Health

Patna, August 26: Altogether 25 people were screened today for swine-flu in various hospitals, medical colleges and at Indo-Nepal borders in Bihar taking the total number of screened people to 736.

The number of people screened for the flu stood at 711 till yesterday, a government release issued here said.

Of the 10 samples sent to New Delhi for the tests, the state has received the report of six persons, out of which only one was tested positive.

—Agencies

New Delhi, August 26: The spurt in swine flu cases across the country continued with 177 more people testing positive for the viral infection today, bringing the total number of H1N1 cases to 3,273.

While 52 cases were reported in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra accounted for 31, Delhi 30, Karnataka 22, Kerala 15, Uttar Pradesh 7, and Andhra Pradesh 7.

Of the 177 new cases reported during the day, one is an imported case and the rest are indigenous.

Till date, samples of 17,777 people have been taken of which 3,273 have been found positive.

Mumbai, August 26: Refuting allegations of negligence levelled by the family members of 28-year-old victim, who died due to Swine flu, the L H Hiranandani hospital today said that he was given the best possible medication and treatment since he was admitted on August 3.

“The victim Sandeep Gaikwad was brought to Hiranandani hospital from Paramount Nursing home in suburban Sakinaka in an extremely poor condition with oxygen saturation and signs of reduced blood flow to the brain,” Hiranandani Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sujit Chatterjee told reporters today.

Patna, August 26: The polio virus has spread to other parts of the country from Bihar in 2008 and in the first few months of 2009.

“The virus was exported from Bihar to other parts as genes found in the polio virus of Bihar and other parts are similar,” Hemant Shukla, team leader of Bihar unit of WHO’s National Polio Surveillance Project said today.

Washington, August 26: High blood pressure can place individuals as young as 45 at an increased risk of developing memory problems, a new study finds.

Hypertension or high blood pressure — defined as a reading of 140/90 or higher — is associated with various health conditions including stroke, heart attack, heart failure and kidney failure.

According to the study published in Neurology, individuals with high diastolic blood pressure — the second and lower reading of two measures taken for blood pressure — are more likely to have cognitive impairment.

Paris, August 26: More than half the fatalities from swine flu have been among young adults, according to one of the first surveys to gather mortality data from across the globe for the new A(H1N1) virus.

The analysis of 574 pandemic deaths from 28 countries through mid-July, released this week, also found that being diabetic or obese significantly boosted the risk of dying.

Neither children nor the elderly are as vulnerable as initial reports indicated, found the study, published by Eurosurveillance, the monitoring arm of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Mumbai, August 26: As the city grapples with the latest threat in the form of the H1N1 influenza virus, health specialists continue to be concerned about the growing number of malaria cases. Experts say the strain this year is more virulent compared to last year’s and has killed more people than it ever did before.

New York, August 26: Key link to soaring health tab as costs double to $147B
Overall, about 66% of adults in the USA are either overweight or obese. About one-third of people are in the obese category, meaning they have a body mass index of 30 or greater.

Body mass index, or BMI, is a measure based on height and weight. About 6% of people are extremely obese — that is, they have a BMI of 40 or greater.

Washington, August 26: Excess fat in the liver is more likely to trigger heart disease and diabetes, says a new study.
When fats collects in the liver, people experience serious metabolic problems like insulin resistance, which impairs the body’s ability to metabolise sugar. Having too much liver fat is known as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NFLD).

New Delhi, August 26: Sound health is the key to better life, future and success; in exchange, it requires little but regular exercise, balanced diet, and an optimistic thought.

If famous public figures appeals for good health, it will leave more impact.

Our country is densely populated. Many people are patients also, whether they are patients of heart, diabetes or any other. The numbers are shocking but why don’t we become cautious from the very beginning of the disease.

Anchorage, August 25: Erosion threatens to topple coastal Alaska villages. Melting ice threatens polar bears. Now, a marine scientist says the state’s marine waters are turning acidic from absorbing greenhouse gases faster than tropical waters, potentially endangering Alaska’s $4.6bn fishing industry.

The same things that make Alaska’s marine waters among the most productive in the world – cold, shallow depths and abundant marine life – make them the most vulnerable to acidification, said Jeremy Mathis, a chemical oceanographer at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

London, August 25: A sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer is also to blame for half of all cases of cancer of the penis, Spanish researchers said.

The finding suggests already available human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines for cervical cancer are also likely to be effective in the fight against penile cancer, doctors from the Catalan Institute of Oncology in Barcelona said.

Merck & Co’s Gardasil and GlaxoSmithKline’s Cervarix are both used widely to immunise girls against HPV infection, which can lead to cancer of the cervix.

Atlanta, August 25: It will likely be Thanksgiving before a significant number of Americans who get the swine flu vaccine are protected, health officials said Monday.

Roughly 50 million doses of vaccine are expected to be available by mid-October. But for those who get initial doses right away, that will only mark the beginning of a vaccination process that will take five or more weeks.

London, August 25: A sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer is also to blame for half of all cases of cancer of the penis, Spanish researchers said on Tuesday.

The finding suggests already available human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines for cervical cancer are also likely to be effective in the fight against penile cancer, doctors from the Catalan Institute of Oncology in Barcelona said.

Merck & Co’s Gardasil and GlaxoSmithKline’s Cervarix are both used widely to immunize girls against HPV infection, which can lead to cancer of the cervix.

Los Angeles, August 25: A jury has decided that cigarette maker Philip Morris USA should pay $13.8 million in punitive damages to the daughter of a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer.

The Los Angeles Superior Court jury returned the verdict on Monday. The panel voted 9-3 in favour of Bullock’s daughter Jodie Bullock, who is now the plaintiff in the case.

New Delhi, August 25: As many as 137 fresh swine flu cases were reported across the country on Monday, taking to 2,909 the total count since the outbreak of the H1N1 virus.

The cases reported on Monday were from Delhi (38), Hyderabad (3), Thirngdy (3), Thiruvananthapuram (3), Kasargod (1), Calicut (2), Ernakulam (1), Bangalore (8), Shimoga (1), Pune (19), Mumbai (5), Nanded (1), Nashik (2), Jalna (1), Chennai (41), Villupuram (2), Kottur (1), Coimbatore (1), Srinagar (3) and Goa (1).

Washington, August 25: A study suggests apple-shaped women with a waist bigger than 88cm have a higher risk of developing asthma – even if they have a normal body weight.

Being overweight is well known to raise the risk of asthma.

But the latest study suggests that the amount of weight women carry around the abdomen might be particularly important.

The study, by the Northern California Cancer Centre at Berkeley, appears in the journal Thorax.

The researchers analysed data on 88,304 female teachers and school administrators.

New Delhi, August 24:The national capital has reported 37 new cases of swine flu, Delhi Health Minister Kiran Walia said Monday.

“Of the 37 positive cases of swine flu, 22 were reported from Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, three from Guru Teg Bahadur hospital, four cases each from Airport Hospital and Lady Harding Hospital, two cases from Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital and one case each from Safdarjung Hospital and Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital,” said Walia.

Washington, August 24: A malaria vaccine, the first of its kind, will be ready for human trials early next year, a researcher said. It has worked perfectly in trials with mice.

The vaccine was developed through collaboration between researchers from the US, Japan and Canada.

Malaria kills more than one million people worldwide every year and destroys — through premature death and disability — the equivalent of at least 35 million years of healthy, productive human life every year.

Toronto, August 24: Scientists have designed a touchy-feely robot that can detect tougher tumour tissue in half the time, and with 40 percent more accuracy than a human.

Researchers from the University of Western Ontario and Canadian Surgical Technologies and Advanced Robotics (CSTAR) in Ontario came up with the robotic option in minimally invasive surgery (MIS).

Canadian surgeons had developed new MIS techniques earlier to drastically cut down the size of the incision to just a tiny one cm.

Patna, August 24: As many as 49 new cases of polio have been detected in Bihar in the past seven months despite immunisation drives, a health department official said Monday.

The new figures were revealed by a new polio status report released by the Indian National Polio Plus Committee Rotary International here.

‘Of the 236 cases reported in India this year, 181 cases were detected in Uttar Pradesh, 49 in Bihar, four in Delhi and one each in Rajasthan and Uttarakhand,’ said Anil Kumar Singh, a health official.

Washington, August 24: A malaria vaccine, the first of its kind, will be ready for human trials early next year, a researcher said. It has worked perfectly in trials with mice.
The vaccine was developed through collaboration between researchers from the US, Japan and Canada.

Malaria kills more than one million people worldwide every year and destroys — through premature death and disability — the equivalent of at least 35 million years of healthy, productive human life every year.

Pune, August 24: A two-and-a-half-year old girl child has died of swine flu here taking the total number of fatalities due to the deadly virus in the city to 23, Health Department officials said Monday.

The child, suffering from a liver disorder was admitted to the Command hospital on August 21 after she tested positive for H1N1 virus. She succumbed to the deadly infection last night, they said.

Washington, August 24: Researchers have found why low levels of vitamin D are known to nearly double the risk of cardiovascular disease in diabetics.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (WUSM-SL) have found that diabetics deficient in vitamin D can’t process cholesterol normally, so it builds up in their blood vessels, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke.

The new research has identified a mechanism linking low vitamin D levels to heart disease risk and may lead to ways to fix the problem, simply by increasing levels of vitamin D.

Washington, August 24: Researchers have found why low levels of vitamin D are known to nearly double the risk of cardiovascular disease in diabetics.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (WUSM-SL) have found that diabetics deficient in vitamin D can’t process cholesterol normally, so it builds up in their blood vessels, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke.

The new research has identified a mechanism linking low vitamin D levels to heart disease risk and may lead to ways to fix the problem, simply by increasing levels of vitamin D.