KATHMANDU: This day marks the world cancer day. People from various walks of life are participating across the world to raise awareness against the deadly disease. The theme of cancer day this year is, ‘We can, I can.’ Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally which claimed around 9.6 million deaths, according to WHO. It maintains that around 70 percent of death by cancer occurs in low and middle-income countries.

KATHMANDU: Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s statement on the Venezuelan political crisis has drawn flak from the main opposition, Nepali Congress.

Labeling Dahal’s statement as “immature,” the NC lambasted the ruling party of issuing a statement that is “against Nepal’s national interest.” A parliamentary party meeting of the party on Sunday criticized Dahal’s strong-worded statement, which had earlier slammed the US government for intervening in the internal affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

A statement issued after the meeting said that the NC expresses serious concern over Dahal’s stance on the Venezuelan political crisis. Meanwhile, addressing the parliament, NC youth leader Gagan Thapa came down heavily on the government and the Chairman of NCP for issuing an irresponsible and unwarranted statement on the political crisis in Venezuela. However, the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) has been defending Dahal’s statement saying that the political crisis in Venezuela has to be “resolved internally.”

Meanwhile, the US had inquired about the statement with Nepal’s ambassador to USA Arjun Karki at the Department of State in Washington DC. The US government, which dubbed Dahal’s statement as ‘unfair’ also sought clarification from some senior leaders of the ruling NCP asking whether Dahal’s statement reflected the government’s position.

Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) statement, which has stressed on the need for resolving the political crisis in Venezuela without “external interference” has failed to impress the US officials.

KATHMANDU: The government has appointed Nilambar Acharya, a former minister, as Nepal’s ambassador to India. President Bidya Devi Bhandari appointed Acharya to the post at the recommendation of the Council of Ministers as per the Article 282 (1) of the Constitution of Nepal on Sunday.

The post had been vacant after Deep Kumar Upadhyay stepped down from the post almost a year ago.

MAHOTTARI: A first class non-gazatted official working at Land Revenue Office in Mahottari was held red-handed along with Rs 10,000 in bribe money. Nayab Subba Dhak Bahadur Karki was held by a team of the anti-graft body Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) on Saturday afternoon. He is charged of accepting bribe money from a service seeker while managing documents in regard to land.
The CIAA Office based in Bardibas said that Karki would be booked as per the Corruption Control Act. It is said that Nayab Subba Karki was transferred to the Mahottari Land Revenue Office just some months ago.

KATHMANDU: The Maiti Nepal, a NGO working against human trafficking, has rescued 37 Nepali women in the past three days from India. They were rescued with the help of Delhi Women’s Commission and Rescue Foundation in India, according to Maiti Nepal Information Officer Achyut Nepal. The women were reportedly being taken to Dubai, UAE and Iraq via Myanmar. The Maiti Nepal had reportedly received an anonymous email that led to the rescue. Those rescued will be handed over to their family following the due process, Nepal said.

Hong Kong scientists claim they have made a potential breakthrough discovery in the fight against infectious diseases – a chemical that could slow the spread of deadly viral illnesses. A team from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) described the newly-discovered chemical as “highly potent in interrupting the life cycle of diverse viruses” in a study published in January 2019 in the journal Nature Communications.

The scientists said that it could one day be used as a broad-spectrum antiviral for a host of infectious diseases – and even for viruses that have yet to emerge – if it passes clinical trials. The spread in recent decades of sometimes deadly bird flu strains, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) have underscored the need for new drugs that can work more quickly than vaccines.

Broad-spectrum antivirals are seen as the holy grail because they can be used against multiple pathogens. In contrast, vaccines usually only protect against one strain, and by the time they are produced, the virus may have mutated. The HKU team tested their chemical called AM580 on mice in a two-year study and found it stopped the replication of a host of flu strains – including H1N1, H5N1 and H7N9 – as well as the viruses that cause SARS and MERS.

It also stopped the replication of the mosquito-borne Zika virus and Enterovirus 71, which causes hand, foot and mouth disease. “This is what we call a broad-spectrum antiviral drug, which means it can kill a number of viruses,” microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung, who led the team, said. “This is quite important in the early control of an epidemic.”

Starving the virus

The study is part of a growing body of research by virologists to find drugs that avoid targeting a virus directly – something that could lead to resistance. Instead, they look for compounds that interrupt the way viruses use crucial fatty acids, known as lipids, within a host’s cells to replicate.

“This study is science in progress – an early step in an exciting new direction,” said Benjamin Neuman, an expert on viruses at Texas A and M University-Texarkana, United States, who has published his own studies on starving viruses of lipids. “Viruses are totally dependent on supplies stolen from their hosts, and a number of recent studies have shown that treatments that interrupt the steady flow of lipids in an infected cell are highly effective at blocking a wide range of viruses,” he said.

The next step is to test the drug on a wider variety of animals, including pigs and primates, before pushing for clinical trials, a process Yuen said could take up to eight years. The HKU team has applied for a patent in the US.

A derivative of AM580 is already being used in Japan to treat cancer, raising hopes that it will show low toxicity for humans.

But Neuman warns there are drawbacks. Like many chemotherapy methods used to fight cancer, antivirals such as AM580 damage a person’s cell starves a virus. While cells can heal, much research still needs to be done on how and when to use such techniques. “Unless the treatment is targeted very carefully, the potential for side effects would be very worrying,” he said. Densely populated Hong Kong has had first-hand experience of deadly viral outbreaks.

In 2003, nearly 300 people died from SARS and the city’s densely packed apartment blocks are considered hugely vulnerable to future outbreaks.

(AFP)

DAMAULI : Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS) Tanahun district chapter organised a health camp for the treatment of different patients with special focus on eye patients at Thuldhunga in Bhanu Municipality-13. In the two-day camp concluded on Wednesday, surgery of 15 cataract patients was carried out for free while 750 plus others received different health care services, President of NRCS Tanahun Krishna Hari Wagle said.
The health camp was orgnaised on the occasion of the Martyrs Day under the empowerment and inclusion programme targeted to physically challenged people from the quake-hit communities of the NRCS with technical assistance from Bhaktapur-based BP Eye Foundation.

KANCHANPUR: Normal life in Kanchanpur has been adversely affected due to the shutdown enforced by youth and student organizations demanding that the unlawful structures constructed on public land be demolished.

Long and short route vehicles from Bhimduttanagar have come to a standstill since early Wednesday morning.

Similarly, educational institutions, market places, and other industrial operations have been closed down.

Passengers have been stranded on the highway due to the shutdown. The student and youth organizations have protested the move of Mahendranagar Town Development Committee for constructing new structures in the name of raising rent by breaching the master plan of Bhimduttanagar.

Nepal Tarun Dal Kanchanpur President Mahesh Chand said they were compelled to hit the street with obduracy from the authorities concerned to remove the illegal structures.

“There has been misuse of public land on the influence of power. The structures have been constructed by violating the process,” he said.

The protesters have demanded to scrap illegal land lease, remove illegally constructed structures and book the office-bearers of town development committee for carrying out unlawful works.

KATHMANDU: A staggering 40 thousand Nepali youth, mostly educated, have migrated to more than 60 countries that are not approved by the Government of Nepal for migrant workers, a government record has revealed. Government officials fear this will put them at a higher risk of exploitation from unscrupulous agents.

Even as the youths are educated, and are aware that travelling on fake documents is risky, they take a chance to newer destinations with new hopes. According to the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security, a substantial number of Nepali youths are working in 171 countries as migrant workers.

Officials say chances of exploitation is higher in countries sans the government’s approval. “There have been cases of gullible youths being exploited by their agents. The government is committed to prevent this,” says Mahesh Prasad Dahal, Secretary at the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security.

While a total 6,12,000 workers migrated to government-authorized countries in 2017/18, a staggering 40 thousand youths flew to new destinations sans government approval such as Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Angola, Tanzania, Cuba, Chile, Hungary, Burundi, Tunisia, Estonia, Albania, Greece, Rwanda, West Indies, Zambia, Laos, Vietnam, Nigeria, East Timor, among others in the same year, reveals a record at the ministry. People traveling to such countries face trouble in lack of valid documents, Dahal said.

This came to the fore last November when nine girls stranded in Tajikistan were rescued and brought to Nepal. According to Dahal, several youths working in government-approved countries prefer to ‘move out’ to new destinations with the hope of making ‘handsome salary and perks’.

The ministry, however, appears to be ignorant and least bothered about how Nepali youths make it to these countries despite being informed about the issue. However, the girls rescued from Tajikistan told the Nepal Police that some ‘agents’ took them to Tajikistan via India. The girls were supposed to land in UAE.

The government has approved 110 countries for migrant workers. According to the ministry data, a total of 1,50,000 youths flew to Gulf countries in the last six months.

Meanwhile, illegal migration to Malaysia and the Gulf countries has been on a rise following the government’s ban on Nepalese women to work as house maids in these countries. Yet, women continue to migrate to banned countries via India and are subject to several forms of exploitation.