Health issues should find place in
diplomacy: Harsh Vardhan
Dhaka/New Delhi: Issues related to
health should find a permanent place in international diplomacy, Union Health
Minister Harsh Vardhan said Friday.
"Given the scary global disease
burden scenario, it is necessary to give health a permanent place in the format
of international diplomacy. Countries need to both externalize and internalize
health paradigms as, in the globalised world, there is no room for
complacency," Harsh Vardhan said.
He said: "No country, however rich
and powerful, has the capability to marshal all the intellectual and physical
resources that are necessary to fight the rising burden of communicable as well
as non-communicable diseases.
"They want to reach out to give as
well as receive cooperation. It is time to institutionalize this in the rubric
of international diplomacy."
"I have informally proposed that a
regional meeting of foreign and health ministers under one roof be held as a
first step, and WHO agreed in principle to build upon the idea and make it a
reality," he said, returning from Dhaka where he attended a multilateral
meeting organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) of 11 health ministers
of the south-east Asia region.
In Dhaka, the health ministers, who
attended the WHO regional committee meeting, adopted resolutions to accelerate
health action in key areas.
The regional committee endorsed the
regional strategy for strengthening the role of the health sector in Civil
Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS).
The committee noted that reliable data is essential for
effective health planning and management, and that CRVS systems are crucial to
obtain continuous, compulsory and cost-effective data on births, deaths and
causes of death.
Source: www.zeenews.india.com
13.09.2014
Even fluoride-rich toothpaste can't
kill bacteria
New York: Know why your toothpaste is
not able to fight bad breath or tooth decay? Blame it on the bacteria itself.
According to a new research, bacteria
has an in-built mechanism to resist fluoride toxicity.
Although most animal cells are
protected from direct exposure to fluoride, this toxic element is a serious
threat to single-celled organisms like bacteria and yeast.
As a result, their plasma membranes
carry two different types of proteins to help rid the cell of unwanted
fluoride.
"The fluoride-specific 'Fluc' ion
channels present in the bacterial cell membrane are the key," said
Christopher Miller from the Brandeis University in Massachusetts.
Miller and his team
looked at "Fluc" channels to find how these passive channels help
protect bacteria from fluoride.
The authors found that
fluoride accumulates in E coli lacking "Fluc" when the external
environment is acidic.
In such acidic
environments, fluoride enters the cell in the form of HF (hydrofluoric acid) --
which easily permeates the membrane -- and breaks down in the cell's lower
acidity.
"Fluc provides a
means of escape for the highly charged fluoride ions," Miller noticed.
They also found that
bacteria proliferation was stalled by high fluoride exposure.
Targeting
"Fluc" channels with antibiotics could be an effective way to slow
bacterial growth, researchers concluded.
The study appeared in
the Journal of General Physiology.
Source: www.zeenews.india.com
13.09.2014
Be CAREFUL with your WORDS….Once they are SAID,
They can only be FORGIVEN,
Not FORGOTTEN
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