Health insurance a predominant medium for achieving universal healthcare in India ? A farfetched dream?

In India, there are two kinds of insurances - Social Health Insurance (e.g. Employees State Insurance Scheme) & Voluntary Health Insurance. Even after years of grappling with health insurances, 71% of the health care costs are borne by the households. CGHS (Central Government Health Scheme), ESI (Employees State Insurance) and private insurance providers are major participants but they often ignore the population that needs the healthcare insurance the most.

Self Help Groups and NGOs extend a number of Community based health insurance schemes. However, this covers only less than 1% of the country?s population. ESIS and CGHS taken together constituted 41% of total spending on insurance. The government has rolled out various schemes like RSBY (Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna) that cover population in informal sector but only the BPL (Below Poverty Line) and marginalized population. Still a large non-formal sector is there that is above the BPL but in dire need of health insurance as they are most susceptible to catastrophic health expenditures and fall below poverty line due to health expenditures.

Emerging Themes In Virology

The importance of the virology field has been increasing in number of academic publications and has never been more exciting as a research area and more relevant to human health or present in the media due to the economic impact (animal loss) and ecological issues regarding the recent outbreaks impacted by viral agents. There is high number of well-established virology journals already in existence and I must confess I caught myself reflecting on the question if really need another journal devoted to this topic. The answer is yes when I realize the niche for this new journal. To achieve that we plan launch special issues and also use a strength of guarantee the quality of manuscripts are published by the rigor of its review process. While in major journals the publication can take months for acceptance to publish we will be very quick for a feedback.

Association of dogs (Canis lupus familiaris, Linnaeus, 1753) and risk perception of zoonotic infection for humans

Dogs were used by the early age people for various important purposes before being domesticated. They perform many roles for people, such as–hunting, herding, pulling loads, protection, assisting police and military, companionship and more recently, aiding handicapped individuals. However, dogs are also a source of meat in many countries like–Korea. In this modern world dogs are not just pets but they are treated like members of the family.

As pets have a close bond with human, there is a major risk of health hazard. Dogs harbor a number of infective stages of disease causative agents transmissible to man. They become infected with an internal or external parasite at some point in its lifetime. Parasites can affect the pets in a variety of ways, ranging from simple irritation to causing life-threatening conditions if left untreated. Some parasites can even infect and transmit diseases to human. To date, domestic animals represent an important source of zoonotic diseases. A zoonotic disease is a disease that can be passed between animals and humans. Household pets play a direct role in transmitting zoonosis.

Individual immune system responds differently

Each individual immune system is highly specific but extremely distant from other individuals. Based on recent technological advancement whole immune system analysis reveal different immune profiling for every individual. Herein, we clarified the detailed variation in the human immune system with coherence to their respective effecting factors. The most influencing factors include age, time, gender, heritable, non-heritable, non-pathogenic, pathogenic microbes, genetic makeup and environment. Correlating these factors analysis will help us to investigate and treat numerous immune pathological conditions with highest specificity at the doorstep of every individual in the near future.

Hepatitis C-related Diabetes Mellitus: A Health Dilemma Too Necessary to Consider

The suggestion of a possible association between diabetes mellitus and chronic HCV infection has revolutionized our recent understanding of non-communicable diseases. The initial idea behind this association was higher prevalence of diabetes mellitus among patients with cirrhosis due to chronic HCV infection compared to those with non-HCV-related cirrhosis (Gane, 2012). However, this was not always true, as some studies did not find an excess prevalence of diabetes mellitus in HCV-infected patients (Marmo, 1998., Imazeki, 2008). This discrepancy is not unexpected, since the prevalence of diabetes in patients with chronic HCV infection may be influenced by several factors such as HCV genotypes, viral load, the severity and duration of liver disease as well as interferon (IFN) therapy (Fenakel, 2000., Ferraz, 2002., Alaei, 2009).

The correlation between asthma disease and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory airway disease that has airway hypersensitivity causing coughing attacks, recurrent wheezing, and dyspnea and that is diagnosed based on anamnesis, spirometric examination, and physiological and pathological characteristics. It is found that its prevalence rate varies based on the countries and between 1% and 18%. Management of asthma, as stated by international guidelines, is based on the assessment of disease control. A useful numerical method to evaluate the level of disease control is the asthma control test (ACT), which includes questions regarding symptoms, medication use, and self-assessed disease control. Pathology of asthma is explained by the fact that numerous inflammatory cells and mediators affect all the airways.

The geo-sanitary conditions of taeniasis carriers, migration and the re emergence of neurocysticercosis

Geo-sanitary conditions in public health are a determining factor in understanding that disease processes are highly dynamic and respond to the conditions of the environmental context. Beyond the biological, immunological and therapeutic scenario in the management of the parasitic diseases which affect the human, the epidemiological conditions that involve the life cycle of the parasite are determinant to the behavior of the disease; such is the case of the Taeniasis and its clinical impact on neurocysticercosis. This is identified punctually how the sanitary conditions can generate the dissemination of the disease by the contamination with feces of human carriers.