Plan to utilize equipment at university for swine flu test

The State Health Department is planning to use the advanced laboratory equipment available at Madurai Kamaraj University for conducting swine flu tests.

Since the requisite machines for testing the samples were not available in private hospitals in the city, the officials of Directorate of Public Health have approached the university which has the ‘Real Time-PCR Test’ equipment needed to carry out A (H1N1) influenza tests.

Official sources told The Hindu here on Sunday that a team of health officials visited the MKU on Saturday to assess whether the proposal was feasible. The university has two PCR machine at the laboratories in School of Biological Sciences and the School of Biotechnology.

Asked about the proposed move by the Health Department, Vice-Chancellor R.Karpaga Kumaravel said, “The University is ready to extend its facility if the State Government is satisfied with our laboratory equipment. We have a social obligation to support the Health Department.”

A two-member team comprising Deputy Director of Health Services A. Palanichamy and faculty member of Madurai Medical College Jhansi Charles visited the university’s ascertain if the university’s equipment met the specifications given the Directorate of Public Health.

Even while agreeing to share the infrastructure, Dr.Karpaga Kumaravel said that the Health Department must arrange for the requisite trained manpower to carry out the swine flu tests.

When contacted, the Director of Public Health S.Elango said that the university would be the immediate option available for diagnosing swine flu. A senior faculty member at the university in the field of genomics P. Gunasekaran said that the Health Department has asked for BSL-3 bio-safety specification whereas the Real TimePCR machine in the university was only of bio-safety-2 level. “Our university is working in the field of molecular biology and not in pathogenic levels. Since the handling of machine is different in the case of swine flu, it is for the Health Department to decide. They will have to upgrade our PCR machine,” Dr. Gunasekaran said.

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History of massage

Massage has been introduced to the people right from ancient era. It is also considered as the simple form of medical care. The earliest writing of massage was found in china around 3000 BC. A Chinese book named “The Yellow Emperor’s classic of Internal Medicine” pictures the treatment of common ailments during the second century BC.

In India, massage has been done under Ayurveda with the uses of aromatic oils and spices. It is very fame in India. In the 6^th century AD, the Japanese further developed the art of massage to manipulate energy and discourage diseases. Then the massage traveled west ward to the ancient Greece and Rome. Then massage has been passed on the hands of physicians to treat various aliments in the 16^th century. Massage techniques has been spread all over the world including Japan, US, and Egypt.

Swedish massage which is more familiar to US was developed by a doctor named Per Henrik Ling. He borrowed the techniques from various countries like china, Egypt, Greece and Rome. Today Swedish massage was developed combining modern principles of physiology with ancient techniques.

The patients who were suffering from nerve damage during World War I were highly treated with massage to soothe pain and stress. In the 5^th century B.C.E in Greece, Hippocrates, the father of western medicine write that “a physician must be experienced in many things”. He insisted that massage techniques can travel along with fresh air, good food, baths and music. Thus helps to treat the disease easy.

Today it is widely accepted that massage has something for every one from infants to the elderly people. Children, pregnant women, manual laborers, office workers, school and college pupils – can benefit from massage. Massage is also now used in intensive care units, babies in incubators, and patients with cancer, AIDS, heart attacks, strokes. It has been frequently offered in massage parlors, health centers, drug treatment clinics and hospitals.

In this mechanical world all sorts of people are tilled with tension, stress, anxiety and depression including house wives and servant maids. There is one place to cool down both the body and mind- it is obviously massage parlors. Now many people are largely rely on massage parlors to keep them cool and relax.

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