- Legislation vital to safeguard plant varieties
India has to have its legislations in place to protect its plant varieties and genetic materials to prevent situations such as the patenting of basmati by the US company Rice Tec, according to Dr. M.S. Swaminathan.
- US will ban promotion of American tobacco products abroad
The United States will send directive to all diplomatic posts abroad instructing them not to promote American tobacco products. Until now , the paper said American diplomats and trade officials treated cigarettes and other tobacco products as no different from other legally traded goods.
- Of alcohol and breast cancer
Women with two to five alcoholic drinks every day have a 41 per cent higher risk for breast cancer than women who drink no alcohol, says the Journal of the American Medical Association. And women who consume two to three drinks a day have a 50 per cent higher risk …
- Computers take pain from drug prescription
Computers can control Intensive care Unit ventilators more successfully than doctors, an expert in computerised medicine has told the American Association for the Advancement of Science. A computer was also found to make better medical decisions than doctors when it came to prescribing antibiotics.The Latter day Saints Hospital at Salt …
- Biotech industry reaps as it has sown
Whether genetically engineered food crops will ever be grown in Europe has become a very real question for the biotechnology industry. For instance, there is an indefinite delay on the registration of Plant Genetic Systems' genetically modified, herbicide resistant oilseed rape, which would have been the first such crop to …
- EU and US ease friction over meat
European agriculture ministers will be told today that an agreement is close with the US on a "veterinary equivalency" deal aimed at easing EU-US trade friction over meat. A final deal could be presented for approval next month. Last November Dan Glickman, US agriculture secretary, said delays by Brussels over …
- Global cooperation needed to conserve medicinal plants
expert : US National Academy of Sciences Home Secretary Peter Raven today called for international cooperation and collective wisdom for the conservation and multiplication of medicinal plants and also for the protection of endangered species.
- Cardiac ailments on the rise in urban centres
Incidence of cardiac ailments in Indian urban centres has been growing alarmingly in recent years. According to Colonel A.K. Chatterjee, general administrator of the B.M. Birla Heart Research Centre (BMBHRC), heart ailments have now become so commonplace that describing it as a "modern epidemic" would not be an exaggeration.
European Union's move on aflatoxin levels criticised
India has protested against attempts by the European Union (EU) to set its own limits on the permissible levels of aflatoxin in food products imported to its 15 members. Indian objections were notified today to the European Commission (EC) , the EU executive body. Other major exporting countries including, the …
- New technique for heart patients
A new method that uses lasers to drill tiny holes in heart muscles to promote better blood flow is gaining ground, here for those patients who are not suited for bypass surgery or angioplasty. Batra hospital says it was the first hospital in the Asia-Pacific region to perform the technique …
Ayurveda
Ayurvedic preparations should be of international standards if it no longer had to be perceived as a mere food additive, accoding to Dr H Wagner, a German scientist specialising in phytomedicine. Delivering a lecture on "Phytomedicine 2000 in Germany and Europe" at the international conference on "Update Ayurveda 98" here …
- Russia hit by tuberculosis epidemic
Tuberculosis, the world's foremost killer, has made a comeback in Russia, ravaging the country's population at a rate of 250,000 a year and developing lethal strains not seen since World War II.Speaking at a special government meeting called last week to discuss the problem, Ms. Tatyana Dmitrieva, Russian Health Minister, …
- Hitches in tribal rehabilitation plan
After two decades of apathy and inaction, the authorities have finally been forced to come up with a rehabilitation plan for the victims of the Karapuzha Irrigation Project in Wayanad district of Kerala. Yet, even now, a large number of the project - affected people, mostly poverty-sticken adivasi families, remain …
- Losing the trail of the HIV epidemic
There are very encouraging reports from the AIDS front. Powerful drug combinations are helping tens of thousands of patients live longer, healthier lives. Researchers said on Feb 2 at the 5th conference on Retroviruses that AIDS deaths plunged 44% in the first half of 1997 compared with the same period …
- A revolution in pain relief?
Two years ago, Stahl suffering from osteoarthritis signed up to participate in trials of a new painkiller from Merck & Co. The treatment eased the pain and stiffness without upsetting his stomach, as some other medicines had. The drug is one of a potentially revolutionary new class of painkillers that …
Composite helps damaged bone grow back
The National Institute for Research in Inorganic Materials said it had developed a new composite material of ceramic and polymer that can promote the regeneration of damaged bones. When a sheet of the material is spread over the damaged section or bone, the bone naturalloy grows back to its original …
- Accord with ICDDR, B to be extended for 25 yrs
Minister for Health and Family Welfare Salahuddin Yusuf said that the government would extent the present agreement with International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) for another 25 years. The organisation started functioning in 1978 as an international organisation under an agreement signed with the government for 25 years. …
- Bloods clots can be dissolved
Doctors in New Delhi are now dissolving blood clots which block cardiac arteries with a new painless non-invasive ultra-sound technique. The new procedure called Acolysis was performed for the first time in India recently on 45-year old K.K. Verma, a patient from Delhi, who had a 95 per cent block …
- Plea to relax law on legitimacy of child
The Indian Council of Medical Research has called for relaxing the law on legitimacy of a child born after the separation of parents, in the light of advances in the field for assisted reproductive technologies(ART). The Indian Evidence Act, 1982, says a child born within 280 days (the gestation period) …
Treating with computerised homeopathy
Reputed scientists from Belgium gave a demonstration of the "Software Radar" at a conference on computerised Homeopathy held in New Delhi where the use of computer technology for curing various diseases at a faster rate with highest rate of accuracy in prescriptions in homeopathy was demonstrated.
