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October 6, 2002, Chandigarh, India
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HIV medicine on human trial by 2004 Chandigarh, October 5 It is with the complete backing of Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology and ample finances under the Prime Minister’s Jai Vigyan Mission Programme that the vaccine development work has received a great impetus. With six commercial workers in Tamil Nadu testing positive in the year, 1986, today the situation is alarming as there are almost four million HIV positive persons in India. “Having cloned a DNA-based vaccine for HIV from Indian strains, it is being tried on monkeys at Bangalore and California after receiving excellent response during trials in mice,” revealed Dr Pradeep Seth, Head of Microbiology at AIIMS. He added that the results seen in mice and monkeys so far was very encouraging giving hope of developing the vaccine successfully. Dr Seth, who is in the city to attend a conference of the North Western Chapter of Medical Microbiologists, disclosed that it was in 1999 that work on developing an HIV vaccine was started. After receiving the results from trials conducted on monkeys next year, we will start trial on human beings by January, 2004. Highlighting the need for India to develop a vaccine, Dr Seth said that while in the West HIV was mostly of Sub Type B, in India it was Sub Type C”. In fact the kits we use for treating HIV and AIDS patients prove to be quite ineffective. He said very often either the infection is not detected at all or there is delay, as India was depending on the kits produced in the West. Dr Seth said that HIV had many sub types ranging from A to K. In USA, Japan, New Zealand and western Europe most of the HIV cases were of Sub Type B. In India HIV infection has attained an epidemic form with the situation in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Manipur being grim. It is heterosexual transmission which accounts for more than 80 per cent of the infections. Dr Seth said that in India though HIV Sub Type C was pre-dominant with 90 per cent people infected with it, in the north-eastern region of the country the B Sub Type (Thai type) was more common. The major mode of transmission in the North East was intravenous drug abuse. In contrast recent studies in laboratories on six samples collected from the North-East suggested that Sub Type C infections are likely to replace Sub Type B
infection. Sub type A infections have also been found predominantly among blood transfusion recipients. |
Experts
dwell on scope of Main causes
of Urinary stones in North India:
Food
causing stone formation:
Chandigarh, October
5 “As compared to the other parts of the country, there is a very high incidence of stone formation in human body in Northern India, the main reason for which is high salt content in water, hot climate and soil constitution,” said Dr N.P. Gupta, Head of Department of Urology, AIIMS. Renowned surgeons from all over the country are here to attend the third Live International Workshop on Laparo-endoscopic Procedures in Surgery and Urology, being organised by the Department of Surgery, Government Medical College and Hospital. Dr Gupta said the high salt content in the water in North India led to increased stone formation. The problem of urinary stones in Rajasthan and Gujarat is also high, whereas in the North-Eastern states like Manipur, there could be genetic reasons. “Avoiding milk products, spinach, tomatoes, black daal (urd) and nuts with an increased fluid intake can help a great deal in containing stone formation,” advised Dr Gupta. Dr Pradeep Chowbey, who has been honoured with Padma Sree and holds the world record for the fastest Laparoscopic gall bladder operation, said the procedure had become very popular as not only was it cost effective but caused virtually no scars and was painless for the patient. “The patient-friendly procedure has become very popular with even smaller towns offering this facility, with the cost going down considerably over the years,” he said. With the latest procedures it has now become possible to pull out the kidney from a donor with a small incision. Consequently, a normal person who comes forward with help is not hospitalised. With the help of laparo-endoscopic procedures, it is possible to create a hole where there is no natural passage, thus the term key-hole surgery used for it. Infact, laparo-endoscopic surgery has been very helpful in kidney transplant. Dr Chowbey said a new concept of using Holmium Laser in treating enlargement of prostrate, most common in elderly people, was proving to be beneficial. “Though the procedure remains the same, where surgical skill is a must, there is minimum bleeding using Holmium Laser,” he said. Costing about Rs 60 lakh, this facility is available only at about half a dozen places in India. Over 150 delegates from all over the country are attending the two-day workshop. Though an international workshop, only one foreign delegate from Thailand is here, while Dr Patrick from France is yet to arrive. Dr S.K. Sharma, Director PGI, inaugurated the workshop where a trade exhibition has also been organising to display the latest equipment available. |
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Ayurvedic
therapy experiment shows positive results Chandigarh, October 5 The project, initiated by Dabur India Limited under the guidance of Padamshree Vaidya Balendu Prakash at Dhanwantary Ayurvedic College in Chandigarh, is “the first attempt of its kind in which the age-old wisdom of ayurveda is combined with modern scientific research methodology”. Giving details, it was added that a group of 19 diseases was initially selected and diagnostic performas were prepared involving ayurvedic and modern scientific parameters to document the past and the present history, the symptoms and the details of the previous treatment, besides modern investigations of each patient, separately. According to a press note, none of the patients enrolled under the project and receiving ayurvedic treatment had reported any adverse effects. “Majority of patients who had been suffering for years were pleased with the therapy at the specially set up clinical research unit at Dhanwantary Ayurvedic College”. It was added that the practice of ayurveda had been continuing for more than 3,000 years but it could not cope with the advancement of modern sciences including physics, chemistry, biology, genetics and computing and the benefits of ayurvedic therapy could not reach the masses. |
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Conference
on infections acquired in hospitals Chandigarh, October 5 A symposium on hospital- acquired infections was held at the conference of the North-Western chapter of Medical Microbiologists, at the PGI here today. "It is in this context that the role of microbiologists assumes importance," remarked Prof S.K. Sharma, while addressing the participants from the region. He urged the microbiologists to work on Human Genome project. Though there is no definite data on the number of hospital-acquired infections in India, but there is an urgent need for a government policy on it, remarked Dr Chand Wattal, senior consultant and head clinical microbiologist at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Delhi. He said the government must devise a policy as per the practices followed world over in checking hospital infections. Delivering the theme lecture, Dr Wattal said any hospital with more than 100 beds should formulate policies like surveillance, hospital waste management, disinfection, isolation, investigation of an outbreak and antibiotic policy. He further said fumigation as mode of environment sterilisation was no longer used in developed world and frequent and adequate air change using HEPA filter was recommended. |
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Medical
camp concludes SAS Nagar, October 5 A function was organised on this occasion on the temple premises. Mr Darshan Singh, SDM, SAS Nagar, was the chief guest on this occasion. While addressing the gathering, he said such camps were very useful for the general public. He praised the temple management for organising such a camp. Mr Rakesh Kumar and Mr Pran Nath Sharma, president and senior vice-president of the temple management committee, respectively, thanked the SDM. They also thanked Mr Sheeshpal Uphadhyay of the Sukhmai Jeevan Sansthan, whose team had conducted the camp. Mr Sukh Ram, general secretary of the temple management committee, said around 500 patients attended the camp daily. More such camps would be held in future, he said. |
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Need for geriatric
research centre highlighted Chandigarh, October 5 Addressing the gathering, the speakers added that hostels for senior citizens, rather than homes, should be run for greater flexibility. They added that the National Health Policy was silent about the problems being encountered by the senior citizens. |
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Medical
camp at Press Club today Chandigarh, October 5 On October 13, Dr Kuldip Jaswal and team will conduct sugar and hypertension tests from 9 a.m to 2 p.m. |
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ASIAN GAMES Chandigarh, October 5 Col Jagir Singh Dhillon, who coaches Abhinav said, after reaching at certain level, where Abhinav is now, sometimes it becomes
difficult to perform consistently. He said according to his viewpoint, Abhinav had more pressure mentally and this was evident from his superb scores in the preliminary rounds, when he had good series of 100,100, 99 and 97. He said, at present Abhinav needs to focus on mental management so that his performance does not suffer any more. Sukhmanpreet Sidhu, the shooter from SAS Nagar, who shoots for Punjab said, though Indian shooters could not win any medal, but still they performed at their optimum level. Sidhu who was a member of the Punjab Shooting team that won gold medal in the National Games-2001, said the Chinese, were the real challenge and they also have the natural instinct for this sports. Sidhu said, Manavjit was brilliant in his event. Sukhmanpreet, now with Punjab Police, however, praised the gutsy efforts of Anjali Bhagwat and said, for the past six months, she had been continuously busy playing tournaments, and had not taken any rest, but lot is still there, in store for her in future. Sukhmanpreet felt sad on the poor showing by Abhinav and said, sometimes, luck is also not in one’s favour, which occasionally happen in shooting, but hats off to Abhinav who work very hard and almost “wedded” to shooting. Sabeeha Dhillon, who stays in Chandigarh but shoots for Punjab, was of the opinion that the present performance of Indian shooters was almost on the expected lines. She said but ‘Anjali Didi’ remained unlucky as she missed the bronze medal by just 0.1 points, which is very rare. Sabeeha who has secured bronze medal in the National Games-2001, when Anjali won the Gold said, but still she was of the firm opinion that in the Athens Olympics-2004, Anjali would certainly win a medal for India. Sabeeha felt, it was Hungarian rifle shooting coach Lazslo Szuvask, who gave an upsurge to Indian shooting and the country still require the services of coaches like Lazslo. |
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Sanjay Public School wins soccer match Chandigarh, October 5 Badminton tourney The IVth CBSE North Zone Badminton tournament will be held at DC Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 7, Panchkula from October 30 to November 2. Each team will send four players in each age group in below 19, below 16 and below 14. The matches will be held on knockout basis with best of three games.
Tae kwon do meet The Taekwon-do Association of Chandigarh will organise its 5th Chandigarh Inter-School Taekwon-do Championship on Sunday in Government Senior Secondary School, Sector 23, from 6 am to 6 pm. |
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