A rare and deadly virus belonging to the same family as SARS virus has been identified in a 49-year-old man, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced on Sunday.

In a statement issued through its global alert and response system, the WHO confirmed the presence of a new coronavirus in a Qatari patient.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses, which include common cold and SARS.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which appeared in China in 2002, killed nearly 800 people before being controlled.

The patient, who was first presented to doctors on September 03, 2012 with symptoms of an acute respiratory infection, was transferred to Britain by air ambulance from Qatar on September 11.
The Health Protection Agency of the UK which conducted laboratory testing confirmed the presence of a novel coronavirus, the WHO said.

Peter Openshaw, the director of the Centre for Respiratory Infection at Imperial College London, said at this stage the novel virus looked unlikely to prove a concern, and may well only have been identified due to sophisticated testing techniques. However, he added: "Any evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission or of contact would be more worrying, raising the worry that another SARS-like agent could be emerging."

The United Nations health body, which is currently in the process of obtaining further information to determine the public health implications, has so far not recommended any travel restrictions.

A blend of sesame and rice bran oil, or making low-fat yogurt a small part of your diet, may help your blood pressure and boost heart health, according to two new studies.

The first study showed a sesame and rice bran oil blend reduced blood pressure almost as well as a commonly used medication. And the second study found that people who routinely eat yogurt are less likely to develop high blood pressure.

The findings were presented at the American Heart Association's (AHA) High Blood Pressure Research 2012 meeting in Washington, D.C.

"Taken together, the two studies are very supportive of the DASH eating plan," says Rachel Johnson, PhD, RD. She is the Bickford Green and Gold professor of nutrition at the University of Vermont in Burlington and an AHA spokeswoman. The DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet is loaded with fruits and vegetables, and is low in saturated fat and salt.

"DASH recommends two or three servings of heart-healthy fats a day, and that is where sesame and rice oil fit in," she says. DASH also calls for two to three servings a day of fat-free or low-fat dairy products, including yogurt.
AHA: Healthy Fat Is In, Low Fat Is Out

The new studies "strengthen what we already know about diet and blood pressure," Johnson says.

In the first study of 300 people with high blood pressure, participants either took medication to control their blood pressure, incorporated 35 grams of the blended sesame and rice bran oil each day into their diets, or did both for 60 days. The oil blend lowered the top number of the blood pressure reading by 14 and the bottom reading by 10.8; the medication lowered the top number by 16.2 and bottom number by 12. People who took medication and used the oil had more than twice the drop in blood pressure compared to those who did one or the other.

The oil blend used in the new study is called Vivo and is not yet commercially available. Both types of oil are available commercially on their own, though.

Johnson adds that judicious use of other heart-healthy fats -- including olive oil, avocado, nut butters, fatty fish, and flaxseed -- may have similar benefits. (The AHA recommends limiting the total amount of fat you eat to less than 25% to 35% of your daily calories.)

In the yogurt study, about 2,000 adults without high blood pressure were followed for 14 years. The researchers found that participants were 31% less likely to develop high blood pressure if more than 2% of their daily calories came from yogurt.

They also had lower increases in the top blood pressure reading compared to people who didn't eat yogurt.

The new findings are very much in line with what many dietitians recommend, says Despina Hyde, RD. She is a registered dietitian at New York University Langone Medical Center.
"Yogurt is a good source of calcium, and many studies have shown that calcium can help keep blood pressure levels under control," she says. But steer clear of full-fat yogurt or whole milk because they have more saturated fat, which can raise levels of low density lipoprotein (or "bad" cholesterol), she says.

"Overall, these studies confirm that diet does make a difference in high blood pressure control, and in some cases foods can work almost like medicine to lower blood pressure," says Pao-Hwa Lin,PhD. She is an associate professor of medicine at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, N.C.

More studies are needed to confirm the findings, she says. Lin cautions against too much of a good thing. "Even heart-healthy fats have calories," she says. "You need to be careful how much you include in your diet, as obesity is another risk factor for high blood pressure and heart disease."

With an increasing elderly population falling prey to it, Alzheimer`s disease, a kind of dementia, stands as one of the biggest health threats in India, say doctors.

The disease, caused by the degeneration of brain cells and nerves, impacts functioning of the brain, effecting day-to-day activities by its victims.

Though the causes of the disease are not completely known yet, India has almost a fourth of the world`s Alzheimer`s patients, with doctors adding that underreporting is the biggest problem.

"The biggest problem with Alzhimer`s disease is that it is highly underreported," says Sanjay Kumar Saxena, head of the neurology department at Fortis Hospital in the national capital.

"There are around 18-19 million dementia patients in the world and around a quarter of them are in India. There is an acute lack of facilities to detect or treat patients with Alzheimer`s, so patients get ignored. In the west, they are much better off," says Saxena.

"In India, one in 20 people over 60 years of age and five in over 80 years age are suffering from AD (Alzheimer`s Disease). With the population of elderly people in our country increasing, prevalence of AD is also going to increase," says Najeeb Rehman, Consultant, Nuerology, Asian Institute of Medical Sciences.

He also highlights that more women suffer from it compared to men.

"Men and women are both equally at risk, but in developed countries more women are suffering from AD. It is a reflection of higher longevity of life among women than men," he says.

According to the Dementia India Report 2010, it is estimated that over 3.7 million people are affected by dementia in our country. This is expected to double by 2030.

N.K. Pandey, CMD, Asian Institute of Medical Sciences, says: "The cost of treating AD, a type of dementia, for each patient is around Rs.43,000 per year, which will increase thrice in the coming 20 years".

The doctor adds that the biggest problem in detecting the disease is that the symptoms develop very slowly.

"Symptoms usually develop slowly and get worse over time, becoming severe enough to interfere with daily tasks. There is no cure for AD and no treatment to reverse or halt its progression. Available treatment offers small symptomatic benefits, but it is palliative in nature. Other non-medical options include care giving. There are many drug trials that are on but we will have to wait," says Pandey.

The disease causes a total loss of the ability to carry on simple day-to-day jobs like eating, talking, and other things. Patients lose memory, and have to be taken care of continuously. Often, social stigma related to this disease, which is commonly seen as mental illness, creates the biggest problem.

"The stigma attached to the disease effects the family, because the patient is not aware of what is happening to him," says Saxena.

Pandey adds that the focus should be on spreading awareness related to the disease.

"The focus should be on activities such as educational seminars, awareness walks and other programs and events to dispel myths surrounding Alzhiemer`s and dementia and know the facts. This would also enable the communities to become more Alzheimer-friendly," he adds.

Venomous reptiles may provide a good source for new drugs for human diseases, researchers in Liverpool say.

Venom has already been used to create drugs, but the chemicals in it are often too deadly for human consumption.

However, a study, published in the journal Nature Communications, has shown snakes and lizards have "reclaimed" some toxins and used them, safely, elsewhere in their own bodies.

Scientists think these reclaimed toxins could make safe and effective drugs.

Researchers compared the genomes of venomous snakes and lizards to see how the animals' venoms had evolved.

They said it was an "unexpectedly dynamic" process, with chemicals in venom being formed through evolution and then later being adopted by parts of the body for other uses.

Dr Nicholas Casewell, from Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, said: "Our results demonstrate that the evolution of venoms is a really complex process."

He said venom seemed to evolve a lot of new functions, possibly to overcome resistance in prey.

"The venom gland of snakes appears to be a melting pot for evolving new functions for molecules, some of which are retained in venom for killing prey, while others go on to serve new functions in other tissues in the body," he said.
Medicine

Dr Wolfgang Wuster, from Bangor University, said: "Many snake venom toxins target the same physiological pathways that doctors would like to target to treat a variety of medical conditions."

The cardiovascular system, heart and blood vessels, is one of the main targets of snake venom when attacking prey and it has played a role in the origins of some blood pressure drugs such as ACE inhibitors.

The nervous system is another similar area. The challenge has been to overcome the toxic effect of the toxins.

"This means that drug developers have had to modify toxins to retain their potency and make them safe for drug use," said Dr Casewell.

However, the scientists involved in the study believe nature may have already done the hard work, with reptiles making the toxins safe for their own use.

Dr Casewell said it would be a "whole new source" for drug discovery.

Young children with severe or persistent asthma are more likely to develop many common mental health problems like anxiety and depression, an Australian study says.

University of Western Australia (UWA) psychologist and study co-author Monique Robinson said their findings build on previous studies which have found that as the severity of asthma increases, so do problems such as anxiety and depression.

"We were interested in understanding the link between asthma in early childhood and mental health problems later on as little is known about the relationship," Robinson said, the journal Psychological Medicine reports.

"We looked at whether the link was present for mild as well as severe asthma, and whether the link depended on asthma symptoms being persistent throughout childhood as opposed to asthma that lessens as the child grows older," added Robin, according to an UWA statement.

The study used western Australian data from the Raine Study to determine whether children who had asthma at five years were vulnerable for later mental health problems through to the age of 17 years.

The research team found that having asthma at age five was tied to a higher vulnerability for the later development of problems such as anxiety, conduct problems and affective problems.

When the children with asthma were separated into groups depending on the severity of their condition, children with mild asthma were no different to those without asthma in terms of mental health outcomes, but children with severe or persistent asthma were seen to be the most at risk of future mental health problems.