A sick state
Goa's health care reforms get worse : Goa's health budget is shrinking and campaign groups in this state have voiced their concern over its decline. It has shrunk from Rs 1,082 lakhs to Rs 772 lakhs this year.
Job dissatisfaction linked to ailments
Job dissatisfaction is a significant contributor to aches, pains and other physical ailments reported by supermarket employees, according to a UK study. The findings were reported by the Health and Safety Executive following an eight-year study into musculoskeletal disorders among supermarket cashiers.
Tuberculosis, a killer of women
Tuberculosis, commonly thought to be an elderly man's affliction, has become the No. 1 killer of young women, notably in poor countries, the World Health Organization said.
Cholesterol drug shown as helping the healthy
Six million healthy Americans with ordinary cholesterol levels might benefit from taking cholesterol-lowering drugs, researchers say. Healthy mean and women taking lovastatin, sold as Mevacor, reduced their risk of serious heart trouble by 37 percent, according to a five year study led by Dr. John Downs of Wilford Hall Medical …
New technology may help cancer forecast
Chinese scientists plan to develop a new technology and use it to test cancer cells or "signals" of cancer development, such as mutated gene, hoping they can forecast cancer in the years to come. The scientists believe that slight changes may occur in gene, protein and ferment while a tumor …
China's new hookworm war
Based on a 1990 nationwide survey epidemiologists estimate that of about 700 million Chinese , a staggering 62.6 percent of the population harbor one or more types of parasites. Most of them live in the Yangtze river basin where the Three Gorges Dam will soon make a huge and unprecendented …
India among top countries threatened with species loss
India is among the top ten countries threatened with high species losses, according to Worldwatch, a leading Washington-based environmental research organisation. "When the percentages of threatened birds and mammals are calculated, nations in a large 'Asia-Pacific' triangle bounded by India, Japan and New Zealand appear in danger of losing proportionately …
Rs 550 cr WB aid expected for health projects
In spite of US government sanctions imposed against India in protest against its nuclear tests, the World Bank is all set to approve a massive Rs 550 crore in aid to Maharashtra for various health care projects, according to Maharashtra Health Minister Daulatrao Aher.
June is 'anti-malaria, anti-dengue' month
The Delhi Government has decided to observe June as 'anti-malaria and anti-dengue' month. Apart from meetings in all zones of the local bodies, talks will be arranged on radio and television besides setting up of exhibitions throughout the city.
Check your genes, not horoscopes
Every year 10,000 newborn babies in India could be saved from a fatal disorder, had their parents undergone a simple blood test before marriage to find out a possible errant gene. Doctors say over 30 million Indians carry the deadly gene causing thalassemia. The prevalence is increasing among the Sindhis, …
15 die to infectious diseases in a week in Sahibabad
There have been 15 deaths from chicken pox, measles, "vomiting and diarrhoea" and "fever" in the last seven days in the Sahidnagar locality of Sahibada, less than a kilometre from Delhi. Ten of the victims have been children aged between one and three.
Rival strategies race to unravel genetic code
A new spirit of competition between academic and commercial researchers is invigorating the Human Genome Project, the international effort to unravel our entire genetic code. As a result of two funding commitments made this month - about $200m each from Perkin-Elmer, the US scientific instrument company, and the Wellcome Trust, …
Smokers can now be fined on the spot
After a year-long existence like a smoke ring around Delhi smokers, the anti-smoking law now threatens to tighten around them. The Delhi gobvernment has decided to empower its anti-smoking brigade by authorising them to punish the guilty on the spot under the Delhi Prohibition of Smoking and Non-smokers Health Protection …
Methi can help diabetic patients
Methi, a common ingredient of Indian cooking, has led to improvement of insulin responses in diabetic subjects, studies done by doctors at the All Indian Institute od Medical Sciences have found.
Free treatment package for leprosy patients
The Kerala Health Minister, Mr. A.C. Shanmughadas, has said that a scheme for providing free treatment to leprosy patients will be implemented soon to eradicate the disease from the State by 2000 AD.
Unbalanced water exploitation causing havoc in lower Bhavani
Pointing out the highly unplanned and unbalanced nature of exploitation of water in the Lowr Bhavani River Basin in Tamil Nadu and its extensive harmful impacts, a study has called for making use of effective economic instruments in water resource management and industrial pollution control. In a paper presented at …
Vehicles fail emissions tests
One in five vehicles on Britain's roads cannot meet the government's standards for exhaust emissions, according to the result of a compulsory testing scheme launched in selected towns at the start of this year.
Viagra falls
News of six deaths among users of Viagra, the anti-impotence pill that is taking the US by storm, should come as no surprise. When a million people take a drug that was tested on 4,500 men in clinical trials, serious side effects are almost certain to make themselves felt.
Pills for emergency contraception
It is possible to terminate an unwanted pregnancy with emergency contraception within 72 hours of unprotected sex. Simple dosages of emergency contraceptive pills( ECPs) are enough for the purpose.But the government otherwise obsessed with contraception and population control, somehow missed out on the information.
