide had only been asked of people who reported major depression but in 2008 it was added to all questionnaires.
Other findings:
New Delhi, September 17: After a 22-day-long battle, the “miracle baby” born with a protruding heart died here of “infection” even as doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) fought all odds to save him.
“The baby died at 2 p.m. Wednesday following severe infection and pneumonia,” said A.K. Bisoi, cardiologist and additional professor at the cardiothoracic and vascular surgery department of AIIMS.
Chennai, September 17: In a first, doctors in Tamil Nadu have successfully cured a thalassaemic girl child by using umbilical cord blood from her brother.
The complicated procedure was performed by a team of doctors from Chennai and Coimbatore on 9-year-old Thamirabharani. She was diagnosed with thalassaemia a year after she was born, leaving her at the mercy of transfusions.
The doctors cured Thamirabharani by transplanting the stem cells of her younger brother Pugazhendi into her. His stem cells were extracted during birth to facilitate his sister’s cure.
Washington, September 17: Scientists have found that children’s sexuality is best explained by genetic influences, rather than by environmental theories, giving new insight into why some children have sex earlier than others.
According to the study, published in the American journal Child Development, genetics may explain why children who live in homes without fathers have sex at a younger age than others. In effect, it challenges the “environmental” theories which previously explained the link.
Paris, September 17: Giving babies a cheap, standard malaria treatment at key points in their first months of life can reduce their risk of falling sick with the disease, trials reported in The Lancet today say.
Investigators give the green light to this novel preemptive approach, although they also sound a warning about its effectiveness in areas where the malaria parasite is resistant to the drug.
Chennai, September 17: Research based on a study commissioned by the World Health Organisation (WHO), and published online in the Open Access journal PLoS Medicine, has clearly vindicated India’s position on treating newly diagnosed TB patients.
“The papers clearly endorse the stand taken by RNTCP [Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme],” said Dr. V. Kumaraswami, Director-in-Charge of the Tuberculosis Research Centre, Chennai.
New Delhi, September 17: Seventy-one more people, including 47 children, have tested positive for swine flu in the capital, raising the total number of H1N1 cases to 1486 in the city.
Meanwhile, the condition of a nine-month-old girl suspected to be suffering from the disease and admitted to the Hindu Rao Hospital is critical.
“A nine-month-old baby girl admitted to the Hindu Rao hospital is a suspected case of H1N1 virus. Her reports are awaited and her condition is critical,” Dr Kiran Walia, Delhi Health Minister said.
London, September 17: Doctors caring for patients with early stage prostate cancer may do better to watch and wait to see if tumors develop rather than engage in aggressive treatment that may do no good, scientists said on Tuesday.
A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found the risk of dying from prostate cancer in the 10 years after diagnosis fell by more than 60 percent in patients diagnosed between 1992 and 2002 compared with patients diagnosed in the 1970s and 1980s.
Sydney, September 16: Heart pumps, hooked with wires to power themselves, end up seriously infecting nearly 40 percent of patients. Scientists have now developed the technology to power heart pump wirelessly thus saving thousands of lives, and eventually offering an alternative to heart transplants.
The wireless pump uses magnetic fields to transfer power through skin rather than using wire cables and can be powered this way 24 hours a day for a lifetime.
New Delhi, September 16: It kills nearly 500,000 children every year. But one of the lesser known facts about diarrhoea is that it also makes anti-polio drops ineffective. Now, one of the leading donor organisations in India, Rotary International, has joined hands with the Indian government to help fight diarrhoea in order to eradicate polio.
Pune, September 16: A 30-year-old woman has succumbed to swine flu at a private hospital here, taking the toll in the viral infection in the city to 44.
Sharada Phulpati died on Tuesday night, hospital authorities said on Wednesday.
The flu continues to spread in the city with authorities reporting positive cases in one more school and two colleges in the city on Tuesday.
According to Dr Ashok Mehta, Joint Director, Health, 29 schools and six colleges in the city have so far reported swine flu cases since the first fatality on August 3.
Amsterdam, September 16: Swine flu will have a “devastating effect” on poor countries where lives will be lost due to ill-equipped health care facilities, the World Health Organization warned on Tuesday.
“The pandemic will test the world on the issue of fairness in a substantial way,” WHO chief Margaret Chan said in a speech in Copenhagen where the body has its regional office for Europe.
She noted that swine flu, also known as the A(H1N1) virus, will cause “manageable disruption” in affluent countries.
Kuala Lumpur, September 15: A parasite suspected to infect monkeys is now the fifth most common cause of malaria in humans, a new study says.
Malaria kills more than a million people each year. It is caused by malaria parasites which are injected into the bloodstream by infected mosquitoes.
Of the four species of malaria that commonly cause disease in humans, Plasmodium falciparum found most commonly in Africa is the most deadly.
P. malariae found in tropical and sub-tropical regions across the globe has symptoms that are usually less serious.
London, September 15: Early data on the H1N1 vaccines show the vaccines to be highly effective with no adverse effects. Two peer-reviewed articles now published in the online first addition of new England Journal of medicine, which has the preliminary data of the monovalent H1N1 vaccine, have shown that the vaccines are working in a large number of healthy adults.
New Delhi, September 15: The swine flu pandemic claimed six more lives on Monday and 220 fresh cases of infection were reported even as the government decided to allow retail sale of Tamiflu, the only drug available to treat swine flu.
Out of the 220 cases reported during the day, one is an imported case while the rest are indigenous.
Three deaths each were reported from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
London, September 14: People with cancer who are depressed are more likely to die than are patients with good mental health, psychologists reported on Monday in the science journal Cancer.
The study reported that death rates from cancer “were up to 25 per cent higher in patients experiencing depressive symptoms and up to 39 per cent higher in patients diagnosed with major or minor depression.”
“In both of those groups, you can predict cancer mortality,” lead researcher Jillian Satin, of the University of British Columbia here, told AFP.
Srinagar, September 14: Afraid of flu and other respiratory aliments which often resemble swine flu? Use ginger, tulsi (basil) and black pepper as part of traditional preventive measures suggested by experts of Indian systems of medicine.
The Jammu and Kashmir government’s department of Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH) has set up a group of experts to suggest remedies useful in the prevention and treatment of flu-like diseases.
Washington, September 14:The brain prods you into splurging on an extra ice-cream scoop or that second burger, practically sabotaging your efforts to get back into shape, a new study says.
Findings from a new University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre (UTSMC) study suggest that fat from certain foods we eat makes its way to the brain.
There, these fat molecules cause the brain to send messages to the body’s cells, directing them to ignore the appetite-suppressing signals from leptin and insulin, hormones involved in weight regulation.
New Delhi, September 14: A vaccine which produces a robust immune response at one go might make swine flu easier to handle, but authorities in India feel any such Swine flu vaccine immunisation needs intensive testing as it may compound any side effects the vaccine might have.
According to Director of Indian Council of Health Research (ICMR), V M Katoch, any vaccine which is introduced in India will have to be tested on the Indian population as any side effects which the vaccine might have will be compounded.
Sydney, September 14: Active kids fall asleep in 26 minutes, whereas the average child takes 45, says a new study.
Researchers from Monash University have found that children who are more active during the day take less time to fall asleep at night and sleep more soundly.
The study, based on sleeping patterns of over 500 children, found that the time it takes children to fall asleep is extended by three minutes for every hour that they are inactive.
Besides, active children also sleep longer than their more sedentary counterparts.
Bangalore, September 14: With two new swine flu deaths reported from Karnataka, the death toll due to the H1N1 virus in the state has reached 64, a health official said here Monday.
While one patient died in Bangalore, the second death due to H1N1 flu was in Kolar.
A 29-year-old woman admitted at a private hospital died in Bangalore Saturday, and a 60-year-old man died of the virus at a private hospital in Kolar Sep 4.
However, the report confirming that both the victims tested positive for the virus was received only on Sep 13, a health official said.