In what could pave the way for early detection of ovarian cancer, scientists claim to have pinpointed new genetic variants which are associated with the risk of developing the disease in women.

An international team, led by Queensland Institute of Medical Research, has identified the genetic variants after comparing genes of 10,283 women with ovarian cancer to 13,185 women without the disease.

Prof Georgia Chenevix-Trench, who led the team, said:"We now have more powerful genetic techniques that enable us to detect small genetics changes that impact our health.

"The study identified five different stretches of DNA that contained single code variations, known as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) -- that were associated with ovarian cancer risk.

"This is the equivalent of finding five individual spelling mistakes in over 200,000 pages of text. Four of the five new DNA variations were more common in women who had developed the most common and aggressive form of disease known as serous ovarian cancer."

A miracle baby struck down by meningitis has survived despite suffering seven heart attacks in one night.

Ivan Cawley shouldn't have made it through the night after enduring the staggering number of cardiac arrests - including one where his parents lost him for 12 minutes.

Mother and father Sade Jackson, 20, and Phillip Cawley, 24, were told to say goodbye to their first-born after medics said there was little chance of survival.


Sade told how the ten-month-old was left temporarily paralysed and hooked up to a ventilator within hours of contracting the deadly disease.

But now he has one final check-up and should be given the all-clear next week, just two months after his ordeal throughout the night of July 4 and 5.

Sade, of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, said: 'Everything was going fine. I'd had no complications in pregnancy and he was born a healthy 7lb 1oz. We were settling in to being first-time parents.

'It was a Sunday night and we put him to bed as normal and he was fine. But then when he woke up at around 4.30am he was drenched with sweat and his skin felt like it was on fire but at the same time shivering.

'It was really scary. We waited for the doctors to open and took him down straight away.


I had seen a little dot on his belly when I was changing him earlier that day and the doctors said it could be the start of chicken pox, but told us we should go and get him checked out straight away at the hospital.

'At this point we didn't really know what to think - we didn't know what was happening, just that we had to get him seen as soon as possible.'

Over the next few hours more spots developed over Ivan's little body and he was transferred to intensive care at Sheffield Children's Hospital as his functions shut down.

Medics told Ivan's parents that he was critically ill and they were not sure whether he was going to make it through the night.

He then battled through seven cardiac arrests over the course of around eight hours, but each time came round as medics continued to administer oxygen and CPR.

Sade said: 'It was a really horrible time - the longest few hours. It's hard to sum it up really and put into words how we felt.

'It was awful seeing our little baby lying there with all these tubes coming out of him and looking so ill and weak.

'The doctors told us he probably wouldn't make it but him and the doctors kept battling. We lost him for 12 minutes during one of his attacks but amazingly he even pulled through that.'

Ivan was put on a ventilator to keep him alive and he spent the next seven days in intensive care.

Sade said: 'We were told that the worst could happen and to be honest we just thought he wasn't ever going to come round.

'It was the best feeling in the world when he started to show signs he was able to breathe for himself - the hospital staff were amazed by how well he was doing, they said he was a miracle.

'He was transferred to a normal ward and he was getting back to his normal happy self. We felt so lucky to still have him.'

Since his recovery, I van has made a speedy recovery and is back to his usual self as an active and lively little boy.

Sade said: 'He's all over the place now. He has even started to crawl since we have had him back at home. He just has one more check-up at the hospital to go and then we're totally in the clear. It's amazing.'

To thank the Children's Hospital, Sade and Phillip organised a fundraising day at their local pub.

The Capital remained firmly in the grip of dengue, with 68 more patients testing positive for the vector-borne disease on Friday. With this, the total number of cases has touched 2,153.

Delhi has reported five dengue deaths this season. During the same period last year, the number of cases of the vector-borne disease in the city was only 18, while it was 294 and 52 in the corresponding periods of 2008 and 2007.

Civic bodies are attributing the rapid increase in dengue cases this season to the prolonged monsoon and stagnation of water at Games construction sites.

The dengue outbreak has also caused concern among several countries, which are supposed to send teams for participating in the Games. The government has reassured them that all possible steps are being taken to tackle the menace, and the Capital is safe for holding the event.

The Delhi high court slammed the Centre on Wednesday for introducing "irrational" vaccines without conducting research. It directed the Centre to consider every aspect before launching any vaccine into the national immunisation programme.

"The government should look into the side-effects of the vaccine and the costs involved in introducing it," a division bench of chief justice Dipak Misra and justice Manmohan said. The bench has asked the government to formulate a policy and has slated the matter for hearing on December 8.

The government has already constituted a high-level committee headed by scientist Dr NK Ganguly to study the new vaccination policy, additional solicitor general AS Chandhiok told the bench.

The court was hearing a petition filed by retired health secretary KB Saxena, who alleged the government "in the absence of a rational vaccine policy, was introducing newer vaccines having little or no utility into the national immunisation programme, at the behest of vested interests" such as WHO without proper research.

Saxena's plea sought a stay on the introduction of Hepatitis B, Pneumococcal, Hib and Pentavalent vaccines in the universal immunisation programme, till the time an independent body, devoid of conflict of interest, carries out requisite studies.

"At a time when the government has failed to ensure every child receives these vaccines, new vaccines of questionable utility and efficacy are being introduced in an arbitrary and irrational manner, and at huge cost," advocate Prashant Bhushan argued.

The petitioners have, therefore, sought judicial intervention for the formulation of a "rule-based rational vaccine policy".

Cholera and other water-borne diseases that have claimed 39 lives since August have infected 355 more people in Orissa's Rayagada district, an official said Wednesday.

According to the latest data the state health control room received Wednesday night from the district, the number of people and villages affected by the diseases have risen from 784 to 1,139 and from 156 to 240 respectively.

However, there has been no report of fresh deaths from the district. 'The death toll remains at 39,' an official of the control room told IANS.

Cholera and diarrhoea outbreaks are not new in Rayagada district, which has been visited by the water-borne diseases almost every monsoon as rainwater slush from hilltops contaminates water sources.

The district, some 390 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, is among the most underdeveloped parts of the country and is often in the news for starvation deaths.