Smoking banned
The Mizoram Government has banned smoking and consumption of tobacco products in government offices and public places, including educational institutions, buses, hospitals, and state public sector undertaking offices, official sources said. Any deviation or violation of the order shall constitute behaviour unbecoming of a government servant and attract disciplinary action.
New flu pill wrests days and aches from illness
An experimental pill appears to reduce a typical four-day bout of the flu by about a day and a half while making patients feel better, too, researchers said. It is one of the two closely related drugs being developed-one a pill, the other a nasal spray-that could offer new weapons …
Now gene therapy on foetuses
A genetics pioneer Dr W. French Anderson wants to try gene therapy on foetuses in hopes of curing them of deadly diseases before they're ever born. But first he's asking scientists and ethicists to debate the experiment becuase it could for the first time alter a person's genes in a …
Bill passed to regulate Indian medicine systems
The Delhi assembtly passed a Bill on Friday to regulate and strengthen Indian systems of medicine. The " Delhi Bharatiya Chikitsa Parishad Bill-1998", its objective is to establish a Council for Indian Medicine on the lines of the Delhi Medical Council for modern medicine. So far, the Indian systems of …
South-east Asia inherits a surge of dengue fever from its boom years
In countries from Vietnam in the north, with 84,500 cases so far, to Indonesia in the south, with at least 50,000 cases in the past five months of the year, the number of reported dengue infections in the region in 1998 is more than double already record numbers in 1997. …
Surgeon pessimistic over hand operation
The operation to transplant the hand of a dead man on to the arm of Perth amputee Mr Clive Hallam was unlikely to succeed, one of Melbourne's leading microsurgeons predicted yesterday. An international team of surgeons, led by Australia's Professor Earl Owen, performed the 11-hour operation on the former truck …
Tribals die as malaria spirals in Orissa
Malaria is threatening to assume epidemic proportions in Orissa with 116 lives lost till June this year and the toll likely to touch 400 by the year-end.The problem has got aggravated by lack of funds, drugs and man-power to undertake malaria eradication programmes.What has been worrying health experts even more …
Move against filling up of water bodies
Persons filling up ponds to build houses, and their agents, will be fined Rs two lakhs or sentenced to two years of imprisonment or both. The state government's latest directive says that the reclaimed land has to be reverted to its original state and the owner or his authorised agent …
China speeding up human genome project
China plans to inject at least 30 million US dollars within the next three years to support human genome studies. Participants in the project said they will engage in research on genes related to major diseases.
Rs. 200 m vaccination program launched
A countrywide vaccination program at a cost of 200 million was launched in Sri Lanka to prevent deformity of new born babies as a result of the Rubella virus, Health Ministry sources said. This initiative has been taken on the instruction of Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva to reach the …
Setback for virus researchers in Arctic
Scientists seeking to recover samples of one of world's deadliest viruses from frozen bodies in an Arctic graveyard uncovered seven bodies that were too decayed to be useful. It was not clear whether the bodies were those of the seven victims of the Spanish flu believed to have been buried …
Do new data dash advice to cut salt? Not necessarily
A food fight has erupted between researchers and policy makers over the role of salt in hypertension. Sodium restriction has been a pillar of health policy in the U.S. Now a steady sprinkle of contrary salt studies is shaking up conventional wisdom. Confused consumers are getting caught up in the …
Impotency cream
Scientists at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, are currently testing an ointment against male impotence. The Ointment - called Med 900 -is applied to the penis and works swiftly.Colin Kemp, head of the British Pharmeceutical firm Futura, maker of the product, said that the only occasional side effects …
New fat subsitute
The US scientists and a commercial baker have said they have developed a fat substitute that will make cookies, cakes and ice cream healthy as well as tasty. The group told a national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston that NuTrim-"nutritional technological research involving metabolism"-can cut cholesterol by …
Food bug figures for US
Eight million people in the US got food poisoning last year, according to the country's newest tracking system for food-borne illnesses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the reporting program FoodNet identified 8500 confirmed cases of food poisoning in 1997 within Minnesota, Oregon, and parts of California, …
National Health policy is being revised
The government has initiated the process for revising the national health policy to control the new situation arising out of emerging and re-emerging diseases. The government is also planning a big thrust for the traditional systems of medicine in the new policy. It is increasingly being felt that India, despite …
Crisis in supply of anti-AIDS drug
Supplies of the capsule form of the anti-AIDS drug Norvir will run out within the next month, manufacturer Abbott Laboratories has warned. The company is urging pharmacists, doctors and patients to switch to the liquid form of the drug which is still in plentiful supply. Chicago-based Abbott announced on 27 …
Green tea adds punch to cancer drugs
A chemical found in green tea appears to increase the effectiveness of cancer drugs, according to Japanese researchers. The finding lends support to research which suggests that green tea has anti-cancer properties. Masami Suganuma and colleagues at Japan's Saitma Cancer Research Institute found that epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), one of many …
0.5 p.c. of Indians over 60 have Alzheimer's disease
Approximately 0.5 per cent of Indians above 60 years of are afflicted with the Alzheimer's disease, Dr. S.K. Bhabha, consultant neurologist at the Medical Research Centre has said. "While 24 persons out of 100,000 between the age group of 40 to 60 suffer from this disease, the number of persons …
