30 million carriers of thalassaemia in India
Thalassaemia, a genetic blood disorder, afflicts about 100,000 people in India while over four per cent of the country's population or 30 million people are carriers of the thalassaemia gene, Mr Deepak Chopra, president of Thalassaemics India, said on Thursday.
Special step to check malaria
Malaria may soon be included in the list of notifiable diseases. This will make it mandatory for doctors, hospitals , clinics and nursing homes to notify health authorities of each case of malaria detected. The move is being contemplated in the face of growing criticism on the lack of comprehensive …
Women have sturdier hearts
Contrary to popular belief,"women's hearts are hard to break," according to a study conducted in Australia. Women are less prone to coronary heart disease (CHD) than men, the study published in the recent issue of a medical journal 'Lancet' revealed.
Udaipur lakes cry for remedial action
Built by the Mewar kings about 600 years ago as the lifeline of this picturesque town - nestled in the Aravalli hills in South Rajasthan - the beautiful lakes of Udaipur are fast turning into cesspools, thanks to the heaps of waste and garbage thrown into them, uncontrolled growth of …
EU farms chief airs plan to end beef ban
Franz Fischler, the European Union's farm commissioner, revealed that he hoped to win approval from European Union countries next month for an end to a worldwide ban on British beef exports. He outlined his plans after the European Commission, the EU's executive, revised its "date-based" scheme for lifting the 31-month …
Ageing all in time and space
The mission aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery is creating a lot of interest among people. The flight is crewed by seven astronauts who will spend nine days looping about the Earth. Among them is US senator John Glenn, aged 77. The main attraction of the mission has been Mr Glenn's …
Lisbon angry at EU ban on beef exports
Portugal condemned a European Commission ban on Portugese beef and cattle exports as an "exaggerated and unreasonable" measure that unfairly singled out the country in the fight against BSE or "mad cow disease". Portugal is only the second EU country to suffer a beef export ban since a similar embargo …
$2.5 m World bank loan for city drainage, water
World Bank will provide $2.5 million loan to improve the city's (Calcutta) water supply and drainage systems. A three-member World Bank team, led by Mr Nguyen Tin, principal water and sanitation specialist (Infrastructure Sector Unit), South Asia Region, will come on a weeklong visit to the city on 14 November. …
CM suspends officials for negligence
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today arrived in this town of Faridkot district where at least one dozen persons have died of diarrhoea due to tbe contamination of water. Soon after his arrival, he went to the bereaved families who had lost their kith and kin. He went from …
Global meet on immunology from Sunday
Novel vaccines from plants, gene therapy, new methods for control of AIDS and latest research on cancer and asthma are among the topics that will be discussed at the 10th International Congress on immunology beginning here on Sunday.The President, Mr K R Narayanan, will inaugurate the week-long meeting to be …
Villager makes artificial glaciers to harvest water in 'cold desert'
Chewang Norphel, 62, may not get a Nobel Prize for his innovation but what he has done in Ladakh is firmly based on the principles of Senian welfare economics. A rustic man and a civil engineer by training, Norphel has been making life easier for the hard working but terribly …
Encephalitis claims 167 lives
Encephalitis has claimed 167 lives in 11 flood-affected districts of Uttar pradesh in the past two months. The largest number of 50 deaths was reported from Gorakhpur followed by Kishinagar where the outbreak claimed 33 lives, an official released said on Wednesday.
New kit to test adulterated mustard oil
Housewives can now find out for themselves whether adulterated mustard oil is being sold to them, thanks to a simple new kit developed by the Industrial Toxicology Research Centre at Lucknow.
Institue performs country's first robot-assisted surgery
The Escorts heart Institute and Research Centre performed the first robot-assisted heart surgery in India on Tuesday, centre's executive director Naresh Trehan said. Announcing this at a news conference on Wednesday, Dr. Trehan said the 90-minute operation was performed on a 16-year old Bangladeshi girl who had a hole in …
Gums and sums
desire for a winning smile drives dentistry and debt Implants speak a mouthful : Despite costing five times as much as dentures, teeth implants are fast becoming the false teeth of the future, a dental surgeons' conference being held in Australia has been told. Implants, grafted into bone and gum …
Fish tops foods eyed as dioxin carriers
Japanese ingest an average 2.41 picograms of dioxins per kilogram of body weight, and fish represent the largest source of the dioxins, a study conducted by the Health and Welfare Ministry revealed Wednesday. The average, which includes coplanar PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, falls below the 10 picograms set by the …
Lung transplant using live donors performed
Japan's first lung transplant involving living donors was performed Wednesday on a 24-year-old woman suffering from a chronic respiratory complaint at Okayama University Hospital. During the operation, sections from the lungs of the 21-year-old sister and 48-year-old mother of the woman were removed and used to fashion new lungs for …
Greenpeace 'toxic-toy' raid
Environmental campaigners in Hong Kong marched into Toys 'R' Us yesterday and swept off the shelves toys they claim are toxic, saying the store ignored a call to stop selling the products. The protesters demanded Toys 'R' Us recall all toys made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) from its stores, claiming …
Curtain to curtail mosquito
Scientists at the Delhi-based Malaria Research Centre (MRC) claim to have controlled mosquitoes in urban slum population using curtains impregnated with an insecticide. The two-year study by the MRC team found about 90 per cent reduction of disease-causing mosquitoes in the Motibagh slum area under the New Delhi Municipal Corporation …
Global population estimated at 9 b in 2050
The world population is expected to increase to around nine billion by 2050 from the current level of 5.9 billiob, despite a sharp decline in fertility rate worldwide, according to latest United Nations projection.At present, the population is increasing at the rate of 1.33 per cent, an annual net addition …
