Bacteriophage therapy may ease severity of alcoholic hepatitis

(NIH): A specific strain of a common bacteria found in most people with alcoholic hepatitis correlates with greater liver disease severity and mortality, according to a new study published in Nature. Alcoholic hepatitis is a serious form of alcohol-associated liver disease, and people with it have high levels of the bacterium Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis) in their gut. The study also found that a novel therapeutic approach that specifically targets the E. faecalis strain lessened alcohol-associated liver disease in mice.

Three great sentences of importance apart from mahavakyas

• Brahma Satyam Jagan Mithya Jivo Brahmaiva Na Aparah. Brahman only exists truly, the world is false, and the individual soul is Brahman only and no other.
• Ekam Evadvitiyam Brahma. Brahman is one, without a second (There is one absolute reality, without any secondary parts)
• Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma. All of this is Brahman

Healthcare News Monitor

Chloroquine with TB antibiotic may reduce drug resistance

DownToEarth- Banjot Kaur

Administering anti-malarial drug Chloroquine (CQ) with anti-TB drugs can reduce the tolerance of the TB bacteria, mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), towards it. That, in turn, can help fight drug-resistant TB, according to a new research whose findings were published in Science Translational Medicine, a journal of American Association for the Advancement of Science. The first-of-its-kind research was conducted on mice by scientists from the Indian Institute of Science in collaboration with the National Centre for Biological Science and Foundation for Neglected Disease Research. If it translates into positive results for clinical trials on humans, it will be an important milestone for India. The country has the most number of TB and drug-resistant TB cases, according to the Global TB report 2019. India contributed to as many as 27 per cent of the world’s drug-resistant TB cases, followed by China (14 per cent). That means India harbours 130,000 drug-resistant TB cases. A challenge in TB treatment is that it takes six months or more as the bacteria persists in the body for long and strongly fights the drug. The drug thus takes long to kill the bacteria. The duration gives the bacteria enough time to diversify, mutate and produce sub-populations to become tolerant against the drug.

Punjabs 1st Ayush hospital will come up in Mohali

ET Healthworld- TNN

Punjab health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu and member of Parliament Parneet Kaur on Thursday laid the foundation stone of Punjabs first Ayush hospital in Dayalpura village of Mohali. Sidhu also announced that the community health centre at Dhakoli will be upgraded to sub-divisional hospital very soon. Speaking at the state-level inauguration event at Dayalpura, the health and family welfare minister said the Ayush hospital is being set up with an aim to treat various diseases and promote healthy living in a natural way. The first-of-its-kind Ayush hospital in the state would be built over an area of more than 9 acres of land, which has been donated by a family of the village. He said the 50-bedded hospital, which would provide health check-up and treatment services under Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and homeopathy medical systems, would be completed within one year and the estimated cost of the project is Rs 7 crore. "This is a valuable gift for the people of the state on the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev. Once the hospital is ready, people will not have to go to the southern states for naturopathy treatment of their diseases," Sidhu said. Acceding to the long-pending demand of the residents of the area, Sidhu announced that the community health centre at Dhakoli near Zirakpur would soon be upgraded to a 50-bedded sub-divisional hospital, so that round-the-clock emergency services and specialist doctors services could be made available there. He said the decision has been taken in view of the increasing population of the area.