South India make up 50% of HIV

               CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka account for 3.6 lakh HIV cases, about 50% of the patients in the country. The southern states are also among the top four in the country, with Tamil Nadu alone having  80,000 HIV  affected people of the total 7.7 lakh as on May 2014.
                ANDHRA PRADESH tops the list with 1.7 lakh HIV affected people, followed by Maharashtra with 1.43 lakh people. Karnataka has just over one lakh people with HIV, according to the Union ministry of health and family welfare. These are the only states with more than one lakh people with HIV.
                      Gujarat is listed with 40,000  cases. States such as Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, which are larger both in area and population. The rising numbers in the southern states are attributed to efficient screening over the last few years.

                The state governments along with non-governmental organizations have ensured compulsory screening up to the village level, which has resulting in better documentation and  recording of HIV case.

                     Though the cumulative numbers are high in the south, the number of fresh cases being recorded every year has dropped significantly since 2010. According to the health ministry, the total number new cases has reduced almost 52% across the country in three years—from 3.2  lakh fresh cases in 2010-11 to 1.6 lakh cases in 2013-14. Andhra Pradesh,  Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka also saw a sharp fall in the number of fresh cases reported every year.

                     The drop in the number of fresh cases is due to the increasing awareness among the public, especially the risk-pron communities of sex workers, homosexuals and transgenders.    more >>

black widow' seven dead partners arrested

                     A 67-year-old arrested on suspicion of poisoning her husband with cyanide as it emerged six former partners had already died, in Japan's latest apparent "Black widow" case. Chisako Kakehi has been the beneficiary of a combined 800 million yen ($6.8 million) over the last two decades -- insurance money and other assets she received after the seven men's deaths.

                     

Husband number four Isao Kakehi fell sick suddenly at home and was confirmed dead at a hospital in December last year, less than two months after the couple married. An autopsy found highly toxic cyanide compounds in his blood. That came after the September death of a 75-year-old boyfriend, who fell suddenly ill after the couple ate together at a restaurant. Kakehi's dalliance with death began in 1994 when her first husband passed away at the age of 54.  Second husband, whom she had met through a dating agency, died of a stroke aged 69, while the third marriage ended in 2008 with the death of her 75-year-old partner.

                      A boyfriend, believed to have been suffering from some form of cancer, died a year later, and in 2012 her then-fiance met his fate after collapsing while riding a motorbike. Traces of cyanide were detected in his body.  Kakehi was arrested Wednesday by police in Kyoto on suspicion of murdering her latest husband.

                      She has denied any involvement in his death. We suspect she did it for money,  a police investigator on the latest death said without giving details of the amount involved. Police are now working on the theory that she could have been behind the deaths of at least some of the other six.  We have to proceed carefully to judge whether their deaths were actually the result of foul play or not. If people suspect murder, I'd find it easier to bite my tongue off and die," she told reporters in March.   see more >>

ISRO TO LAUNCH SATELLITE CAPACITY

                Isro Chairman K Radhakrishnan, that Isro would launch the transponders through a French Arianne rocket, as there is a shortage of satellite capacity and it is in high demand here at present.

             The broadcast sector has expanded rapidly, but transponders haven’t kept pace with that change.

             That India had about 180 transponders so far and that the new 48 transponders would take care of the immediate demands. The 11th five-year plan had mandated Isro to have 500 transponders by the end of 2012. However, that target has not been reached. But Isro is well aware of the demand from the private TV and broadcasting sector, Internet, weather prediction, telephone services, communication services, and with that in view, is launching the additional 48 transponders on GSAT-6 satellite on Arianne.


            Isro is expected to touch 400 transponders by 2017, which will still be an achievement considering the uncertainties of space.

          Isro was discussing the formation of a single entity by merging the private and the public sectors. The single entity, yet to be christened, will allow Isro to take up research and development work. The National Remote Sensing Centre  of Isro at Hyderabad hadL played a key role in helping the country save thousands of lives in the recent cyclone that battered the Andhra coast. Nearly 25,000 villages received on-time information on the need to move people out to safer places. On the Mars mission, That a committee would be formed to discuss how best the data generated by the Mars Orbiter Mission  could be utilised.

            This will happen after a couple of months as the orbiter has a life span of six months. At around the fourth month, Isro will have adequate data about Mars to be utilised for relevant purposes.   more >>