Hepcidin: A missing link at the interface of malaria and hypertension.

Malaria and hypertension are seemingly unrelated communicable and non-communicable diseases, both highly pervasive in the global south. There is a debate about the potential connection between these two disorders beyond any obvious factors. The emerging evidence suggests an emerging genetic selection pressure for hypertension in malaria-endemic regions.

Global Warming and Rising Threat of Dengue Fever: Expectations in Disease Management.

Arbovirus-borne dengue fever remains a global public health threat. The actual burden of dengue infection may be underestimated due to undiagnosed or misdiagnosed fever cases. The distribution of dengue is influenced by both climatic and nonclimatic factors, including global warming, which affects the vector population and transmission period.

Joint Involvement Can Predict Chikungunya in a Dengue Syndemic Setting in India.

Dengue and chikungunya have been endemic in India but have the tendency to cause periodic epidemics, often together, wherein they are termed 'syndemic'. Such a syndemic was observed in 2016 in India which resulted in a further scarcity of already resource-poor specific diagnostic infrastructure even in many urban conglomerates. A cross-sectional study was thus conducted, on 978 fever patients that consulted the ICMR-NIMR fever clinic, New Delhi, in September 2016, with an objective to identify symptom/s that could predict chikungunya with certainty.

Evolutionary trilogy of malaria, angiotensin II and hypertension: deeper insights and the way forward.

Despite clinical and pathological distinctions between malaria and hypertension, accumulated epidemiological and evolutionary evidence indicate the need of deeper understanding how severe malaria contributes to elevated hypertension risk. Malaria is said to exert strong selection pressure on the host genome, thus selecting certain genetic polymorphisms. Few candidate polymorphisms have also been reported in the RAS (ACE I/D and ACE2 rs2106809) that are shown to increase angiotensin II (ang II) levels in a combinatorial manner.

Incidence of anemia and effect of nutritional supplementation on women in rural and tribal populations of eastern and northeastern India.

Screening of women of child bearing age among the tribal and rural population of different north eastern and eastern states of India was performed. More than 50% of women in some areas were found to have anemia. As part of the study nutritional supplementation was given to a proportion of the anemic population, comparing the effects of Spirulina, a compound containing vitamins and micronutrients and an iron-folic acid-B12 supplement.