WHO removes India from polio endemic nations' list

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has removed India from the list of countries with active endemic wild poliovirus transmission.

In written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury said Polio free is certified for WHO regions by the Regional Certification Commission and not for individual country.

The South-East Asia Regional Commission for Polio Eradication (SEA-RCCPE) has examined the data of 31 states/Union Territories of India and has accepted the report of the Indian National Certification Committee for Polio Eradication and has concluded that the wild polio virus is not circulating in these states.

Each region can consider certification only when all countries in the area demonstrate the absence of wild poliovirus transmission for at least three consecutive years in the presence of certification standard surveillance.

In addition, all facilities holding wild poliovirus infectious and potentially infectious materials must have implemented bio-containment measures for laboratory containment of wild poliovirus.

A task force for laboratory containment of wild polioviruses has been constituted. The first phase of laboratory containment started by surveying laboratory to identify laboratory with wild poliovirus, infectious materials or potential wild poliovirus infectious materials and encourage them for destruction of all unneeded materials.

All States/UTs have been communicated about the successful interruption of wild poliovirus transmission in India and the possible certification in 2014 and requested for political and administrative support required for completion of laboratory containment activities in their respective States.

Support of WHOs National Polio Surveillance Project (NPSP) is also being obtained to survey all laboratories in their database and provide information of the Laboratories to the Task Force.

An inventory of laboratories/Institutes of Department of Bio Technology (DBT) / Department of Science and Technology (DST), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITS)/ National Institute of Information Technology (NIITs), databases of bio-medical laboratories in Department of Health Research (DHR), bio-tech laboratories in Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) database has been prepared for information on storage of potentially infectious material. 

Bandra acid attack: Treating doctor explains how stem cell therapy will give her vision back

Preeti Rathi came to Mumbai to join duty as a nurse in the Naval Hospital — INHS Ashwini. Sadly, her dreams were shattered when she suffered an acid attack at Bandra station as she got off her train. She sustained severe burns to her face, neck, chest and arms and was critical for a few days after admission. Doctors treated her for her injuries but she had lost vision in her right eye. While she subsequently regained consciousness and could communicate only with written notes, she pleaded with the doctors to help restore her vision. 

A few years ago this request would have been impossible, but thanks to the latest advances in stem cell therapy it’s now a very feasible possibility. We talked to ophthalmologist Dr Yasmin Bhagat who has treated a number of acid attack victims and helped them regain vision using this procedure. Excerpts from the exclusive interview where she explains the procedure: 

At the offset, Dr Bhagat said that the media reports that she was planning to take stem cells from Rathi’sparent’s eyes were erroneous. She said that even though the acid had badly damaged Rathi’s right eye’s cornea, her left eye was still functioning well and that she would use stem cells from that eye.

Pavitra: Why did you decide to use cells from her left eye and not her parents’ eyes to start the treatment?

Dr Yasmin Bhagat: When we perform such a procedure, there are some risks involved. When we use the patient’s own cells we avoid the possibility of any complications that may arise from the rejection of the patch by the body. Even though the cells would be from her parents, there are chances that her body may reject it, therefore it is better to use her own stem cells.

Pavitra: How will this procedure work?

Dr Yasmin Bhagat: Within the eye there is a structure called the Limbus. The Limbus is a narrow zone between the cornea and bulbar conjunctiva, it is responsible for the renewal and repair of the cornea. Burns to this area causes the malfunctioning of the limbus leading to limbal stem-cell deficiency. When the limbus is damaged or malfunctions, instead of helping repair the cornea, it causes the formation of scar tissue, which leads to blurred vision and in extreme cases — blindness. In the case of Preeti, her left eye is completely normal, so we will take limbus cells from her left eye and culture them in a lab. By culture I mean we will grow the cells  to multiply them. We will then place a 2×2 mm patch of these cultured  stem cells on the damaged area of the eye, which will help the right eye repair itself.

Pavitra: How long will this procedure take?

Dr Yasmin Bhagat: Well, Preeti has to fully recover from her other injuries for us to start the procedure. The harvest and culture of the limbus stem cells alone, will take approximately 15 days after which we can place it on the right eye. Thereafter the recovery time usually depends on the patient’s all-round health. This is a complex procedure and it is necessary to be extremely careful while performing it.

Lastly, while Preeti recuperates in the hospital, she has received immense support from people all over the country.

Mount Sharp formed on Mars due to wind, not water: Scientists

WASHINGTON, MAY 7:  

A 5.6-km high Martian mound that scientists suspect preserves evidence of a massive lake might actually have formed as a result of the Red Planet’s famously dusty atmosphere, according to a new analysis.

The research, if correct, could dilute expectations that the mound holds evidence of a large body of water, which would have important implications for understanding Mars’ past habitability.

Researchers based at Princeton University and the California Institute of Technology suggest that the mound, known as Mount Sharp, most likely emerged as strong winds carried dust and sand into the 154-km-wide crater in which the mound sits.

They reported in the journal Geology that air likely rises out of the massive Gale Crater when the Martian surface warms during the day, then sweeps back down its steep walls at night.

Though strong along the Gale Crater walls, these “slope winds” would have died down at the crater’s centre where the fine dust in the air settled and accumulated to eventually form Mount Sharp.

This dynamic counters the prevailing theory that Mount Sharp formed from layers of lakebed silt – and could mean that the mound contains less evidence of a past, Earth-like Martian climate that most scientists currently expect.

Evidence that Gale Crater once contained a lake in part determined the landing site for the NASA Mars rover Curiosity.

The rover touched down near Mount Sharp in August with the purpose of uncovering evidence of a habitable environment, and in December Curiosity found traces of clay, water molecules and organic compounds.

Determining the origin of these elements and how they relate to Mount Sharp will be a focus for Curiosity in the coming months.

But the mound itself was likely never under water, though a body of water could have existed in the moat around the base of Mount Sharp, said study co-author Kevin Lewis, a Princeton associate research scholar in geosciences and a participating scientist on the Curiosity rover mission, Mars Science Laboratory.

The quest to determine whether Mars could have at one time supported life might be better directed elsewhere, he said.

“Our work doesn’t preclude the existence of lakes in Gale Crater, but suggests that the bulk of the material in Mount Sharp was deposited largely by the wind,” said Lewis.

Even if Mount Sharp were born of wind, it and similar mounds likely overflow with a valuable geological – if not biological – history of Mars that can help unravel the climate history of Mars and guide future missions, Lewis said.

Eating dark chocolate can keep you calm: study

Here is a solution to keep your temper in check - bite into a piece of dark chocolate!
Polyphenols in dark chocolate increase calmness and contentedness, a new study has found.
Polyphenols are found naturally in plants and are a basic component of the human diet. These compounds have been shown to reduce oxidative stress which is associated with many diseases. They may also have beneficial psychological effects, scientists believe.

"Anecdotally, chocolate is often linked to mood enhancement," said lead author of the study, Matthew Pase, from Swinburne University of Technology, Australia.
"This clinical trial is perhaps the first to scientifically demonstrate the positive effects of cocoa polyphenols on mood," Pase said.

Seventy-two healthy men and women aged 40-65 years took part in the randomised study to receive a dark chocolate drink mix standardised to contain either 500 mg of cocoa polyphenols, 250 mg of cocoa polyphenols or 0 mg of cocoa polyphenols.

The drink mixes were given to participants in identical packaging so that both the investigators and participants were unaware of which treatment they were receiving.
Participants drank their assigned drink once a day for 30 days.
After 30 days, those who drank the high dose concentration of cocoa polyphenols reported greater calmness and contentedness than those who drank either of the other drink mixes.

The researchers did not find any evidence that cocoa polyphenols significantly improved cognitive performance.
Additionally, only those who consumed the highest amount of polyphenols (500 mg per day) reported any significant positive effects. Participants who consumed a moderate amount (250 mg per day) reported no significant effects.
The study was published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

Potential treatment for influenza discovered

A novel experimental drug has shown promise in treating influenza, preventing lung injury and death from the virus in preclinical studies, researchers claim.
Scientists found that a drug called Eritoran can protect mice from death after they have been infected with a lethal dose of influenza virus.The potential value of this drug as single therapy or in combination with antivirals is further supported by previous research that found that it is safe for use in humans.

Previous scientific studies have revealed that acute lung injury caused by the influenza virus is the result of an immune reaction mediated by a protein called Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4).
Senior author Stefanie Vogel, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and Medicine at the University of Maryland, and colleagues previously demonstrated that mice that lack the ability to signal through TLR4 are highly refractory to influenza-induced lethality.

In their new study, they extend these findings by showing that Eritoran - a synthetic inhibitor of TLR4, originally developed for treatment of sepsis - improved clinical symptoms and prevented death when administered up to six days after infection with the influenza virus.
Existing antiviral medications must be administered within two days of infection to be optimally effective. Annual influenza epidemics are estimated to result in three to five million cases of severe illness and 250,000 to 500,000 deaths yearly worldwide, researchers said.

The virus is continually evolving and new variants give rise to seasonal outbreaks. Increasing resistance to existing antiviral therapies and the short time-frame in which these agents are effective highlight the critical need for new treatments, such as Eritoran, they said.

"Currently, vaccines and antiviral medications are the two main approaches to preventing influenza. Problems associated vaccine development may limit efficacy and/or vaccine availability," said Vogel. "Our research seems to show that Eritoran could provide doctors with a new tool in their flu-fighting toolbox, as well as several more days to treat the sickest of patients successfully," said researchers.

Now, oil for the joints to help soothe joint pain

The most common form of joint disease and a leading cause of disability in the elderly, osteoarthritis (OA) affects about 200 million people worldwide.

A new joint lubricant could bring longer lasting relief to millions of osteoarthritis sufferers, say researchers who developed it.

The new synthetic polymer supplements synovial fluid, the natural lubricant in joints, and works better than comparable treatments currently available.

According to Boston University Professor of Biomedical Engineering Mark W. Grinstaff, who led the team, the best fluid supplement now available offers temporary symptom relief but provides inadequate lubrication to prevent further degradation of the cartilage surfaces that cushion the joint.

To achieve both objectives, Grinstaff, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School orthopedic surgeon Brian Snyder and a team of Boston University chemistry and engineering students, fellows and clinicians have advanced the first synthetic synovial fluid.

The most common form of joint disease and a leading cause of disability in the elderly, osteoarthritis (OA) affects about 200 million people worldwide.

Characterized by pain and swelling, the disease emerges in hand, hip, knee and other commonly used joints where degradation of cartilage and synovial fluid results in bone-on-bone abrasion. Treatments range from anti-inflammatory drugs to total joint replacement.

While there`s no cure for OA, one treatment—injection of a polymer to supplement synovial fluid in the joint—promises to relieve symptoms and slow the disease`s progression by reducing wear on cartilage surfaces.

“From our studies, we know our biopolymer is a superior lubricant in the joint, much better than the leading synovial fluid supplement, and similar to healthy synovial fluid,” said Grinstaff.

“When we used this new polymer, the friction between the two cartilage surfaces was lower, resulting in less wear and surface-to-surface interaction. It`s like oil for the joints,” he asserted.

Originally produced last year for another study, the new polymer mimics some of the properties of natural polysaccharides, large compounds that link repetitive sequences of sugar molecules in a chainlike pattern.

“You put it between your fingers, and it`s slippery,” Grinstaff observed.

Another advantage of the biopolymer is its large molecular weight or size, which prevents it from seeping out of the joint, enabling longer lasting cartilage protection. Unlike the leading synovial fluid supplement, which lasts one or two days, the new polymer remains in the joint for more than two weeks.

They describe the unique polymer and its performance in Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Hornbill conservator Aparajita Datta gets Whitley Award

NEW DELHI: Conservator Aparajita Datta has won the Whitley Award, also called "Green Oscar", for her work to save threatened hornbills in the forests of Arunachal Pradesh. 

Datta is one of eight grassroots conservation leaders awarded a share of prize funding worth £295,000 by the Whitley Fund for Nature. 
Datta leads a programme to conserve hornbills in the Eastern Himalaya at the Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF), an NGO set up in 1996 to promote science-based wildlife conservation in India. 

"Focussing on hornbills as a conservation flagship species, she is seeking to improve the status of the bird's populations outside protected areas by establishing models of community-based conservation," the Whitley Fund said. 

"Datta is spreading knowledge of the needs of hornbills and their importance, as seed dispersers, in the maintenance of healthy forest ecosystems. Key to her approach is raising awareness of the threats to the bird's survival, and creating a wider rural and urban constituency for conservation through a participatory community outreach programme that gets people involved," said the fund. 

Datta has been monitoring 60 hornbill nests in Arunachal Pradesh. 

Datta will use the prize money to conduct surveys in Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland to figure out the status of hornbills. This will help to create an ideal model to conserve hornbills outside protected areas. 

Princess Anne, daughter of Queen Elizabeth II, presented the award at a ceremony at the Royal Geographical Society in London Thursday.