Indian Pediatrics 1999;36: 1071-1072

Global Update

Controversy

Monkey business: In a moment of righteous indignation when activists of animal rights bodies and the Animal Welfare Board released 34 monkeys from a laboratory of the National Institute of Nutrition in Hyderabad, little did they know what was in store for them. Shantha Biotech who had sponsored the research on alpha Interferon has slapped a legal suit demanding a billion rupees, on the activists and the Government of India. Today Interferon alpha is beyond the reach of most Indian pockets. The impetuous act of the animal lovers has delayed animal toxicity trials by more than a year. The drug would have cut costs to 20% of the currently priced global brands. The court has issued a stay on further intereference with the animal trials. (Lancet 4 September 99).

Policy

Banning British Blood: The million-dollar question today is whether the JC virus is transmitted via blood transfusion. Nobody knows and nobody wants to take a chance. Countries around the world including the USA, Canada and Japan have banned the use of blood donated by people who have resided for more than 6 months in the UK. Envisaging a shortfall in blood donations the farsighted Canadians have already launched an ad campaign to increase donations (Lancet 4 September 99).

Virus Watch

Original sin: A horrifying hypothesis has resurfaced that polio vaccine trials on millions of Africans in the late 1950's may have resulted in the current HIV pandemic. It is widely  accepted that the HIV I virus has originated from a chimpanzee virus. How it jumped species is still hotly debated. A new deeply researched book called `The River' by Edward Hooper suggests that some of the vaccines were cultured on chimp kidney cells, which may have been the beginning. The geographic site where the first cases of HIV were documented and the vaccine trial areas coincide. But it doesn't explain how HIV 2, which is thought to have come from the sooty mangabey, jumped species. Though not all the ends tie up neatly, it casts a big shadow on vaccines cultured on animal tissue cultures (New Scientist 4 September 99).

Disease Watch

Two is too much: Two people in New York died of St. Louis Encephalitis in August and the city was sprayed aerially using helicopters; 150,000 leaflets and 17,000 cans of insect repellents were distributed and encephalitis surveillance, mosquito trapping and arbo virus testing was started on a war footing. Several more cases are being investigated and migratory birds are suspected to have introduced the virus into New York. The remarkable energy and thoroughness of the American people never ceases to amaze (Lancet 11 September 99).

Law

The case of the reluctant mother: The law has intervened in the case of the HIV infected mother who was not allowing her child to be tested and was continuing breast feeding against doctors orders. The court has ordered that the child be tested but interestingly says that "it cannot come between the baby and the breast". Though this case has evoked wide media interest, there have been a few cases earlier where the court has intervened when parents decisions have not been in the child's interests medically such as with Jehovah's Witnesses who do not allow blood transfusion. A child's right is not subsumed within the parent's rights however tiny it may be (BMJ 11 September 99).

Education

Literally speaking: By the turn of the century, the National Literacy Mission's zealous efforts with total literacy campaigns will have created around 325 million neo literates. But neoliterates are in perpetual danger of slipping back into illiteracy due to lack of practice. In a stroke of genius, a simple fun way to continue lifelong literacy called SLS was discovered. This stands for Same Language Subtitling of   film songs. In experiments on school children, those who watched subtitled song programs showed better reading ability than those who did not. Subtitled words change color to match the audio. It is already a reality in Gujarat with wide acceptance from viewers. In the Hindi belt, SLS of one episode of Chitrahaar would give reading practice to over 3 crore neoliterates at a cost of 3 paise/person/annum (Economic Times 18 September 99).

Gouri Rao Passi,
Associate Consultant,
Department of Pediatrics,
Choitham Hospital and Research Center,
Indore 452001, India.
E-mail: passi@vsnl.com