Hepatits C, caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV), is an infectious disease affecting over 140 million people around the world. The virus spreads by blood to blood contact, affecting the liver and causing infections, which if left untreated could lead to cancer. Intravenous drug use and blood donations have been found to be the two main causes for the spread of the virus and can also spread from an infected mother to her children. In India, it is estimated more than 8 million people suffer from HCV.

A visit to a doctor for minor ailments may soon be a thing of the past, with rapid rise in medical technologies. Nowadays, a smartphone can help with disease diagnosis and contacting the relevant specialists from around the world, all from the comfort of one’s home. Mobile Healthcare or mHealth has been significantly advanced with the advent of Internet of Things, where sensors can feed live data to specialists, who can monitor patients from miles away. This rapid rise of mHealth has some worried about the security aspects of the software.

Ever since its emergence as a field of science in the 1980’s, Nanotechnology has seeped into every aspect of our lives. From embedded in toothpaste to materials space shuttles are made of, nanoparticles can be found on earth, on the surface and floating in the atmosphere. Accidentally consuming a few nanoparticles either while breathing or eating is all but unavoidable. But the effects of these nanoparticles on the human body haven’t yet been been fully understood.

Increasingly, today’s youth of the country are blowing up their childhood in smoke, quite literally! A new study has revealed some shocking reasons behind the addiction to tobacco based products among the youth. The study calls out that parents, especially mothers, play a great role in increasing the probability of their kids getting addicted to tobacco, as much as three times! In spite of the anti-tobacco laws introduced by the government, families play a great role in dissuading the children from using tobacco, claim the researchers.

The human body harbours around 100 trillion microbes (bacteria, virus and others). While some harm us, others help us in different ways. A new study has now analysed the microbes present in our blood and has found that from an evolutionary perspective, they are related to each other, and strangely, even related to humans. This discovery has implications in drug discovery and designing therapies against harmful microbial infections.

Uric acid is a compound made of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen, and is one of the components in urine. High amounts of uric acid in the blood could lead to many debilitating medical conditions such as diabetes and gout. However, detecting the compound in living cells without damaging the cells can be quite a challenge. Now, scientists from Visva- Bharati Santiniketan, West Bengal, Indian Institute of Engineering, Science and Technology, Howrah and University of Calcutta, Kolkata have devised a novel way of detecting uric acid without disrupting the cell.

While open defecation has well known health risks, toilets with sewage pits come with their own drawbacks. One of them is the contamination of ground water due to sewage leachate -- the water that seeps into the soil from the pit and has extremely toxic levels of nitrates, ammonium and organic carbon. These toxins are known to contaminate ground water making it unfit for drinking. Now scientists have designed a twin-pit toilet system that reduces the levels of nitrates, ammonium and organic carbon in the sewage water before it is being absorbed by the ground. This treated water, the researchers say, have low levels of toxins, making it safe and saving water bodies from contamination due to sewage.

Escherichia coli, commonly called E. coli, is a bacteria that can be found in the gut of many warm blooded animals, including humans. Although many strains of the bacteria are harmless, a few strains of E. coli are pathogens that causes diseases like food poisoning, urinary tract infections and pneumonia. A little known fact however, is that E. coli is also responsible for infections of the eye leading to conditions like conjunctivitis and keratitis.

A new study at IISc looks to uncover the secret behind the development of drug resistance in TB causing bacteria by testing the efficacy of various commonly available antibiotics. The researchers have found that a combination of commonly available antibiotics along with Augmentin, fights the development of resistance among TB bacteria. This study might throw light on developing new class of drugs that can help contain the spread of deadly tuberculosis, claim the researchers.

Social Capital is the various networks a person can form throughout his life time, with his relatives, friends, co-workers etc, which could become economically valuable. This could be someone from your network offering you a job or a loan or just an edge in a job interview, higher the number of people in your network, higher is the chance of you getting help from one of them. Now, researchers from the University of Iowa and University of British Columbia have looked at the effects of social capital on child nutrition in India.