Health

London, August 23: Governments bracing for a second, possibly more lethal, wave of swine flu are all grappling with the same unforgiving dilemma: with not enough vaccine to go around, who is going to get jabbed first?

Any lingering hopes that pharmaceutical companies could rapidly fill orders for more than a billion doses from northern hemisphere countries alone were quashed this week by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

“We need to gather advice on priority groups for initial protection,” WHO head Margaret Chan said Friday.

London, August 23: British researchers claim to have unravelled the genetics underlying a smoker’s risk of developing lung cancer.

Study leader Professor Richard Houlston has identified three areas of DNA that are linked to lung cancer risk in smokers.

Two of them also influence the type of cancer, which develops.

The research team found specific differences associated with lung cancer risk on chromosomes 5, 6 and 15.

It showed that people with genetic changes on chromosome 5 were more likely to develop a type of cancer called adenocarcinoma.

Chandigarh, August 23: A 40-year-old woman of Haryana’s Kurukshetra district died of suspected swine flu at a private hospital in Panchkula, a senior health official said today.

Sheela, who was suffering from cough, high fever and respiratory distress, was admitted to the hospital on August 18 and died yesterday.

“The samples of the woman have been sent to the NICD. At the moment, it would not be proper to say if she died due to swine flu. The picture will be clear after the test reports arrive,” Haryana’s Director General Health Services Narvir Singh told PTI.

Mumbai, August 23: While reiterating that the government has done its best and admitting that the swine flu wave is not under control yet, the state government put the onus onpatients by telling them to ensure that they take enough precautions in the primary stage of the flu.

Confirming that both the patients who died in Mumbai on Friday had completed the Tamiflu course, the government has claimed that the two delayed in approaching government hospitals.

Hyderabad, August 23: Actor-turned-politician K. Chiranjeevi Saturday celebrated his 54th birthday and vowed to continue his mission to serve the people by keeping the flag of his Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) flying.

Chiru, as he is popularly known among his millions of fans, cut the cake with his family members and friends to celebrate the birthday, four days before the first anniversary of his political party’s founding.

Chennai, August 23: Two youths who arrived at the airport here from different overseas destinations this morning were quarantined for suspected swine flu symptoms.

Arumugham (31) of Sivaganga and Govindasamy (21) of Tirupattur in Sivaganga district, who arrived here from Dubai and Singapore respectively, were found having symptoms of swine flu during the screening at the airport, officials said.

The two have been referred to the Communicable Diseases Hospital at Tondiarpet here for quarantine, they said.

–PTI

If one is over-weight, Ramadan is an ideal time to normalize one’s weight.

Here is some useful advice on how to avoid some common problems encountered in Ramadan. If followed, it would enable one to fast comfortably and enjoy fully the spiritual benefits of Ramadan.

During the holy month of Ramadan, our diet should not differ very much from our normal diet and should be as simple as possible. The diet should be such that we maintain our normal weight, neither losing nor gaining. However, if one is over-weight, Ramadan is an ideal time to normalize one’s weight.

Paris, August 23: Governments bracing for a second, possibly more lethal, wave of swine flu are all grappling with the same unforgiving dilemma: with not enough vaccine to go around, who is going to get jabbed first?

Any lingering hopes that pharmaceutical companies could rapidly fill orders for more than a billion doses from northern hemisphere countries alone were quashed this week by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

“We need to gather advice on priority groups for initial protection,” WHO head Margaret Chan said Friday.

Mumbai, August 23: A two-month-old infant, Rizwana Ansari, and Ankita Nagarkar, a 12-year-old girl, succumbed to swine flu late on Friday. With this, the number of swine flu deaths in Mumbai rose to seven. Members of both families are under observation, with medical officials administering swab tests and providing Tamiflu tablets.

Pune, August 22: The city recorded its 20th swine flu death on Saturday with a 60-year-old man succumbing to the virus.

Baban Hangule was admitted in a serious condition to the government-run Sasson Hospital on August 19, officials said.

Authorities were, meanwhile, yet to take a decision on reopening of schools and colleges tomorrow.

The educational institutions have been closed for a week to prevent spread of the virus, which has claimed the maximum victims in the city since the first fatality was reported on August 3.

Jaipur, August 22: The Jaipur district administration has ordered probe into allegation of forcing minor school children to donate blood at a camp organised in Chomu town near here on the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi on August 20.

Additional District Magistrate MP Swami will hold an inquiry into the circumstances and allegations, an official spokesman said here today.

An 11th standard student had allegedly fallen ill after donating blood in a camp organised by local Congress MLA Bhagwan Sahai Saini in the town.

Lucknow, August 22: Two kin of employees of the city’s Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) have tested positive for swine flu. Health authorities are worried as the viral infection has reached the secondary stage in them, an official said Saturday.

One of the patients is the wife of an employee while the other is the teenaged daughter of another employee.

‘This is the first time that we have encountered active secondary infection and that too among the close kin of our institute employees,’ SGPGIMS microbiology department head T.N. Dhole told IANS.

Washington, August 22: Early indications are a new swine flu vaccine is safe and is on track to be made available to the public by mid-October, US health officials said.

“There are no red flags regarding safety,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, yesterday noting that a series of clinical trials were being conducted on the vaccine with results due out between mid September and late October.

Geneva, August 22: Issuing a new set of guidelines for the use of drugs against swine flu, the World Health Organisation has said patients with uncomplicated illnesses do not need to take antiviral drugs.

Worldwide, most infected patients continue to display typical influenza symptoms and fully recover within a week without any form of medical treatment, the WHO said.

According to the new guidelines, formed by consensus by a global group of experts, patients with uncomplicated illnesses do not need to be treated with antiviral medicines.

Bangalore August 22: A leading virologist has raised concern about the safety of the swine flu vaccine that Indian companies are trying to bring out in a hurry at the request of the government.

Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had said on Aug 10 that the Serum Institute in Pune, Bharat Biotech in Hyderabad and Panacea Biotech in New Delhi are working to develop the vaccine from A (H1N1) virus strains supplied by the World Health Organisation.

Thiruvananthapuram, August 22: A doctor and a bio-technologist from Kerala have come up with an alternative treatment for patients with critical spinal injuries and are now awaiting clearance from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to conduct human trials.

P.S. John, an orthopaedist, and C.S. Poulose, a bio-technologist, claim to have successfully conducted trials on rats and rabbits at the department of neurosciences at the Cochin University of Science and Technology from 2002 to 2008.

Washington, August 22: Only seriously ill and vulnerable patients should be prescribed antiviral drugs to help them to get over swine flu, the World Health Organisation said yesterday, in advice which conflicts with the decision taken by the British Government to prescribe Tamiflu to everyone with swine flu.

Most people will recover from swine flu within a week, just as they would from seasonal forms of influenza, the WHO said.

–Agencies

Thiruvananthapuram, August 22: A doctor and a bio-technologist from Kerala have come up with an alternative treatment for patients with critical spinal injuries and are now awaiting clearance from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to conduct human trials.

P.S. John, an orthopaedist, and C.S. Poulose, a bio-technologist, claim to have successfully conducted trials on rats and rabbits at the department of neurosciences at the Cochin University of Science and Technology from 2002 to 2008.

Cuttack (Orissa), August 21: In order to ascertain the father of a two-month-old girl, blood samples of the infant, her mother and a police sergeant were sent to Kolkata for DNA test.

The DNA test of the trio was needed to ascertain the father of the girl following orders from Orissa High Court.

While the child’s mother, Subhasree Naik of Nayagarh district, claimed that police sergeant Bhabani Prasad Jena of Nawarangpur district is the father of the girl, the policeman denied the claims of his estranged wife.

Santiago, August 21: Chilean authorities said they had detected swine flu in turkeys, but the outbreak was under now control.

“We have detected the presence of a virus type A influenza in two groups of turkeys,” a statement from the national agriculture and farming service said on Thursday.

“Precautionary measures were immediately introduced, designed to avoid the spread of the disease and to ensure the health of the population.”

Hong Kong, August 21: Researchers in Japan have identified a gene that allows rice plants to fight off a fungal disease called blast, which may open the way for farmers to cultivate hardier plants.

Using genetic sequencing, they were also able to separate the gene, Pi21, from a nearby gene that is associated with a “poor flavor,” they wrote in a paper published in Science.

Currently, varieties of rice plants that are resistant to blast are also non-sticky and hard, which many Japanese people consider to be of a poor quality.

Washington, August 21: US life expectancy is the highest it has ever been at 77.9 years, according to government statistics released recently.

Both men and women gained, but women still live on average more than five years longer than men, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

Death rates also fell, with the age-adjusted death rate dropping to 760.3 deaths per 100,000 people.

Stockholm, August 21: Indian sanitation expert Bindeshwar Pathak was awarded the 2009 Stockholm Water Prize, the most prestigious award for outstanding achievement in water-related activities that has become akin to a Nobel Prize on environmental issues.

Sanitation is humanity’s and the world’s most urgent and critical crisis of our times,” Pathak told reporters and added: “However, it is not, yet, an unsolvable crisis but a huge challenge. It will require massive, dedicated and selfless labour to achieve the goal.”

London, August 21: A genetically modified bacterium that turns into a drug-delivery vehicle in the presence of a type of sugar may offer a new way to treat bowel disease, British scientists said on Friday.

The new approach uses an engineered form of Bacteroides ovatus to deliver a human growth factor called KGF-2 directly to damaged cells in the gut — but the process is only activated in the presence of xylan, a sugar that is rare in normal diet.

If one is over-weight, Ramadan is an ideal time to normalize one’s weight.

Here is some useful advice on how to avoid some common problems encountered in Ramadan. If followed, it would enable one to fast comfortably and enjoy fully the spiritual benefits of Ramadan.

During the holy month of Ramadan, our diet should not differ very much from our normal diet and should be as simple as possible. The diet should be such that we maintain our normal weight, neither losing nor gaining. However, if one is over-weight, Ramadan is an ideal time to normalize one’s weight.