China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Entropy and Healthcare in a Pandemic
Published in Lesley Kuhn, Kieran Le Plastrier, Managing Complexity in Healthcare, 2022
Lesley Kuhn, Kieran Le Plastrier
A range of alternative misinformation narratives emerged in certain sectors of societies, where there was not the requisite trust in authorities, nor the educational experience necessary to grasp the medical explanations about COVID-19, its treatment and mitigation of spread. For example, as a medical doctor, one of us (Le Plastrier), recalls patients repeatedly asking him if breathing techniques, lemon juice, and herbal supplements, being promulgated as a reliable defence against COVID-19, were true. The source of those claims was a Facebook post purporting to have been created by a ‘Chinese scientist’ who had studied the effects of the virus in China during the early pandemic. Similarly, in India, ‘consuming cow urine and Gangaajal (water of the Ganga river), clapping and beating utensils and performing religious rituals’ were promulgated (Vysakh and Babu, 2021). These misinformation narratives serve to (temporarily) ease the entropy production associated with fear of the disease, by providing people with alleged, distinct protective measures available within their personal sphere of control. However, that the suggested protective measures are incorrect, and even harmful, meant that over time, entropic production would increase, either through adherents becoming ill with COVID-19 (because they have relied on these measures rather than those based on scientific evidence), or by them succumbing to other diseases related to the proposed ‘protections’ (such as salmonella infections acquired from cow dung or the Ganga river).
Food selection
Published in Geoffrey P. Webb, Nutrition, 2019
The conclusion that a taboo is harmful should be based upon a wide analysis of its impact. Fieldhouse (1995) used the example of the Hindu sacred cow to make this point. There are nearly 200 million cows in India and yet their slaughter for food is generally forbidden even in times of famine – illogical? harmful? He points out that cows provide milk and their dead carcasses provide leather and are used as food by the lower castes. Cows provide the oxen traditionally vital for Indian agriculture; cow dung is also a major source of fuel and fertiliser in rural India. Yet they scavenge much of their food which is basically inedible to humans. The conclusion that this taboo is harmful is now less secure and the value of the taboo in preventing destruction of these valuable and well-adapted animals in adverse conditions is, at least, arguable.
Chitrak
Published in H.S. Puri, Rasayana, 2002
The root is blackish brown, knotted with horny fracture. It tastes pungent and bitter, causing a tingling sensation. Fresh roots have been advised but usually the dry ones are used. In south India (Shanavaskhan, 1997) the roots are detoxified before use by treating chopped root pieces repeatedly with fresh lime water. With this treatment, the root turns red first, but with repeated washing the red colour fades away. In another method, root pieces are boiled in dilute cow dung solution. (The fresh root acts as a vesicant and cause inflammation and blisters. If this happen, an antidote of 5 g of Asparagus root with 200 ml of drinking yogurt is given.)
Transparent scientific reporting is imperative during the pandemic
Published in Pathogens and Global Health, 2021
Govindasamy Agoramoorthy, Minna J Hsu, Pochuen Shieh
Scientists have criticized the government for supporting Hindu pride promoting pseudoscience. The Department of Science and Technology encouraged research studies on cow dung and urine to confirm their therapeutic values to cure diseases, including for the COVID-19. Also, 50 traditional medicine companies were falsely advertising traditional medicines as immunity boosters to cure the coronavirus. This violates the government order passed in March 2020 that explicitly prohibits false publicity (https://www.ayush.gov.in/docs/121.pdf). To make matters worse, the Chief Minister of India’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh, stated that people can prevent COVID-19 infection through controlling mental stress by means of yoga [7]. India has a tradition of using yoga and ayurvedic medicines to enhance human health and to ease diseases [8]. But, a scientific report has declared that the experiments done in India are 25 times more likely to result in positive conclusions than other countries [9]. Problems associated to India’s traditional medicine research include lack of randomized controlled clinical trials, weak sample size, inadequate group comparisons, toxicity risks and safety concerns [10,11]. Therefore, randomized controlled clinical trials are promptly needed to vigorously validate the claims of yoga and ayurvedic medicines to mitigate COVID-19.
A review on hemato-biochemical, accumulation and patho-morphological responses of arsenic toxicity in ruminants
Published in Toxin Reviews, 2019
Muhammad Zubair, Christopher Joseph Martyniuk
The application of arsenic as insecticides and pesticides for crop production, as well as the natural levels found in food, can act as a source of contamination up through the food chain (Arslan et al.2017). Excess amounts of arsenic can be taken up by plants and subsequently transferred into the food chain, causing severe adverse effects to animal and human health (Somasundaram et al.2005). In arsenic contaminated areas, livestock are exposed to toxic levels of arsenic, in a route of exposure similar to that for humans. Other than drinking water, feed materials are also considered to be a source of arsenic exposure for cattle in contaminated areas. For example, environmental contamination of arsenic can occur through domestic and agricultural use of cow dung to fertilize agriculture (Pal et al.2007). This is the first review focused on arsenic in livestock, a review that is timely because this metalloid has become one of the most concerning sources of toxicity to large ruminants in recent years. The objective of this review is to synthesize current knowledge as to the effects of arsenic on blood, serum biochemical constituents, and histopathology in small and large ruminants and to highlight natural exposure scenarios for livestock.
Acute and sublethal effects of organophosphate insecticide chlorpyrifos on freshwater fish Oreochromis niloticus
Published in Drug and Chemical Toxicology, 2019
Rajib Majumder, Anilava Kaviraj
Bioassays were conducted in 400 L outdoor cement vat each with a 3-cm thick layer of uncontaminated soil mixed with cow dung at the bottom. The vats were then filled with water and kept undisturbed for one month, which ensured growth of planktons as the natural food for the test fish. Thirty numbers of fingerlings of O. niloticus, irrespective of sex, were stocked in each vat and were acclimatized for one week before the start of the experiments. Altogether nine vats were arranged according to randomized block design so that fingerlings could be reared in three replicates for each of the three test concentrations (0, 12.0, and 25.0 µg/L) of chlorpyrifos (20% EC). Treatments of the chlorpyrifos were made on day 1 of the experiment (initial treatment) and 20% of the test medium was renewed at 10 days interval. The experiment was continued for 90 days. During the experiments the fish were hand fed, daily at 8.0 A.M. and 4.0 P.M., a formulated diet containing 30% crude protein up to apparent satiation of the fish. Observations were made daily on the behavior and mortality of the experimental fish. Water samples were collected from each vat every 15 days and dissolved oxygen, free carbon dioxide, temperature, total hardness and total alkalinity of the sampled water were determined by standard method (APHA 1995). All fish sampled at the end of 90 days and length (cm) and weight (g) of the sampled fish were recorded. Three sampled fish from each vat were subjected to biochemical analyzes to determine crude protein, crude lipid and ash content of the fish following the AOAC method (Helrich 1990). Growth was determined from percent increase in weight, specific growth rate (SGR), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and apparent net protein utilization (ANPU) using standard formulae (Bagenal 1978, Castell and Tiews 1980, Adams and Mclean 1985, Steffens 1989).