Plagued by rats

The flea that flayed PLAGUE. It is a word that strikes terror in the hearts of most people. With its connotation of immense suffering and images of certain death, plague has always been associated with poverty and filth. That it should erupt in this day and age is undoubtedly a blot on the health standards of any country.

Misery compounded

For long the victims of poverty, hunger and institutional neglect, the dwindling tribe of Pahari Korbas now has another menace to contend with -- cholera. A severe outbreak of the disease is threatening their populations inhabiting the villages of Chhattisgarh's Jaspur district. Even as the disease continues to claim lives -- some estimates put the number of dead at over 30 -- the administrative set-up has shown no urgency in dealing with the crisis.

Roman tragedy

rome fell to a mosquito -- the anopheles mosquito that spreads malaria by carrying the parasitic protozoa. There has been lots of circumstantial evidence saying this. But a recent study has reaffirmed this belief. An analysis of the genetic material extracted from skeletons of Romans living in fifth century ad has revealed that they died of malaria.

EGYPT

Disclosed recently, the results of a research has revealed that a massive campaign to combat a blood parasite in Egypt went horribly wrong and resulted in an epidemic of Hepatitis C. The research stated that the epidemic effected almost a fifth of the country's population and is the largest transmission of a blood-borne virus through a medical campaign.

Zambia

Foot and mouth disease has broken out in Livingstone and surrounding areas. HumphreyMwalemi, veterinary officer, Kalomo district, said his department has imposed a ban on the movement of livestock, meat and milk from Livingstone, Zimba and Kalomo.

TANZANIA

The details of tracking down of the canine distemper disease that broke out among the lion population in, the Serengeti National Park, (Down To Earth, Vol 4, No 16) were recently made public. If it would not have been . for some smart sleuthing by medical experts, the killer disease would have wreaked havoc among the lion population of the region. A group of tourists first came across lions having convulsions in early 1994 and informed a wildlife veterinarian, Melody, E Roelke-Parker, who sent

Calcutta's sorrow

There is growing evidence that the recent outbreak of the malaria (plasmodium falciparum) epidemic in Calcutta is related to the clogged drainage system of the city. And this is because the state government has been reclaiming the East Calcutta Wetlands since the '60s. Some citizens, at the initiative of the renowned geologist and senior environmentalist, Subrata Sinha, are probing the epidemic. Sinha says that most of the malaria cases come from old settlements - Calcutta's core corporaiion area - where water stagnates after heavy

Plagued by rats

The flea that flayed PLAGUE. It is a word that strikes terror in the hearts of most people. With its connotation of immense suffering and images of certain death, plague has always been associated with poverty and filth. That it should erupt in this day and age is undoubtedly a blot on the health standards of any country. An infectious fever caused by Yersinia pestis, plague is primarily a disease of rodents transmitted by contact with a rat

Braindeath

Diphtheria doom

THE inefficacy of locally made vaccines, according to doctors, is fanning the resurgence of a diphtheria epidemic in Russia and the newly independant states of the former Soviet Union. In the first 9 months of 1994, 21,622 people had contracted the disease in Russia alone. So far this year, 45 people have been affected in the republic of Bashkortostan, including some who had been previously vaccinated. Ukraine is one of the worst affected, with 1,029 people having caught the disease and 38 dead this year.