Bird Flu

Well it seems that slowly but steadily the bird flu virus is spreading. Asia, Africa and now Europe all are having fresh cases. I give some insight into this bird flu.

Most cases of avian influenza infection in humans have resulted from contact with infected poultry (e.g., domesticated chicken, ducks, and turkeys) or surfaces contaminated with secretion/excretions from infected birds. The spread of avian influenza viruses from one ill person to another has been reported very rarely, and transmission has not been observed to continue beyond one person.
During an outbreak of avian influenza among poultry, there is a possible risk to people who have contact with infected birds or surfaces that have been contaminated with secretions or excretions from infected birds.
Influenza A (H5N1) virus – also called “H5N1 virus” – is an influenza A virus subtype that occurs mainly in birds, is highly contagious among birds, and can be deadly to them. H5N1 virus does not usually infect people, but infections with these viruses have occurred in humans. Most of these cases have resulted from people having direct or close contact with H5N1-infected poultry or H5N1-contaminated surfaces
Of the few avian influenza viruses that have crossed the species barrier to infect humans, H5N1 has caused the largest number of detected cases of severe disease and death in humans. In the current outbreaks in Asia and Europe more than half of those infected with the virus have died. Most cases have occurred in previously healthy children and young adults. However, it is possible that the only cases currently being reported are those in the most severely ill people, and that the full range of illness caused by the H5N1 virus has not yet been defined. For the most current information about avian influenza and cumulative case numbers, see the World Health Organization (WHO) avian influenza website.
So far, the spread of H5N1 virus from person to person has been limited and has not continued beyond one person. Nonetheless, because all influenza viruses have the ability to change, scientists are concerned that H5N1 virus one day could be able to infect humans and spread easily from one person to another. Because these viruses do not commonly infect humans, there is little or no immune protection against them in the human population. If H5N1 virus were to gain the capacity to spread easily from person to person, an influenza pandemic (worldwide outbreak of disease) could begin. For more information about influenza pandemics, see the CDC Pandemic Influenza website and PandemicFlu.gov.
Treatment and vaccination for H5N1 virus in humans
The H5N1 virus that has caused human illness and death in Asia is resistant to amantadine and rimantadine, two antiviral medications commonly used for influenza. Two other antiviral medications, oseltamavir and zanamavir, would probably work to treat influenza caused by H5N1 virus, but additional studies still need to be done to demonstrate their effectiveness.
There currently is no commercially available vaccine to protect humans against H5N1 virus that is being seen in Asia and Europe. However, vaccine development efforts are taking place. Research studies to test a vaccine to protect humans against H5N1 virus began in April 2005, and a series of clinical trials is under way. For more information about H5N1 vaccine development process, visit the National Institutes of Health website.

Basic prevention for human beings involves hygiene and simple hand wash. For those living in high risk areas and growing chicken in the backyard the following WHO gudeline will be most helpful. I give some brief points and the link to the page.


The spread of bird flu in affected areas can normally be prevented.
• People should avoid contact with chickens, ducks or other poultry unless absolutely necessary. This is the best way to prevent infection with the bird flu virus.

• Children are at high risk because they may play where poultry are found. Teach your children the following basic guidelines:
o Avoid contact with any birds, their feathers, faeces and other waste.
o Do not keep birds as pets.
o Wash hands with soap and water after any contact.
o Not to sleep near poultry.
• Do not transport live or dead chickens, ducks or other poultry from one place to another even if you think your birds are healthy.

• Handling of poultry in affected areas should be done within the area without transporting them to other areas.
• Do not prepare poultry from affected areas as food for your family or animals. The slaughter and preparation of such birds for food is dangerous.

• If you unintentionally come into contact with poultry in an affected area, such as touching the bird's body, touching its faeces or other animal dirt, or walking on soil contaminated with poultry faeces:
o wash your hands well with soap and water after each contact;
o remove your shoes outside the house and clean them of all dirt; and
o check your temperature for 7 days at least once daily. If you develop a high temperature (>37.5°C), visit a doctor or the nearest health care facility immediately.

The linkhttp://www.wpro.who.int/NR/rdonlyres/04FA6993-8CD1-4B72-ACB9-EB0EBD3D0CB1/0/Advice10022004rev08112004.pdf

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/avian_influenza/en/index.html

VITAMINS

Prevention is better than cure. In pursuit of the initial sentence we all take the shortest route to prevention. One of them being the general belief that taking vitamin supplement is good for health. The evidence to say that vitamins taken as supplement by healthy person is beneficial is lacking. Inspite of this many doctors, many websites, blogs recommend taking vitamin supplements. Here I make an effort to throw some light on this issue.
First as the Google motto goes 'Do no Evil'.
Vitamins are classified as water soluble and fat soluble. Water soluble vitamins need to be replenshied regularly and an average healthy diet contains enough vitamins. Taking these water soluble vitamins, which are Vitamin B complex and Vitamin C causes no major adverse effect because they are excreted in the urine as they are water soluble. One exception is an vitamin called pyridoxine which taken in greater quantity can cause toxicity.
All fat soluble vitamins which include A, D, E, K , when taken in excess can cause toxicity.
So please be careful regarding what kind of vitamin supplements u are taking.
First let me discuss the water soluble vitamins.

1. Folic acid-folic acid supplementation is associated with a substantially reduced risk of neural-tube defects if it is taken by females before pregnancy and during pregnancy. Higher intake of folic acid is associated with a lower risk of colon cancer and breast cancer particularly among persons who are at increased risk because of daily alcohol consumption. The optimal folic acid intake remains uncertain. An intake of 400 µg per day minimizes blood homocysteine levels in most people, but more may be needed to reduce the risk of cancer. Although an intake of 400 µg of folate per day may be achieved by eating natural foods, the average American intake from these sources is about 200 µg per day. Since 1998, the food-fortification program in the United States has been adding about 100 µg per day. Thus, most people in this country still consume less than 400 µg
   per day, and users of multivitamins still have lower homocysteine levels than nonusers.
2. Vitamin B6 - no independent benefit, needs to be taken with folic acid.
3. Vitamin B12- Supplementation required in elderly and alcoholics.
4. vitamin C- supplementation not required for healthy individuals.
5. vitamin A-not required by healthy persons
6. Vitamin D-not required by healthy persons
7. Vitamin E - no benefit found in various studies conducted. Infact one study has found it to be detrimental

So before taking vitamin supplements , find out whether u really need them and if no benefit atleast u should not be harmed.

Dont follow the crowd, create ur own fad.

Smoking

Recent articles in the leading journal Lancet go on to prove that the tobacco companies, with enough research data generated by them, have mislead us and the international regulatory bodies. People who have smoked low tar cigarretes , in the belief that it was healthy might have caused more harm to themselves. Something called as "elastic cigarretes" had people inhaling deeper to get the same nicotine levels, leading to greater inhalation of toxic products.
photograph from BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3099936.stm

Addictions of different kind give varied pleasure and a sense of happiness, but u have to see some one with cancer to understand what a price u r paying for smoking. Luckily all those who smoke dont end up with cancer. Till the time that medicine comes out with a test to say whether u will suffer from taking tobacco or not, it is better to abstain. Some figures to illustrate the damage caused.
In the UK, about 1000 people a year die from
second-hand tobacco smoke, and over 100 000 a year
die from smoking.

Almost five million people died from smoking-related diseases across the world in 2000, researchers estimate. The researchers estimated that there were 4.83m premature deaths from smoking in 2000 - 2.41m in developing countries and 2.4m in industrialised countries.

Mortality as a result of smoking will rise substantially unless effective interventions and policies that curb and reduce smoking among men and prevent increases among women.
In few days time u all will be coming across a spate of articles letting u know how the tobacco industry has mislead the world.


Half of the world’s countries have now ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and, in doing so, have signed up to protect their citizens from second-hand smoke. The tiny kingdom of Bhutan has gone furthest of all by banning the sale of tobacco products altogether. The tobacco-free age is just around the corner.

Happiness secrets

Well exactly an year back Time magazine had published a special issue on happiness. I plan to read it again, but trying to recollect , I remember the following points.

1. Friends are very instrumental in leading a happy life.
2. Money upto a point is important but beyond that it is actually a drag.
3. Experiences , like trekking, surfing, or picnics provide more happiness than material objects. A costly watch, clothes, etc are really not necessary for happiness.

Coming back to the basic theme u need health to do all this.

Sex with Partner

Well I had just posted about kissing and I hit upon this article on sex in Newscientist. They are reporting that sex with a partner is 400 times better than mastuburation. Well u be judge for urself. Those who mastuburate , keep doing and have fun. Just becos ur paper says sex with partner is 400 times better , u should start searching for partner. My personal reason to axtol caution is bcos sex is best with somebody u know or a steady partner, sex with random person can leave u with HIV and many other potentially harmful STD.
U acn check the article at http://www.newscientist.com/channel/sex/mg18925405.900

Kissing

One of the best gifts given to us is kissing. An act which is liberating in itself. The plesures of kissing or getting kissed cannot be explained but needs to be experienced.
Now a group of researchers have linked kissing to meningococcal meningitis, for allthose who are reading this dont panic. The simple act of kissing is not going to kill us. But it is required to exercise caution while engaging in deep kissing if u dont know ur partner.
If there is substance abuse, or cigarrete smoking or living in college dormitory then the risk increases. The following is the link to medscape page
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/523610?src=mp.
Take care and enjoy ur kissing.

Second Day

Secon day of this new birth. As a write I realise the potential of this being read by anybody in this world. I dont have a specific issue to write about today. I am having my usual headache today and I just took a diclofenac to quiten it.
Am I happy inspite of the headache. Well the happiness is not quantifiable but yes i am distressed. I will feel more better if it would not have been there. So it gets back to the same thing ., there is no happiness without health.
It is not just about just one's own helath but also the health of near and dear ones.
Being a doctor can be taxing on the famil members. They have to deal with the initial primary treatment given by me. Dad had a bad pharyngitis last week which was controlled with roxithromycin, but there is residual dry cough which is persisting. Dextromethorphan, Cetrizine have not helped him and he has had sleepless nights. Finally I suggested that he take advice from my colleague. I will come to know about it once I return home.
It is very frustrating to contro only dry cough at night. Steam inhalation, drinking a glass of warm water can all help. Medication to control post nasal drip like Benadryl also helps. But when the cough persists it needs to be investigated.
Some alternative remedy is to take turmeric with milk, it does help. No scientific trials to support this but turmerics properties are being researched very wildly.

This is the link for the calcium supplement articlehttp://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/354/7/750

Happiness comes from being healthy

Being a doctor I come across various reports. There are claims and counter claims. Just few days back I read that taking calcium supplements and vitamin D is not helpful in preventing osteoporosis or colon cancer. My mother has just attained menopause and for last one year on and off I had started her on calcium supplements. She is confused whether to continue the calcium tablets since they have also reported increased incidence of kidney stones in people taking calcium supplements. On the other side there is my aunt taking vitamin d and calcium supplements for 15 days in a month since last 3-4 years and she has had tremendous symptomatic benefit with the treatment and she says she will continue with her tablets.
My stand on this is neutral as of now. May be another research group will come with evidence that it is indeed beneficial. So if ur symptomatic , please take supplements, that is on an individual basis the decision will have to be taken. As a vitamin supplement to be taken by everybody is to be discouraged in view of the present evidence. The article was published in NEJM , areputed journal.
All said and done the time tested method to remain healthy is to eat frugally, if i have used the word rightly, I intend to report that scientists have found in animals atleast that if u restrict ur diet , u can live 50% more and also with less disease. Age related diseases like osteoarthritis, cancer, diabetes , hypertension are found less commonly in people who eat sensibly.
In fact all the above has solid scientific hypothesis.
It has also been found that mitochondrial DNA gets mutated at a faster rate and the amount of mutations in it is related to ageing and age related diseases. Mitochondrial DNA is also responsible for digesting sugar and generating energy. So u eat more, u put more stress on mitochondrial DNA and it is damaged. There r lot of other arguments, but I end by saying that u can be happy only when u r healthy. Health requires common sense approach. Eat sensibly Eat Healthly. Prevent diseases for " Prevention is better than cure".

Creating Wealth, Health

The blogging has just begun and i am dreaming of making some money. Well who doesnt like to get paid for writing down one's thoughts. But how will i ensure that people view my blog. What content is of interest to everybody ? To be honest I am not concerned about all this. I only intend to put down my thoughts and make statements on which i feel strongly about.
The first thing is to let know that Google offers u a chance to earn thru adsense. So anybody blogging pls check the adsense section.
Coming to some more ideas which i was thinking about , during lunch break, well i am a doctor, anyperson with any queries can post on my blog regarding his health problem or for that matter any problem, I will try my best to give the most appropriate answer.

helo

well ihave been able to change my template. I look forward to publishing my regular blog. Wishing everbody peace and love.

hi

As i am learning to post my thoughts, i had some problem viewing my blog, so this is just a trial blog. Also i am having difficulty in setting my main template page, if any body can help, do so.

Paritrana

well, as innumerable other readers who have come across Paritrana, even I am impressed. The qualification of the people is amazing and their desire to do something is palpable. It is Yuva and Rang De Basanti combined together. I think it is a beginning in the right direction and we all have our role to play. Let us pray that we are guided in the right direction.