Month: July 2014

An outbreak of encephalitis has killed 60 people in two weeks in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, a top health official has said, calling the situation "alarming'. Hundreds of mainly children die across India each year from the mosquito-borne virus, but West Bengal is not normally one of the worst-hit states. Only five people died last year in West Bengal from Japanese encephalitis, one form of the virus which normally hits during the monsoon season when mosquitos breed. West Bengal health services director Biswaranjan Satpathy said late on Monday there had been a sudden spike in cases and deaths between July 7 and 20.

The technique aims to force the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) from its last redoubt after it is beaten back by antiretroviral drugs. If the drugs are stopped, HIV usually rebounds within a few weeks and starts once more to infect other immune cells, exposing the body to opportunistic microbes. In a presentation at the International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark described a step forward in the first stage of this process. Six patients who were on antiretrovirals took an anti-cancer drug called romidepsin, which prompted virus production in HIV-infected cells to crank up to between 2.1 and 3.9 times above normal.

When it comes to losing weight it's easy to get completely hung up on the … by the University of Texas Health Science Centre has found that diet drinks are just … To make sure food digests before bed, always eat at least 90 minutes …

By Carl Odera LEER South Sudan (Reuters) – A surge in the number of emaciated children arriving at a feeding centre in Leer, a muddy rebel-held town in South Sudan's oil-rich Unity State, is fuelling fears that the world's newest nation is on the brink of famine. Food stocks are running low across conflict-ravaged northern regions of the country, aid workers say, and the onset of the rainy season has dashed hopes that South Sudan's displaced subsistence farmers will plant enough crops to feed themselves. The country is the size of France but has hardly any paved roads and the United Nations and humanitarian agencies are struggling to provide aid to remote regions. Aid agencies say South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after decades of conflict, could be headed for the worst famine since the 1984 Ethiopian famine.

By Aditya Kalra NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India has ordered an investigation into doctors and laboratories suspected of offering kickbacks for referring patients for medical tests, following a sting operation by a TV news channel. Hindi news channel News Nation TV showed laboratories in the national capital offering commissions as high as 50 percent to doctors who referred patients to their diagnostic centers. The diagnostic market is the fastest growing segment of India’s $74 billion healthcare industry, according to consultancy PwC, with the segment forecast to grow to $17 billion by 2021 from $3.4 billion in 2011.