Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG, or LGG, is the most studied probiotic bacterium in the world. However, its features are not perfect, as it is unable to utilise the milk carbohydrate lactose or break down the milk protein casein. This is why the bacterium grows poorly in milk and why it has to be separately added to probiotic dairy products.
In fact, attempts have been made to make L. rhamnosus GG better adjust to milk through genetic engineering. However, strict restrictions have prevented the use of such modified bacteria in human food.
Thanks to a recent breakthrough made at the University of Helsinki, Finland, with researchers from the National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Pakistan, features have now been successfully added to the LGG probiotic without gene editing, making it thrive and grow in milk.
The method used is known as conjugation, which is a technique utilised by certain bacterial groups to transfer their traits to other bacteria. In the process, a bacterium produces a copy of its plasmid, a ring-shaped piece of DNA in the bacterium. Next, the bacterium transfers the plasmid to an adjacent bacterium. The spread of plasmids, which carry traits useful for bacteria, can be rapid among bacterial communities.
In the case of Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG, the plasmid that provided the ability to make use of lactose and casein originated in a specific Lactococcus lactis bacterial strain grown in the same place.
“The new LGG strain is not genetically modified, which makes it possible to consume it and any products containing it without any permit procedures,” says the project leader, Professor of Microbiology Per Saris from the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Helsinki.
The new strain can be used as a starting point in the development of new dairy products where the probiotic concentration increases already in the production stage. In other words, the probiotic need not be separately added to the final product.
Furthermore, the new LGG strain can potentially be better equipped to grow, for example, in the infant gut where it would be able to utilise the lactose and casein found in breastmilk, producing more lactic acid than the original strain.
“Lactic acid lowers the pH of the surface of the intestine, reducing the viability of many gram-negative pathogenic bacteria, such as E. coli, Salmonella and Shigella, which threaten the health of infants. Moreover, in larger numbers the new LGG strain can potentially be more effective at protecting infants than the old strain. After all, LGG has previously been shown to alleviate infantile atopic dermatitis and boost the recovery of the gut microbiota after antibiotic therapies.”
The researchers are in negotiations on the further application of their discovery.
Story Source:
Materials provided by University of Helsinki. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

People with diabetes are at increased risk of developing a severe course of COVID-19 compared to people without diabetes. The question to be answered is whether all people with diabetes have an increased risk of severe COVID-19, or whether specific risk factors can also be identified within this group. A new study by DZD researchers has now focused precisely on this question and gained relevant insights.
The COVID-19 pandemic poses unprecedented challenges to science and the health sector. While in some people with a SARS-CoV-2 infection the disease is hardly noticeable, in others it is much more severe and sometimes fatal. So far, knowledge about the course of a COVID-19 disease is still quite meager. However, diabetes has increasingly emerged as one of the risk factors determining the severity of the disease. Several studies on diabetes and SARS-CoV-2 have already observed an approximately two- to threefold increase in mortality due to COVID-19 in people with diabetes compared to people without diabetes. This makes it all the more important to conduct studies that examine the risk factors of people with diabetes for severe COVID-19 disease in more detail.
A new study of the German Diabetes Center, partner of the DZD, led by Dr. Sabrina Schlesinger, head of the junior research group Systematic Reviews at the Institute for Biometrics and Epidemiology, therefore examined the risk phenotypes of diabetes and their possible association with the severity of COVID-19. In their meta-analysis, the researchers combined the results from 22 published studies, so that a total of more than 17,500 people with diabetes and confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection were included in this study. For individuals with diabetes and SARS-CoV-2 infection, male sex, older age ( >65 years), high blood glucose levels (at the time of hospital admission), chronic treatment with insulin, and existing concomitant diseases (such as cardiovascular disease or kidney disease) were identified as risk factors for a severe COVID-19 course. On the other hand, the results showed that chronic metformin treatment was associated with a reduced risk of a severe course of COVID-19.
“This current systematic review and meta-analysis describes within the high-risk group, namely diabetes mellitus, those individuals with the highest risk of a severe COVID-19 course,” said Professor Michael Roden, scientific director and board member of the German Diabetes Center. “These results will help to classify individuals with diabetes even better in order to improve their therapy and mitigate the course.”
The risk factors identified in the study — i.e. older persons, usually male, with comorbidities of diabetes and chronic insulin treatment — can thus be seen as indicators of diabetes severity or overall poor health. “However, some results, especially on diabetes-specific factors such as type or duration of diabetes and further treatments, are still imprecisely assessed and the significance is low. In order to strengthen the significance, further primary studies are needed that examine these specific risk factors and consider other relevant influencing factors in their analysis,” said Dr. Schlesinger. Her research team is therefore already working on a next version of this review: “This review presents the current study situation and will be updated regularly as long as new findings on this topic are available,” said Dr. Schlesinger.
Story Source:
Materials provided by Deutsches Zentrum fuer Diabetesforschung DZD. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

How Long Will This Child Live? No one can say what the future holds for Crispin Brake, born last month […]

Do counselors have to be vaccinated? Will there be singing around campfires? We asked the experts.At 8:30 one morning in March, online registration opened for the summer day camp run by my local community center. By 8:35 a.m., all the spots were taken and a wait list was building.After more than a year of living with pandemic restrictions, it’s not surprising that families are in a frenzy over in-person camp this year. In contrast to last summer, when many camps didn’t open at all or opened with strict limitations, the American Camp Association said that most overnight and day camps plan to open this summer. “There is a huge demand,” said Paul McEntire, chief operating officer of the Y.M.C.A. of the U.S.A. For many of its more than 10,000 camps, registrations are at their highest levels ever. “Camps have never been more needed,” he said.But what will summer camp actually look like this year, and what kinds of Covid-19 protocols will be required? Will kids be able to have fun and stay safe? To find out, we scoured the updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and spoke with three public health experts who are working with camps to develop rigorous safety protocols, as well as with two camp executives.First off, can camps even be run safely?While just 18 percent of overnight camps, and 60 percent of day camps, ran in-person last year, according to the A.C.A., camp and health officials were still able to learn quite a bit about the kinds of practices that did — and didn’t — keep campers and employees safe.Between June 17 and 27, for instance, nearly half of the 597 campers, staff members and trainees at one overnight camp in Georgia tested positive for Covid-19 after an outbreak there caused the camp to close. According to a later C.D.C. report, health officials learned that the camp had not implemented certain safety protocols, like requiring masks for campers or opening windows and doors for ventilation; the camp also allowed “daily vigorous singing and cheering,” the report said.The experience taught camps “what you don’t want to do,” said Dr. Dipesh Navsaria, a pediatrician at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health who has been working to develop Covid-19 protocols for camps, including one in Wisconsin.But there were also signs that camps could be run safely. Between June 15 and Aug. 16, four overnight camps in Maine had just three positive cases out of 1,022 campers and staff members, because “they followed a multilayered approach, which is generally recognized as the best way to handle any aspect of this pandemic — distancing, outdoors, masking, hand hygiene,” Dr. Navsaria said. One study published this month also found that among 54 Y.M.C.A. day camps in North Carolina, which followed similar protocols, few experienced Covid-19 infections.“If a parent asked me, ‘Can you guarantee my child won’t get Covid?’ Well, no,” Dr. Navsaria added. But, “we made the decision that opening this year was not only safe, but really important to the mental, social and emotional health of the children that we serve.”What kinds of safety protocols will be in place this year?On April 24, the C.D.C. released updated and detailed guidance for both day and overnight summer camps, which emphasized a few basic principles. It called for outdoor, masked and distanced activities whenever possible; ventilation and reduced capacity in poorly ventilated or indoor areas; and a strong recommendation for vaccination of any employees and campers who are eligible (though camps will probably not require staff members to be vaccinated, Mr. McEntire, of the Y.M.C.A., said). It did not recommend limiting how many people can attend camp overall.For day camps, the C.D.C. said that children 2 and up should wear masks at all times except when eating, drinking, swimming or napping, and should be broken into small groups that interact only with each other. All campers must stay three feet from others in their cohort (six feet when eating or drinking), and six feet from everyone else (including their own counselors). The guidelines also recommend daily symptom checks for campers and staff, and periodic Covid-19 testing for campers, if tests are available. Employees should be tested weekly if they interact with multiple camper groups.If your child is attending an overnight camp, the C.D.C. advised that anyone who is eligible to receive a Covid vaccine should get one before they arrive, ideally receiving their final shot at least two weeks before. Unvaccinated attendees should try to practice Covid-19 safety measures — like avoiding unnecessary travel, physical distancing and wearing masks in public — as much as possible for two weeks before overnight camp begins, and they should take a Covid-19 test one to three days before they arrive.Once at camp, the C.D.C. recommended breaking campers into groups by cabin, as well as daily symptom checks and periodic testing. Campers will only need to wear masks and physical distance around those not in their bunks.Keep in mind that the federal guidance is meant to supplement, not replace, state and local guidelines. So some states may choose not to follow it, said Tom Rosenberg, president and chief executive of the A.C.A. Texas’ overnight camp guidelines, for instance, do not require camps to screen campers or the staff for Covid-19 before or during camp (though they do recommend testing if a camper or staff member becomes ill during their stay). And some overnight camps will allow campers from different groups to intermingle over time, if local guidelines allow it and there have been no cases, Mr. Rosenberg said.State guidelines may also change between now and when camp starts, said Dr. Lucy McBride, a physician in Washington, D.C., who is advising an overnight camp in Maine. “The landscape is changing enormously,” she said. So parents may want to check camp protocols close to when their kids will attend to confirm which procedures will be in place.Campers who are at high risk for coronavirus complications (or whose family members are) may want to be even more stringent with risk mitigation and should be sure to get vaccinated as soon as they’re eligible, Dr. McBride added. Camps may even advise some families that they would be better off not sending their kids to camp at all; high-risk families may want to consult with their doctors. Some camps for kids with medical conditions — such as camps run by the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the American Diabetes Association — will be run virtually again this year for safety reasons.How will beloved camp activities — campfires, field trips, singalongs — differ from those in prepandemic years?Some camp traditions may not make an appearance this year. “We’re not going to have the loud, raucous dining hall filled with incomprehensible yelling,” said Dr. Daniel Griffin, an infectious disease physician at Columbia University who is advising a handful of camps this summer. (Campers may still sing and chant, just outdoors.) Parents probably won’t be able to visit, or even step foot inside cabins at drop-off, and staff members may not be allowed to leave camp premises during breaks.Camp activities that involve cabins competing against each other, like the popular Color War competitions, may not happen this year, Dr. Navsaria added.Other camp activities may be allowed, but modified. For instance, camps probably won’t allow kids from different cohorts to mingle during electives like dance or archery. Evening campfires might still take place, but campers may be required to sit with their cohorts and six feet away from other groups. Camp performances will still happen, but they will most likely be held outside. And campers may still play some outdoor sports, but the C.D.C. advised against indoor sports as well as close-contact sports, like wrestling and basketball, even if done outside.The C.D.C. has also advised camps to avoid day trips to places like amusement parks or movie theaters that would put attendees in close contact with the public.What happens if my kid gets sick?Camp policies may vary, but if your child is in day camp and develops symptoms of (or tests positive for) Covid-19, the camp will probably isolate the child from other campers and call you to come pick her up. If your child is positive, she will most likely be able to return to camp after 10 days, provided she has no fever and her symptoms are improving. If your child is exposed to Covid-19 at camp — or if you or someone else in your household (or another close contact) contracts Covid-19 — your child may be asked to stay home and quarantine for up to 14 days.If your child is at an overnight camp and develops symptoms of Covid-19, the staff should immediately isolate and test her. If she tests positive, they will most likely move her to a dedicated facility with any other infected campers, under the care of medical providers. The staff will probably call you and let you decide if you want to pick her up or let her stay at camp until she has recovered. If your child is exposed to Covid-19 at camp, her group should also be quarantined for up to 14 days, monitored for symptoms, and may be tested regularly, though they should still be able to do some limited sports and activities as a group.If kids go home because of Covid-19, or if camps have to close because of an outbreak, Mr. McEntire said that most Y.M.C.A. day and overnight camps plan to provide prorated refunds. It’s wise to ask camps in advance about their refund policies.If this all seems complicated, it is — but experts say that camps need to be run carefully in order to keep everyone safe. And despite the rules and regulations, campers can still have plenty of fun. “Kids can have a joyous, immersive summer experience,” Mr. Rosenberg said, as long as the camps do it “in a very structured, smart way.”Melinda Wenner Moyer is the author of a forthcoming book on science-based parenting and writes a free parenting newsletter.

The Senate is considering Eric S. Lander’s nomination after months of delay. Some experts ask what impact an adviser can actually have.On the campaign trail, Joseph R. Biden Jr. vowed to unseat Donald J. Trump and bring science back to the White House, the federal government and the nation after years of presidential attacks and disavowals, neglect and disarray.As president-elect, he got off to a fast start in January by nominating Eric S. Lander, a top biologist, to be his science adviser. He also made the job a cabinet-level position, calling its elevation part of his effort to “reinvigorate our national science and technology strategy.”In theory, the enhanced post could make Dr. Lander one of the most influential scientists in American history.But his Senate confirmation hearing was delayed three months, finally being set for Thursday.The delay, according to Politico, arose in part from questions about his meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, the financier who had insinuated himself among the scientific elite despite a 2008 conviction that had labeled him as a sex offender. Dr. Lander met with Mr. Epstein at fund-raising events twice in 2012 but has denied receiving any funding or having any kind of relationship with Mr. Epstein, who was later indicted on federal sex trafficking charges and killed himself in jail in 2019.The long delay in his Senate confirmation has led to concerns that the Biden administration’s elevation of Dr. Lander’s role is more symbolic than substantive — that it’s more about creating the appearance of strong federal support for the scientific enterprise rather than working to achieve a productive reality.Roger Pielke Jr., a professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who has interviewed and profiled presidential scientific aides, recently noted that one of President Biden’s top scientific agendas, climate policy, has moved ahead briskly without any help from a White House science adviser.“Is Biden giving him busy work?” he asked of Dr. Lander’s role. “Or is there actually a policy portfolio?”Likewise, Mr. Biden’s first proposed federal budget, unveiled April 9, received no public endorsement from the presidential science adviser but nonetheless seeks major increases in funding at nearly every science agency.Mr. Biden’s championing of the science post and its unpunctual start have raised a number of questions: What do White House science advisers actually do? What should they do? Are some more successful than others and, if so, why? Do they ever play significant roles in Washington’s budget wars? Does Mr. Biden’s approach have echoes in history?The American public got few answers to such questions during Mr. Trump’s tenure. He left the position empty for the first two years of his administration — by far the longest such vacancy since Congress in 1976 established the modern version of the advisory post and its White House office. Under public pressure, Mr. Trump filled the opening in early 2019 with Kelvin Droegemeier, an Oklahoma meteorologist who kept a low profile. Critics derided Mr. Trump’s neglect of this position and the vacancies of other scientific expert positions across the executive branch.President Richard Nixon with his science adviser, Edward E. David Jr., center, in 1971. Mr. Nixon eliminated the position after Dr. David quit in 1973.Associated PressBut while scientists in the federal work force typically have their responsibilities defined in considerable detail, each presidential science adviser comes into the job with what amounts to a blank slate, according to Shobita Parthasarathy, director of the Science, Technology and Public Policy program at the University of Michigan.“They don’t have a clear portfolio,” she said. “They have lots of flexibility.”The lack of set responsibilities means the aides as far back as 1951 and President Harry S. Truman — the first to bring a formal science adviser into the White House — have had the latitude to take on a diversity of roles, including ones far removed from science.“We have this image of a wise person standing behind the president, whispering in an ear, imparting knowledge,” said Dr. Pielke. “In reality, the science adviser is a resource for the White House and the president to do with as they see fit.”Dr. Pielke argued that Mr. Biden is sincere in wanting to quickly rebuild the post’s credibility and raise public trust in federal know-how. “There’s lots for us to like,” he said.But history shows that even good starts in the world of presidential science advising are no guarantee that the appointment will end on a high note.“Anyone coming to the science advisory post without considerable experience in politics is in for some rude shocks,” Edward E. David Jr., President Richard M. Nixon’s science adviser, said in a talk long after his bruising tenure. He died in 2017.One day in 1970, Mr. Nixon ordered Dr. David to cut off all federal research funding to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. David’s alma mater. At the time, it was receiving more than $100 million a year.The reason? The president of the United States had found the political views of the school’s president to be intolerable.“I just sort of sat there dumbfounded,” Dr. David recalled. Back in his office, the phone rang. It was John Ehrlichman, one of Mr. Nixon’s trusted aides.“Ed, my advice is don’t do anything,” he recalled Mr. Ehrlichman saying. The nettlesome issue soon faded away.In 1973, soon after Dr. David quit, Mr. Nixon eliminated the fief. The president had reportedly come to see the adviser as a science lobbyist. After Mr. Nixon left office, Congress stepped in to reinstate both the advisory post and its administrative body, renaming it the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.The position, some analysts argue, has grown more influential in step with scientific feats and advances. But others say the job’s stature has declined as science has become more specialized and the advisory work has focused increasingly on narrow topics unlikely to draw presidential interest. Still others hold that so many specialists now inform the federal government that a chief White House scientist has become superfluous.Daniel Sarewitz, a professor of science and society at Arizona State University, argued in a 2007 study that the post’s influence “has waxed and waned (mostly waned) with time.”President Bill Clinton with the crew of the space shuttle Discovery, as well as Daniel S. Goldin, second right, the NASA administrator and Neal F. Lane, right, the presidential science adviser, in 1999.The White House/CNP/MediaPunch, via AlamyBut Mr. Biden’s moves, he added in an interview, were now poised to raise the post’s importance and potential sway. “For Democrats,” he said, “science and politics are converging right now, so elevating the status of science is smart. It’s good politics.”The scientific community tends to see presidential advisers as effective campaigners for science budgets. Not so, Dr. Sarewitz has argued. He sees federal budgets for science as having done well over the decades irrespective of what presidential science advisers have endorsed or promoted.Neal F. Lane, a physicist who served as President Bill Clinton’s science adviser, argued that the post was today more important than ever because its occupant provides a wide perspective on what can best aid the nation and the world.“Only the science adviser can be the integrator of all these complex issues and the broker who helps the president understand the play between the agencies,” he said in an interview. The moment is auspicious, Dr. Lane added. Catastrophes like war, the Kennedy assassination and the terrorist attacks of 2001, he said, can become turning points of reinvigoration. So too, he added, is the coronavirus pandemic a time in American history when “big changes can take place.”His hope, he said, is that Mr. Biden will succeed in elevating such issues as energy, climate change and pandemic preparedness.As for the federal budget, Dr. Lane, who headed the National Science Foundation before becoming Mr. Clinton’s science adviser from 1998 to 2001, said his own experience suggested the post could make modest impacts that nonetheless reset the nation’s scientific trajectory. His own tenure, he said, saw a funding rise for the physical sciences, including physics, math and engineering.Some part of his own influence, Dr. Lane said, derived from personal relationships at the White House. For instance, he got to know the powerful director of the Office of Management and Budget, which set the administration’s finances, while dining at the White House Mess.The advisory post becomes most influential, analysts say, when the science aides are aligned closely with presidential agendas. But a commander in chief’s objectives may not match those of the scientific establishment, and any influence bestowed by proximity to the president may prove quite narrow.George A. Keyworth II, President Ronald Reagan’s science adviser from 1981 to 1986.George Tames/The New York TimesGeorge A. Keyworth II was a physicist from Los Alamos — the birthplace of the atomic bomb in New Mexico. In Washington, as science adviser to Ronald Reagan, he strongly backed the president’s vision of the antimissile plan known as Star Wars.Dr. Pielke of the University of Colorado said the contentious issue became Dr. Keyworth’s calling card in official Washington. “It was Star Wars,” he said. “That was it.” Despite intense lobbying, the presidential call for weapons in space drew stiff opposition from specialists and Congress, and the costly effort never got beyond the research stage.Policy analysts say Mr. Biden has gone out of his way to communicate his core interests to Dr. Lander — a geneticist and president of the Broad Institute, a hub of advanced biology run by Harvard University and M.I.T.On Jan. 15, Mr. Biden made public a letter with marching orders for Dr. Lander to consider whether science could help “communities that have been left behind” and “ensure that Americans of all backgrounds” get drawn into the making of science as well as securing its rewards.Dr. Parthasarathy said Mr. Biden’s approach was unusual both in being a public letter and in asking for science to have a social conscience. In time, she added, the agenda may transform both the adviser’s office and the nation.“We’re at a moment” where science has the potential to make a difference on issues of social justice and inequality, she said. “I know my students are increasingly concerned about these questions, and think rank-and-file scientists are too,” Dr. Parthasarathy added. “If ever there was a time to really focus on them, it’s now.”

“People are being given these waiting times and by the time their appointment comes, it’s too late.” These words were spoken by Gabrielle Connolly a few months after she reported an alleged sexual assault.Aged 17, she was referred to children’s mental health services. She did not get counselling and within six months she had died in a drug-related incident. Children’s mental health services have a nine-week target for seeing a patient after referral.New figures show children’s mental health assessment targets have been breached hundreds of times in Northern Ireland.In a statement the Belfast Trust said: “We appreciate this is a difficult time for the Connolly family and we are very sorry for their loss following Gabrielle’s passing. “Unfortunately we cannot comment on this individual case”.Read more on this story here.If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article, there are a list of organisations that may be able to help at BBC Action Line. Video journalist: Niall McCracken

SharecloseShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingimage copyrightReutersIndia has reached the devastating figure of 200,000 coronavirus deaths, with the pressure on many hospitals showing no sign of abating amid a surging second wave.The real number of fatalities is thought to be far greater, with many not being officially recorded.Oxygen supplies remain critically low across the country, with the black market the only option for some people.Crematoriums are operating non-stop, with makeshift pyres in car parks.There have been at least 300,000 new infections every day in the past week, with more than 360,000 new cases in the past 24 hours on Wednesday. Overall, more than 17.9 million cases have been registered.What are other countries doing to help? Foreign aid has started to arrive from the UK and Singapore. Russia, New Zealand and France have pledged to send emergency medical equipment, and even regional rivals Pakistan and China have put aside their differences and promised to help.On Thursday, the US said it would start delivering supplies worth more than $100m, in addition to individual US states and private companies also readying oxygen, equipment, and supplies for Indian hospital. However, experts say the aid will only have a limited effect in a nation that has a population of 1.3 billion.As it happened: BBC’s live coverage on India’s Covid surgeWhy India’s Covid crisis matters to the whole worldIndia’s round-the-clock mass cremationsA government website where Indians can register for a vaccination programme crashed soon after it launched on Wednesday, as tens of thousands of people tried to access it.And in the state of Assam, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake damaged hospitals which were already under intense strain. People ran from their homes and other buildings in panic.How bad is the situation in India? The numbers we are seeing are staggeringly high – but the real number of fatalities are thought to be much higher.Mortality data in India is poor and deaths at home often go unregistered, especially in rural areas. There are reports of journalists counting bodies at morgues themselves, to try to get a more accurate number. In Uttar Pradesh, health officials said 68 people had died on one day earlier this month across the state. But a Hindi newspaper pointed out that officials also said there were 98 Covid funerals in the capital, Lucknow, alone.image copyrightReutersCrematoriums continue to work throughout the night to keep up with the number of bodies arriving, and many families are facing long waits before their loved ones can receive funeral rites. Some say they were asked to help speed up the process by piling the wood themselves.In the southern city of Bengaluru, one doctor told the BBC people were panicking. It is one of the worst-hit cities in India, with some estimates saying there are about 300 active Covid cases per square kilometre.”We were not prepared for this second surge,” the consultant said. “For the first surge it was well organised. This time there are more cases, it was more sudden, and the situation was not prepared for.”The World Health Organization (WHO) reported in its weekly epidemiological update that there were nearly 5.7 million new cases reported globally last week – and India accounts for 38% of them.It also said that the B.1.617 variant of the virus detected in India has a higher growth rate than other variants in the country, suggesting increased transmissibility.Can India make enough vaccines to meet demand?How is India’s vaccination drive going?Are people getting vaccinated? India is carrying out the world’s biggest vaccination drive, but less than 10% of the population has so far received an initial jab and there are concerns about meeting demand.The US is helping India with the raw materials it needs for vaccine production, after India’s biggest vaccine maker, the Serum Institute of India, complained of shortages of specialised imports from the US.Meanwhile, the first batch of the Russian vaccine, Sputnik V, is set to arrive in India on 1 May, The New Indian Express reports. It has not yet been revealed how many doses will be delivered.image copyrightGetty ImagesWhat is the government doing? India is heading towards state elections, and there is increasing anger towards both state authorities and the central government for the handling of the pandemic. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been accused of ignoring scientific warnings to participate in election rallies and allowing a massive Hindu festival to go ahead in northern India.Dr Navjot Dahiya, the vice-president of the Indian Medical Association, called Mr Modi a “super spreader” who had “tossed all Covid norms in the air”.The prime minister said he had held three meetings on Tuesday to discuss ways to increase oxygen capacities and medical infrastructure, including the use of trains and military aircraft to speed up transport of oxygen supplies.Why has the situation in India been allowed to escalate so much?India Kumbh festival goes ahead amid Covid surgeHave India’s rallies helped spread coronavirus?The BBC’s Yogita Limaye says many people are asking why the military and disaster response teams have not been put on a war footing to build field hospitals.”There is a sense of abandonment in the country, of people being left to fend for themselves,” our correspondent reports.State and union territory governments, from Delhi to Karnataka, have been criticised for allowing Covid protocols to lapse and failing to prepare for what epidemiologists say was an inevitable surge in infections.

SharecloseShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingimage copyrightGetty ImagesIndia’s deadly Covid-19 second wave has devastated big cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow and Pune. Hospitals and crematoriums have run out of space, and funerals are taking place in car parks. But the pandemic has now firmly gripped many smaller cities, towns and villages where the devastation is largely under-reported.Rajesh Soni spent eight hours taking his father from one hospital to another in a tuk-tuk in Kota district in the northern state of Rajasthan on Tuesday. He couldn’t get an ambulance and the rickety vehicle was his only option. At 5pm, he decide to end his search for a hospital bed as his father’s condition was deteriorating. He then “left everything to fate” and came home.”I am giving him medicines at home, but I am not sure that he will survive. We have been left to die on the streets,” Rajesh said. He says several private hospitals even “conned” him and took money to do tests, only to tell him later to take his father away as there were no beds.”I am not a wealthy person. I spent whatever I had to pay the tuk-tuk driver and to hospitals. Now I am going to borrow some money to get an oxygen cylinder at home.”Why second Covid wave is devastating IndiaWhy India’s Covid crisis matters to the whole worldSuch stories have become common in Delhi, the worst affected city in India, but similar accounts are now coming in from smaller cities and towns across the country.The BBC looks at what’s happening in five different states to see how fast the virus is spreading there. Kota, Rajasthan stateThe city and surrounding district has reported more than 6,000 cases in the past week, and 264 deaths since the pandemic began – but 35% of those happened in April alone. Up to 7 April, it was taking 72 days for the number of cases to double, but now it’s 27 days.All oxygen beds were occupied, and only two out of the district’s 329 ICU units were free on 27 April. A senior journalist in the city told the BBC that hospitals were overrun and “this suggests that the actual numbers are much higher”.There is an acute shortage of oxygen and drugs like remdesivir and tocilizumab. The district is home to many coaching centres for students from all over the country taking exams to get into prestigious medical and engineering colleges. But the students have left and the district is now in turmoil and largely away from the radar of national and international media. The journalist said the city’s hospitals were not ready for what he described as a Covid tsunami. He said there was an urgent need to add “more oxygen and ICU beds before more people start dying on the streets”.Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh stateThe city, also known as Prayagraj, had recorded 54,339 cases up to 20 April, but it has registered a 21% increase since then, adding 11,318 cases in the past week. About 32% of the reported 614 deaths in the city happened in April alone. There is no official data on healthcare facilities in the city, but several people the BBC spoke to said they had been unable to find a bed for their loved ones.Several calls and written questions to the city’s chief medical officer about the shortage of beds went unanswered. A senior journalist in the city said the actual death toll was much higher as cremation and burial grounds were functioning day and night. Yogi Adityanath, the state’s chief minister, recently said there was no shortage of drugs, hospital beds or oxygen, but experts say the reality on the ground is vastly different.image copyrightGetty ImagesSocial media is awash with posts from people from the state pleading for beds, oxygen and drugs like remdesivir. The chief minister has also warned that action will be taken against any private hospital that “falsely reports” an oxygen shortage.An employee of one small private hospital told the BBC that arranging oxygen had become difficult, but he would not complain because he feared retribution. “But I fail to understand why would any hospital falsely report a shortage. It makes no sense,” he said. There have also been reports about deaths due to oxygen shortages in the state. Several other districts and villages in Uttar Pradesh are also reporting that hospitals have run out of beds.Man charged over oxygen SOS for dying grandfatherIndia’s round-the-clock mass cremationsAshish Yadav’s father is in a critical condition in Kanpur district but he is unable to get him a bed and he doesn’t even have access to a doctor. “I have begged and pleaded everywhere, but nobody helped. Nobody is picking the helpline numbers that have been advertised,” he told the BBC.Kabirdham, Chhattisgarh stateThe central Indian district did not have any active cases of Covid-19 on 1 March. But it has added almost 3,000 cases in the past seven days. Kabirdham district hospital has seven ventilators but there are no trained doctors to operate the life-support machines. According to government data, the district hospital should have 49 specialist doctors, but it has only seven. There is also an acute shortage of nurses and lab technicians. Local journalists say that the district is not able to handle really sick patients as it did not prepare to manage the sharp uptick in cases. Several people have died without getting proper treatment in the district.Bhagalpur and AurangabadBhagalpur district in the eastern state of Bihar is also badly hit. It has recorded a 26% increase in its caseload since 20 April, and the number of deaths increased by 33% in the same period.Only Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (JNMC) has ICU beds in the district, and all of its 36 units were occupied on 28 April. More than 270 out of 350 oxygen beds in the hospital were occupied. image copyrightGetty ImagesA senior official from the hospital told the BBC that out of its 220 doctors, 40 had tested positive in the past 10 days and four of them died. This has added to the pressure on the hospital. Aurangabad district in the west of the state is also badly hit. It has recorded more than 5,000 cases since 5 April, and six people died in the same period, according to official data. But senior journalists in the state say the actual numbers are higher as testing is a major problem in smaller towns and cities. Many people become critical and die without ever being able to get tested for Covid-19. Such deaths don’t go into official data. Sumitra Devi struggled to get a test done in Aurangabad. She couldn’t get an RT-PCR test done for days as her condition continued to worsen. Hospitals refused to admit her without a positive test result. So her family took her to a small private hospital in a nearby district where she tested positive, but the hospital said she was critical and they didn’t have facilities to treat her. The family then took her to a big hospital in the state’s capital Patna where she was made to wait for several hours before she could be admitted. She died two hours after finding a bed.Nainital, Uttarakhand stateThe tourist district in the Himalayas is struggling to cope with the rising number of cases. At least 131 out of its 142 ICU beds were occupied on 27 April and only 10 out of its 771 oxygen beds were free.image copyrightGetty ImagesIt has reported more than 4,000 cases and 82 deaths in the past week. The district is particularly finding it difficult to handle the rise because it also receives patients from remote towns and villages where healthcare facilities are negligible. A local doctor, who did not wish to be identified, said “the situation was dire and he was terrified”. “We are in this situation because the government didn’t plan to augment facilities in remote areas. I am worried that many people in remote Himalayan areas will die and we will never hear about them. They will never show up in statistics.”

Children born preterm (before 37 weeks of pregnancy) remain at high risk of developmental difficulties that can affect their behaviour and ability to learn, finds a study published by The BMJ today.
These difficulties were found not only in children born extremely preterm (22-26 weeks) but also in those born very and moderately preterm (between 27 and 34 weeks), say researchers.
Survival of preterm babies has increased worldwide. Children born early often have developmental issues, but studies have mainly focused on those born extremely preterm (22-26 weeks’ gestation) and less is known about children born very and moderately preterm (27-34 weeks’ gestation).
Given how important it is to identify children most at risk of developmental difficulties, researchers in France set out to describe neurodevelopment among children born before 35 weeks compared with children born at full term.
Their findings are based on 3,083 French children aged 5½ born after 24-26, 27-31, and 32-34 weeks gestation who were taking part in the EPIPAGE-2 study (designed to investigate outcomes of preterm children over the past 15 years) and a comparison group of 600 children born at full term.
Neurodevelopmental outcomes such as cerebral palsy, sensory impairments (blindness and deafness), and brain function (cognition), as well as behavioural difficulties and movement disorders, were assessed using recognised tests.

Omega-3 supplements are associated with an increased likelihood of developing atrial fibrillation in people with high blood lipids. That’s the finding of a study published today in European Heart Journal — Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).
“Currently, fish oil supplements are indicated for patients with elevated plasma triglycerides to reduce cardiovascular risk,” said study author Dr. Salvatore Carbone of Virginia Commonwealth University, US. “Due to the high prevalence of elevated triglycerides in the population, they can be commonly prescribed. Of note, low dose omega-3 fatty acids are available over the counter, without the need for a prescription.”
Some clinical trials have suggested that omega-3 fatty acids may be associated with an increased risk for atrial fibrillation, the most common heart rhythm disorder. People with the disorder have a five times greater likelihood of having a stroke.
These studies tested different formulations of omega-3 fatty acids at different doses. The authors therefore performed a comprehensive meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials to answer the question of whether fish oils were consistently related to a raised risk for atrial fibrillation.
The analysis included five randomised controlled trials investigating the effects of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation on cardiovascular outcomes. Participants had elevated triglycerides and were either at high risk for cardiovascular disease or had established cardiovascular disease. A total of 50,277 patients received fish oils or placebo and were followed up for between 2 and 7.4 years. The dose of fish oils varied from 0.84 g to 4 g per day.
The researchers found that omega-3 fatty acid supplementation was associated with a significantly increased risk for atrial fibrillation compared to placebo with an incidence rate ratio of 1.37 (95% confidence interval 1.22-1.54; p