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Mumbai Reports 1st Death Due To GBS Virus; All You Need To Know About Central Govt’s Guidelines To Control Outbreak

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Mumbai: Mumbai reported its first death due to Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) on Wednesday. A 53-year-old resident of Wadala, who worked at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s BN Desai Hospital passed away after battling GBS. The patient was receiving treatment at Nair Hospital in Mumbai, where he ultimately succumbed to the illness.

In Pune, Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) has been actively affecting residents. A 37-year-old driver from Pune recently passed away due to GBS. The number of suspected and confirmed GBS cases in Pune has risen to 197, with five new cases reported.

As of yesterday, there were 192 reported cases of GBS, with 39 patients from the Pune Municipal Corporation area, 91 from newly added villages in the civic region, 29 from Pimpri Chinchwad, 25 from the rural Pune area and eight from other districts. Today, Pune has reported 5 new GBS cases bringing the total to 197, while the death toll remains at 7.

GBS Management in Maharashtra

With the rise in cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) in Maharashtra, the Central government recently issued guidelines for the people of the state.

According to public health officials on Thursday, a high-level, multidisciplinary team from the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has provided the GBS guidelines to the state government.

Press Release Issued on January 27, by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

The guidelines state that the Ministry has deployed a multi-disciplinary team to Pune, Maharashtra, to assist state health authorities in implementing public health measures and managing the growing number of suspected and confirmed GBS cases in the area.

The central team includes seven experts from the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) Delhi, NIMHANS Bengaluru, the Regional Office of Health & Family Welfare and the National Institute for Virology (NIV), Pune. Three NIV experts had already been supporting local authorities, and the team has now been expanded.

The team will work closely with the state health departments to assess the situation on the ground and provide recommendations for necessary public health actions. The Union Health Ministry is actively monitoring the situation and coordinating with the state.

Deputy Director of Health Services and Rapid Response Team (RRT) who is managing the GBS situation. Dr.Radhakishan Pawar stated, “The guidelines are detailed and focus primarily on patient management. These will be shared with all local bodies, including the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporations, Pune Rural, and other local authorities across the state.”

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Experts dismiss rising Covid cases in Southeast Asia as seasonal trends of flu

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New Delhi, May 20: With media reports citing cases of Covid-19 infections surging in Southeast Asia, bringing fresh fears about the disease that affected millions of people and the global economy, health experts on Tuesday dismissed them as seasonal trends of flu.

As per media reports, the weekly Covid-19 infections in Singapore surged by 28 per cent from 11,100 in late April to 14,200 in the first week of May, with hospitalisations also rising 30 per cent.

Hong Kong recorded 31 virus-related deaths in the week ending May 3, the city’s highest weekly toll in a year. New infections in Hong Kong rose to 1,042 in the week ending May 10, up from 972 the previous week.

“Rising Covid cases in Southeast Asia are attributed to seasonal trends of flu cases. Most of the cases are mild and do not need any hospitalisation,” Dr. Harshal R Salve, Additional professor at, the Centre for Community Medicine at AIIMS, New Delhi, told to Media.

India also is seeing a slight uptick in cases. A review held on Monday by the Ministry of Health concluded that the current situation in India is “under control,” with just 257 active cases reported nationwide as of May 19.

“Covid-19 is a cyclical disease, which means that cases will rise every few months. The intervals can range from six to nine months. As with other Asian countries, we are seeing Covid cases in India too. But they are not overwhelming hospitals and are not any more severe than they used to be. In fact, most cases are so mild, they are being treated as outpatient,” said Dr. Rajeev Jayadevan, Convener, Research Cell, Kerala State IMA.

“Due to widespread immunity due to prior vaccination and from surviving past infections, Covid-19 is no longer the destructive force it used to be. There is no indication of any major genetic shift having occurred in the virus that could alter the character of the disease it causes,” he added.

China and Thailand have also reported a notable increase in new infections. The surge is being largely attributed to the spread of new Omicron subvariants, including JN.1 and its related descendants — LF.7 and NB.1.8, which make up over two-thirds of sequenced cases.

The increase in cases may also be attributed to waning immunity, with periodic waves being anticipated.

While the cases reported so far are generally mild in severity, “the outcome also depends on the host. For instance, infection in a frail elderly individual could lead to more severe outcomes,” Jayadevan said.

The experts urged cough hygiene and cleanliness to fight the virus.

“When cases rise, it’s important to take more precautions than usual. Wearing masks in crowded closed spaces will be helpful. Those who have a fever should stay home and avoid mingling with others,” Jayadevan said.

Meanwhile, the health ministry assured that the country has a robust system for surveillance of respiratory viral illnesses, including Covid also exists in the country through the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) and ICMR.

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26 new bacterial species in NASA cleanrooms to hold clues to space survival

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New Delhi, May 13: An international team of scientists from India, Saudi Arabia, and the US has identified 26 novel bacterial species growing inside cleanrooms associated with NASA space missions.

The study, published in the journal Microbiome, highlights the importance of rigorous contamination control to prevent unintentional microbial transfer during space missions.

Cleanrooms are highly specialised facilities engineered to maintain exceptionally low levels of dust and microorganisms. Spacecraft are assembled in cleanrooms.

These unknown and newly described species carry genetic traits associated with resilience to extreme environments such as those found in space, and may hold clues to space survival and biotech, said the team.

While the controlled environments have tightly regulated airflow, temperature, and humidity that inhibit microbial survival, some microorganisms — extremophiles — thrive in such environments.

“Our study aimed to understand the risk of extremophiles being transferred in space missions and to identify which microorganisms might survive the harsh conditions of space,” said lead researcher Professor Alexandre Rosado, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).

“This effort is pivotal for monitoring the risk of microbial contamination and safeguarding against unintentional colonisation of exploring planets,” Rosado said.

In the study, the scientists did a comprehensive analysis of the microorganisms growing in the NASA cleanrooms during the Phoenix mission — a NASA-led mission that launched a lander to Mars in 2007.

During the Phoenix spacecraft mission, genomes of 215 bacterial isolates were sequenced and based on overall genome-related indices, 53 strains belonging to 26 novel species were recognised.

The team found that many of the new species possessed genes that made them resilient to decontamination and radiation.

Some of the discovered genes were associated with DNA repair, the detoxification of harmful molecules, and improved metabolism, all of which increased the species’ survivability.

Moreover, these genes could lead to new biotechnologies that benefit food preservation and medicine,” said Junia Schultz, a postdoctoral fellow at KAUST.

Schultz noted that the genes identified in these newly discovered bacterial species can be engineered for applications in medicine, food preservation, and other industries.

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Increasing urban vegetation can save over 1.1 mn lives from heat-related deaths: Study

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New Delhi, May 1: Amid increasing global warming and heat-related deaths worldwide, a new study has shown that expanding urban vegetation cover by 30 per cent could save over one-third of all deaths caused due to heat, saving up to 1.16 million lives globally.

Researchers from Monash University in Australia showed that increasing vegetation levels by 10 per cent, 20 per cent, and 30 per cent would decrease the global population-weighted warm-season mean temperature by 0.08 degrees Celsius, 0.14 degrees Celsius, and 0.19 degrees Celsius, respectively.

It can also prevent 0.86, 1.02, and 1.16 million deaths, respectively.

While increasing greenness has been proposed as a heat-related death mitigation strategy, “this is the first modelling study to estimate both the cooling and modifying effects of greenness, providing a more comprehensive assessment of its benefits in mitigating heat-related mortality,” said Professor Yuming Guo from the varsity.

The findings, published in the journal The Lancet Planetary Health, are based on a 20-year modelling study of the impact of increasing greenness in more than 11,000 urban areas from 2000 to 2019.

Urban areas in Southern Asia, Eastern Europe, and Eastern Asia were found to have the greatest reduction in heat-related deaths.

“These findings indicate that preserving and expanding greenness might be potential strategies to lower temperature and mitigate the health impacts of heat exposure,” Guo said.

Heat exposure is a major public health threat and is increasing due to climate change. Between 2000-2019, heat exposure was associated with 0.5 million deaths per year, accounting for 0.91 per cent of global mortality.

According to Guo, estimates of heat-related deaths are projected to range from 2.5 per cent in North Europe to 16.7 per cent in South-East Asia during 2090-99, “under the most extreme global warming scenarios.”

Studies show that greenness has a cooling effect on temperature, via shading surfaces, deflecting radiation from the sun, and evapotranspiration (evaporation from both the ground and plants) which promotes air convection.

This, in turn, cools the ambient temperature leading to a decrease in population heat exposure, thereby reducing the heat-related mortality burden.

In addition, greenness could also modify other related factors such as mental health, social engagement, physical activity, and air pollution, the researchers said.

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