Rs 9000 IVF in African Countries

Plans for an affordable and universally accessible IVF programme, which will be rolled out to tackle infertility in developing countries, were announced at a press conference at the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology annual meeting today. Dr Willem Ombelet, who heads up the ESHRE special task force on ‘Infertility and Developing Countries’, said that the scheme, now being piloted in Khartoum and Cape Town (and shortly in Arusha, Tanzania), aims to provide one IVF cycle for less than $200.
The UN Population Division estimates that 186 million women of reproductive age in developing countries (excluding China) are infertile, with more than 30 per cent in many African countries unable to conceive a second child. Without feasible treatment options, many of these woman become subject to the social and cultural realities of these countries, facing disinheritance, ostracisation, accusations of witchcraft, abuse by local healers, separation from their spouse or abandonment to a second-class life in a polygamous marriage, highlighted Professor Oluwole Akande, from University Hospital in Ibadan, Nigeria.
While a single IVF cycle in Europe or the USA can cost anything from $5000 - $10,000, the new scheme will cut costs by simplifying procedures and customising services to ensure that patients are only given the minimum level of treatment that they need for their particular condition, said Professor Gianaroli, from the SISMER Reproductive Medicine Unit in Italy. ‘We will not be able to treat every type of infertility, but many women with tubal damage as a result of infection can be helped’, he told the press, highlighting that tubal damage resulting from disease or substandard abortions are thought to be a primary cause of infertility in developing countries.
Ombelet emphasised the need to educate the public about infertility and create an infrastructure capable of delivering the service effectively. ‘A universally accessible treatment service is impossible in most developing countries,’ he acknowledged. ‘ But a start can be made by integrating low cost treatments into existing family health services, where opportunities exist for contraception, health education, maternity and childcare, prevention and treatment of STDs and HIV. We have to make a start, and this is how we’re doing it,’ he said.
The full proceedings of an expert meeting on these issues, held in December 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania, is published this month by the journal Human Reproduction.

Donor Children Doing Emotionally Well

Researchers from the Centre for Family Research at Cambridge University in the UK say that families created by the use of sperm donation, egg donation and surrogacy are doing well, particularly in terms of their psychological well-being.
The data, presented at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, come from the fourth phase of a longitudinal study in which 43 donor insemination families, 46 egg donation families and 39 surrogacy families have participated, along with a control group of 70 families where the children were naturally conceived. The first data on these families was taken when the children were nine months old - they are now seven years old.
Mothers, fathers and teachers were each independently given questionnaires to assess the child’s wellbeing, as well as give individual scores on things like behavioural problems and emotional difficulties. Mothers and fathers were also separately interviewed about their relationship with their children. Children were asked to fill in a blank ‘map’ of concentric circles, assessing their relationship with family members and friends, placing the name of those with whom they believed they are closest in the innermost circle, and so on.
In terms of the psychological well-being of the parents, the quality of parent-child relationships and the psychological adjustment of the children concerned, more similarities than differences were found among the three assisted conception groups, said Polly Casey, who presented the research to the conference. Children from all family types placed their mother or father in the closest circle with the same frequency. However, there was some difference shown in the perception of emotional difficulties in the children, as reported by parents and teachers, with parents reporting no significant difficulties, but teachers (who did not know whether or not a child was born using assisted conception) indicating that children born from assisted conception having some more emotional difficulties than the control group.
Miss Casey also told the conference that only 29 per cent of donor insemination parents, 39 per cent of egg donation parents and 89 per cent of surrogacy parents had told their children how they were conceived by the time they reached the age of seven. All of these figures were markedly less than the numbers who said they would tell their child of its origins in the first phase of the study. When the results on psychological well-being and parent-child relationships were broken down by those children who had been told of their origins and those who had not, some differences emerged. ‘Those mothers who had told their children about their conception showed higher levels of sensitivity to the child and, although there was no statistical difference, we also found that fathers in disclosing families tended to show greater warmth towards their children’, she said.
In the groups who had been open with their children, mothers also reported greater ‘marital satisfaction’ and, furthermore, teachers reported lower levels of emotional and behavioural difficulties among the children who had been told of their origins. ‘We were particularly interested to find that, according to teachers, those children who had been told of their origins tended to do slightly better emotionally than those who had not’, said Miss Casey, adding that ‘of course this may simply be due to better communication within the family generally’.

Tofu 'may raise risk of dementia'

Tofu is a widely eaten soy product. Eating high levels of some soy products - including tofu - may raise the risk of memory loss, research suggests. The study focused on 719 elderly Indonesians living in urban and rural regions of Java. The researchers found high tofu consumption - at least once a day - was associated with worse memory, particularly among the over-68s. The Loughborough University-led study features in the journal Dementias and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders.
Soy products are a major alternative protein source to meat for many people in the developing world. But soy consumption is also on the increase in the west, where it is often promoted as a "superfood". Soy products are rich in micronutrients called phytoestrogens, which mimic the impact of the female sex hormone oestrogen. There is some evidence that they may protect the brains of younger and middle-aged people from damage - but their effect on the ageing brain is less clear.
The latest study suggests phytoestrogens - in high quantity - may actually heighten the risk of dementia. Lead researcher Professor Eef Hogervorst said previous research had linked oestrogen therapy to a doubling of dementia risk in the over-65s.
She said oestrogens - and probably phytoestrogens - tended to promote growth among cells, not necessarily a good thing in the ageing brain. Alternatively, high doses of oestrogens might promote the damage caused to cells by particles known as free radicals. A third theory is that damage is caused not by the tofu, but by formaldehyde, which is sometimes used in Indonesia as a preservative. The researchers admit that more research is required to ascertain whether the same effects are found in other ethnic groups. However, previous research has also linked high tofu consumption to an increased risk of dementia in older Japanese American men.
Professor David Smith, of the University of Oxford, said tofu was a complex food with many ingredients which might have an impact. However, he said: "There seems to be something happening in the brain as we age which makes it react to oestrogens in the opposite way to what we would expect." The latest study also found that eating tempe, a fermented soy product made from the whole soy bean, was associated with better memory. Professor Hogervorst said the beneficial effect of tempe might be related to the fact that it contains high levels of the vitamin folate, which is known to reduce dementia risk. "It may be that that the interaction between high levels of both folate and phytoestrogens protects against cognitive impairment." She also stressed that there was no suggestion that eating tofu in moderation posed a problem. Rebecca Wood, of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, which funded the study, said more research was needed to pin down the potential risks and benefits of so-called superfoods. However, she said: "This kind of research into the causes of Alzheimer's could lead scientists to new ways of preventing this devastating disease. "As over half a million people have Alzheimer's in the UK today, there is a desperate need to find a new prevention or cure."

Kolkata Beggar now Bank Account Holder

A bank in the Indian city of Calcutta has opened an account for a beggar who deposited 91kg of coins in one of the bank's branches. Laxmi Das says she has been saving the coins since she started begging more than 40 years ago as a disabled child because of an early attack of polio.

"I saved for the days when I cannot beg," she said.

"I knew one day I would grow old and have diseases, so I was prudent and saved for my pension."

Now the fruits of her labour from a busy traffic intersection in north Calcutta have been realised.

"She can be projected as a role model to encourage people to begin saving," said TK Haldar, manager of the Central Bank of India's Maniktola branch.

Ms Das says that she has been prudent and saved

"Her efforts show that you can save even if you earn a pittance."

Mr Haldar said Ms Das now has a bank account and those who want to help her can send in account payee cheques in her name to his bank branch.

Several people have written to the BBC News website offering financial help to Ms Das after her story first appeared earlier this week.

Ms Das began begging aged 16 and saved coins in iron buckets at her home in a shanty town near the crossing.

In all, she collected four buckets of coins of all denominations. Some were minted as far back as 1961 and were clearly out of date. But bank officials said they would still accept them as legal tender.

It took staff - more used to counting notes - three days to count all the coins.

"But be it a billionaire or a beggar, our doors are open for all," said bank spokesman Shantanu Neogy.

Ms Das was encouraged to deposit the money by police who feared it could have been stolen from her home.

She chose to ignore - or did not know about - a thriving racket in this part of the world in which old Indian coins are smuggled and melted down in Bangladesh to make razor blades that sell for up to seven times their value as coins.

The practice has caused an acute coin shortage in eastern India, forcing government mints to cut down on the amount of metal they use to make the coins.

Tata Motors to introduce Air Car - Is it the next big thing?

Tata Motors is taking giant strides and making history for itself. First the Landrover-Jaguar deal, then the world's cheapest car and now it is also set to introduce the car that runs on air, compressed air to be specific.With fuel prices touching nearly $150 per barrel, it is about time we heard some breakthrough!

India's largest automaker Tata Motors is set to start producing the world's first commercial air-powered vehicle. The Air Car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy Nègre for Luxembourg-based MDI, uses compressed air, as opposed to the gas-and-oxygen explosions of internal-combustion models, to push its engine's pistons. Some 6000 zero-emissions Air Cars are scheduled to hit Indian streets in August of 2008.

The Air Car, called the MiniCAT could cost around Rs. 3,50,000 ($ 8177) in India and would have a range of around 300 km between refuels.

The cost of a refill would be about Rs. 85 ($ 2). Tata motors also plans to launch the world's cheapest car, Tata Nano priced famously at One lakh rupees by October.

The MiniCAT which is a simple, light urban car, with a tubular chassis that is glued not welded and a body of fiberglass powered by compressed air. Microcontrollers are used in every device in the car, so one tiny radio transmitter sends instructions to the lights, indicators etc.
There are no keys - just an access card which can be read by the car from your pocket. According to the designers, it costs less than 50 rupees per 100Km (about a tenth that of a petrol car). Its mileage is about double that of the most advanced electric car (200 to 300 km or 10 hours of driving), a factor which makes a perfect choice in cities where the 80% of motorists drive at less than 60Km. The car has a top speed of 105 kmph. Refilling the car will, once the market develops, take place at adapted petrol stations to administer compressed air. In two or three minutes, and at a cost of approximately 100 rupees, the car will be ready to go another 200-300 kilometers.

As a viable alternative, the car carries a small compressor which can be connected to the mains (220V or 380V) and refill the tank in 3-4 hours. Due to the absence of combustion and, consequently, of residues, changing the oil (1 litre of vegetable oil) is necessary only every 50,000Km.] The temperature of the clean air expelled by the exhaust pipe is between 0-15 degrees below zero, which makes it suitable for use by the internal air conditioning system with no need for gases or loss of power.

Indian Guinness IVF Mom at 70

A 70-year-old woman in India is reportedly the world’s oldest woman to give birth, when she had twins last week. The girl and boy babies were delivered one month early by emergency caesarean section but are reportedly alive and well after being transferred to specialist neonatal care at Jaswant Roy Speciality Hospital.
Omkari Panwar and her 77-year-old husband, Charan Singh Panwar, have two grown daughters and five grandchildren but wanted a male heir and sought IVF assistance, according to newspaper reports. ‘The treatment cost me a fortune but the birth of a son makes it all worthwhile. I can die a happy man and a proud father,’ said Charan, a retired farmer, who told reporters that he mortgaged his land, spent his life savings, sold his buffalos and obtained a credit card loan to afford the IVF treatment costing INR 350,000.
Journalists were unable to verify Omkari Panwar’s age because she does not have a birth certificate and does not know her birth-date. Instead, her recollection that she was nine years old at the time of Indian independence in 1947 has been used to determine her age to be 70. If accurate, then Omkari is four years older than the 66-year-old Romanian woman, Adriana Iliescu, who previously was believed to be the oldest woman to give birth when she had a daughter in 2005. Britain’s oldest mother is Patricia Rashbrook, who gave birth to a son in 2006 aged 62, after paying INR 800,000 for IVF treatment in Russia.
Omkari dismissed any awareness of the record and fails to see its ‘benefit’: ‘If I am the world’s oldest mother it means nothing to me. I just want to see my new babies and care for them while I am still able’. Critics of post-menopausal motherhood say that they should not be allowed to receive fertility treatment because of increased health risks to mother and child. Others question the ability of geriatric parents to cope with young children and the harm of early parental bereavement.

Pre-birth apples 'benefit babies'

Children of mothers who eat plenty of apples during pregnancy are less likely to develop asthma, research suggests. The University of Aberdeen project quizzed 2,000 mothers-to-be on their eating habits, then looked at their child's health over five years. They found that those who ate four or more apples a week were half as likely to have an asthmatic child compared with those who ate one or fewer. The study was presented at the American Thoracic Society conference.
This study suggests a simple modification that can be made to a pregnant mother's diet which may help protect her child from developing asthma. The researchers also found a link between eating more fish in pregnancy, and a lower chance of their child developing the allergic skin condition eczema. Women who ate one or more portions of any type of fish during pregnancy weekly had almost half the chance of having a child diagnosed with eczema within the first five years.There are no firm clues as to why apples and fish might be able to produce this benefit - no other foodstuffs were linked to decreases in asthma or eczema. However, apples are already linked to better lung health when taken by adults, perhaps due to their antioxidant properties, and oily fish in particular contain Omega-3 oils, which, it has been suggested, offer health benefits.

It is, however, notoriously difficult to uncover links between maternal diet and child health, given the numerous other factors which may be involved in the development of diseases such as asthma and eczema. The Aberdeen team has a group of 2,000 women, who, more than five years ago, monitored their food intake during pregnancy, and then allowed researchers to see what happened to their children. The project, funded by the charity Asthma UK, has previously revealed links between vitamin consumption in pregnancy and lower levels of asthma. This time, they feel that while the apparently strong link between apples and asthma does not prove that eating the fruit is the cause of lower asthma rates in children, it does offer a strong argument for a balanced diet during pregnancy. Dr Graham Devereux, one of the lead researchers, said: "There may well be another factor in the lifestyles of women who eat lots of apples that is influencing this result. "But it is certainly a clear association, and it is certainly less controversial to encourage women to eat more fruit during pregnancy rather than to take extra vitamins."

Dr Victoria King, Research Development Manager at Asthma UK says: 'This study suggests a simple modification that can be made to a pregnant mother's diet which may help protect her child from developing asthma before the age of five.

"The study supports our advice to pregnant mothers to eat a healthy, balanced diet.

"One in ten children in the UK has asthma so it is vital to continue funding research that could reduce the incidence of childhood asthma.'