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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
17 THE HINDU THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2014
NOIDA/DELHI
SNAPSHOTS
When a bat ies near an object,
the number of active neurons in
the part of its brain processing
acoustic information about spatial
positioning increases. Bats then
react quickly to avoid obstacles.
Neurons in bats brain
ensure a safe ight
L. BALACHANDAR
Researchers have devised a way
to use magnetic resonance
relaxometry to detect a parasitic
waste product in the blood of
infected patients. This may be a
better way to detect malaria.
Parasites waste in
cells indicates malaria
REUTERS
With over 25 per cent of the total
premature birth related deaths
occurring in India, the Centre has
launched a national programme to
identify the causes and predictive
biomarkers of such births.
Move to identify causes
of premature births
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
After a weight-loss programme, a
key brain area had increased
sensitivity to healthy, lower-
calorie foods, indicating an
increased reward and enjoyment
of healthier food cues.
Training your brain to
prefer healthy foods
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Satellite data from the last 19
years reveals that water from
melting glaciers has caused the
sea level around the Antarctica
coast to rise by 2 cm more than
the global average of 6 cm.
Antarctic sea level rise
faster than global rate
AFP
Cockatoos go to carpentry school
Goffins cockatoos can learn how to make and use
wooden tools fromeach other, a new study has
found.
Barcode for bacteria that causes TB
Doctors and researchers will be able to easily
identify different types of tuberculosis thanks to a
new genetic barcode devised by scientists.
Men who are physically active are
at lower risk of nocturia waking
up at night to urinate, according
to a new study which analysed
data from a large, ongoing clinical
trial.
Exercise may ward off
nocturia in men
AP
T
he road from Hyderabad
to Bangalore is full of his-
tory. On the way is Bangana-
palli in Rayalaseema, a place
with legendary history. Until
the late 1700s it was a major
area for diamonds. Quarried
from there, diamonds were
brought over to the Nizams
Hyderabad, where thousands
of merchants marketed it
across the world. Strip-mined
to the last carat by the late
1800s, we lost out to South
Africa and South America
both in production and sales
of this king of gems.
Banganapalli has also been
knownfor another king, man-
go the king of fruits. Even
today the Banganapalli man-
goes (also called Benishan or
spotless) give the much over-
rated Alphonso a run for the
money. But alas, over the last
decades, traders greed has
led to a crisis. In their bid to
ripen the fruit quickly and in
the godown, they have resort-
ed to using calcium carbide,
which generates the fruit rip-
ening gas ethylene, to do so.
Result, the fruit is unevenly
ripe and not as sweet as the
tree-ripened ones. The resid-
ual carbide poses health haz-
ards as well. The government
appears to have nally woken
up but has only issued warn-
ings to the fruit sellers so far.
These days, as we drive
from Hyderabad to Banga-
lore, what hits the eye is row
after row of poultry farms.
These are the chicken facto-
ries owned and operated not
by the villager who may breed
a few in his home, but by in-
dustrial hatcheries. These
and similar ones elsewhere
across the country have led to
a chicken and egg revolu-
tion in India, somewhat simi-
lar to the green and white
revolutions. The midday meal
scheme in Tamil Nadu has in-
troduced eggs as an occasion-
al part of the meal for school
children, with the admirable
idea of better nutrition.
But there is a danger here.
Just as with chemicals in the
mango, or oxytocin in milk (a
hormone that supposedly in-
creases milk output in cows
and buffalos), we now have a
health hazard looming large
in commercially produced
chicken. The hazard here is
the use of antibiotics in the
feed given to the chicken for
faster growth and to prevent
any infection during hatch-
ing. Famous hatcheries such
as Venkys, Vetline India and
Skylark Hatcheries regularly
use antibiotics in order to re-
duce feed conversion ratios.
The environmental science
journal Down to Earth, in its
1-15 August, 2014 issue, has
highlighted the problem by
analysing the antibiotic con-
tent in the chicken meat ob-
tained from various markets
in its labs, and the results are
alarming. Typical antibiotics
found in the chicken liver,
muscles and kidney are the
tetracyclines (such as doxy-
cycline), uoroquinolones
(such as enrooxacin) and
aminoglycosides (such as
neomycin).
Why are these dangerous?
Repeated and prolonged ex-
posure will lead to the emer-
gence of resistant strains of
bacteria. And these resistant
strains will be passed on to
the humans who consume
them. Even the un-mutated
bacteria in the meat can di-
rectly unleash an assault on
the microbes in our guts. And
note too that the antibiotics
used in poultry are the same
as the ones used for humans.
What about the inedible
parts of the chicken that we
throw away or bury in the
ground? Resistant strains
from the feather, bone and
such are now transferred to
soil, ground water, ponds and
streams. In effect, as Down to
Earth points out as a microbe
becomes resistant, it inuen-
ces other microbes present in
the gut of the chicken and
then those in the environ-
ment, making them resistant
to a wide range of antibiotics.
It is thus imperative that
government takes urgent
steps to deal with this grow-
ing misuse of antibiotics in
the poultry industry. Dr
Chandra Bhushan of Down to
Earth has come up with a set
of recommendations. Some of
these are: (i) Ban the use of
antibiotics for growthpromo-
tion, (2) Do not allow the use
of antibiotics in feed and im-
prove the regulations of the
Bureau of Industrial security
(BIS) accordingly, (3) Do not
allow the use of antibiotics
critical for humans in ani-
mals, (4) Train veterinarians
on the judicious use of anti-
biotics, (5) Set pollution stan-
dards and install pollution
control systems to limit
transfer of resistant bacteria
and antibiotics from poultry
farms to the environments,
(6) Encourage development,
production and use of alter-
native antibiotic-free growth
promoters such as herbal
supplements and better farm
management practices, and
(7) Developanintegrated sur-
veillance system to monitor
antibiotic-resistant trends in
humans, animals and the food
chain.
In all this, time is of the
essence. Why? Microbes
grow fast. Their generation
time is in minutes and hours.
The chances of mutation, and
the time involved in generat-
ing newer strains are thus far,
far lesser than in animals. In
ghting microbes with newer
and newer antibiotics, we are
ghting a hard-to-win battle,
rather reminiscent of the
myth of the Corinthian king
Sisiphus. His punishment for
his deceitfulness was to roll a
boulder uphill, only to watch
it roll back down, and repeat
it. Shall we therefore be wiser,
since win we must?
D. BALASUBRAMANIAN
dbala@lvpei.org
Antibiotics in the chicken we eat
It is imperative that the government takes urgent steps to deal with the growing misuse of antibiotics in the poultry industry
THE THREAT: The antibiotics used in poultry are the
same as the ones used for humans and will lead to
resistant strains of bacteria. PHOTO: AFP
SPEAKING OF SCIENCE
P
eople living in low-
income countries
like India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh and
Zimbabwe have the lowest
risk factors for cardiovascular
diseases (CVD) compared
with those living in high-in-
come countries like Canada,
Sweden and the United Arab
Emirates. Yet, the rate of
deaths fromCVD is highest in
the low-income countries,
not in the high-income coun-
tries. The risk factors and the
rate of deaths are intermedi-
ate in 10 middle-income
countries.
However, the incidence of
nonmajor cardiovascular
events was highest in the
high-income countries. The
risk factors for cardiovascular
problems include smoking,
high cholesterol, high blood
pressure, diabetes, obesity,
stress, insufficient intake of
vegetables and fruits and sed-
entary lifestyle.
Also, people living in rural
areas in the low- and middle-
income countries have lower
risk factors for cardiovascular
diseases but higher rate of
CVD deaths than their coun-
terparts living in the urban
areas. The high-income coun-
tries show a completely oppo-
site trend people in rural
areas have higher risk factors
than those in the urban areas.
There are two main rea-
sons why the high risk factors
for CVD did not translate into
higher death rates in high-in-
come countries. First, there
was better control of risk fac-
tors and frequent use of
proven drugs to reduce the
risk of deaths. Second, people
living in the high-income
countries had greater chanc-
es of undergoing interven-
tions like bypass
surgery/angioplasty to pre-
vent death.
These were the main nd-
ings of the Prospective Urban
Rural Epidemiologic (PURE)
study involving over 156,000
adults in 17 high, middle, and
low-income countries. The
number of adults involved in
the study in the high, middle,
and low-income countries
was over 16,000, 105,000 and
35,000 respectively. The re-
sults were published last
week in The New England
Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
Overall, there were 3,900
deaths among the 156,000
participants. After necessary
adjustments in the risk score,
the rate of deaths per 1,000
person-years of follow-up
was lowest (2.19) in the high-
income countries, intermedi-
ate (5.50) in the middle-in-
come countries and highest
(9.84) in the low-income
countries. Major cardiovas-
cular events other than
deaths too followed the same
pattern in the three
categories.
What is surprising is that
while the mortality rate was
nearly the same in rural and
the urban areas in the high-
income countries, the low-in-
come countries too showed
the same trend.
So the urban areas in In-
dia are not doing any better
than rural areas, said Dr. V.
Mohan, Director, Madras
Diabetes Research Founda-
tion, Chennai. He is one of the
authors of the paper.
The conclusion one can
draw fromthe PURE study is
that risk factors alone do not
determine mortality. Other
determinants like easy and
timely access to healthcare
and medicines, diagnosis of
risk factors and treatment/
control, and greater aware-
ness play an equally impor-
tant role in preventing death.
Everyone thought the
prevalence of risk factors has
come down in the high-in-
come countries as there are
fewer deaths. But this study
shows the risk factors have
not come down but are tack-
led better, Dr. Mohan said.
There, people are quickly
taken to hospitals if they have
heart attacks. He also cited
the free access to medicines
such as statins and aspirins to
high risk individuals, smok-
ing cessation programmes,
higher intake of fruits and
vegetables and exercise as
other factors contributing to
lower deaths.
As the risk factors in-
crease in India, the mortality
goes up. So the cardiovascular
crisis is waiting to worsen un-
less we improve the health-
care system, he said. We
must make essential health-
care facilities diagnosis and
essential drugs available
even in PHCs. The secondary
level can take care of basic
emergency treatment and
tertiary level for conducting
operations and angioplasty.
Crucial failure
According to Prof. K. Sri-
nath Reddy, President of the
Delhi-based Public Health
Foundation of India, there
are two components health
promotion and healthcare
to reduce risk factors and
mortality.
The health promotion
component is to raise aware-
ness and risk reduction and
the healthcare component is
toprovide early detectionand
effective treatment, Dr. Red-
dy said. In India, both are
inefficient. Prof. Reddy was
not involved in the PURE
study.
A large number of people
are not even aware of their
risk factors, and even if de-
tected, the risk factors are not
controlled, Prof. Reddy said.
Its a failure of the primary
healthcare in India.
Cardiovascular risk factors low
but mortality high in India
R. PRASAD
A large number of people in India are unaware of
their risk factors, and the risk factors are not
controlled even if detected. PHOTO: R. RAGU
I
ndia has the highest num-
ber of people in the world
with active tuberculosis. The
incidence of TB is 2.2 million
and prevalence is 3.1 million.
Similarly, the prevalence of
diabetes is 65 million in the
country.
But the number of TBcases
would see a further rise or
decline may not be seen de-
spite the best efforts to detect
and treat TB. The reason
diabetes almost triples the
risk of developing active TB
and is also a risk factor for
adverse TB treatment out-
comes. Even hyperglycaemia
associated with prediabetes
can increase a persons risk of
developing active TB.
Although not completely
understood for TB specical-
ly, it is known that diabetes
impairs both the innate and
the adaptive immune system
and therefore the bodys ca-
pability to ght microorgan-
isms. This increases the risk
of progression to active TB
disease in people who have
become infected with Myco-
bacterium tuberculosis,
Knut Lonnroth of the Global
TB Programme, WHO, Gene-
va told this Correspondent in
anemail. He is the rst author
of one of the three papers
published today (September
4) in the journal Lancet Dia-
betes & Endocrinology.
Conversely, TB has an ef-
fect on diabetes. It can not
only worsen the control of
blood sugar but also compli-
cate clinical management of
diabetes. TB can, like most
infectious diseases, worsen
glycaemic control through
several pathogenic mecha-
nisms related to the stress on
the body caused by the infec-
tion, which can result in in-
creased insulin resistance,
he explained.
There is a body of epidemi-
ological evidence showing a
causal link between the two
diseases. Globally, 15 per cent
of TB cases are estimated to
be caused by diabetes, ac-
counting for about one mil-
lion cases of
diabetes-associated TB per
year. India and China alone
account for 40per cent of dia-
betes-associated TB cases.
The number of adult TBcases
associated with diabetes in
India is 302,000; it is 156,000
in the case of China.
The chances of TB treat-
ment failure, death and re-
lapse after cure are high in
patients who are also diabet-
ic. The mechanismis largely
the same as the mechanisms
that increase the risk of de-
veloping TB. The negative im-
pact of diabetes on the
immune system can contrib-
ute to poor response to TB
treatment, and lead to relapse
after TB has been cured,
noted Dr. Lonnroth.
According to one of the pa-
pers, a study of 163 countries
between 1990 and 2004
showed that the increase in
TB incidence was nine times
higher in countries that also
witnessed an increase in dia-
betes prevalence. The preva-
lence of diabetes has been
increasing in India.
According to an analysis,
the increase in diabetes prev-
alence fromthree per cent in
1998 to 3.7 per cent in 2008
resulted in 900,000 addition-
al TB cases globally. These
diabetes-associated cases
might have contributed to the
absence of a decrease in tu-
berculosis incidence during
19982008, despite substan-
tial improvements inTBdiag-
nosis and treatment, notes
one of the three papers.
The incidence of diabetes-
associated TB is only bound
to grow bigger as the Interna-
tional Diabetes Federation
has forecast that the diabetes
prevalence would grow from
eight per cent in 2013 to 10
per cent in2035. Lack of diag-
nosis and poorly controlled
diabetes might be a dom-
inant factor causing diabetes-
associated TB.
Places where diabetes
prevalence is high or is in-
creasing quickly have the
most to lose or gain fromfail-
ures and successes in dia-
betes strategies, notes a
paper by Dr. Lonnroth.
Though the causal link is
known, there is very little
known on the optimum
treatment strategy for con-
current TB and diabetes. Al-
so, whether glucose control
can partly or fully mitigate
TB treatment failure, relapse
and death is not known.
Whether TB treatment
should be different in people
with diabetes is unknown.
The WHOs 2011 frame-
work requires bidirectional
screening patients with TB
be screened for diabetes and
vice versa. Two large studies
conducted using the same
methodology in India and
China are expected to provide
insights into the best clinical
approaches to conduct bidi-
rectional screening and man-
agement of the diseases.
Although the scientic
evidence on the link between
TB and diabetes has been
around for a long time, it has
been rigorously assessed and
consolidated only recently.
Now we have compiled solid
evidence, and I hope there
will be no further delay in
pursuing better coordination
of diabetes and TB care and
prevention, Dr. Lonnroth
noted.
Diabetes triples the
risk of developing
active TB
R. PRASAD
The number of adult TB
cases associated with
diabetes in India is
302,000. PHOTO: AP
S
ome three billion people
a third of the world's
population are exposed to
toxic amounts of pollution
produced when households
burn plant material, animal
dung and coal for cooking,
lighting and heating. As a re-
sult, these individuals are at a
greater risk of respiratory
diseases and an early death,
according to an assessment
just published.
Air pollution is the num-
ber one environmental cause
of death in the world, with
HAP [household air pollu-
tion] being a major contrib-
utor to this burden, said a
commission established by
The Lancet Respiratory Med-
icine, whose ndings appear
in the journal.
A previous study attributed
3.5-4 million deaths that oc-
curred worldwide each year
to household air pollution.
Some 600 to 800 million
households in low and middle
income countries rely on
smoky res from solid fuels
for their domestic needs. The
commission, with experts
from a number of countries,
including India, examined
the effects that ne particles
and chemicals in the smoke
have on airways and lungs of
people.
Worldwide, respiratory
health effects account for
nearly a half of the overall
deaths and disabilities from
household air pollution, the
commission noted. The
smoke from solid fuels
heightened the risk of respi-
ratory infections. The burn-
ing of coal could give rise to
respiratory tract cancers.
Chronic lung diseases are as-
sociated with solid fuel use
for cooking.
Women and children living
in severe poverty had the
greatest exposure to emis-
sions from domestic res, it
pointed out.
A large proportion of the
Indian population some
700-million-plus people
living in both urban and rural
areas continued to rely on
solid fuels, observed Kalpana
Balakrishnan of the Depart-
ment of Environmental
Health Engineering at Sri Ra-
machandra University in
Chennai, a member of the
commission. Over a million
deaths each year in this coun-
try could be attributed to
household air pollution, she
told this correspondent.
The commissions report
cited research carried out by
Prof. Balakrishnan and her
colleagues that showed how
burning of solid fuels by
households raised outdoor
pollution in Indian villages to
three times the level on the
streets of London in the U.K.
Cooking is by far the great-
est source of polluting emis-
sions to household air
pollution. The challenge of
changing how the world
cooks is enormous, the com-
mission remarked.
All the available evidence
indicated that improved
cook-stoves using solid fuels
would not reduce pollution
levels sufficiently for health
benets to be realised, ac-
cording to Prof. Balakrish-
nan. For India, the current
scientic thinking was to
leapfrog ahead to cleaner
fuels such as gas and electric-
ity, she said.
Smoky res raise risk of
respiratory diseases, early death
N. GOPAL RAJ
Chronic lung diseases
are associated with solid
fuel use for cooking.
PHOTO: S.S. KUMAR
S
everal molecules screened
for anti-cancer and anti-
tuberculosis properties at the
National Mol Bank (NMB),
Hyderabad have shown effi-
cacy at the cellular level, rais-
ing scientists hopes of
developing drugs by 2020.
Jointly funded by the DST
and CSIR, the mole bank was
established in 2011 at the In-
dian Institute of Chemical
Technology in Hyderabad to
store diverse molecules (ei-
ther synthesised or isolated
from natural resources) and
to provide a platformfor biol-
ogists and chemists to join
hands in developing drugs.
The unique facility is
meant to give a llip to the
drug discovery process by en-
abling collaborative research.
The chemists can store their
samples at NMB, while the
biologists can retrieve them
for biological screening.
More than 20,000 com-
pounds from different agen-
cies, including universities,
have been stored in NMB
since its establishment. The
highly-automated storage
and retrieval facility can at
present store 1.6 million mol-
ecules and the capacity canbe
expanded whenrequired. The
compounds can be stored
both in solid and liquid states
and will be preserved at -20
degrees Cto ensure long-
term integrity of the
molecule.
According to Dr. Chandra-
sekhar, Chief Scientist at I-
ICT, as many as 200 hits
(when a molecule or com-
pound is effective at a very
low dose or concentration at
cellular level) were achieved
with anti-TB molecules and
150 with anti-cancer com-
pounds. He said the next
stage was to make the com-
pound more potent and put it
in Zebra sh or small mice to
get the proof-of-concept.
This would be followed up
converting it into a lead opti-
mized molecule and the
same chemical would be stud-
ied in large animals by adopt-
ing manufacturing good
practices.
By the end of 2016, we
should have lead optimized
molecules and by 2020 we
should get into rst phase of
clinical trials, he added. On
the cancer tests, IICT has
been collaborating with Na-
tional Institutes of Health
(NIH) and Mayo Clinic Roch-
ester, U.S.
He said IICT was adopting
a cautious approach although
many MNCs had approached
it for collaboration. It would
take a call only after obtain-
ing sufficient data.
Anti-cancer, anti-TB
molecules identied
Y. MALLIKARJUN