Doctors raise alarm over ancient virus in Australia
Canberra, May 8: Doctors have called for greater efforts to stop the spread of an ancient virus infecting residents across Australia's Northern Territory, the media reported on Tuesday.
The rates of human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) infection are exceeding 40 per cent among adults in remote regions of central Australia, with indigenous communities being the hardest hit, especially in the town of Alice Springs, reports CNN.
HTLV-1 -- an ancient virus whose DNA can be found in 1,500-year-old Andean mummies -- can spread from mother to child, particularly through breastfeeding; between sexual partners, through unprotected sex; and by blood contact, such as through transfusions.
Because it can be transmitted through sex, it's considered a sexually transmitted infection, or STI.
The virus is associated with serious health problems, such as diseases of the nervous system and a lung-damaging condition called bronchiectasis.
HTLV-1 is sometimes called a cousin of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Many doctors -- including the man who discovered the virus nearly four decades ago -- are raising the alarm about how little has been done to prevent, test for and treat HTLV-1, which can cause leukemia and lymphoma.
"The prevalence is off the charts" in Australia, said Robert Gallo, co-founder and director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, whose laboratory was the first to detect HTLV-1 in 1979 and publish the finding in 1980.
Yet "nobody that I know of in the world has done anything about trying to treat this disease before", said Gallo, who is also co-founder and scientific director of the Global Virus Network and chairs the network's HTLV-1 Task Force.
A study published in the Medical Journal of Australia in 1993 found that HTLV-1 was endemic among natives in inland Australia, with a high 13.9 per cent prevalence in the Alice Springs area, reports CNN.
However, it remains unclear whether the sample in that old study was of the same population currently experiencing a higher prevalence rate.
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Siddaramaiah defends BPL ration card cancellation, says only ineligible beneficiaries affected
New Delhi, Nov 21: In a strong defence of the Karnataka government's move to cancel ration cards, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday clarified that only government employees and income tax payers are being weeded out from the Below Poverty Line (BPL) list, not eligible poor beneficiaries.
Talking to reporters, Siddaramaiah asserted that the cancellation is in line with the National Food Security Act, which explicitly bars government employees and income tax payers from receiving BPL ration cards.
He accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of raising a politically motivated issue despite originally opposing the food security legislation.
"The rights of eligible ration card holders will be fully protected," the chief minister emphasised, dismissing opposition claims that the move was linked to fund constraints for implementing poll promises.
ALSO READ: Karnataka to reissue BPL cards for eligible families: Deputy CM DK Shivakumar
The controversy stems from the Karnataka government's recent survey identifying 22.63 lakh BPL card-holders as ineligible. This move has triggered a political slugfest between the ruling Congress and the BJP.
Union Food Minister Pralhad Joshi claimed the central government had directed the state to clean the beneficiary lists. He alleged that the card cancellation was a strategy to avoid implementing the state's Gruha Lakshmi Yojana scheme.
Siddaramaiah hit back, reminding that the food security law was introduced during the Manmohan Singh government in 2013 to protect poor citizens' interests. He criticised the BJP for previously reducing food grain allocation from seven kg to five kg per beneficiary during B S Yediyurappa's tenure.
The chief minister categorically stated that there would be no compromise on the five poll guarantees and that sufficient funds were available for their implementation.
Siddaramaiah was in the national capital for the launch of Karnataka Cooperative Milk Producers' Federation Ltd's Nandini brands in Delhi. He also met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on the issue of farm loan.
