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Bouquets
Folic acid researchers honored: Professor Nicholas Wald of Barts hospital and two others were awarded the prestigious Kennedy Foundation International Award for identifying the beneficial effect of folic acid in prevention of neural tube defects. This comes four years after United States has already started fortification of flour with folic acid, on the basis of studies by Professor Wald. (eBMJ August 12, 2000).
Gene Watch
Vibrio genome sequenced: The year 2000 appears poised to be
declared the Year of the Genome. Scientists of the Human Genome
Project have already announced completion of a ‘rough draft’ of
the human genome. And now a major milestone seems to have been
achieved in man’s quest against the dreadly killer, Cholera. The
complete genome of Vibrio cholerae has been published. The
multicenter team, led by John Heidelberg from the US Institute for
Genomic Research discovered that the genome of V. cholerae El
tor N16961 consisted of two chromosomes having 2.96 and 1.07 million
base pairs, respectively. Genes for bacterial pathogenecity and the
toxin are on chromosome I while those for growth and viability are
located on chromosome II. The discovery may provide a major boost to
research in the development of cholera vaccine (Nature 2000; 406:
477).
Emerging Diseases
New Arenavirus: Recently in California, a 14 year old girl was killed by an acute infectious hemorrhagic illness diagnosed to be caused by a new Arenavirus known as Whitewater Arroyo (WWA) virus, hitherto not known to cause disease in humans. Arenaviruses are rodent-borne viruses and preventive measures have to be directed at control and exclusion of rodents in and around human dwelling (MMWR August 11, 2000).
Evolution
New fossils revise the time when humans colonized the earth: The
human life is known to have originated in Africa and then spread to
other continents. Two skulls discovered from Georgia provide the
strongest evidence of first human travel beyond Africa, around 1.7
million years ago. Georgia has yielded more primitive stone tools, at
least 300,000 years older than the technology unearthed from Israel,
hitherto considered to be the oldest undisputed traces of humans
outside Africa. It is proposed that Oldowan tools (discovered at
Dmanisi, Georgia) provided a better means of scavenging and hunting
and probably initiated the hunter-gatherer Homo to wander outwards;
coloniza-tion thus begun was facilitated by an advanced Acheulean tool
technology (discovered at ‘Ubeidiya, Israel) that enabled humans to
finally leave Africa. The story does not end here as it is speculated
that researchers will most likely uncover Eurasian remains even older
than Dmanisi (Scientific American August 2000).
Vaccine Watch
Vaccination in utero: Dr. Philip Griebel and his colleagues at the
University of Saskatchwan, Canada have successfully developed a DNA
vaccine for intrauterine administration that could protect against
vertical transmission of perinatal infectious diseases. The study was
carried out in fetal lambs, who were administered the herpes DNA
vaccine per orally by passing a needle through the abdominal and
intrauterine walls and positioning it in the fetus’ mouth. The
fetuses were found to produce a strong immune response including
systemic as well as local mucosal immunity, just before birth.
Antibodies thus produced are capable of neutralising antigen in
vitro, but only a disease challenge in vaccinated neonatal lambs
can certify its efficacy in vivo. Modalities for human use are
still to be worked out including route of administration, optimal time
for vaccination and safety protocols. For the time being, the study
has challenged those who vouch for newborns as being
immuno-compromized (eBMJ August 5, 2000).
At Home
Nicobarese may have the world’s highest prevalence of Hepatitis B: In
stark contrast to a 5% Hepatitis B carrier state on the India
mainland; tribes living on India’s Andaman and Nicobar islands may
have a prevalence ranging from 20 to 37%. Surprisingly, only less than
a quarter of those negative for Australia antigen had detectable
antibodies for the same. This could only be explained on the basis of
simultaneous horizontal and vertical transmission. It should be
interesting to have further studies and clarifications on the exact
origin and the mode of transmission in these areas (Indian J Medical
Research 2000; 111: 199).
Brickbats
NACO publishes wrong figures: National AIDS Control Organization (NACO)
has admitted to having published inaccurate figures of new HIV cases
detected in India over the past three years. Senior officials at NACO
accuse the surveillance centers in the states for distorted data.
Surveillance centers have tested only 98000 individuals positive for
HIV though more than 3.5 million people are estimated to be carrying
the infection, based on reports of a sentinel screening programme. It
is believed that thousands of infected people may be dying of HIV
related illnesses but are being missed by a poor mortality recording
system (eBMJ August 12, 2000).
Piyush Gupta,
Reader in Pediatrics,
University College of Medical Sciences
and GTB Hospital, Delhi 110 095,
India.
E-mail: [email protected]
Dr
Greene’s House Calls - www.drgreene.com - This is a Pediatric practice portal from the USA. This well
designed website contains information for parents about common
illness, handout’s , daily news, question’s and answers - where
parent’s questions are answered and includes other features like
forums on common diseases and a free newsletter. Among the other
features are a ‘link of the day’, that reviews one pedatirc site
and an encyclo- pedia of pediatric diseases. According to the
webmasters, the site receives around one million hits per month and at
the time of its launch in January 1996, was one of the first pediatric
sites on the internet.
J.Jped.com - www.jjped.com.
This is a Pediatric interactive website of the Department of
Pediatrics at the Institute of Child Health, J.J. Group of Hospitals
and Grant Medical College, Mumbai. One of the few websites of its kind
from India, this site contains the following features - original
articles, case reports, clinical photos, ‘Controversial issues’,
‘Testing a test’, ‘Protocol’, ‘Useful tips’, ‘What is
new’? This site requires a compulsory registration. Members who pay
the required fee will be allowed to take part in interactive
discussions, while other members can have access to features other
than the interactive discussions. The editor-in chief is Dr. Y.K.
Amdekar, a Past President of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics.
CDC Parasitic
Diseases Diagnosis Website - www.dpd.cdc.gov/dpdx/
The parasitic diseases site offers concise reviews of parasitic
diseases, an image library and a review of specimen collection
shipping and processing, procedures, and a consultation service that
accepts digital images of specimens. According to the CDC, all
material is free of copyright and users are welcome to store and copy
material as they wish, provided the credits are given. A diagnostic
assistance function, in which health professionals desiring assistance
in parasite identification can ask questions and/or send digital
images of specimens for expedited review and consultation is available
free of charge.
Renal Pathology
Tutorial - www.game
wood.net/rnet/renalpath/tutorial.htm.
This is a tutorial on renal diseases containing course lectures and
supporting slides and images reviewing renal pathology including
glomerular diseases, nephrotic syndrome, glomerulo-nephritis, and
glomerulosclerosis. This is a part of the RENALNET from the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Clinical Infectious
Diseases - www.journals.uchicago.edu/CID/.
This is the website of the electronic version of this monthly indexed
journal published by the University of Chicago press for the
Infectious Diseases Society of America. The table of contents and
abstracts are accessible free of charge, while full text is accessible
to subscribers. Past issues from June 1997 are available from this
site.
Learn About Health - http://members.rediff.com/mededu/fle.htm. Learn about health is an online booklet for
girl students and contains information on diet, child care, antenatal
care, delivery and immunization. This will be of help in health
education of adolescent girls. This booklet has been written by Dr.
Tejinder Singh, Dean, Christian Medical College, Ludhiana.
MDspeak -
www.mdspeak.com. MDspeak is a health portal from India,
launched recently with a view to provide health information to doctors
and patients. It has two sections, doctorspeak and consumerspeak. The
section for doctors contains a prescription guide containing
information on over 200 drugs, daily health news from Reuters, a
journal containing case reports from various specialties and a medical
library containing information on various diseases. The consumerspeak
contains a family medical reference library and a drug index meant for
patients. This site has been launched by Indian Medical Portals from
Mumbai and requires a free registration.
C. Vidyashankar,
Pediatrician,
Military Hospital, Namkum,
Ranchi 834 010, Bihar,
India.
E-mail: [email protected]
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