The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

HEALTH

Trials for cholera vaccine on
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 6
With cholera being endemic to a number of third world countries like India, Bangladesh and Africa, efforts are on to develop an efficacious oral vaccine, as even today the disease is synonymous with under development.

Even though the cholera situation continues to be grim in some countries of Africa, majority of the governments refuse to admit the high incidence of the disease. ‘‘The early phase II trials of cholera vaccines are under way at the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata and at the Sanjay Gandhi PGI, Lucknow ,’’ said Dr Amit Ghosh, Director of the Institute of Microbial Technology, while delivering a lecture at a conference organised by the North West Chapter of Medical Microbiologists at PGI, here today.

Dr Ghosh said that 42 per cent of the volunteers on whom trials had been conducted, indicated eight-fold increase in vibriocidal antibody titre, proving the efficacy of the vaccine. He added that efforts were on to develop an oral vaccine as cholera was one of the major causes of mortality in many countries.

Elaborating on the work going on in developing an effective vaccine, he said that in case of cholera antibodies had to be developed not just for the toxin but also against the bug. He further said that at present 98 per cent of all cholera cases were due to V. cholerae O1 E1, but recent data had indicated that the scenario may change as new strains could evolve.

Dr Sunil Arora from the PGI also delivered a lecture on the new vaccine candidates in leishmaniasis (kala azar).‘‘As there is no vaccine against the parasite causing it, treatment mainly depends upon chemotherapy, which has its own limitations due to development of drug resistance and other side effects,’’ he said.

He said that the positive efficacy of recombinant proteins was checked in an animal model of experimental visceral leishmaniasis and showed protection against a virulent challenge. He added that further characterisation of the T-cell proliferating clones and recombinant antigens was under way.

On the concluding day of the conference of North West Chapter of Medical Microbiologists, 30 papers were presented in the paper session, after the lectures by experts in this field.

93 donate blood
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 6
The local unit of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha today organised a blood donation camp in the memory of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay, a founder member of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh. A total of 93 units of blood were donated by the activists of the morcha.

A regular blood donor, Rattan Lal, inaugurated the camp. The president of the morcha, Mr Satinder Singh, donated blood for the 19 th time. Blood donation was the need of the hour as such constructive activities strengthen the party and boosts the morale of the workers, said the president. Many Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders , Mr Satya Pal Jain, Mr Yash Pal Mahajan, Mr Gyan Chand Gupta, Mr Purshottam Mahajan and Mr Kehar Singh Koundle visited the camp and praised the efforts of the activists.

SPORTS

Clash for football title today
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, October 6
Guru Nanak Mission Public School, Paonta Sahib, will meet Sanjay Public Senior Secondary School, Sector 44, in the tomorrow’s final of the CBSE North Zone CBSE Football Tournament played here today.

In the matches played today, Sanjay Public School boys overpowered Guru Nanak Public School, Sector 36, by 5-0. The goals were scored by Rahul in 29th minute. Then Chetan scored two goals in succession, in 50th and 52nd minutes. Sandeep scored another goal in the 54th minute. Finally, in the 59th minute, Jatinder of SPS-44 scored fifth goal for his team. Earlier, in the quarter-final matches, GNP School, Sector 36, and Guru Nanak Mission Public School, Paonta Sahib, won ther respective matches. The finals will be played tomorrow at 4 p.m.

Cricket team

Vikas Khurana will lead the Panchkula district for the Rajinder Goel Trophy match being conducted by the Haryana Cricket Association. Panchkula will play its tie with Panipat on October 13. The following are the other players selected after the selection trials held at Panchkula. The players are, Rahul Kamboj, Nitin Rathee, Vishal Goel, Sunny Sharma, Karan Sharma, Vivek Walia, Karandeep Singh, Arvind Rawat, Amanpreet Singh, Simrat Bawa, Sukhwinder Singh, Bhuvnesh, Vaneet Goel, Sahil Jain and Rajan Rathore.

Taekwondo meet

The Vth Inter-School Taekwon-do Championship-2002 was bagged by Air Force Regional School-12 wing camp area, which was held at Sector 23. It won 13 gold medals, 11 silver medals and five bronze medals. The runner- up trophy went to Government Senior Secondary School, Sector 45, and they clinched three gold medals, three silver medals and equal number of bronze medals. The chief guest on the occasion was Mr Gian Chand Gupta, former Mayor of the Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh.

Appointment hailed

Desh Prem Azad, Dronacharya awardee, today congratulated Mr M.P. Pandove on his being appointed a member of the Punjab Public Service Commission.

He said Mr Pandove’s nomination was a befitting tribute to sport as a whole and cricket in particular. He said he had a long association with Mr Pandove right from his Patiala days and later when he became secretary of the Punjab Cricket Association.