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New light on blood-related diseases
- Chronic lymphoid leukaemia (CLL), a type of slow-growing blood cancer affecting older patients that may not show any symptoms over the years despite being present in the body.
- “Management of this condition involves constant observation, and sometimes chemotherapy, in oral or injectable form, may be needed if the patient develops symptoms like rapidly-increasing lymph nodes, falling haemoglobin or platelet counts and rapid increase in white cell counts,”
- Every effort should be made to prevent thalassemia (a haemoglobin disorder of genetic origin, Thalassemia is an inherited autosomal recessive blood disease that originated in the Mediterranean region. In thalassemia the genetic defect, which could be either mutation or deletion, results in reduced rate of synthesis or no synthesis of one of the globin chains that make up hemoglobin. This can cause the formation of abnormal hemoglobin molecules, thus causing anemia, the characteristic presenting symptom of the thalassemias.) as there is no curative therapy other than stem cell transplant which itself is associated with the risk of mortality and morbidity. There should be a national registry for such genetic disease.
- Chemotherapy (sometimes cancer chemotherapy) is the treatment of cancer with an antineoplastic drug
- Most commonly, chemotherapy acts by killing cells that divide rapidly, one of the main properties of most cancer cells. This means that it also harms cells that divide rapidly under normal circumstances: cells in the bone marrow, digestive tract and hair follicles.
- Sickle cell anemia is one type of anemia. Anemia is a condition in which your blood has a lower than normal number of red blood cells. This condition also can occur if your red blood cells don't contain enough hemoglobin.
- Red blood cells are made in the spongy marrow inside the large bones of the body. Bone marrow is always making new red blood cells to replace old ones. Normal red blood cells live about 120 days in the bloodstream and then die. They carry oxygen and remove carbon dioxide (a waste product) from your body.
- Sickle cells usually die after only about 10 to 20 days. The bone marrow can't make new red blood cells fast enough to replace the dying ones.
- Sickle cell anemia is an inherited, lifelong disease. People who have the disease are born with it. They inherit two genes for sickle hemoglobin—one from each parent.
- Sickle cell anemia has no widely available cure. However, treatments can help with the symptoms and complications of the disease. Blood and marrow stem cell transplants may offer a cure for a small number of people.
- Due to improved treatments and care, people who have sickle cell anemia are now living into their forties or fifties, or longer.
- Stem cell transplantation is a medical procedure in the fields of hematology and oncology, most often performed for people with diseases of the blood, bone marrow, or certain cancers.
- Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation remains a risky procedure with many possible complications; it has traditionally been reserved for patients with life-threatening diseases.
- Patients with cancer are at variable risk of morbidity and mortality from the infections that can usually be prevented by immunization, depending upon the underlying disease and the type of cancer chemotherapy and radiotherapy that is administered.
- Treatment for many cancers has intensified greatly in recent years, resulting in improved patient outcomes
Geriatric care scheme being expanded
- Accessing medical care is a major problem that the elderly in many communities face, especially those who may be staying alone or who may have issues of mobility.
- ‘Vayomithram', a project implemented by the Kerala Social Security Mission, through the National Rural Health Mission, has been stepping in to help the elderly and deliver medical care at their doorstep
- A doctor-nurse team will now visit the PHC every second and fourth Saturday and run a geriatrics OP
- People aged 65 years and above can attend the clinic.
What's in a name? A lot, say the Chinese
- More than many nations, China is a place where names are imbued with deep significance. Western companies looking to bring their products to China face a problem not unlike that of Chinese parents naming a baby boy
- And so the art of picking a brand name that resonates with Chinese consumers is no longer an art. It has become a sort of science, with consultants, computer programmes and linguistic analyses to ensure that what tickles a Mandarin ear does not grate on a Cantonese one.
- The paradigm probably is the Chinese name for Coca-Cola, Kekoukele, which not only sounds like Coke's English name, but conveys its essence of taste and fun in a way that the original name could not hope to match.
- There is also Reebok, or Rui bu, which means “quick steps.” And Colgate Gao lu jie which translates into “revealing superior cleanliness.” And Lay's snack foods Le shi whose name means “happy things.” Nike (Nai ke) and BMW (Bao Ma, echoing the first two sounds of its English and German names) also have worn well on Chinese ears.
- the reasons include cultural differences and the Chinese reliance on characters for words, rather than a phonetic alphabet. Each character is a collection of drawings that can carry meanings all their own.
- Microsoft had to think twice about bringing its Bing search engine here because in Chinese, the most common definitions of the character pronounced “bing” are “disease,” “defect” and “virus” rather inauspicious for a computer product. The revised name, Bi ying, roughly means “responds without fail.”
GSFC to enhance Nylon-6 production
Fertilisers and industrial products manufacturer Gujarat State Fertilisers and Chemicals (GSFC) on Saturday said it would enhance the production capacity of its Nylon-6 engineering plastic at an estimated cost of Rs.125 crore
- Nylon 6 or polycaprolactam is a polymer developed by Paul Schlack to reproduce the properties of nylon 6,6
- Its competition with nylon 6,6 and the example it set have also shaped the economics of the synthetic fiber industry. It was given the trademark Perlon in 1952. It is a semicrystalline polyamide.
- Nylon 6 fibres are tough, possessing high tensile strength, as well as elasticity and lustre. They are wrinkle-proof and highly resistant to abrasion and chemicals such as acids and alkalis.
- Nylon 6 is used as thread in bristles for toothbrushes, surgical sutures, and strings for acoustic and classical musical instruments, including guitars, violins, violas, and cellos. It is also used in the manufacture of a large variety of threads, ropes, filaments, nets, and tire cords, as well as hosiery and knitted garments.
State to demarcate eco-sensitive areas
- Eco Sensitive Areas (ESAs), the “shock absorbers” for national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, will be demarcated in Kerala soon.
- While some activities like setting up of saw mills and polluting industries will be prohibited, felling of trees, commercial use of natural water resources, including groundwater harvesting, will be restricted with safeguards.
- The prohibited activities include the use and production of hazardous substances, establishment of major hydro-electric projects, commercial use of firewood, and commercial mining.
- Discharge of effluents and solid waste, and tourism activities like flying over national parks by any aircraft or hot-air balloons will be prohibited in the ESAs.
- The use of polythene bags by shopkeepers, movement of vehicular traffic at night, establishment of hotels and restaurants, setting up of electric cables, fencing of premises of hotels and lodges, and widening of roads will be restricted with safeguards.
- Though it was suggested earlier that the zones could go up to 10 km around a protected area, it was later clarified that the committees should fix the extent for each area on a case to case basis after considering specialities and features of every area
- The ESAs are expected to act as “shock absorbers for the protected areas which would also act as a transition zone from areas of high protection to areas involving lesser protection.”
3.7 lakh children below 5 die of pneumonia in India
- India has the highest number of flu-related pneumonia deaths among children, with more than 3,70,000 children under the age of five dying due to pneumonia, of which 7 per cent die of flu-related pneumonia
- The study was done between 1995 and 2010.
- They reviewed data from high income and developing countries
- It has further been noted that 99 per cent of the deaths took place in the developing countries.
- Researchers estimated that although about 6,000 acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) deaths occurred in hospitals here in 2008, as many as three times this number could be occurring at home.
- India is the world leader for pneumonia mortality in children under the age of five contributing to about a fourth of the global pneumonia deaths. Influenza is the second most common infection identified in children with pneumonia and contributes substantially to the burden of hospitalisation and mortality in young children... We think that until the widespread implementation of an effective influenza vaccine is achievable.
- Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung
- Vaccines to prevent certain types of pneumonia are available.
