Tuberculosis: Causes, Symptoms and Treatments and recent researches.

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB (short for tubercle bacillus), in the past also called phthisis, phthisis pulmonalis, or consumption, is a widespread, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis typically attacks the lungs, but can also affect other parts of the body. It is spread through the air when people who have an active TB infection cough, sneeze, or otherwise transmit respiratory fluids through the air. Most infections do not have symptoms, known as latent tuberculosis. About one in ten latent infections eventually progresses to active disease which, if left untreated, kills more than 50% of those so infected.

The classic symptoms of active TB infection are a chronic cough with blood-tinged sputum, fever, night sweats, and weight loss (the last of these giving rise to the formerly common term for the disease, "consumption"). Infection of other organs causes a wide range of symptoms. Diagnosis of active TB relies on radiology (commonly chest X-rays), as well as microscopic examination and microbiological culture of body fluids. Diagnosis of latent TB relies on the tuberculin skin test (TST) and/or blood tests. Treatment is difficult and requires administration of multiple antibiotics over a long period of time. Household, workplace and social contacts are also screened and treated if necessary. Antibiotic resistance is a growing problem in multiple drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) infections. Prevention relies on early detection and treatment of cases and on screening programs and vaccination with the bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine.

Tuberculosis has a long, rich history, dating back as far as Ancient Egypt, with evidence of its presence found in the preserved spines of Egyptian mummies.¹
In the 18th and 19th centuries, a tuberculosis epidemic rampaged throughout Europe and North America,² before the German microbiologist Robert Koch discovered the microbial causes of tuberculosis in 1882.³
Following Koch's discovery, the development of vaccines and effective drug treatment led to the belief that the disease was almost defeated. Indeed, at one point the United Nations, predicted that tuberculosis (TB) would be eliminated worldwide by 2025.³
However, in the mid-80s, TB cases began to rise once more in the US and worldwide, so much so that in 1993 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that TB was a global emergency; the first time that a disease had been labelled as such Fortunately, with proper treatment almost all cases of tuberculosis are curable. Cases of TB have decreased in the US since 1993, but the disease remains a concern. Without proper treatment up to two-thirds of people ill with tuberculosis will die.

What is tuberculosis?

TB is an infectious disease that usually affects the lungs. It is the second greatest killer due to a single infectious agent worldwide, and in 2012, 1.3 million people died from the disease, with 8.6 million falling ill.
Doctors make a distinction between two kinds of tuberculosis infection: latent and active. In latent TB, the TB bacteria remain in the body in an inactive state. They cause no symptoms and are not contagious, but they can become active. In active TB, the bacteria do cause symptoms and can be transmitted to others.
About one-third of the world's population is believed to have latent TB. There is a 10% chance of latent TB becoming active TB, but this risk is much higher in people who have compromised immune systems i.e. people living with HIV or malnutrition, or people who smoke.
TB affects all age groups and all parts of the world. However, the disease mostly affects young adults, and people living in developing countries. In 2012, 80% of reported TB cases occurred in just 22 countries

What causes tuberculosis?

The Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacterium causes TB. It is spread through the air when a person with TB (whose lungs are affected) coughs, sneezes, spits, laughs or talks.
TB is contagious, but it is not easy to catch. The chances of catching TB from someone you live or work with are much higher than from a stranger. Most people with active TB who have received appropriate treatment for at least two weeks are no longer contagious.
Since antibiotics began to be used to fight TB, some strains have become resistant to drugs. Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) arises when an antibiotic fails to kill all of the bacteria that it targets, with the surviving bacteria developing resistance to that antibiotic and often others at the same time.
MDR-TB is treatable and curable only with the use of very specific anti-TB drugs, which are often limited or not readily available. In 2012, around 450,000 people developed MDR-TB.

Who is at risk?

People with compromised immune systems are most at risk of developing active tuberculosis.
HIV suppresses the immune system, making it harder for the body to control TB bacteria. People who are infected with both HIV and TB are around 20-30% more likely to develop active TB than those who do not have HIV.
Tobacco use has also been found to increase the risk of developing active TB. Over 20% of TB cases worldwide are related to smoking


Hyderabad:  A team of scientists from city-based Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) have discovered a mycobacterial protein that promises to fight tuberculosis in a novel way.

In the study, the team led by Sanjeev Khosla used the knowledge of epigenetics to open a new frontier in the research on host-Mycobacterium tuberculosis interaction.

Epigenetics defines the process by which the same DNA in different cells of an organism perform different functions. The team has identified a novel mycobacterial protein Rv1988, which is secreted out of the mycobacterium into the host upon infection and localises to the chromatin (DNA-histone complex) in the nucleus of the human cell.


Around six years ago, the team started this research work and further observed that Rv1988 is a methyltransferase enzyme that methylates the histone H3 protein at an arginine amino acid. This methylation epigenetically modulates the transcription of genes, which would have otherwise mounted an immune response against the infecting pathogen," CDFD Director GR Chandak told reporters.

Identification of Rv1988 as an important mycobacterial virulence factor, augurs well not only for it to be a potential target for therapy against mycobacterial infections but also for developing a new biomarker for identification of M-tuberculosis infection in humans, he said.

Rv1988 is important for the pathogen as its deletion in Mycobacterium tuberculosis reduced bacterial survival.

These observations have been confirmed by Rv1988 expression in a non-pathogenic Mycobacterium smegmatis that negatively affected the health of infected mice. This study has recently been published in the prestigious journal 'Nature Communications', Mr Khosla said.

Since arginine amino acid at 42nd position in Rv1988 is normally not known to be methylated by human methyltransferases, methylation of this amino acid can be used as a sensitive marker of mycobacterial infection, he explained.

A patent based on using this novel atypical site of methylation in histone H3 for diagnosis of M-tuberculosis infection has also been filed by CDFD. 

Global Warming and Climate change

Global Warming Causes

Global warming is primarily a problem of too much carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere—which acts as a blanket, trapping heat and warming the planet. As we burn fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas for energy or cut down and burn forests to create pastures and plantations, carbon accumulates and overloads our atmosphere. Certain waste management and agricultural practices aggravate the problem by releasing other potent global warming gases, such as methane and nitrous oxide.

Global Warming Is Urgent and Can Be Addressed

CO2 survives in the atmosphere for a long time—up to many centuries—so its heat-trapping effects are compounded over time. Of the many heat-trapping gases, CO2 puts us at the greatest risk of irreversible changes if it continues to accumulate unabated in the atmosphere—as it is likely to do if the global economy remains dependent on fossil fuels for its energy needs. To put this in perspective, the carbon we put in the atmosphere today will literally determine not only our climate future but that of future generations as well.
Substantial scientific evidence indicates that an increase in the global average temperature of more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (°F) (or 2 degrees Celsius [°C]) above pre-industrial levels poses severe risks to natural systems and to human health and well-being. The good news is that, because we as humans caused global warming, we can also do something about it. To avoid this level of warming, large emitters such as the United States need to greatly reduce heat-trapping gas emissions by mid century. Delay in taking such action means the prospect of much steeper cuts later if there is any hope of staying below the 3.6°F (2°C) temperature goal. Delayed action is also likely to make it more difficult and costly to not only make these reductions, but also address the climate consequences that occur in the meantime.

The Consequences of a Warming World

Over the last century, global average temperature has increased by more than 1°F (0.7°C). The 2001-2010 decade is the warmest since 1880—the earliest year for which comprehensive global temperature records were available. In fact, nine of the warmest years on record have occurred in just the last 10 years. This warming has been accompanied by a decrease in very cold days and nights and an increase in extremely hot days and warm nights. The continental United States, for example, has seen record daily highs twice as often as record daily lows from 2000 to 2009. While the record shows that some parts of the world are warming faster than others, the long-term global upward trend is unambiguous.
Of course, land and ocean temperature is only one way to measure the effects of climate change. A warming world also has the potential to change rainfall and snow patterns, increase droughts and severe storms, reduce lake ice cover, melt glaciers, increase sea levels, and change plant and animal behavior.

Regional Actions Add Up to Global Solutions

Any action to reduce or eliminate the release of heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere helps slow the rate of warming and, likely, the pace and severity of change at any given hot spot. Local sources of carbon emissions vary from region to region, suggesting that solutions are often decided at the community level. The Climate Hot Map points to regional examples of climate-friendly energy, transportation, or adaptation choices. Some regions, however, must rely upon global solutions such as international agreements to reduce the carbon overload in the atmosphere that threatens them. Small islands, for example, are a paltry source of carbon emissions and yet are disproportionately affected by the consequences of global carbon overload as accelerated sea level rise threatens the very existence of low-lying islands.

 

 

Alzheimer's disease:Scientists isolate genes that delay Alzheimer's disease:

Alzheimer's disease (AD), also known as Alzheimer disease, or just Alzheimer's, accounts for 60% to 70% of cases of dementia. It is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and gets worse over time. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events (short-term memory loss). As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems with language, disorientation (including easily getting lost), mood swings, loss of motivation, not managing self care, and behavioural issues. As a person's condition declines, they often withdraw from family and society.Gradually, bodily functions are lost, ultimately leading to death.Although the speed of progression can vary, the average life expectancy following diagnosis is three to nine years.

The cause of Alzheimer's disease is poorly understood.About 70% of the risk is believed to be genetic with many genes usually involved. Other risk factors include a history of head injuries, depression, or hypertension. The disease process is associated with plaques and tangles in the brain. A probable diagnosis is based on the history of the illness and cognitive testing with medical imaging and blood tests to rule out other possible causes. Initial symptoms are often mistaken for normal ageing. Examination of brain tissue is needed for a definite diagnosis. Mental and physical exercise, and avoiding obesity may decrease the risk of AD.There are no medications or supplements that decrease risk

Scientists isolate genes that delay Alzheimer's disease

A team of researchers have identified a network of nine genes that play a key role in the onset of Alzheimer's disease and these findings could help scientists develop new treatments to delay the onset of the disease.
In a study of a family of 5,000 people in Columbia, scientists identified genes that delayed the disease, and others that accelerated it, and by how much. Arcos-Burgos at the John Curtin School of Medical Research said that if they could work out how to decelerate the disease, then they could have a profound impact.

Burgos said that it would be more successful to delay the onset of the disease than to prevent it completely, adding that even if they delay the onset by on average one year, that would mean nine million fewer people will have the disease in 2050. Burgos and his team studied the variable age of onset of dementia in this family and with the cooperation of the family, the team were able to discount environmental factors and trace their genetic predisposition to Alzheimer's Disease back to a founder mutation in one individual who came to the region about 500 years ago.
The team was able to isolate the nine genes involved in Alzheimer's, some of which delay the onset by up to 17 years, while others advance its progress. The study is published in the Journal Molecular Psychiatry.

What is Yoga and how Yoga and meditation reduces healthcare cost by 43%

The origins of yoga have been speculated to date back to pre-Vedic Indian traditions, but most likely developed around the sixth and fifth centuries BCE, in ancient India's ascetic and śramaṇa movements. The chronology of earliest texts describing yoga-practices is unclear, varyingly credited to Hindu Upanishads and Buddhist Pāli Canon, probably of third century BCE or later. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali date from the first half of the 1st millennium CE, but only gained prominence in the West in the 20th century. Hatha yoga texts emerged around the 11th century with origins in tantra.
Yoga gurus from India later introduced yoga to the west, following the success of Swami Vivekananda in the late 19th and early 20th century.  In the 1980s, yoga became popular as a system of physical exercise across the Western world. Yoga in Indian traditions, however, is more than physical exercise, it has a meditative and spiritual core. One of the six major orthodox schools of Hinduism is also called Yoga, which has its own epistemology and metaphysics, and is closely related to Hindu Samkhya philosophy.
Many studies have tried to determine the effectiveness of yoga as a complementary intervention for cancer, schizophrenia, asthma, and heart disease. The results of these studies have been mixed and inconclusive, with cancer studies suggesting none to unclear effectiveness, and others suggesting yoga may reduce risk factors and aid in a patient's psychological healing process.

Yoga and meditation reduces healthcare cost by 43%: Study

Practices like yoga and meditation can help curb the need for general healthcare services by about 43%, according to a new study.

"Evoking the relaxation response or a physiologic state of deep rest, helps alleviate stress and anxiety, while also affecting heart rate and blood pressure," according to a study by Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital Institute for Technology Assessment and the Benson-Henry Institute. 

By doing a comparative analysis of information available on Research Patient Data Registry (RPDR) of Partners HealthCare and data on individuals participating in the BHI Relaxation Response Resiliency Program (3RP) from 2006 to 2014, researchers came to the conclusion that practitioners of yoga, meditation, prayer spent significantly lower than non-practitioners, on medical services.

The study also found that practitioners primarily benefited from neurological, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, and gastrointestinal ailments.
 

Greece is back at the heart of EU's existential crisis with threatened expulsion from Schengen

One way or another, Greece always seems to be in the vanguard of every European crisis, and now it’s assumed centre stage in the debacle of Schengen.
This is of course because Greece is a frontline state; as such it is one of the main portals for migrants into the European Union. Once in, migrants can travel freely, thanks to Schengen, throughout much of the EU until they reach the country where they wish to claim asylum or otherwise work illegally

Most European states believe that Greece has badly mishandled its responsibilities on border control, and following refusal to accept wider European help in tackling the crisis, the EU is now threatening Greece with expulsion from Schengen. Such action would essentially divorce Greece from the main body of the EU. As with Britain, which is not a member of Schengen, border controls would have to be established to patrol passage from Greece to the rest of the EU. 

The EU is able to threaten expulsion because Greece is reluctant to accept limited offers of help, including humanitarian aid and a special mission from Frontex, Europe’s hopelessly inadequate version of a federal borders agency. This refusal is not because Greece believes it needs no aid; it is because it thinks the offer grossly deficient. If this sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Exactly the same thing happened over Europe’s sovereign debt crisis. Limited relief was offered by the EU, but on terms and conditions which Greece found unacceptable. In the end, it was forced to capitulate, the alternative being expulsion from the Euro, which even Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, found unconscionable. That will very likely be the outcome of the Schengen fiasco too.

The big point here is that the EU, and its inner, Eurozone core, pretend to be a kind of United States of Europe, but are still a hundred miles away from the federal system and institutions that would make it so. When push comes to shove, collective problems are regarded as national liabilities, demanding national solutions.
The upshot is that almost no crisis can be properly addressed. When times are good, the EU muddles along harmoniously enough, but when the going gets tough, the whole thing fragments and nation quarrels with nation. The irony is that both the economic and the migrant crises have been made very much worse by Europe’s half completed march to federalism. It pretends federal arrangements, but its institutions lack the political legitimacy to mount credible federal solutions. Europe must either urgently march forward, or it must march back. Ever clearer given growing discontent, and its expression in populist political movements, is that the status quo is not an option.

Greece’s Debt Crisis Explained

Indeed, Greece’s labor productivity (GDP per worker) is only 72% of the level in the UK and Italy, and a mere 57.7% of that in Germany. And surveys indicate that mean life satisfaction in Greece is far below that found in the wealthiest EU countries (the EU15). Contrary to claims by the Greek government, corporatism impoverishes the less advantaged. EU data on poverty rates in 2010 put Greece at 21.4% – far higher than the mean EU15 rate of 16.7%.

To be sure, Greece saw productivity gains after World War II – but mostly from increases in education and capital per worker, which can go only so far. Two important sources of broad prosperity are blocked by Greece’s system. One is an abundance of entrepreneurs engaged in detecting and exploiting new economic opportunities. Without them, Greece does a poor job of adjusting to changing circumstances (an imperative emphasized by Friedrich Hayek). Greece’s much-lauded shipowners, for example, were too slow to adapt to containerization, and thus lost their market share.

The other source of broad prosperity is an abundance of business people engaged in conceiving and creating new products and processes – often termed “indigenous innovation.” Here, Greece lacks the necessary dynamism: venture capital investment flows are smaller, relative to GDP, in Greece than in any other EU country. So Greece’s economy has scant ability to create sustained productivity growth and high human satisfaction.

Some economists believe that these structural considerations have nothing to do with Greece’s current crisis. In fact, a structuralist perspective illuminates what went wrong – and why.

For several years, Greece drew on the EU’s aptly named “structural funds” and on loans from German and French banks to finance a wide array of highly labor-intensive projects. Employment and incomes soared, and savings piled up. When that capital inflow stopped, asset prices in Greece fell, and so did demand for labor in the capital-goods sector. Moreover, with household wealth having far outstripped wage rates, the supply of labor diminished. Thus, Greece went from boom to outright slump. 

The structuralist perspective also explains why recovery has been slow. With competition weak, entrepreneurs did not rush to hire the unemployed. When recovery began, political unrest last fall nipped confidence in the bud.

The truth is that Greece needs more than just debt restructuring or even debt relief. If young Greeks are to have a future in their own country, they and their elders need to develop the attitudes and institutions that constitute an inclusive modern economy – which means shedding their corporatist values.

Europe, for its part, must think beyond the necessary reforms of Greece’s pension system, tax regime, and collective-bargaining arrangements. While Greece has reached the heights of corporatism, Italy and France are not far behind – and not far behind them is Germany. All of Europe, not just Greece, must rethink its economic philosophy. 

What if Greece left the eurozone?

At the height of the debt crisis a few years ago, many experts worried that Greece’s problems would spill over to the rest of the world. If Greece defaulted on its debt and exited the eurozone, they argued, it might create global financial shocks bigger than the collapse of Lehman Brothers did.
Now, however, some people believe that if Greece were to leave the currency union, in what is known as a “Grexit,” it wouldn’t be such a catastrophe. Europe has put up safeguards to limit the so-called financial contagion, in an effort to keep the problems from spreading to other countries. Greece, just a tiny part of the eurozone economy, could regain financial autonomy by leaving, these people contend — and the eurozone would actually be better off without a country that seems to constantly need its neighbors’ support.

The Foundations of Greece’s Failed Economy with the culmination of this country's girls selling sex for the price of a sandwich in this island country.

Many politicians and economists blame austerity – urged by Greece’s creditors – for the collapse of the Greek economy. But the data show neither marked austerity by historical standards nor government cutbacks severe enough to explain the huge job losses. What the data do show are economic ills rooted in the values and beliefs of Greek society. Greece’s public sector is rife with clientelism (to gain votes) and cronyism (to gain favors) – far more so than in other parts of Europe. Maximum  pensions for public employees relative to wages are nearly twice as high as in Spain; the government favors business elites with tax-free status; and some state employees draw their salaries without actually turning up for work.as a share of business income in Greece are a whopping 46%, according to the latest available data Italy came in second at 42%, with France third, at 41%. (Germany’s share is 39%; the United States’, 35%; and the United Kingdom’s, 32%.) Insiders receive subsidies and contracts, and outsiders find it hard to break in. Astoundingly, young Greek entrepreneurs reportedly fear to incorporate their firms in Greece, lest others use false documents to take away their companies. According to the World Bank, Greece is one of the hardest places in Europe to start a business. The result is that competition for market share is weak and there are few firms with new ideas.
This stunted system springs from Greece’s corporatist values, which emphasize social protection, solidarity instead of competition, and discomfort with uncontrolled change. These values may well be beneficial for family life; but, even with the best of intentions, they are a recipe for a static economy and stultified careers.

Indeed, Greece’s labor productivity (GDP per worker) is only 72% of the level in the UK and Italy, and a mere 57.7% of that in Germany. And surveys indicate that mean life satisfaction in Greece is far below that found in the wealthiest EU countries (the EU15). Contrary to claims by the Greek government, corporatism impoverishes the less advantaged. EU data on poverty rates in 2010 put Greece at 21.4% – far higher than the mean EU15 rate of 16.7%. 



A study has found that young women in Greece are offering sex for the price of a sandwich, an indicator of the austerity in the country.
Sociology professor Gregory Laxos and his team at Panteion University in Athens found that young Greek women had now overtaken Eastern European women as the dominant group in the prostitution industry, metro.co.uk reported.
The researchers compiled data on more than 17,000 sex workers operating in Greece and found that sex in Greece was some of the cheapest on offer in Europe.
“Some women just do it for a cheese pie, or a sandwich they need to eat because they are hungry,” Laxos was quoted as saying.
Prostitution rates have fallen from 50 euros for a half-hour sex session to as low as two euros.
Most women entering the sex industry are between 17 and 20. “They are growing at a steady and consistent pace,” he added.
More alarmingly, Laxos and colleagues found that the number of young women, who are the ones offering the cheapest rates, appears to be rising.