WHO drives against TB unsuccessful

The major World Health Organisation (WHO) programme to curb tuberculosis globally is failing to bring the disease under control, say researchers from Harvard University. Declaring TB a global emergency, WHO launched its ?directly observed therapy, short course? (DOTS) in 1993 to prevent further spread of the disease as well as the development of its antibiotic resistance. At that time, one-third of the world?s population was believed to be suffering from the disease. And now, an estimated 9.1 million people with TB worldwide test negative, but they may be responsible for 1.4 million new infections every year. Writing in Lancet, the researchers point out that WHO?s faulty strategy is based on preventing people with the disease from spreading it, rather than overall prevention.

Obese and smokers in trouble

Children who are overweight are three to five times more likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke before they reach the age of 65. The World Heart Federation (WHF) says that the unhealthy lifestyles increasingly adopted by children are behind the heightened risk. Apart from obesity, poor diets, smoking and physical inactivity are now being seen among children at an early age. On the eve of World Heart Day on September 26, experts said children and adolescents should get more into fitness sessions. The WHF say that more children are risking their future heart health through smoking; 25 per cent of all students smoke their first cigarette before the age of 10.

GM fish help blood clotting

A human blood-clotting factor used to treat people with haemophilia and accident victims suffering serious bleeding has been produced using genetically-modified fish. ?We have a list of 20 other human therapeutic proteins that could be produced via fish to treat lung disease, liver problems, even tumours,? says Norman Maclean of the University of Southampton in the UK. Maclean has been working on producing the human coagulation factor VII in fish. Factor VII is used to treat people with a rare form of haemophilia that means they cannot make the protein themselves, and it is often needed to treat other forms of the disease as well. There is still a long way to go before any product reaches the market, but if the fish project is a commercial success, many other proteins might be made in this way.

Hypnosis isn?t a hoax

Hypnosis is more than just a party trick. It significantly affects the brain activity, says a psychologist at the Imperial College in London. Brain imaging finds that hypnosis affects an area of the brain that controls higher-level executive functions, which explains why, under hypnosis, people can do outrageous things that ordinarily they wouldn?t do.