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HEALTHWATCH
Net
Gains
Fish,
beads and bed nets are proving potent weapons in the fight against malaria
 That
buzzing sound portends peril. An anopheles mosquito's bite injects a dose
of danger in the form of malaria, affecting more than 10 million people
in India every year. Now healthcare workers are fighting back with potent
weapons-fish, plastic beads and bed nets. These are provided free by the
National Anti-Malaria Programme (NAMP).
Malaria is
caused when the mosquito squirts a parasite called Plasmodium into the
human bloodstream. The parasite is nourished and multiplies in the liver.
Fortified, it re-invades the bloodstream, capturing and bursting iron
containing red blood cells, so that the patient shows the typical malarial
symptoms of high fever, shivering and anaemia.
The battle
against malaria has been long and futile. In spite of large-scale spraying
of insecticides on malaria habitats in the 1960s the disease has re-emerged
with a vengeance-in a virulent and drug-resistant form. Says malaria expert
Shuranjeet Chatterjee: "Resistant malaria is quite common."
Swimming
to the rescue are mosquito larva-relishing gappa fish. The fish thrive
in most conditions. Introducing these fish into stagnant pools is a good
way of keeping mosquitoes at bay. So are polystyrene beads which block
the larvae. According to Dr V.K. Dua of namp, these ideas have brought
malaria cases down from 3,000 in 1996 to less than 100 this year in Hardwar.
Further fortification
against the malaria menace are bed nets which have reduced malaria by
more than 60 per cent worldwide. Data from several Indian villages introduced
to treated nets has shown that the impregnated nets significantly lowered
malaria counts. The World Health Organisation (WHO), the Malaria Research
Centre and ngos are actively involved in distributing such nets, says
Dr A. Goswami, member of tags, an ngo in Assam.
WHO officials
are equally enthusiastic. Says Dr Lalit Nath of who India: "This
year the programme for India proposes distribution of another 1.5 lakh
impregnated nets in Assam. One hundred districts in the country have been
identified in the enhanced Malaria Control Project and in 98 of them malaria
societies have been established." Figures that one can happily sleep
on.
-Supriya
Bezbaruah
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A
Garlic a Day
|
| A
garlic clove a day keeps the doctor away. This ancient health tip
has now been proven true by studies that show garlic reduces cholesterol
by interfering with fat-producing pathways in the liver. The fat-busting
molecule, allicin, also gives garlic its pungent taste and odour.
It is produced when garlic is chopped, smashed or chewed. European
scientists hope to genetically design garlic plants with greater fat-reducing
properties. Mouthwash producers would appreciate that too. |
Fruitful
Research:
 The
answer to infertility, studies indicate, may come from the body itself.
Although they appear very different, the abdomen and a woman's reproductive
organs originate from the same cell and have some latent similarities.
This and the cell's natural regenerative properties allow graft abdominal
cells to rescue damaged fallopian tubes in animals. Fallopian tubes have
a crucial role as the passage for the egg from the ovary to the uterus.
Similar results in human beings would revolutionise organ transplantations.
And make many new mothers.
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