New Delhi Metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM-1)

New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase is an enzyme which makes bacteria resistant to a broad range of beta-lactam antibiotics. This includes antibiotics of the carbapenem family, which are a mainstay for the treatment of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The gene for NDM-1 is one member of a large gene family that encodes beta-lactamase enzymes called carbapenemases. Bacteria which carry such genes are often referred to in the news media as "superbugs", since infections with these bacteria are very hard to treat successfully. Indeed, the United Kingdom Health Protection Agency has stated that "most isolates with NDM-1 enzyme are resistant to all standard intravenous antibiotics for treatment of severe infections."

NDM-1 was first identified in December 2009 in a patient hospitalised in New Delhi with a Klebsiella pneumoniae infection. It has since been detected in bacteria in India, Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The most common organisms expressing this enzyme are the Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, but the gene for NDM-1 can spread from one strain of bacteria to another through horizontal gene transfer.


WHAT IS BETA-LACTAMASE

Beta-lactamases are enzymes (EC 3.5.2.6) produced by some bacteria and are responsible for their resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics like penicillins, cephamycins, and carbapenems (ertapenem). (Cephalosporins are relatively resistant to beta-lactamase.) These antibiotics have a common element in their molecular structure: a four-atom ring known as a beta-lactam. The lactamase enzyme breaks that ring open, deactivating the molecule's antibacterial properties.

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Sources of exogenous infection in the operation theatre could be the air and the environment of the theatre. Standard cleaning, disinfection and sterilization procedures, good theatre practice and discipline can provide a microbiologically safe environment. Air borne contamination is mainly derived from the personnel in the theatre and their activities. The bacterial count in OT is influenced by number of individuals, ventilation and airflow. Failure to provide adequate operation theatre ventilation, associated with risk of post-operative infection, has been found to be a critical factor in specialty surgeries like prosthetic and joint surgery. In a multi-centric study of hip and knee operations performed under guided airflow incidence of sepsis was significantly lower than in operations performed under conventional ventilation.

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Osteoporosis is a silent disease that can cause severe disability. Unfortunately, its silence has also resulted in ignorance about the ailment.

What is osteoporosis?
Osteoporosis is a disease in which bones become fragile and are more likely to break. If not prevented or if left untreated, osteoporosis can progress painlessly until a bone breaks. These broken bones occur typically in the hip, spine, and wrist. Hip and spine fractures can be very severe and debilitating. Millions of normal appearing patients are at risk. While women are four times more likely than men to develop the disease, men also suffer from osteoporosis. For these reasons, accurate osteoporosis screening is crucial for fighting this disease.

Who gets it?
Osteoporosis is a silent condition which weakens bones and causes fractures which can result in severe disability.  It is the third most common disease (after Hypertension and Diabetes) in the elderly population. Osteoporosis has been recognized as the third most common disease to be prevalent in India by WHO ( World Health Organization). One in three women, and the one in five men around the world who will be affected by osteoporosis.

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The term bulimia means excessive or abnormal desire for food which is better described as ox-hunger. Bulimia Nervosa disorder has the character of repeating occurrence of binge eating which develops the person with lack of sense for having no control on eating behavior and encourages self-induced vomiting and intake of laxatives and drugs to get rid of this eating habit. This eating disorder is usually of three types - Bulimia Nervosa, Anorexia Nervosa and Binge Eating Disorder. It involves long lasting and obsessive eating pattern in the person suffering from this eating disorder. Over the decades, the number of people suffering from bulimia has increased enormously.

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Children growing up in the latter half of the 20th century were exposed to electronic video display unit (VDU)’s principally in the form of television, the introduction of which led to substantial research covering cognitive, social, visual and physical aspects of the impact of television viewing on the development of children. In contrast, children living at the beginning of the 21st century are being exposed to new forms of VDU including personal computers. As with the introduction of television, the availability and use of personal computers has aroused considerable community concern and researchers have started to document the impact of this technology on child development. In 1998, Harris and Straker found the mean daily use of computers by children aged 10–17 years attending schools with integrated laptop computing facilities was 3.2 hrs. In another Australian Bureau of Statistics study, which examined children’s activities over a 2-week period during school term time, 69% played electronic or computer games. The only leisure activity with a higher participation rate was watching television (97%). In the UK, the ImpaCT2 studies in 2000 found that 83% of 7–14- year-old children had a computer at home and 59% had Internet access at home.

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Preconception planning is an important step for women with preexisting conditions to take when considering the possibility of becoming pregnant. This should be done to ensure that the illness will not adversely affect the development of the unborn child or endanger the lives of both mother and child.

One of the most important things for a woman to ensure while she is pregnant is that she remains healthy throughout the nine-month period. This is because anything that affects the mother will affect the baby in her womb. With that taken into consideration, women should be aware that any preexisting condition they might have and/or the medications that they are taking can have a profound effect on their pregnancy and their baby. In some cases, this may increase the risk of babies being born with birth weight problems (either overweight or underweight), developmental problems, preterm labor, premature rupture of membranes, pre-eclampsia, congenital heart block, or deformities. It may even be the cause of death for both mother and child.

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