(In the weekly Health Matters newsletter, Ramya Kannan writes about getting to good health, and staying there. You can subscribe here to get the newsletter in your inbox.)
AI technology is forever invading our columns here, opening up the possibilities of what can happen in the future, and indeed, bringing the future to our door steps today. The last week, there was news about researchers using AI to design, hold your breath – viruses . A particular type of virus actually – a bacteriophage. Infectious Diseases specialist Dr. Abdul Ghafur explains what happens when AI begins to design pathogens. Referring to the Stanford experiment that produced the bacteriophages (bacteria- eating viruses), he explains: “It does not show that AI can casually manufacture dangerous human viruses; it shows that computers are beginning to move from analysing biological information towards proposing biological designs that scientists can physically build. This requires appropriate governance and safeguards. Further, in the cardiac diseases sector, AI heart disease prediction tools show promise but are not ready for clinical use , Afshan Yasmeen writes, quoting a review. Published in BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making , an open-access journal. Researchers say “Many models demonstrate good discrimination, but very few studies examine whether the predicted risks correspond to what actually happens in different populations. For more on this, hit the link above. Moving on to cancer , we had a comprehensive article on why vital chemotherapy drugs are in short supply in India , with inputs from all the bureaus across the country. India is facing a critical nationwide shortage of two key chemotherapy drugs, cisplatin and carboplatin, driven primarily by the soaring global platinum raw material costs, West Asia shipping route disruptions, and domestic price caps. private hospitals in many parts are still facing a crunch While government hospitals in several States have managed to stabilise supplies. For patients, this has meant interruptions or delays in life-saving treatment. Do read more at the link. In this podcast, Zubeda Hamid discusses with Dr. Rajeev Jeyadevan about the consequences after Three common medicines were declared carcinogenic. What does this actually mean for patients? For the details, click on the link. This past week, we also featured a number of stories focusing on the gendered aspect of health care. Endometriosis causes severe pelvic pain, painful periods and fertility challenges. Anirban Mukhopadhyay explains new research on how TB vaccine offers clue to retrain immune system against Alzheimer’s Do remember to watch the 46th episode of the Health Wrap , where we discuss vaccine policies, TB and cancer care, besides what runs longevity in a blue zone.
The review assessed 30 studies published since 2017 on AI-based models developed to predict future cardiovascular disease among adults without established heart disease. In response, the government last month raised temporarily ceiling rates for the two drugs by 50%, to help restart halted domestic manufacturing lines. Women with endometriosis are at a 46% higher risk of developing diabetes, a study suggests . Researchers, led by those at the George Mason University in the US, followed nearly three million women in the Utah Population Database between 1996 and 2021, including nearly 100,000 diagnosed with endometriosis.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer earlier said that three commonly prescribed medicines, hydrochlorothiazide, used to treat high blood pressure, voriconazole, an antifungal medicine and tacrolimus, an immunosuppressant were classified as carcinogenic, or cancer causing, to humans.
