2006
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, Aug 7: Finally, the State government will be able to keep various epidemics, particularly the life-taking Japanese encephalitis, under control thanks to a special software being developed by the city-based Indian Institute of Chemical Technology.
Dozens of people fall victim to brain fever or Japanese encephalitis and several hundred to malaria and viral fevers in the State every year. The agency areas dominated by tribals are the worst hit. So far this year as many as a dozen people died due to viral attacks in different parts of the State. The main Opposition, Telugu Desam, however puts the number of deaths at around 1100.
The Environmental Information System at the IICT is presently working on a database management system for integrated control of Japanese encephalitis and bancroftian filariasis. It will be released in market soon. The software will help in successfully predicting the outbreak of epidemics round the year so that the State government wakes up in time to control the health menace.
"We are working on development of database on various ecological niches responsible for breeding of vector species with special reference to water quality," IICT director JS Yadav said.
The Envis is also busy developing a web-based software on identification of vector species with special reference to habitats by using expert system, text and graphics as well as a database on environmental and cultural methods for vector control in paddy fields.
The study includes development of various databases like micro and
macro breeding habitats, surveillance with special reference to ecological parameters like percentage of organic matter and factors influencing the emergence.
The software throws light on the ecological parameters affecting the dispersal and distribution of the vector species. The data will effectively bring out various environmental management methodologies for the control of vectors and vector borne diseases through integrated system and disseminate to various end users like post-graduate students of environmental sciences, health officials and non-governmental organisations.
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
Saturday, July 8, 2006
Vanaraja: New Chicken Variety Developed in Hyderabad
Syed Akbar
Hyderabad: The city-based Project Directorate on Poultry has developed a chicken variety that closely resembles the jungle (desi) fowl in colour and plumage pattern for backyard farming in villages and tribal habitations.
While chicken varieties are generally white in colour without any plumage pattern, this variety of poultry bird named Vanaraja, is multi-coloured and has attractive feathers. The male bird is a coloured Cornish strain while the female parent bird is a synthetic multi-coloured meat population.
It is difficult to rear common poultry birds in the backyard in villages and hilly terrain as they become easy prey to predators but Vanaraja has the ability and agility to escape predators. The Vanaraja variety is light in weight and has long shanks and is capable of protecting itself.
The PDP has developed the male parent for moderate juvenile body weight, long shanks and good immune competence. On the other hand, the female parent gives high egg production with better egg size and high hatchability. It is also immune to general poultry diseases. The bird easily adapts to local climatic conditions even they turn adverse like extreme cold or hot.
Without extra feeding efforts the Vanaraja male bird attains moderate body weight within eight weeks. The female bird lays between 160 and 180 eggs in a laying cycle. A team of scientists led by Dr SV Rama Rao has developed the bird.
According to PDP officials, the Vanaraja birds can be used to improve the genetic potential of the jungle fowl or desi hens through crossing. "The upgraded progeny from such a cross has been found to perform better than the jungle fowl both in terms of overall body weight and production of eggs," Dr Rao points out.
The chicks need to be acclimatised to the backyard conditions before they could be let free in the open environment. The Vanaraja variety does not need any special diet supplement once let free in the backyard. It will feed on worms and other food material available to it unlike the poultry bird where special care need to be taken.
The Project Directorate has supplied the germplasm of Vanaraja to different parts of the country. The birds are found to be performing well everywhere.
Vanaraja has been a hit in the rural environments and local population has accepted it for backyard farming as the bird attains a body weight of 1.5 kgs in six weeks and reaches up to 1800 grams in seven weeks.
The mortality rate is very low in this variety. The rate is as low as three per cent both at six weeks and seven weeks of age. The bird gives good quantity and quality of meat. There is a wastage of just 30 per cent.
The PDP based at Rajendranagar has also developed a crossbreed called Krishibro, a variety of broiler which does not require high content of nutrients in its feed.
In this case also the mortality rate up to six weeks is just three per cent with a survival rate of 97 per cent as in the case of Vanaraja variety. The broiler chicks in this case are also coloured. Both the varieties have high immunity against common poultry diseases like Ranikhet.
Hyderabad: The city-based Project Directorate on Poultry has developed a chicken variety that closely resembles the jungle (desi) fowl in colour and plumage pattern for backyard farming in villages and tribal habitations.
While chicken varieties are generally white in colour without any plumage pattern, this variety of poultry bird named Vanaraja, is multi-coloured and has attractive feathers. The male bird is a coloured Cornish strain while the female parent bird is a synthetic multi-coloured meat population.
It is difficult to rear common poultry birds in the backyard in villages and hilly terrain as they become easy prey to predators but Vanaraja has the ability and agility to escape predators. The Vanaraja variety is light in weight and has long shanks and is capable of protecting itself.
The PDP has developed the male parent for moderate juvenile body weight, long shanks and good immune competence. On the other hand, the female parent gives high egg production with better egg size and high hatchability. It is also immune to general poultry diseases. The bird easily adapts to local climatic conditions even they turn adverse like extreme cold or hot.
Without extra feeding efforts the Vanaraja male bird attains moderate body weight within eight weeks. The female bird lays between 160 and 180 eggs in a laying cycle. A team of scientists led by Dr SV Rama Rao has developed the bird.
According to PDP officials, the Vanaraja birds can be used to improve the genetic potential of the jungle fowl or desi hens through crossing. "The upgraded progeny from such a cross has been found to perform better than the jungle fowl both in terms of overall body weight and production of eggs," Dr Rao points out.
The chicks need to be acclimatised to the backyard conditions before they could be let free in the open environment. The Vanaraja variety does not need any special diet supplement once let free in the backyard. It will feed on worms and other food material available to it unlike the poultry bird where special care need to be taken.
The Project Directorate has supplied the germplasm of Vanaraja to different parts of the country. The birds are found to be performing well everywhere.
Vanaraja has been a hit in the rural environments and local population has accepted it for backyard farming as the bird attains a body weight of 1.5 kgs in six weeks and reaches up to 1800 grams in seven weeks.
The mortality rate is very low in this variety. The rate is as low as three per cent both at six weeks and seven weeks of age. The bird gives good quantity and quality of meat. There is a wastage of just 30 per cent.
The PDP based at Rajendranagar has also developed a crossbreed called Krishibro, a variety of broiler which does not require high content of nutrients in its feed.
In this case also the mortality rate up to six weeks is just three per cent with a survival rate of 97 per cent as in the case of Vanaraja variety. The broiler chicks in this case are also coloured. Both the varieties have high immunity against common poultry diseases like Ranikhet.
Wednesday, July 5, 2006
Chikungunya: Virus takes a rebirth after 40 years
July 5, 2006
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad: As Chikungunya turns active in the country after a gap of four decades, health experts warn of severe complications if patients go in for overdose of anti-biotics and other medicines.
They advise patients to take just paracetamol and bed rest for a week. Chikungunya is self limiting febrile viral disease with no medical treatment. The disease simply gets cured on its own after a certain period. Treatment for chikungunya is symptoms-based and this often leads to overdose of anti-biotics and pain-killers. Though chikungunya as such does not cause death on its own, doctors warn of damage to
intestinal and stomach lining because of overdose of medicines. This may cause
bleeding in the digestive system often leading to death.
"What the patient needs is treatment for symptoms, paracetamol at the best, and bed
rest for a week. Overdose of anti-biotics and other medicines will complicate the matters and may lead to death, though chikungunya as such does not cause mortality. Symptomatic treatment is recommended for chikungunya after excluding other more
dangerous diseases like JE and dengue, which incidentally have similar symptoms" Sir
Ronald Ross Institute of Tropical Diseases superintendent Dr PP Prasad points out.
According to Dr Prasad, not all cases of viral fevers are chikungunya cases. People
need not worry if they get viral fevers. They should follow their doctor's advice and take rest.
That not all cases of viral fevers are of chikungunya is evident from the fact that
of the 1000 samples collected from the State by the National Institute of Virology, Pune, only 30 were declared as positive cases. Since there was no antigen in the country, the NIV has to develop it to conduct the tests.
Health experts in Andhra Pradesh are perplexed over the sudden emergence of
chikungunya in the country after a gap of nearly four decades. The chikungunya virus, that has been lying dormant in these parts since 1971, has now raised its ugly head literally sending shivers down the spine of thousands of patients.
The question now racking the brains of health experts and medical teams is, "what
has triggered the dormant chikungunya virus to become active once again"? Experts have divergent views on its spread in India and Andhra Pradesh in particular. While virologists feel that the virus might have undergone mutation after being docile to
become more powerful or Indian might have lost "herd immunity", medical doctors are
of the view that the virus might have been transmitted to local populace by a foreign tourist. Still others feel that so far we have been mistaking chikungunya for dengue as both have similar symptoms.
Going by epidemiological evidence, medical experts feel that the virus must have
passed into Andhra Pradesh through an infected tourist. Since several international conferences are held in Hyderabad, a local tiger mosquito must have transmitted the disease to healthy local persons from infected foreign tourist. There is also the possibility of the virus being transmitted by infected persons from other States visiting Hyderabad.
Says Dr S Satyavathi, Hyderabad district medical and health officer, "taking the
epidemiology into view we are now concentrating our attention on places where national expositions and international conferences are held. We are sending our teams to these places as a precautionary measure".
Togaviridae, the virus that causes chikungunya, was last noticed in Kolkata in 1971
and in Chennai in 1965.
Andhra Pradesh reported the first case of chikungunya around 1959. But since 1971
there have been no known cases of chikungunya in any part of the country including Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh though these States have high density of the vector population - mosquito Aedes Aegyptis - for hundreds of years.
Consultant microbiologists at Apollo Hospitals Dr M Ratna Rao opines that the virus
which has been docile all these years might have become active because the "herd immunity" might have been lost. When a disease frequently occurs people develop antibodies but since there has been no known cases of chikungunya for the past
four decades this herd immunity might have been lost forcing the virus to hit back.
There is no national surveillance on viral diseases in the country and because of
this the Central or the State governments do not know what types of viral diseases or viruses are prevailing in the country or whether the known viruses have undergone mutation or turned hyperactive.
The first ever recorded case of chikungunya in human beings was in 1952 in Tanzania.
In fact, the term "chikungunya" is derived from Makonde language "Kungunyala" meaning "that which bends up", as the patient folds himself/herself up because of severe pains in joints.
Senior physician Dr Aftab Ahmed believes that chikungunya might have been prevalent
in the country all through these years but since the symptoms of chikungunya and dengue are the same, doctors might have taken it as dengue in the absence of virological tests.
"The vector (mosquito) for dengue and chikungunya is the same Aedes species. The
mosquito might have picked up the dormant virus from somewhere and spread the disease. This possibility also we cannot rule out," he points out.
Prasad says, "virus can remain dormant for several years which means an animal
(Aedes species or tiger mosquito in this case) can be carrying them for a long time without transmitting the causative agent to human beings". Tiger mosquitoes have been found in these parts for ages so the vector is not new. Only the virus which has been lying low has turned active spreading the disease after nearly four decades.
Chikungunya: Overdose of antibiotics harmful
July 2006
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, July 4: As Chikungunya turns active in the country after a gap of four decades, health experts warn of severe complications if patients go in for overdose of anti-biotics and other medicines. They advise patients to take just paracetamol and bed rest for a week.
Chikungunya is self limiting febrile viral disease with no medical treatment. The
disease simply gets cured on its own after a certain period. Treatment for chikungunya is symptoms-based and this often leads to overdose of anti-biotics and pain-killers. Though chikungunya as such does not cause death on its own, doctors warn of damage to intestinal and stomach lining because of overdose of medicines. This may cause bleeding in the digestive system often leading to death.
"What the patient needs is treatment for symptoms, paracetamol at the best, and bed
rest for a week. Overdose of anti-biotics and other medicines will complicate the matters and may lead to death, though chikungunya as such does not cause mortality. Symptomatic treatment is recommended for chikungunya after excluding other more
dangerous diseases like JE and dengue, which incidentally have similar symptoms" Sir
Ronald Ross Institute of Tropical Diseases superintendent Dr PP Prasad points out.
According to Dr Prasad, not all cases of viral fevers are chikungunya cases. People
need not worry if they get viral fevers. They should follow their doctor's advice and take rest.
That not all cases of viral fevers are of chikungunya is evident from the fact that
of the 1000 samples collected from the State by the National Institute of Virology, Pune, only 30 were declared as positive cases. Since there was no antigen in the country, the NIV has to develop it to conduct the tests.
Health experts in Andhra Pradesh are perplexed over the sudden emergence of
chikungunya in the country after a gap of nearly four decades. The chikungunya virus, that has been lying dormant in these parts since 1971, has now raised its ugly head literally sending shivers down the spine of thousands of patients.
The question now racking the brains of health experts and medical teams is, "what
has triggered the dormant chikungunya virus to become active once again"? Experts have divergent views on its spread in India and Andhra
Pradesh in particular. While virologists feel that the virus might have undergone
mutation after being docile to become more powerful or Indian might have lost "herd immunity", medical doctors are of the view that the virus might have been transmitted to local populace by a foreign tourist. Still others feel that so far we have been mistaking chikungunya for dengue as both have similar symptoms.
Going by epidemiological evidence, medical experts feel that the virus must have
passed into Andhra Pradesh through an infected tourist. Since several international conferences are held in Hyderabad, a local tiger mosquito must have transmitted the disease to healthy local persons from infected foreign tourist. There is also the possibility of the virus being transmitted by infected persons from other States visiting Hyderabad.
Says Dr S Satyavathi, Hyderabad district medical and health officer, "taking the
epidemiology into view we are now concentrating our attention on places where national expositions and international conferences are held. We are sending our teams to these places as a precautionary measure".
Togaviridae, the virus that causes chikungunya, was last noticed in Kolkata in 1971
and in Chennai in 1965. Andhra Pradesh reported the first case of chikungunya around 1959. But since 1971 there have been no known cases of chikungunya in any part of the country including Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh though these States have high density of the vector population - mosquito Aedes Aegyptis - for hundreds of years.
Consultant microbiologists at Apollo Hospitals Dr M Ratna Rao opines that the virus
which has been docile all these years might have become active because the "herd immunity" might have been lost. When a disease frequently occurs people develop antibodies but since there has been no known cases of chikungunya for the past
four decades this herd immunity might have been lost forcing the virus to hit back.
There is no national surveillance on viral diseases in the country and because of
this the Central or the State governments do not know what types of viral diseases or viruses are prevailing in the country or whether the known viruses have undergone mutation or turned hyperactive.
The first ever recorded case of chikungunya in human beings was in 1952 in Tanzania.
In fact, the term "chikungunya" is derived from Makonde language "Kungunyala" meaning "that which bends up", as the patient folds himself/herself up because of severe pains in joints.
Senior physician Dr Aftab Ahmed believes that chikungunya might have been prevalent
in the country all through these years but since the symptoms of chikungunya and dengue are the same, doctors might have taken it as dengue in the absence of virological tests.
"The vector (mosquito) for dengue and chikungunya is the same Aedes species. The
mosquito might have picked up the dormant virus from somewhere and spread the disease. This possibility also we cannot rule out," he points out.
Prasad says, "virus can remain dormant for several years which means an animal
(Aedes species or tiger mosquito in this case) can be carrying them for a long time without transmitting the causative agent to human beings". Tiger mosquitoes have been found in these parts for ages so the vector is not new. Only the virus which has been lying low has turned active spreading the disease after nearly four decades.
Friday, June 23, 2006
Chicken pox complications: Hyderabad doctors encounters rare case
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, June 23: Doctors at a city hospital encountered a very rare case of chicken pox complication affecting three vital body organ systems.
Chicken pox, normally a harmless health nuisance, turns life-threatening in the rarest of rare cases. A 14-year-old boy from Nanded in Maharashtra was brought to a city hospital with severe complications of chicken pox leading to failure of kidneys and problems in blood circulatory and nervous systems. The child was put on dialysis and has not recovered from the complications.
"Kidney failure requiring dialysis is very rarely encountered as a complication of chicken pox infection. Case reports are very few from across the world, and most pertain to older children and adults who generally succumb to the complications. The boy had involvement of three organ systems (the brain, the heart and blood vascular system and the kidneys)," says Dr VSV Prasad, consultant paediatrician at Lotus Hospitals.
A normally mild illness causing a rash and low grade fever, chicken pox or varicella infection in medical parlance, can cause deadly complications. Certain complications can be lethal due to this seemingly mild infection. Affecting mostly children in the age group of one to nine years, it passes off in the vast majority as an inconvenience and a few days of loss of schooling in most children, Dr Prasad said.
A vaccine is available to prevent this viral disease and should be offered to individuals who do not contract this infection in early childhood and those whose immune function is compromised, he suggested.
Hyderabad, June 23: Doctors at a city hospital encountered a very rare case of chicken pox complication affecting three vital body organ systems.
Chicken pox, normally a harmless health nuisance, turns life-threatening in the rarest of rare cases. A 14-year-old boy from Nanded in Maharashtra was brought to a city hospital with severe complications of chicken pox leading to failure of kidneys and problems in blood circulatory and nervous systems. The child was put on dialysis and has not recovered from the complications.
"Kidney failure requiring dialysis is very rarely encountered as a complication of chicken pox infection. Case reports are very few from across the world, and most pertain to older children and adults who generally succumb to the complications. The boy had involvement of three organ systems (the brain, the heart and blood vascular system and the kidneys)," says Dr VSV Prasad, consultant paediatrician at Lotus Hospitals.
A normally mild illness causing a rash and low grade fever, chicken pox or varicella infection in medical parlance, can cause deadly complications. Certain complications can be lethal due to this seemingly mild infection. Affecting mostly children in the age group of one to nine years, it passes off in the vast majority as an inconvenience and a few days of loss of schooling in most children, Dr Prasad said.
A vaccine is available to prevent this viral disease and should be offered to individuals who do not contract this infection in early childhood and those whose immune function is compromised, he suggested.
Saturday, June 3, 2006
Wedding blues: WHO guidelines throw spanner in AP government's plans on mandatory HIV test
June 3, 2006
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, June 2: The State government's ambitious move to make pre-marital AIDS test compulsory for couples may not materialise what with the World Health Organisation coming out with a set of new guidelines recommending member nations not to press for any mandatory tests.
This in effect means that HIV testing should be done purely on voluntary basis and there should be no compulsory tag attached to it. If the State government goes ahead with the legislation, it will be violating the international health rules.
The guidelines released jointly by WHO and UNAIDS on May 30 point out that all HIV testing must be "voluntary, confidential, and undertaken with the patient's consent". They also prohibit governments from going in for mandatory or compulsory tests on unwilling people or patients.
Though the previous Telugu Desam government mooted the idea of compulsory AIDS test for couples before marriage, it had to back track following uproar from human rights groups. But the present Congress government has decided to go ahead with the legislation in the "larger interests of society".
The State government has also prepared a draft Bill and according to official sources Chief Minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy is particular about enacting the legislation at the earliest. The Goa State government came out with a similar legislation but later withdrew it following protests.
As per the new WHO recommendations, patients have the right to decline the test. "They should not be tested for HIV against their will, without their knowledge, without adequate information or without receiving their test results," the guidelines state.
Moreover, the governments should provide patients with support to avoid potential negative consequences of knowing and disclosing their HIV status, such as discrimination or violence.
State AIDS Control deputy director Ch Prabhakar told this correspondent that they were pressing more on counselling HIV patients and targeted groups to create awareness about the problem before moving ahead with any legislation.
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, June 2: The State government's ambitious move to make pre-marital AIDS test compulsory for couples may not materialise what with the World Health Organisation coming out with a set of new guidelines recommending member nations not to press for any mandatory tests.
This in effect means that HIV testing should be done purely on voluntary basis and there should be no compulsory tag attached to it. If the State government goes ahead with the legislation, it will be violating the international health rules.
The guidelines released jointly by WHO and UNAIDS on May 30 point out that all HIV testing must be "voluntary, confidential, and undertaken with the patient's consent". They also prohibit governments from going in for mandatory or compulsory tests on unwilling people or patients.
Though the previous Telugu Desam government mooted the idea of compulsory AIDS test for couples before marriage, it had to back track following uproar from human rights groups. But the present Congress government has decided to go ahead with the legislation in the "larger interests of society".
The State government has also prepared a draft Bill and according to official sources Chief Minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy is particular about enacting the legislation at the earliest. The Goa State government came out with a similar legislation but later withdrew it following protests.
As per the new WHO recommendations, patients have the right to decline the test. "They should not be tested for HIV against their will, without their knowledge, without adequate information or without receiving their test results," the guidelines state.
Moreover, the governments should provide patients with support to avoid potential negative consequences of knowing and disclosing their HIV status, such as discrimination or violence.
State AIDS Control deputy director Ch Prabhakar told this correspondent that they were pressing more on counselling HIV patients and targeted groups to create awareness about the problem before moving ahead with any legislation.
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