Hassan: Holding on

The Banavara primary health centre ( phc ) in district Hassan, Karnataka, recorded 8,028 malaria cases in 1995. Reason: the high percentage of migrant labourers from Andhra Pradesh who work as stone cutters in the Chikkur railway line conversion project. In 1995, the mrc expanded its work in Kanakatte and Banavara phc s. Hassan is relatively well-off in economic terms.

Needed: People's participation

What do the field experiences tell us? Firstly, bioenvironmental management can be a working alternative to contain malaria. The science of the methodology is sound. Secondly, the efforts of the mrc and the vcrc proved to be successful in the short term but failed in the long term due to severe inability of the state governments' institutional set up to create community-based institutions to carry forward the pioneering work.

The only viable solution

It is very interesting to compare the costs of carrying out bioenvironmental control measures and chemical spray ing. "It is the cheapest way of preventing malaria, cheaper even than DDT," confirms V P Sharma, director, Malaria Research Centre, New Delhi. "And on a national basis, it will turn out even cheaper," he adds.

Goa: Back to square one

TINY ENEMIES

The outbreak of a deadly disease is a cause for concern for people in Nepal. Encephalitis or inflammation of the brain has claimed about 300 lives in Nepal. The disease is caused by mosquito-borne viruses. The symptoms appear between five and 15 days after a bite, and if recognised in time, drug treatment and rest helps the victim to recover in a matter of days. But in untreated or especially severe cases, the symptoms can be dizziness, double vision, confusion, seizures and coma.

Die hard

Even as humankind exults in having unlocked the secrets of the insect kingdom, the war between humans and insects is far from over. Several conflicts between humans and insects have been won by humans, but they have been hollow victories at best.

Genetic thieves

David Roos and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania in the US, present evidence that parasites responsible for some of the world's most serious diseases, including malaria, stole large chunks of DNA from plants. Called apicoplast, the stolen DNA matter forms a third class of DNA in these single-cciled organisms. The other two classes are the nuclear DNA, containing most of the organism's inherited genetic blueprint and the mitochandrial DNA, inside chambers called mitochondria which serve as 'energy factories' of the cell. Researchers have found that apicoplast is vital to

On the comeback trail

until very recently, there was a widespread feeling that the fight against infectious diseases was almost won. This was largely because either the means of controlling them were available or at least discoverable without undue difficulty. Spectacular progress was made with the elimination of smallpox and six more diseases were lined up to be eradicated.

Safe bite?

the successful trial of an experimental vaccine developed by a British healthcare group has given a major boost to researchers looking for an effective remedy for malaria. The SmithKline Beecham group based in Brentford, uk, says that the vaccine was tried on volunteers at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington, us.

The kiss of death

THE monsoon has struck Assam before schedule, bringing flashfloods, forming mosquito- rearing waterpools, and killing hundreds. An unprecedented toll in April of 240 malarial deaths in 12 districts, has sparked off a debate about the efficacy of the present drug regimen. The Union government's righteous anti-state government stand stems from the fact that it had provided 100 per cent central assistance for malaria eradication in the 7 hyperendemic northeastern states. The state government says that Central budget cuts are to blame. Meanwhile, the patients number