Mediaboss Marketing

In Gorakhpur, small successes in understanding and conquering the killer disease of children are undercut by a wily virus and administrative bottlenecks

On August 18, five-year-old Vishal spent the evening playing with friends in Vanjhai village in Gorakhpur district's Bhathat block. He came home irritable, with a slight fever. His mother and grandmother gave him a little milk and sent him to bed. They were not worried, because Vishal, like most children in the village, was "protected". What's ailing the Bihar's children?

Three years ago, Vishal had been given two shots, separated by four months, of "jhatki teeka", or the Japanese Encephalitis (JE) vaccine. The first shot, given in August 2010, was part of the child's immunization schedule; the second, in December of that year, in a massive campaign across Uttar Pradesh and parts of Bihar, to ensure the vaccine reached all "left out" children. 1,600 children dead in UP, Bihar; no answers yet

Vishal's mother, who had seen children dying in their village during the monsoon deaths long attributed to the dreaded JE virus was assured that her son was protected.

So, when Vishal woke up the next morning with a jhatki convulsions with a yellowish frothing at the mouth, fists clenched and eyes shut tight, seemingly unable to hear his mother's cries the family went to the local fakir, hoping he would rid the boy of the spirits they believed had attacked him.

A day later, when Vishal was struck by another convulsion, his uncle took him on his motorcycle 15 km away to Gorakhpur town, ignoring the women's protests that he already had "jaadui" protection and needed no more medicines. The boy was admitted to the Nehru Hospital in BRD Medical College, where he died the next day.

... contd.

TERMS OF USE: The views, opinions and comments posted are your, and are not endorsed by this website. You shall be solely responsible for the comment posted here. The website reserves the right to delete, reject, or otherwise remove any views, opinions and comments posted or part thereof. You shall ensure that the comment is not inflammatory, abusive, derogatory, defamatory &/or obscene, or contain pornographic matter and/or does not constitute hate mail, or violate privacy of any person (s) or breach confidentiality or otherwise is illegal, immoral or contrary to public policy. Nor should it contain anything infringing copyright &/or intellectual property rights of any person(s).

Read the original post:
Children deaths in Gorakhpur: A dissolving faith, an enduring mystery

British scientists have edged closer to developing a "holy grail" universal influenza vaccine that would tackle all strains of the illness.

Researchers at Imperial College London (ICL) have drawn on the results of a study into the 2009 swine flu pandemic, which found those with more virus-killing immune cells in their blood at the start of the pandemic avoided severe illness.

They believe a vaccine that stimulates the body to produce more of these cells - known as CD8 Ts - could be effective at preventing flu viruses, including new strains that cross into humans from birds and pigs, from causing serious disease.

Professor Ajit Lalvani from the National Heart and Lung Institute at ICL, who led the study, said: "New strains of flu are continuously emerging, some of which are deadly, and so the holy grail is to create a universal vaccine that would be effective against all strains of flu."

Influenza kills between 250,000 and 500,000 globally per year, according to the World Health Organisation.

The ICL announcement comes after scientists in America said they thought they might have developed "universal" protection against the killer virus.

Speaking in May, the US researchers said the vaccine was created by a team working for US healthcare company Sanofi using techniques that have also raised hopes of a new generation of vaccines against other diseases.

Story continues below...

"Research has found no evidence that vitamin C prevents colds," says Dr Hasmukh Joshi, vice-chair of the Royal College of GPs. In 2007, the authors of a review of 30 trials involving 11,000 people concluded that, "regular ingestion of vitamin C has no effect on common cold incidence in the ordinary population". A daily dose of vitamin C did slightly reduce the length and severity of colds. When it comes to flu, one person in three believes that taking vitamin C can cure the flu virus. It can't. "Studies found that vitamin C offers a very, very limited benefit," says Dr Joshi. "I wouldn't recommend it." Information from NHS Choices.

Read the rest here:
Universal Flu Jab Breakthrough, New Vaccine Will Tackle All Strands Of Virus

The way mosquito control expert Anthony Texeira puts it his toolbox for fighting potentially deadly mosquitoes is empty. So everyone needs to be extra careful.

On Friday, Middleboro was declared at critical risk levels for Eastern equine encephalitis after a horse died from the virus. The state Department of Public Health ranks EEE at five levels: remote, low, moderate, high and critical when risk has been determined to be excessive.

The death of the horse was the first indication EEE was in Middleboro, but Texeira, who is superintendent of Plymouth County Mosquito Control, believes the virus has been in town all summer even though it didnt show up in any samples.

Its like fishing, he said. Just because you dont catch a fish, doesnt mean there arent any fish out there.

Texeira said now that Middleboro has reached critical status, neighboring towns such as Lakeville and Plympton should take notice and consider that they are at equal risk.

In past years, planes were contracted to be on standby to apply a pesticide when EEE reached the critical risk level. But thats not an option this late in the season and residents cant rely on ground spraying to knock down the killer mosquitoes either.

Spraying is done between dusk and dawn, and Texeira said now its too cold for either method to be effective because mosquitoes arent flying when its below 60 degrees.

This is that time of the year we dont have anything left in our toolbox to go after them, Texeira said.

And that leaves the responsibility for keeping safe up to the individual.

Middleboro Health Officer Jeanne C. Spalding advises all outside events end before the high risk-times between dusk to dawn when mosquitoes are more active.

Read more:
Mosquito experts defenseless against EEE

London, Sept 20 : Many of us are infected with a virus we'll never clear. While we're healthy, it's nothing to worry about, but when our immune system is suppressed it could kill us.

To catch the herpes virus human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) you must be exposed to someone who has it. This isn't difficult: it is carried by around 65% of the population.

Once in the body, HCMV persists for life owing to its clever ability to avoid our immune system and to go into hiding inside our cells in a latent state. Now, research is identifying changes in these cells that could lead to a new route to eradicating the virus.

"HCMV can be acquired very early in childhood, and the number of people infected gradually rises throughout life," said Professor John Sinclair, a molecular virologist in the Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge.

"The active virus can not only be passed from an infected mother to her child in breast milk but can easily be transferred from child to child in saliva - one child puts a toy in their mouth, then it's passed to another child who does the same, and the virus is passed on.

"It's also a sexually transmitted disease, so there's another increase in infections when people become sexually mature."

Once acquired, the virus goes into a latent state in the body. If it reactivates in healthy people, their immune responses prevent it from causing disease. But when the immune system is suppressed, active HCMV becomes dangerous.

It is a major cause of illness and death in organ and bone marrow transplant patients, who are given drugs to deliberately suppress their immune system and prevent their body rejecting the transplant. With an increasing demand for transplants in the UK, HCMV is set to become a growing problem.

"If it's not treated well, or it develops resistance to antiviral drugs, HCMV can lead to pneumonitis - inflammation of the lung tissue - and, in the most extreme case, it replicates all over the body and the patient ends up with multiple organ failure," said Dr Mark Wills, a viral immunologist working alongside Sinclair in the Department of Medicine.

"Tissue from donors carrying the virus often has to be used for transplants because there are so few donors and so many people carrying the virus," said Sinclair. "By transplanting bone marrow, or an organ from someone with the infection, you're giving the patient the virus and you're immune-suppressing them. That's the worst of both worlds."

See the article here:
65% population carries 'silent killer' virus: Study

HEALTH HAZARD: Residents in Charters Towers have health concerns about a colony of bats near a children's park.

A DEADLY disease closely related to Hendra virus with "pandemic potential" could enter Australia via fruit bats, new research has found.

The Nipah virus, which has not yet been found in Australia, has wrought havoc across Asia, killing scores of people and forcing mass culls of pigs.

An outbreak in Malaysia in 1999 caused the death of 106 people of 265 infected, and led to more than one million pigs being culled.

The killer virus could enter Australia via fruit bats flying across the Torres Strait, a study led by Dr Andrew Breed from the University of Queensland has found.

"While Hendra virus has only infected people via horses, Nipah has caused fatal human infections via drinking contaminated syrup, contact with infected pigs, and human-to-human transmission," he said.

Between 2004 and 2012, Dr Breed used satellite trackers to study the black flying-fox found in Queensland and parts of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. He found they regularly crossed the 150km Torres Strait between PNG and Cape York.

"Our study shows Queensland's distance from neighbouring countries does not offer as much protection as we thought," Dr Breed said.

He said Nipah was "unlikely" to become established in Australian flying foxes, as many had antibodies to Hendra which could provide protection against Nipah.

"However, both Hendra and Nipah virus are worrying because they have high mortality rates and are not well understood," he said.

Excerpt from:
New virus risk hangs over our heads