More than half of people who died from swine flu or were admitted to hospital with it during the first wave of the H1N1 pandemic in Britain were previously healthy people with no underlying risks, a study has found.

The research findings support many health authorities' policies to prioritise pregnant women, children under the age of 5 and those with long term respiratory problems such as asthma for vaccination against the H1N1 virus known as swine flu.

But they also suggest that everyone with asthma might benefit from vaccination, not just those with severe disease, researchers from the University of Nottingham said.

"Our findings support the use of H1N1 pandemic vaccine in pregnant women, children aged under five years and those with chronic lung disease as a priority, including patients with asthma, regardless of severity," they wrote.

The findings, published on Tuesday in the journal Thorax, a British Medical Journal title, were based on an analysis of clinical data from 55 hospitals in 20 towns and cities in the first wave of the H1N1 pandemic during May to September 2009.

Between late April and late September 2009, data were collected on 631 people with swine flu -- 405 of them adults.

Their ages ranged from 3 months to 90 years. Around 36 percent were under 16 and one in 20 (5 percent) were aged 65 and older and 27 patients, or 4 percent, were pregnant.

This indicates that pregnant women were around three times as likely to require hospital admission once infected with swine flu as women who were not pregnant, the researchers said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said last month that the H1N1 pandemic is not yet over, although its most intense activity has passed in many parts of the world.

Britain was one of the first European countries hit by H1N1, which emerged in Mexico in March 2009 and was declared a pandemic by the WHO in June 2009.

Drug companies such as GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis and Baxter, among others, developed H1N1 vaccines and governments ordered millions of doses for immunisation campaigns to slow the virus' spread.

As in other countries, health authorities set priorities for pregnant women, the sick and the young to be first in line for vaccines, particularly those with lung conditions such as asthma.

The Thorax study found that 55 percent of all hospital admissions and 59 percent of H1N1 deaths in hospital occurred in people with no previous health problems. Just under half of patients had underlying conditions, mostly asthma.

WHO experts have said the H1N1 virus, which has so far claimed at least 18,000 lives worldwide, remains a threat to some vulnerable people, notably pregnant women, young children and those with respiratory problems, and such groups would continue to need vaccinations.

The state government is keeping an eye on airports, railway stations, bus terminals and other transit points to check the spread of swine flu after two children were detected with the disease on Friday.

Five-year-old Salil Naskar of Sonarpur and six-year-old Pranit Roy of Tangra tested positive for swine flu and are under treatment at the isolation ward of Beliaghata ID hospital.

State director of medical education (DME) S N Banerjee said the health department was closely monitoring the situation to prevent the disease from spreading. "We are aware of the problem and have issued necessary instructions to check the spread of the disease," he said.

KMC's health department has also decided to take preventive steps. Chief municipal health officer Debdwipayan Chatterjee on Saturday asked all executive health officials to monitor patients visiting KMC clinics. "If we find patients with symptoms of swine flu such as fever, cough and cold and respiratory problems, we will send them to ID hospital in Beliaghata," said Chatterjee.

An Indian-origin scientist-led team has for the first time demonstrated how the brain's own stem cells and precursor cells control growth of glioblastomas - the most common and most aggressive tumour.

Dr Sridhar Reddy Chirasani of Max Delbrenter for Molecular Medicine Berlin-Buch, Germany, and his colleagues have shown in cell culture and mouse model experiments just how the body's own protective mechanism they identified in an earlier study, actually works, the 'Brain' journal reported.

Glioblastomas are brain tumours that are most common in adults in their mid-fifties or early sixties. The causes for developing the disease are not yet known.

In their research, the scientists showed that the neural stem cells and neural precursor cells release a protein that belongs to the family of the bone morphogenetic protein.

This protein received its name for its ability to induce bone and cartilage tissue formation. However, BMP is active in the entire organism - even in the brain.

Neural stem cells release BMP-7 in the brain in the vicinity of the glioblastoma cells. The protein influences a small population of cancer cells, the so-called tumour stem cells.

A small quantity of these cells is sufficient to form new tumours again even after surgery. BMP-7 induces signalling in the tumour stem cells, causing them to differentiate. This means that they are no longer tumour stem cells.

However, the activity of stem cells in the brain and thus of the body's own protective mechanism against glioblastomas diminishes with increasing age. This could explain why the tumours usually develop in older adults and not in children and young people.

The discovery of the tumour stem cells has led to new concepts in the therapy of glioblastomas.

Heart patients suffering from anxiety disorders are at a higher risk of stroke, heart attack, heart failure and death, according to a new study.

The study, conducted by Elisabeth J. Martens, Ph.D., of Tilburg University , Tilburg, the Netherlands, and colleagues, found that anxiety disorder was associated with a 74 per cent increased risk of cardiovascular events.

Anxiety may be associated with surges in catecholamines, 'fight or flight' hormones that may be related to heart risks, they suggest.

Alternatively, patients with anxiety may be more likely to seek care when they have symptoms and therefore be more likely to receive a diagnosis of stroke or heart attack, although this would not explain the increased risk of death.

"Evaluation and treatment of anxiety may also be considered as part of the comprehensive management of patients with coronary heart disease," the team concludes.

The study appears in Archives of General Psychiatry .

In spite of Maharashtra being the epicenter of the swine flu outbreak last year and currently witnessing over 200 infection cases this monsoon, doctors and public health workers in the state are refusing to take the swine flu vaccine.

Doubts over the effectiveness of the vaccine, the mode of administering it, its possible side-effects, and even automatic immunity gained from working with patients so far are some of the several reasons due to which the paramedical staff refuse to take the vaccination.

Dr Pravin Shingare, a member of the technical advisory committee for H1N1 to the state government, said, "The panel had heard four arguments against the vaccine from doctors: that it did not give long-term protection and worked only for about four months; that an intra-nasal would be launched on Monday; that they had developed immunity; and whether the government would be responsible for any side-effects."

The health ministry's latest policy to control the spread of the virus essentially included the inoculation of public health workers against swine flu as they are more susceptible to contracting and spreading the disease.

However, the policy has been hit hard with the vaccine doses sent for the doctors and workers remaining unused for months.

"Doctors are citing side effects seen in one in a million cases. Then there are questions about what use the vaccine would be if the virus changes, as it does in the second wave," says Dr Arun Jamkar, Dean of Sassoon Hospital, and B J Medical College in Pune.

Not even 2000 vaccines used so far
Due to the high casualty rate witnessed last year in Maharashtra and Pune, the central government had placed an order of 1.5 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine in December last year.

The doses, manufactured by French drug maker Sanofi Pasteur, were specifically to be given to the high-risk group of medical practitioners.

Not even 2000 vaccines of the total 34300 French vaccines purchased by the Maharashtra government at the cost of Rs300 per dose have been used in the last six months, claim records.

"Maharashtra's performance is not at all good. They are doctors and are being given preventive treatment. It does not make any sense why they are not taking it," Union Health Secretary K Sujatha Rao told The Indian Express. "We will be taking up the matter with state health officials."

In Pune, only 411 doses of the 2000 available vaccines have been taken so far.