Swine Flu or AH1N1

Photo Caption: The injectable version of the swine flu vaccine is shown Monday, Oct. 19, 2009 at Broadmoor Elementary School in Miami. The Miami-Dade County Health Department launched their H1N1 vaccination campaign Monday after having received their initial shipments. (AP)

I have been doing some extensive research about swine flu for my company and have suddenly come across so many facts which are indeed alarming. Up until now, I chose to ignore the disease all together to a certain extend so that I wouldn’t have to live in fear every day. But now when I read more and more facts, its alarming fact indeed and cannot be just ignored. None of us can ignore the fact that the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the swine flu pandemic "unstoppable".

Here are a few facts:
According to a review of the current epidemiologic data released by the World Health Organization (WHO) -- between 1% & 10% of people who develop swine flu require hospitalization. The new data was discussed on 27–29 October at a meeting of WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization. Up to 25% of hospitalized people are admitted to intensive care units, and between 2% & 9% die. Pregnant women make up 7% to 10% of hospitalized patients.

The pandemic virus has infected millions globally with more than 6000 documented deaths and likely far more. The swine flu vaccine has been tested for only a few weeks on a few thousand healthy children and adults, including very few pregnant women, so we don't know how safe it really is for pregnant women, children and adults with chronic illness even though they are being specially targeted for vaccination by government health officials. There is also very little information about how safe it is to give swine flu vaccine with other vaccines, including seasonal influenza vaccine.

What is all the more surprising is that - Swine flu has driven up the price of horse meat in Mongolia, closed schools across Afghanistan and Ukraine and sparked a quarrel over whether detainees at the US base in Cuba should be vaccinated. Swine flu has also gone on to hit an isolated tribe of Indians in the Amazon jungle and more than 1000 members of the Yanomami tribe in Venezuela are believed to have caught the flu and it is feared that the flu will sweep through the area and kill many as these people do not have resistance to such introduced diseases.

Well look at the far reaching effects this flu which has travelled all over the world in such a short span of time and created such chaos. It is certainly a worrying factor that new new diseases are being introduced into the world and they are becoming unstoppable too. How do we live in fear everyday of our lives?

In my present stage, I am also too confused about the vaccine and am certainly not confident about taking the vaccine shot even though the health minister, other cabinet members and senior Ministry of Health officials were the first to receive vaccinations in order to show to the public in Kuwait that the vaccine is safe. I mean on what guarantee do I take that vaccination? How can I be sure that it won’t affect me or the baby for sure? How can I get the guarantee that no long term effects will show up later? With winter just around the corner, the climate has already started changing and many are down with the seasonal cold and flu which makes it all the more alarming as Swine flu is going to spread all the more.

Well the world just seems to be getting scarier by the day to live in with new threats, new diseases, new problems and all the kind!!!

Genetic /other disorders high among Arab population

After quite a long time I have decided to write about something serious and that has absolutely nothing to do with me. I know it might sound boring, but I have been thinking about this particular topic a lot mainly because I found that there are a lot of genetic or that kind of related disorders among the Arab population and it’s very alarming to find it at such a high rate in a small country like Kuwait.

Ok I certainly am not an expert on this topic, nor have I done much research into it and I certainly cannot claim that this is 100% correct because it’s just an observation made from a normal human being like me and I certainly am no doctor. I certainly am not hurting anyone’s feeling, patriotism and such in the long run as this is just based on some firsthand information that I received.

Once I found out about this common occurrence of disorders among the citizens here, I started looking it up in the internet and also talked to a few Kuwaiti friends and they told me that there is an alarmingly high rate of disorders like ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders); ADD (Attention Deficit Disorders); MS (Multiple Sclerosis); Autism; Dyslexia etc among their people… Another set of common medical problems that I have found among the Kuwaitis are – Diabetics, Obesity and various forms of Cancer (Lung, mouth and breast cancer being the most common).

Some facts that I know for sure are – I do know many Kuwaitis who suffer from ADHD, ADD, Autism, MS etc and since every other person I see seems to be suffering from obesity and diabetics I cannot tell that it’s a huge thing anymore. But I certainly would like to know why the above said are common among the Arab population.

I did some more reading up on it and found that one common cause that most researchers, sites say is that: Inbreeding is the most common cause of genetic disorder among Arab population. Well, since the practice of interfamily marriage is still relatively common among Arabs because of the structure of the Arabic society I guess that sure seems to be the main reason. But I guess they don’t have much of a choice when it comes to marriages as they have limited options to choose from and unlike India which has a huge population, Kuwait does not have such a variety to choose from :P

MS seems to be common among the women and ADHD/ADD is now common among the children. I guess obesity and diabetics must be mainly due to the life style, the kind of food they consume and so on. But one thing we do have to note is that the younger generation has become very conscious about health and body weight and so on and I know so many who are so adamant about going to the gym to be in shape. I guess the change is mostly due to their exposure to the western countries and growing education levels and so on. Another fact that has to be noted is that most of them are marrying foreigners too (even though it’s for various other reasons). I guess that will certainly reduce the common occurrence of such problems.

I do guess that a lot of publicity has to be given into this matter so that people take more notice of these facts and try and do something to get a healthier next generation. A lot of programs have to be conducted to create the necessary awareness and it has to be targeted at all sections of society so that the message reaches all. I do know that the government and other agencies have started doing a good work towards this and there were several campaigns about breast cancer awareness, awareness about the harmful effects of smoking and so on. I just hope that the good works goes on a much stronger note.

Wow, more reading up seems to have confused me and now I am hearing about new disorders and stuff. I just went through another study which showed another set of common disorders seen in Kuwait and they are:
•The Bardet-Biedl syndrome - which is a ciliopathic human genetic disorder that produces many effects and affects many body systems. It is characterized principally by obesity, retinitis pigmentosa, polydactyly, mental retardation, hypogonadism, and renal failure in some cases.
•Laurence-Moon syndrome - is a rare hereditary condition associated with retinitis pigmentosa, spastic paraplegia, hypogonadism and mental retardation.
•Meckel syndrome - (also known as Meckel-Gruber Syndrome, Gruber Syndrome, Dysencephalia Splanchnocystica) is a rare, lethal, ciliopathic, genetic disorder, characterized by renal cystic dysplasia, central nervous system malformations, and hepatic developmental defects.
•Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) - is a severe recessive X-linked form of muscular dystrophy characterized by rapid progression of muscle degeneration, eventually leading to loss of ambulation and death. This affliction affects one in 3500 males, making it the most prevalent of muscular dystrophies. In general, only males are afflicted, though females can be carriers.
•Phenylketonuria (PKU)- is an autosomal recessive genetic disorder characterized by a deficiency in the hepatic enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH). This enzyme is necessary to metabolize the amino acid phenylalanine to the amino acid tyrosine.

And I guess I better stop about new diseases and their meanings as this is no medical blog or encyclopedia… (Courtesy of explanation about the above diseases from Wikipedia and images from google images)
I guess by now I would have managed to confuse many of you with this post, but I just wanted to write about it ever since I have known about these facts…

A Historic day for the U.S.

Well looks like a historic day has been made in U.S. and the world will remember this. Barack Obama swept to victory as nation's first black president on Tuesday night in an electoral college landslide that overcame racial barriers as old as America itself. (And to think that I forgot about this issue altogether and dint even look at the news today. Its only after I came to office and one of my Arab colleagues gave some snide remarks that I remembered about it and checked online to see who had won. Ya ya I know, what laziness and ignorance right? Well it’s not like I was bothered about who will win or lose as I dint see any immediate connection it made with me!)

"Change has come," he told a jubilant hometown Chicago crowd estimated at nearly a quarter-million people. The son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, the Democratic senator from Illinois sealed his historic triumph by defeating Republican Sen. John McCain in a string of wins in hard-fought battleground states. He also captured Virginia, the first candidate of his party in 44 years to do so(that sure is NEWS). On a night for Democrats to savor, they not only elected Obama the nation's 44th president but padded their majorities in the House and Senate, and in January will control both the White House and Congress for the first time since 1994.

Well it definitely is a shocker for me to see that the mindset of the people in U.S. has changed. It’s a good thing to see that change is being accepted and that Afro-Americans are seen a better light. Could we have ever imagined that such a thing would ever happen? Well next I guess they will have a Woman President… (High hopes na…..)

Since I certainly dint follow the race for the oval office and all and about its impact on the world etc, I don’t know how it will affect India, Indians in U.S. etc. All I can do is hope for the better. Anyway let’s give congrats to the new president and hope that he can do a better job that ‘Bush’ and his war policies.

'Separated twins' marry, forced to break up in UK

Twins who were separated at birth and raised by different families met later and married but were forced to breakup when their discovered their true identities. It certainly is a tragedy for them and all who were involved. I can imagine the heartbreak and emotional distress they might be going through and its certain that they will need therapy and all that stuff to get over this.

Now with in vitro fertilisation(IVF) on the rise, and with large number of people being born by IVF, the risk of such cases are high too as most end up not knowing their true identities. This shows that the children do need to know who their birth parents are in order to reduce such risks.

This is certainly not the first time that such incidents have been reported all over the world. While the foster parents do have their explanations, the risk of biological siblings marrying are on the rise and this leads to lot of other genetic diseases too.

Well good luck to UK as they try to bring up new laws regarding the Human Fertilisation Embryology Bill. And lets see how things go in India.

Thailand plans $9m funeral for princess!

Thailand's prime minister approved a nearly nine million dollar budget for a lavish funeral for the sister of the nation's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died last week. The government plans to construct a vast crematorium in a park near the Bangkok's Grand Palace for the funeral of Princess Galyani, who died of cancer on January 2 at age 84.

what kind of comment can i tell for this? Sure i was stunned to see that this amount was being spend only on a funeral. Ya true she is the princess and the only sister of the King. But still a 9 million dollar budget?To do what? Ya sure i am stunned and at a loss for words when i think how many people out there r dirt poor and don't know what to do for one meal. Well if it was some private citizen doing it, i wouldn't think twice, but when its the government that's spending so much....

Ya i know that its a royal matter and so on, but i still do feel that they could have reduced on the amount and used it on something better rather than a funeral (specially when it will be held in 5 or 6 months). Meanwhile her body is lying in a teak coffin, surrounded by golden urns and jeweled decorations at the Grand Palace.