Zika virus : epidemiology, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment and prevention

What is Zika Virus ?

Zika virus falls under member of Flavivirus.  The vector for Zika vius is Aedes mosquito. Zika virus is an emerging mosquito-borne virus that was first isolated in Zika forest of Uganda in 1947. Since then, it has been observed mainly in Africa, with small and sporadic outbreaks in Asia.

Fig. Zika virus is transmitted by daytime mosquitoes
under the genus Aedes.
Credit: Photo from Wikipedia

Where has Zika virus been found?

·  Prior to 2015, Zika virus outbreaks have occurred in areas of Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands.

·   In May 2015, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) issued an alert regarding the first confirmed Zika virus infections in Brazil.

·   Currently, outbreaks are occurring in many countries.

·         Zika virus will continue to spread and it will be difficult to determine how the virus will spread over time.

Transforming Blood Testing : ELizabeth Holmes invention

The next time you get a blood test, you might not have to go to the doctor and watch vials of blood fill up as the precious fluid is drawn from your arm. No more wondering to yourself, "Ah, how much more can they take before I pass out?" Instead you might be able to walk into a Walgreens pharmacy for a reportedly painless finger prick that will draw just a tiny drop of blood, thanks to Elizabeth Holmes, 30, the youngest woman and third-youngest billionaire on Forbes' newly released annual ranking of the 400 richest Americans.

Fig. Elizabeth Holmes featuring in Fortune magazine

Revolutionizing the blood test is a golden idea. Because of new testing methods developed by Holmes' startup Theranos, that lone drop can now yield a ton of information. The company can run hundreds of tests on a drop of blood far more quickly than could be done with whole vials in the past—and it costs a lot less.

A Billion-Dollar Idea

Holmes dropped out of Stanford at 19 to found what would become Theranos after deciding that her tuition money could be better put to use by transforming healthcare.

Traditional blood testing is shockingly difficult and expensive for a tool that's used so frequently. It also hasn't changed since the 1960s.  It's

Swine flu: Panic in India

Indian Health Minister JP Nadda has urged the public not to panic, as the number of deaths so far this year from swine flu passed 900 from 16,000 cases.

Rajasthan and Gujarat are among the worst affected states.

Officials in Ahmedabad, Gujarat's largest city, have announced restrictions on public gatherings as a precautionary measure.

The current outbreak, which began in December last year, is India's deadliest since 2010.

Nearly 4,000 people have been killed in separate outbreaks of the H1N1 virus since 2009.

Experiences from Ebola Outbreak zone

Interview with Photojournalist Neil Brandvold

Q&A: What It’s Like to Cover Ebola

After returning from West Africa, photojournalist Neil Brandvold is isolating himself as a precaution.

Photojournalist Neil Brandvold recently shot video of patients and caregivers in Liberia and Sierra Leone, at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 4,400 people in recent months.

Ebola Virus Outbreak in west Africa and its Risk Assessment

The current Ebola Virus outbreak began in Guinea in December 2013. This outbreak now involves transmission in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. As of 4 August 2014, countries have reported 1 711 cases (1 070 confirmed, 436 probable, 205 suspect), including 932 deaths. This is currently the largest EVD outbreak ever recorded. And on 8 August 2014, WHO declared the Ebola outbreak in West Africa a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

Epidemiological facts and experience

• The incubation period of Ebola virus disease (EVD) varies from 2 to 21 days. Person-to-person transmission by means of direct contact with infected persons or their body fluids/secretions is considered the principal mode of transmission. In a household study, secondary transmission took

Raises Tenfold risk by Diabetes gene : A study on Greenland

By Helen BriggsBBC News

Fig. Greenland: The island's population is only 57,000

A genetic susceptibility that gives a tenfold increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes has been discovered.

The gene mutation, found in the population of Greenland, will give clues to the different causes of the condition, say Danish scientists.

The research, published in Nature, adds to evidence genetics plays a role in the chances of developing diabetes.

Mobile phones carry owners "Bacterial fingerprint"

By Helen Briggs

Fig. The bugs from our bodies end up on our smartphones

Smartphones reflect the personal microbial world of their owners, say US scientists.

More than 80% of the common bacteria that make up our personal bacterial "fingerprints" end up on their screens, a study suggests.

Personal possessions, such as phones, might be useful for tracking the spread of bacteria, they report in PeerJ.

They reflect our microbiome - the trillions of different micro-organisms that live in and on our bodies.

Mobile phone users have been found to touch their devices on average 150 times a day.

Scientists have found an overlap between the collection of micro-organisms naturally present on our bodies and those on the screens of smartphones.

They say this could one day be used to track people's exposure to bacteria.

In the study, biologists from the University of Oregon sequenced the DNA of microbes found on the index fingers and thumbs of 17 people.

They also took swabs of the subjects' smartphones.

A total of 7,000 different types of bacteria were found in 51 samples.

Proof-of-concept

On average, 22% of bacterial families overlapped on fingers and phones.

Some 82% of the most common bacteria present on participants' fingers were also found on their phones.

They included three families that are commonly found on the skin or in the mouth - Streptococcus, Staphylococcus and Corynebacterium.

Men and women both shared bacteria with their phones, but the connection was stronger in women.

Lead researcher Dr James Meadow said while the sample size was small, the findings were "revealing".

"This project was a proof-of-concept to see if our favourite and most closely held possessions microbially resemble us," he said.

"We are ultimately interested in the possibility of using personal effects as a non-invasive way to monitor our health and our contact with the surrounding environment."

The researchers say there is no evidence that mobile phones present any more infection risk than any other possession.

But they say our phones might one day be used to study whether people have been exposed to certain bacteria, particularly healthcare workers.

Emotional connection

The study confirms that "we share more than an emotional connection with our phones - they carry our personal microbiome", Dr Meadow added.

There is increasing scientific interest in the human microbiome - the population of trillions of micro-organisms that live in our gut, mouth, skin and elsewhere on our bodies.

Bacteria can be harmful but they can also have beneficial effects, particularly in the gut, by digesting food and making essential nutrients and vitamins.

(Source: BBC Health news)

Autoimmune disease link to lipid defect suggests new therapeutic strategy

Collaborative work between the Glycobiology Institute and researchers at University College and Imperial College in London has identified a molecular defect in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) that could have an impact on their treatment.

 

The Co-Villains Behind Obesity’s Rise

By SENDHIL MULLAINATHAN

Waltraud Grubitzsch/European Pressphoto Agency

Researchers have compared tissue samples from obese mice with those of normal mice to try to determine which behavioral or biological factors might cause humans to gain weight. Here, a 2012 experiment in Leipzig, Germany.

Why is obesity soaring? The answer seems pretty clear. In 1955, a standard soda at McDonald’s was only seven ounces. Today, a medium is three times as large, and even a child’s-size version is 12 ounces. It’s a widely held view that obesity is a consequence of our behaviors, and that behavioral economics thus plays a central role in understanding it — with markets, preferences and choices taking center stage. As a behavioral economist, I subscribed to that view — until recently, when I began to question my thinking.

Cutting Cigarette Scenes From TV Shows May Have Helped Reduce Smoking

Scenes of cigarette use have become less common on prime-time television shows, and it may be linked to reduced smoking rates in the United States, a new study suggests.

Researchers from the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia looked at cigarette use depicted in more than 1,800 hours of popular U.S. prime-time dramas broadcast between 1955 and 2010. They also looked at smoking rates among adults during that period.

Scenes involving cigarette use on such shows fell from nearly five scenes per hour of programming (excluding commercials) in 1961 to about 0.3 scenes per hour in 2010, according to the study published online April 3 in the journal Tobacco Control.

Insomnia May Raise Stroke Risk, Especially for Younger Adults

By Dennis Thompson
People plagued with insomnia might have an increased risk of stroke, particularly if they are young adults, a new, large study from Taiwan suggests.

Over the course of four years, researchers found that insomnia seemed to raise the likelihood that a person will be hospitalized due to stroke by 54 percent.
That risk skyrocketed for people between the ages of 18 and 34, who were eight times more likely to suffer strokes if they had insomnia when compared to their peers who got good sleep, the study found.

2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Nobel prize winners for 2013

Martin Karplus, photo © Harvard University. Michael Levitt, photo: S. Fisch. Arieh Warshel, photo: Wikimedia Commons

Dementia in Mid-life

Mid-life stress 'precedes dementia'

The study only looked at women, not men.

Mid-life stress may increase a woman's risk of developing dementia, according to researchers.

In a study of 800 Swedish women, those who had to cope with events such as divorce or bereavement were more likely to get Alzheimer's decades later.

The more stressful events there were, the higher the dementia risk became, BMJ Open reports.

Risk factor for early childhood death

Young mothers 'risk factor for early childhood death'

Children born to mothers under 30 are more likely to die than those born to older mums, a report on child deaths in the UK suggests.

While overall child mortality fell by 50% in the past 20 years, young maternal age was found to be a risk factor for death in early childhood.

Support should be extended to mothers of all ages, not just first-time teenage mums, the report said.

Promising results on Type 1 diabetes : Skin drugs

Skin drug shows 'promising' results on type 1 diabetes

A drug that was used to treat a skin disorder has shown signs of being able to treat aspects of type 1 diabetes. A small trial on US patients suggests that alefacept helps the body produce its own insulin, which is key for people with type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes affects around 400,000 people in the UK.

Researchers said the drug could be better than other treatments because it protects the immune system - but more research was needed.

Universal flu vaccine : Great steps of scientific discovery

Scientists take big step towards universal flu vaccine

Scientists say they have made a significant leap towards creating a vaccine that would protect against every form of flu. The influenza virus is a constantly shifting target so seasonal flu vaccines rapidly become useless and new ones are needed each year.

A team at Imperial College London say they have made a "blueprint" for a universal flu vaccine. Their discovery is published in the journal Nature Medicine. Influenza is able to change the proteins that protrude from the surface of the virus as readily as people change outfits. However, the material on the inside is common

Type 2 Diabetes and Anti-depressants

Anti-depressants 'linked to type 2 diabetes'

People prescribed anti-depressants should be aware they could be at increased risk of type 2 diabetes, say UK researchers.

The University of Southampton team looked at available medical studies and found evidence the two were linked.

But there was no proof that one necessarily caused the other.

It may be that people taking anti-depressants put on weight which, in turn, increases their diabetes risk, the team told Diabetes Care journal.

Or the drugs themselves may interfere with blood sugar control.

Alternative to nicotine patches: E-cigarette

E-cigarettes 'as effective' as nicotine patches

Electronic cigarettes appear to be at least as effective as nicotine patches in helping people to give up smoking, research suggests.

Fig. E-cigarette (Courtesy: ecigaretteuser.com)

The devices, which are rapidly growing in popularity, produce a vapour containing nicotine.

The findings, presented at the European Respiratory Society, showed similar numbers quitting with e-cigarettes as patches, but more had cut down.

There was a call, however, for long-term data on safety.

Testicle size 'link to father role'

A link between the size of a father's testicles and how active he is in bringing up his children has been suggested by scientists.

Researchers at Emory University, US, said those with smaller testicles were more likely to be involved with nappy changing, feeding and bath time.

They also found differences in brain scans of fathers looking at images of their child, linked to testicle size.

But other factors, such as cultural expectations, also played a role.

Levels of promiscuity and testicle size are strongly linked in animals, those with the largest pair tending to mate with more partners.

The researchers were investigating an evolutionary theory about trade-offs between investing time and effort in mating or putting

13 food stuffs which keeps you slim and healthy

Fig. Protein Diet

1. Protein

I’m fond of this macronutrient powerhouse for so many reasons: It promotes healthy skin, hair, nails, bones, and muscle. It’s also a fabulous weight-loss aid, according to a 2005 study from Arizona State University. Protein increased satiety (satisfaction and feelings of fullness) and increased after-meal calorie burn. In other words, eating protein-rich meals, rather than higher-carbohydrate ones, leads to more satisfaction, less hunger, and more fat burn. I love that: three benefits in one. Earlier research also found that people following higher-protein diets generally decrease their food intake by an average of 10 percent (about 200 calories).