World Epilepsy Day: All you need to know about the disease

Epilepsy, a chronic non-communicable condition, is a brain disorder that can affect a person of any age.  

 Approximately 50 million people currently live with epilepsy worldwide. According to the WHO, epilepsy accounts for about 0.5% of the global burden of disease. Even though it is one of the world’s oldest recognized conditions, fear and misunderstanding have created a social stigma around it that continues to be manifested as discrimination against people with the disorder.

This chronic non-communicable condition is a brain disorder that can affect a person of any age. Like anyone else, most people who suffer from epilepsy are otherwise normal. Epilepsy can be divided into the following two kinds: focal (or partial) epilepsy and generalized epilepsy. In the former condition, epileptic seizures start from a specific part of the brain and tend to spread across the entire brain, while on the other hand, in case of generalized epilepsy, there are no apparent single foci of the origin of seizures. The diagnosis can be done through High-quality MRI and video EEG.

There are several factors that trigger seizures, including lack of sleep, chronic illness, severe psychological stress, heavy use of alcohol, use of recreational drugs (cocaine, ecstasy), nutritional deficiencies, and in some cases, even menstrual cycle. Missed medication, prescription drugs, OTC medicines, and supplements may also trigger epileptic seizures. Usually, a seizure does not last for more than 1 or 2 minutes. Although an episode tends to end spontaneously, it is not a voluntary action, i.e. a person cannot control the seizure. Contrary to what some believe, a seizure is not dangerous and people who suffer from epilepsy are not harmful to others around them. Additionally, only epileptic drugs can make a seizure stop.

The duration of the treatment of epilepsy is between 3 to 5 years in most patients. In some cases, patients may only require treatment up to one year (neuro-cysticercosis), while on the other hand, some patients may need to continue treatment for many years (even lifelong) like in the case of juvenile myoclonic epilepsy. For the successful treatment of epilepsy, the most important precaution is to take medication on time. This is because suddenly stopping intake of epileptic medication can result in seizure relapse.


Points to keep in mind when someone is having a seizure:

Remove or move objects out of the way so the person won’t get injured

Loosen any tight clothing, especially around the neck

Reposition or place a pillow under their head

Lay the patient on one side once seizure is over

Time the seizure duration

Reassure the patient and stay with them until recovery

No one should hold the person down during the seizure

In case the person turns blue or stops breathing, try to position their head in such a way that they can breathe

CPR or mouth-to-mouth breathing is rarely even needed after seizures and should especially not be performed during the seizure

In case, the seizure lasts longer than five minutes, or gets injured during the episode, or is unconscious, it is advisable to call an ambulance

Epilepsy is treatable in a majority of the cases. Significant improvement can be seen in people on a single drug (though some may require the addition of another drug). In extreme cases, where seizures are non-responsive to medication, surgery is an option. In fact, if seizures are identified to be starting from a single point of the brain, then it can possibly be treated by removing that part of the brain. In the recent years, there are several new and effective antiepileptic drugs available which have lesser side effects.


(This article has been curated and written by Dr. Atmaram Bansal, Senior Consultant, Neurosciences, Medanta - The Medicity)

Ebola virus can persist in human reproductive organs: Study

Ebola virus disease has a maternal death rate of more than 80 percent and a fetal death rate of nearly 100 percent.

A study conducted on macaques revealed that the deadly Ebola virus has the potential to infect human reproductive organs.

The Ebola outbreak that took West Africa by storm from 2013-2016 was the most widespread outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in history and resulted in major loss of life and socio-economic disruption in the region, mainly in the countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

It was also declared an epidemic and a global emergency by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Studies conducted on survivors have revealed sexual transmission of Ebola virus and that viral RNA (Ebola virus genetic material) can persist in semen following recovery.


While little is known about viral persistence in female reproductive tissues, pregnant women with Ebola virus disease has a maternal death rate of more than 80 percent and a fetal death rate of nearly 100 percent.

The new study, published in The American Journal of Pathology, indicated that the Ebola virus can also persist in reproductive organs in both men and women survivors.

The virus may reach reproductive organs with minimal tissue immune response or signs of disease, said researchers from the Thomas Jefferson University in Pennsylvania, US.

For the study, the team infected four female and eight male macaques with the Makona variant of Ebola virus – the variant responsible for the West Africa outbreak.

All the macaques succumbed to Ebola disease and were euthanized six to nine days after the infection.

The reproductive tissue samples from each macaque were analyzed for signs of Ebola virus infection, organ and tissue damage, and immune responses.

The results demonstrated widespread Ebola virus infection of the interstitial tissues and endothelium in the ovary, uterus, testis, seminal vesicle, epididymis and prostate gland, in both male and female macaques.

However, it is unclear if the detection of Ebola virus RNA in semen documented in human studies means that the infectious virus is present, the researchers noted.

Additional research is needed to learn how Ebola virus persists in these sites, to determine if drugs and vaccines can cure or prevent such infections, and to understand the mechanisms of sexual transmission, including why it appears to occur only rarely in humans, they said.

The first known outbreak of EVD was identified only after the fact, occurring between June and November 1976 in Nzara, South Sudan (then part of Sudan), and was caused by Sudan virus (SUDV).

NASA's New Horizons creates history, captures farthest images by any spacecraft

The new images released by NASA on Thursday were captured by New Horizons when the spacecraft was more than 6.12 billion km away.

Recently, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft turned its telescopic camera toward a field of stars and managed to capture record-breaking images in the Kuiper Belt.

By capturing the farthest images from Earth by a spacecraft, New Horizons has made history and surpassed the Voyager 1's record of capturing an image when it was 6.06 billion km away from Earth.

NASA's New Horizons' Pluto flyby brought what is known as the smallest and coldest planet in our solar system - Pluto - into focus in July 2015.

Outlining the dwarf planet's geology and composition, along with details about the unexpected haze in the planet's atmosphere and its interaction with the solar winds, New Horizons has since revolutionized scientists' and the world's understanding of Pluto.


From the planet's icy volcanoes to the activities of its five moons, the probe has given us plenty to think about.

On Thursday, NASA released the new images that were captured by New Horizons when the spacecraft was more than 6.12 billion km away.

"New Horizons has long been a mission of firsts -- first to explore Pluto, first to explore the Kuiper Belt, fastest spacecraft ever launched," said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

"And now, we've been able to make images farther from Earth than any spacecraft in history," Stern said.

The routine calibration frame of the "Wishing Well" galactic open star cluster on December 5 was taken when New Horizons was 6.12 billion km from Earth – making it, for a time, the farthest image ever made from Earth, NASA said.

New Horizons was even farther from home than NASA's Voyager 1 when it captured the famous "Pale Blue Dot" image of Earth.

That picture was part of a composite of 60 images looking back at the solar system, on February 14, 1990, when Voyager was 6.06 billion km from Earth.

Voyager 1's cameras were turned off shortly after that portrait, leaving its distance record unchallenged for more than 27 years.

About two hours later, New Horizons later broke the record again with images of Kuiper Belt objects 2012 HZ84 and 2012 HE85.

They are also the closest-ever images of Kuiper Belt objects.

New Horizons covers more than 1.1 million km of space each day (KBO).

On December 9, 2017, it carried out the most-distant course-correction manoeuver ever, as the mission team guided the spacecraft toward a close encounter with a KBO named 2014 MU69 on January 1, 2019.

The coming New Year's flight past MU69 will be the farthest planetary encounter in history, happening one billion miles beyond the Pluto system – which New Horizons famously explored in July 2015, NASA said.

Breakthrough: In a world's first, human eggs grown to maturity in lab

The technique holds promise specifically for women who have to go through sterilizing treatments such as chemotherapy.

In a massive breakthrough that paves the way for advancement in fertility treatments, scientists have grown human egg cells to full maturity in the lab.

The announcement was made in a study published on Friday, which stated that a new method to grow eggs from very early stage egg cells obtained from ovary tissue was developed by researchers in New York and Edinburgh and were grown to the point at which they could be fertilized.

This had previously been achieved with mouse egg cells, while human eggs had been successfully cultivated starting from a much later stage of development.

"The latest study is the first time a human egg has been developed in the lab from its earliest stage to full maturity," said a statement from the University of Edinburgh.


Experts who did not take part in the research hailed the achievement as promising but stressed it would take years to translate into a safe and proven therapy.

The technique holds promise specifically for women who have to go through sterilizing treatments such as chemotherapy.

It would allow them to freeze early-stage egg cells before undergoing treatment, to be matured in the lab at a later time to be fertilized with sperm to make a baby.

Traditionally, cancer patients can have a piece of the ovary removed before chemotherapy, but reimplanting the tissue later may risk reintroducing cancer.

"This is an elegant piece of work, demonstrating for the first time that human eggs can be grown to maturity in a laboratory," Channa Jayasena of the Imperial College London said in a comment on the study results.

"It would take several years to translate this into a therapy. However, this is an important breakthrough, which could offer hope to women with infertility in the future."

Azim Surani of the University of Cambridge pointed out that the eggs yielded by the research were smaller than normal, and "it might be of interest to test the developmental potential of these eggs".

And Robin Lovell-Badge of The Francis Crick Institute said the procedure was "really quite inefficient", with only nine out of dozens of early-stage cells becoming mature eggs.

Study co-author Evelyn Telfer of the University of Edinburgh said the team was now studying how healthy the eggs are.

"We also hope to find out, subject to regulatory approval, whether they can be fertilized," she said.

The study was published in the journal Molecular Human Reproduction.

If You Want To Refresh Your Phone Background, You Can Choose From Here (40 Pics)

If You Want To Refresh Your Phone Background, You Can Choose From Here (40 pics)

The Norway Spiral

 On December 9, 2009, a curious spiral of blue and white light appeared in the night sky over northern Norway and Sweden, freaking out a section of the public and generating an intense debate among astronomers and scientists as well as conspiracy theorists. Hundreds of people called the Norwegian Meteorological Institute to ask what it was. Everything from anomalous Northern lights, to aliens and trans-dimensional wormhole was suggested. Some even linked the event to the high-energy experiments that was going on at that time at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. The light was seen from all across northern Norway as well as from northern Sweden, and was reported to have lasted for 10 minutes. 

Unlike many alleged UFO sightings that goes unexplained, the mystery of the Norwegian spiral was solved in just 26 hours after the aerial display. The spiraling blue light was caused by a failed test firing of a Russian Bulava missile.

The Russian Ministry of Defence issued an official statement stating that there was a technical malfunction in the third stage of the Bulava missile, causing the exhaust to come out sideways and sending the missile into a spin.

“Such lights and clouds appear from time to time when a missile fails in the upper layers of the atmosphere and have been reported before ... At least this failed test made some nice fireworks for the Norwegians,” said Russian defence analyst Pavel Felgenhauer.

The Bulava is an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) designed to have a range of 10,000 km, but its repeated failures have been a source of embarrassment for Russia. At least six of 13 previous tests (as of 2009) also ended in failure.