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Global Update Indian Pediatrics 2002; 39:218-219 |
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News in Brief |
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Of science and the stockmarket Curiously last month, the birth of five piglets caused the value of a UK based company to skyrocket and a day later the joint pains of a particular sheep in Britain caused it’s prices to plummet. Does the story get clearer if I say that the sheep’s name was Dolly and the pigs are called knockout pigs! Knockout pigs are said to be a breakthrough for xeno transplantation since these cloned pigs do not have the alpha 1,3 galactosyl transferase gene which elicits hyperacute reaction by the human immune system in transplanted organs. This would theoretically allow transplantation of pig organs in humans. Experts also warn that this would also enable porcine retro-viruses to infect humans. Two rival teams were in the race to announce the birth of these cloned piglets of whom, the first to announce it to the media was PPL Therapeutics, a UK based company which was also involved in the creation of Dolly the first cloned animal. Dolly’s premature arthritis at the tender age of 5 years have also raised the specter of yet un-understood problems with cloned animals (The Lancet interactive 12 Jan 2001). Policy The National health The 5 January issue of the Economic and Political Weekly takes a scholarly and critical look at the National Health Policy 2001. The last NHP was in 1983 and most of its recommendations have not translated into reality. Though a network of PHC’s now dot our countryside, they concentrate on family planning and immunization and are a far cry from being providers of comprehensive health to the community as envisaged. The voluntary health workers started in 1977 have disappeared and a systematic referral system from primary hospitals to tertiary care systems is woefully lacking. The article has lauded the NHP 2001’s effort to regulate the burgeoning private health sector which accounts for 75% of primary health care usage, by use of licenses and minimum standards. Other high-lights are the need to implement user charges for tertiary care facilities ( which the authors feel is a regressive step), decentralizing control of health program implementation to local bodies whose members will be elected members (panchayat), professionals and consumers. It highlights the need to play a proactive role in the drug policy and fixing prices of essential drugs, considering that India will be shifting to the product patent regime under the WTO/TRIPS agreement from 2005 (The Economic and Political Weekly 5 January 2002, http://www.epw.org.in). Technology Games computers play A new kind of acute leukemia has just been described and it’s discovery has been with the help of a technique of whole genome profiling using a novel mix of computers and genetics. Everybody knows that only about 70% of acute lymphoblastic leukemia respond to conventional chemotherapy. Some of the patients who are resistant have a mixed lineage leukemia due to chromosomal translocations. Scientists at the Dana Farbor Cancer Institute, Harvard University used gene chip technology to compare the gene products of patients with acute leukemia. They found that they could categorize them into acute lymphoblastic leukemia, acute myeloid leukemia and mixed lineage leukemia with 95% accuracy. An added bonus was the discovery of the FLT3 gene which finds expression only in mixed lineage leukemia. This could become the target for therapeutic interventions in chemotherapy for leukemia. The future in leukemia’s is in tailor-made chemotherapy for each individual patient ( BMJ 15 Dec 2001, genetics.nature.com)
Gouri Rao Passi, |
