There is some respite for cancer patients. The government has decided to allocate Rs 2,400 crore for the National Cancer Control
Programme in the 11th five-year plan.

Twenty-seven regional cancer centres and 40 oncology wing institutes run under the programme. Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union minister of health and family welfare, said, "In the 11th five-year plan, the allocation of money for this programme is about 10 times more than the previous plan. The focus this time will be on community-based cancer prevention and control strategies, especially on early detection of breast and cervical cancer,'' he said. The health minister also inaugurated a `Cancer Centre on Wheels'-an initiative by Tata Memorial Centre on Sunday.

The mobile van will cover Mumbai and surrounding areas. It will educate and screen about five lakh women for cervical and breast cancer.

Meanwhile, the health ministry has established the `Health Minister's Cancer Patient' to alleviate the financial burden on BPL cancer patients. "The fund has been established by the government with the seed money of Rs 100 crore. Through this fund, a BPL patient can get up to Rs 1 lakh,'' Azad said.

He added that India has a quarter of the world burden with 1,32,000 new cases and 74,000 deaths per year. "This is due to lack of awareness among women. At least one third of all cancers can be prevented and one third can be detected in time and treated,'' Azad said.

People with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have a more than two-fold higher risk of heart disease.

Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the immune system confuses its own healthy tissues with foreign tissues and sometimes attacks both. The condition can manifest as a skin rash or arthritis and may lead to damage to the kidneys, heart, lungs and brain to varying degrees. The disorder disproportionately affects more women.

Despite improved life expectancy in the past few decades, increased heart-related illness and death among people with lupus has been documented in several studies.

Researchers examined ties between lupus and cardiovascular disease among 119,332 women (American nurses), who were free of cardiovascular disease and lupus in 1976, were included in the study and were followed until 2004. Over 28 years of follow-up, there were 8,169 cardiovascular events, such as heart attack, stroke. Lupus was confirmed in 148 women and 20 of these women experienced a cardiovascular event. After allowing for multiple factors, having lupus was associated with a 2.3 fold heightened risk of suffering a cardiovascular event.

The researchers point out that the high risk of cardiovascular disease in lupus patients is probably caused by a combination of factors. While traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors are more prevalent in people with lupus, this does not fully explain the risk. It is unclear whether lupus itself or its treatment increases the risk.

Surely the disease of Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) needs no introduction. It is a chronic, systemic inflammatory disorder that has the capacity to affect many tissues and organs, but mainly attacks the joints producing an inflammatory synovitis that often progresses to destruction of the articular cartilage and ankylosis of the joints.

Apart from this, the disease is also known to lead to an assortment of problems, especially diffusion of inflammation in the lungs, pericardium, pleura, and sclera, and also nodular lesions, most common in subcutaneous tissue under the skin.

What is more, even though the cause of rheumatoid arthritis is obscure yet, autoimmunity plays a decisive role in its chronicity and progression.

Perhaps, in spite of naivety in the past, you have got some info by now. Let's make other facts clear as well. Isn't arthritis an old person's disease? This is also a very relevant question and asked by many. Well, it is unlike osteoarthritis, which is caused by wear and tear of the joints and usually affects the over-50s. On the contrary, Rheumatoid arthritis is basically an autoimmune disease, where the immune system goes into opposite and attacks certain parts of the body in place of protecting it.

Only in the realm of UK, in the region of 400,000 people has become vulnerable to the disease and it seems that a spate of the same is imminent. Try to note this down too. The dominance of the disease is three times more in women and can run in families.

What are the common symptoms? Symptoms range from very soft to severe and disabling. Joints become swollen and extremely agonizing and it can also affect organs such as the heart, lungs and eyes. Rheumatoid arthritis can start all of a sudden, but more often symptoms develop gradually. Persistent inflammation does exist also and can bring about joint damage over time and the joint may have to be replaced in severe cases.

Hence, if you are having any of the above-mentioned symptoms, it's time for you to contact the general practitioner in close proximity.

The national capital is seeing an alarming rise in the number of dengue cases, with 18 new cases reported Thursday. This takes the total number of confirmed cases of the vector-borne disease to 320, health officials said here.

'The number of dengue cases is rising. But considering that October is a time when dengue generally spreads fast because of the ideal atmosphere, the numbers are still lower than last year,' said N.K. Yadav, chief medical officer of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

On an average there have been 18-20 cases reported every day in the past few days, he added.

Until now, there have been two deaths reported because of the disease - a 15-year-old boy and a nine-year-old boy.

Delhi Health Secretary J.P. Singh said: 'The number of dengue cases in the capital is rising. However, the numbers are almost one-fifth of what was last year. We are taking all precautionary measures to check the spread of the disease like awareness programmes and doing door-to-door checks to stop mosquito breeding.'

However, doctors from private hospitals and pathological laboratories said that the number of dengue cases is much more than what has been reported.

An official of Dr. Dang's, a pathological laboratory said: 'All the numbers that the MCD has been quoting is only of those cases which have been confirmed in government hospitals. But if you go to any private hospital you will see that they are choc-a-bloc with dengue affected patients.'

President Barack Obama declared the swine flu outbreak a national emergency, giving his health chief the power to let hospitals move emergency rooms offsite to speed treatment and protect noninfected patients.

The declaration, signed Friday night and announced Saturday, comes with the disease more prevalent than ever in the country and production delays undercutting the government's initial, optimistic estimates that as many as 120 million doses of the vaccine could be available by mid-October.

Health authorities say more than 1,000 people in the United States, including almost 100 children, have died from the strain of flu known as H1N1, and 46 states have widespread flu activity. So far only 11 million doses have gone out to health departments, doctor's offices and other providers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials.

Administration officials said the declaration was a pre-emptive move designed to make decisions easier when they need to be made. Officials said the move was not in response to any single development.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius now has authority to bypass federal rules when opening alternative care sites, such as offsite hospital centers at schools or community centers if hospitals seek permission.

Some hospitals have opened drive-thrus and drive-up tent clinics to screen and treat swine flu patients. The idea is to keep infectious people out of regular emergency rooms and away from other sick patients.

Hospitals could modify patient rules - for example, requiring them to give less information during a hectic time - to quicken access to treatment, with government approval, under the declaration.

It also addresses a financial question for hospitals - reimbursement for treating people at sites not typically approved. For instance, federal rules do not allow hospitals to put up treatment tents more than 250 yards away from the doors; if the tents are 300 yards or more away, typically federal dollars won't go to pay for treatment.

Administration officials said those rules might not make sense while fighting the swine flu, especially if the best piece of pavement is in the middle of a parking lot and some medical centers already are putting in place parts of their emergency plans.

The national emergency declaration was the second of two steps needed to give Sebelius extraordinary powers during a crisis.

On April 26, the administration declared swine flu a public health emergency, allowing the shipment of roughly 12 million doses of flu-fighting medications from a federal stockpile to states in case they eventually needed them. At the time, there were 20 confirmed cases in the U.S. of people recovering easily. There was no vaccine against swine flu, but the CDC had taken the initial step necessary for producing one.

"As a nation, we have prepared at all levels of government, and as individuals and communities, taking unprecedented steps to counter the emerging pandemic," Obama wrote in Saturday's declaration.

He said the pandemic keeps evolving, the rates of illness are rising rapidly in many areas and there's a potential "to overburden health care resources."

The government now hopes to have about 50 million doses of swine flu vaccine out by mid-November and 150 million in December. The flu virus has to be grown in chicken eggs, and the yield hasn't been as high as was initially hoped, officials have said.

"Many millions" of Americans have had swine flu so far, according to an estimate that CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden gave Friday. The government doesn't test everyone to confirm swine flu so it doesn't have an exact count. He also said there have been more than 20,000 hospitalizations.