Feature Article

The Tamirabarani river is a part of the ecological and cultural landscape, and traditions of the people of Tamil Nadu. Unfortunately, public resources like the river water are sold at throwaway prices to corporations, who in turn resell the water either in the form of packaged drinking water or as aerated beverages. The political economy of the river and the state’s industrial plans, require radical rethinking.

Overt vitamin A deficiency has been controlled in most parts of India, but prevalence of subclinical deficiency may still be high, which may enhance susceptibility to infections, reduce growth potential and also lead to higher mortality. We aimed to: (i) assess the consumption pattern of vitamin A-rich foods in children 1–5 years of age in rural Jammu; and (ii) estimate the dietary deficiency of vitamin A leading to risk of subclinical vitamin A deficiency in cluster- villages of the study area.

Scrub typhus, a potentially fatal rickettsial infection, is common in India. It usually presents with acute febrile illness along with multi-organ involvement caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi. As there was an outbreak of scrub typhus in the Hadoti region of Rajasthan and there is a paucity of data from this region, we studied this entity to describe the diverse epidemiological, clinico-radiological, laboratory parameters and outcome profile of patients with scrub typhus in a tertiary care hospital. Methods.

Many host genetic factors are associated with the disease severity and fatal outcome of falciparum malaria. CD40L gene has been found to be one of the most important factors associated with malaria in African countries. This study was aimed to investigate the possible association of CD40L gene polymorphism in severe falciparum malaria in Indian adults.

Original Source

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infection has recently witnessed re-emergence, affecting rural areas of India with high morbidity rates. This prospective study was conducted to evaluate seroprevalence and clinical manifestation in targeted villages reporting cases of CHIKV infection. A total of 482 patients were recruited from Kalmana and Kothari villages of Ballarpur; Chandrapur district of Maharashtra state, India during CHIKV outbreaks in 2011–12. The serum samples from infected CHIKV patients were simultaneously screened through ELISA for detection of antigen and antibodies (IgM and IgG).

Every spring and summer melt ponds form at the surface of polar sea ice and become habitats where biological production may take place. Previous studies report a large variability in the productivity, but the causes are unknown.

Original Source

Residential combustion (RC) and electricity generating unit (EGU) emissions adversely impact air quality and human health by increasing ambient concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone (O3). Studies to date have not isolated contributing emissions by state of origin (source-state), which is necessary for policy makers to determine efficient strategies to decrease health impacts.

Original Source

A combination of indoor spraying and use of insecticide-treated bed nets has slashed cases of malaria, but now researchers are reporting widespread resistance of mosquitoes to the chemicals used to kill them. Agricultural pesticides appear to be playing a role in fostering this resistance.

Original Source

There is a perception that despite considerable economic growth, India has not made commensurate progress in addressing anthropometric (weight-for-age, height-for-age and weight-for-height or body mass index-for-age) undernutrition. The current national prevalence of undernutrition in children below five years is still high; 39% are stunted, 29% are underweight and 15% are wasted. However, this common belief appears somewhat flawed; there has been substantial improvement in stunting and underweight over the years.

Climate variability and changes are the emerging challenges for Indian agriculture with the growing population to ensure national food security. A study was conducted to assess the Climatic Change effects in medium to low altitude areas of the Himalayan region causing changes in land use and cereal crop productivity with the various climatic parameters. The rainfall and temperature changes from 1951 to 2013 were studied at four locations of varying altitudes, namely Hardwar, Rudra Prayag, Uttar Kashi and Tehri Garwal.