Month: February 2015

Two patients showing symptoms of swine flu have been admitted in Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute here, taking the total number of such cases to 19, a senior health department official said today.

“A total of 19 swine flu patients were detected in Lucknow of whom only two have been admitted in Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute. The remaining 17 have recovered,” Chief Medical Officer S N S Yadav said.

The duo was admitted on Saturday for treatment, he said.

They were earlier undergoing treatment in a private hospital here but their recovery was not up to the mark.

A new study has revealed that new fat-fighting tactics may help combat global obesity epidemic.

From nutritious foods that fill you up faster to new weight-loss medications to government food taxes, obesity experts predict maintaining a healthy weight may get much easier during the next few decades, according to the latest series of interviews from the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), FutureFood 2050 publishing initiative.

A new study has revealed that latent HIV may stay hidden in “quiet” immune cells, suggesting it may become possible to cure and not just control HIV.

Researchers at Rockefeller University showed that drugs for HIV have become adept at suppressing infection, but they still can’t eliminate it because the medication in these pills doesn’t touch the virus’ hidden reserves, which lie dormant within infected white blood cells.

With one more person afflicted by swine flu, the total number of cases in Odisha has gone up to four this year, said a health official on Sunday.

The fresh case was detected in Khurdha district, 27 km from capital city Bhubaneswar, and the patient was admitted to a private hospital here.

The patient was confirmed a swine flu case, following his blood tests at the Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC) here.

A researcher has found that adropin, a hormone that regulates whether the body burns fat or sugar during feeding and fasting cycles, can improve insulin action in obese, diabetic mice.

It suggests that the hormone may work as a therapy for type 2 diabetes.

Simple distraction techniques, such as talking to a nurse, watching a DVD or using stress balls, can help patients to relax during varicose vein surgery and reduce their pain, says a study.

“Undergoing conscious surgery can be a stressful experience for patients,” said study author professor Jane Ogden from the University of Surrey in Britain.

“Our research has found a simple and inexpensive way to improve patients` experiences of this common and unpleasant procedure, and could be used for a wide range of other operations carried out without a general anesthetic,” Ogden added.

Consumption of foods and beverages containing added sugars, particularly added fructose, is a major factor behind the dramatic rise in type 2 diabetes, contends a study.

Worldwide, approximately one in ten adults has type 2 diabetes, with the number of individuals afflicted by the disease across the globe more than doubling from 153 million in 1980 to 347 million in 2008, the study noted.

More than 6,000 HIV cases annually in the US can be linked to the popular classified ad website Craigslist, researchers, including one of Indian-origin, claim.

Craigslist’s entry into a market results in a 15.9 per cent increase in reported HIV cases, according to researchers from the University of Minnesota.

When mapped at the national level, more than 6,000 HIV cases annually and treatment costs estimated between USD 62 million and USD 65.3 million can be linked to the popular website, researchers found.

Scientists have identified a brain region that leads to compulsive overeating and addiction to sugar, providing a novel target for safe and effective treatment for the disorders.

Compulsive overeating and sugar addiction are major threats to human health, but potential treatments face the risk of impairing normal feeding behaviours that are crucial for survival, researchers said.

The study shows a reward-related neural circuit that specifically controls compulsive sugar consumption in mice without preventing feeding necessary for survival.

Tagging soap bubbles with biomolecules can prove to be a more effective drug delivery method to treat viruses, cancer and other diseases, scientists say.

Researchers cover soap bubbles with biomaterials that act as a disguise, tricking the body’s cells into mistaking the capsule for a bacterium, a cancer cell or almost any other disease-causing cell.

Because the technology is flexible, cost effective and highly efficient, it is drawing a lot of attention from both public and private funders for drug delivery and vaccine production, researchers said.