BACKGROUND Genotyping of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) and assessment of viral load is important for designing therapeutic strategies and region specific diagnostic assays. OBJECTIVES To determine the distribution of HCV genotypes among patients attending a tertiary care hospital in south India, and to correlate this with viral load. STUDY DESIGN Ninety HCV RNA positive patients were recruite...

Perspectives An estimated 6.5 to 13.2 million people with opioid dependence, representing more than half of the world's estimated number, live in Asia. 1 Although most people in Asia who are opioid dependent use heroin or opium, the use of pharmaceutical opioids, mainly through the injecting route, has raised concern in recent years. and Sri Lanka – the estimated number of people who inject dru...

BACKGROUND Cancer is becoming the most important public health burden around the globe. As per the GLOBOCAN 2008 estimates, about 12.7 million cancer cases and 7.6 million cancer deaths were estimated to have occurred in 2008. The burden of cancer cases for India in the year 2020 is calculated to be 1,148,757 (male 534,353; female 614,404) compared to 979,786 in 2010. The pattern of cancer inci...

C. J. McDevitt, P. H. Diamond, Ö. D. Gürcan, and T. S. Hahm Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0424, USA WCI Center for Fusion Theory, National Fusion Research Institute, Gwahangno 113, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-333, Republic of Korea Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas, Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS, 91128 Palaiseau Cedex, Fr...

A substantial body of evidence has documented the high prevalence of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) among people of SouthAsian descent, defined on the basis of ancestral origin from the Indian subcontinent comprised of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka (1–7). These observations relate to both native South Asians in urban settings and those living overseas in different...

Mangrove forests in South Asia occur along the tidal sea edge of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. These forests provide important ecosystem goods and services to the region's dense coastal populations and support important functions of the biosphere. Mangroves are under threat from both natural and anthropogenic stressors; however the current status and dynamics of the region's mangr...

To paraphrase CLR James, “What do they know of South Asia who do not cricket know?” George Orwell described sport as war minus the shooting. South Asian cricket has been dubbed war minus the nuclear missiles. The result of a sports match can trigger cardiac deaths, and contests between India and Pakistan have prompted shootings, riots, killings, and sudden death. Cricket has been used as an ext...

The eleven member states of World Health Organization South-East Asia Region committed to eliminate measles by 2020. In phased manner, Government of India is working on this goal, and has introduced two-dose strategy for measles vaccine in the routine immunization. Molecular epidemiology of measles in India has been considerably growing that would be useful for understanding the circulation of ...

Introduction Poor quality of care remains key constraint to safe motherhood especially for women from poor families in a context of rapid expansion of maternity healthcare services. In India, deliveries at healthcare institutions have increased in last three years. There is evidence that oxytocin is a drug is often misused to speed labours (childbirth) in overcrowded labour wards or even in hom...

CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 87, NO. 8, 25 OCTOBER 2004 1066 Srinivas Krishnagopal and Vinit Kumar are in the Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore 452 013, India; Srinivas Krishnagopal and S. K. Sarkar are in the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay, Mumbai 400 085, India; Sudipta Maiti and S. S. Prabhu are in the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Colaba, Mumbai 400 005, In...