China Virus Outbreak Linked to Seafood Market

CMAAO News: Around the globe

Dr KK Aggarwal

President CMAAO, HCFI and Past National President IMA

1.               China Virus Outbreak Linked to Seafood Market: An outbreak of pneumonia that has killed one person in China and infected 40 others appears to be linked to a single seafood market in the central city of Wuhan and has not so far spread beyond there as per WHO. The cluster of infections had raised fears of a potential epidemic after China said last week that the virus causing it was a previously unknown type but came from the same family of viruses that caused the SARS and MERS epidemics. The seafood market in Wuhan - a major domestic and international transport hub - is now closed and no cases have been reported elsewhere in China or internationally.

2.               Mayo Clinic research solves deadly Amish medical mystery: Research led by Mayo Clinic has solved a 2-decade-old mystery about why so many otherwise healthy children and young people in Amish communities have been dying from sudden unexplained cardiac deaths. Examining the DNA of four Amish siblings who suffered cardiac deaths while playing or exercising, researchers found they all had a duplication of specific genetic material that put them at risk.

3.               The cancer death rate declined by 29 percent from 1991 to 2017, including a 2.2 percent drop from 2016 to 2017, the largest single-year drop in cancer mortality ever reported, according to the American Cancer Society's annual report on cancer rates and trends. The steady 26-year decline in overall cancer mortality is driven by long-term drops in death rates for the four major cancers -- lung, colorectal, breast, and prostate.

4.               In a study published in the journal Current Biology, Güler and his colleagues demonstrate that the pleasure center of the brain that produces the chemical dopamine, and the brain's separate biological clock that regulates daily physiological rhythms, are linked, and that high-calorie foods, which bring pleasure, disrupt normal feeding schedules, resulting in overconsumption. Using mice as study models, the researchers mimicked the 24/7 availability of a high-fat diet, and showed that anytime snacking eventually results in obesity and related health problems.