Knowledge Update

New Delhi, Feb 27 (IANS) The WHO on Monday said it it has published the first-ever list of antibiotic-resistant "priority pathogens", 12 families of bacteria that pose the greatest threat to human health, to guide and promote research and development of new antibiotics.

The Geneva-based World Health Organisation (WHO) said that list was drawn up as part of its efforts to address growing global resistance to antimicrobial medicines.

According to the global health body, the list is divided into three categories according to the urgency of need for new antibiotics: critical, high and medium priority.

"The most critical group of all includes multi-drug resistant bacteria that pose a particular threat in hospitals, nursing homes, and among patients whose care requires devices such as ventilators and blood catheters. They include Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas and various Enterobacteriaceae (including Klebsiella, E. coli, Serratia, and Proteus)," said a WHO statement.

It said that all the bacteria can cause severe and often deadly infections such as bloodstream infections and pneumonia.

"These bacteria have become resistant to a large number of antibiotics, including carbapenems and third generation cephalosporins - the best available antibiotics for treating multi-drug resistant bacteria," said the report.

The second tier which includes antibiotics of high priority includes for Enterococcus faecium, which is vancomycin-resistant, Staphylococcus aureus which is methicillin-resistant, Helicobacter pylori which is clarithromycin-resistant, Campylobacter spp which is fluoroquinolone-resistant, Salmonellae which is fluoroquinolone-resistant, Neisseria gonorrhoeae which is cephalosporin and fluoroquinolone-resistant.

The third tier which includes medium priority includes Streptococcus pneumoniae which is penicillin-non-susceptible, Haemophilus influenzae, which is ampicillin-resistant and Shigella spp which is fluoroquinolone-resistant.

"This list is a new tool to ensure research and development responds to urgent public health needs," said WHO's Assistant Director-General for Health Systems and Innovation Marie-Paule Kieny in the statement.

Evelina Tacconelli, Head of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Tübingen and a major contributor to the list, said :"New antibiotics targeting this priority list of pathogens will help to reduce deaths due to resistant infections around the world. 

"Waiting any longer will cause further public health problems and dramatically impact on patient care."

London, Feb 26 (IANS) "Benevolent bots" that are designed to improve articles on Wikipedia -- just like humans -- have online "fights" over content that can continue for years, researchers have found.

​Barcelona, Feb 26 (IANS) Targetting today's mobile professionals who want a stylish device that is easy to use, HP Inc on Sunday announced a dynamic new commercial 2-in-1 detachable laptop at Mobile World Congress 2017 here. The new HP Pro x2 612 G2 is a versatile 2-in-1 detachable laptop, featuring multiple modes ideal for commercial use, including presentation mode, inking mode for taking notes, tablet mode for data collection, and notebook mode. "Today, more than 60 percent of Millennials work from more than one location and by 2020 they will be a majority of the workforce. They want sexy mobile devices that meet their on-the-go work styles and IT needs these devices to be manageable, serviceable and secure," said Michael Park, Vice President and General Manager, Mobility, Personal Systems, HP Inc. "Only HP is combining these amazing mobile form factors with the built-in security and vertical workflow capabilities with a lower total cost of ownership," Park said. The Pro x2 can be configured with a choice of the latest seventh generation Intel processors, providing reliable performance to meet a variety of end-user-needs. The Pro x2 includes a USB-C connection for quick charging and data transfers and USB-A for accessing traditional legacy peripherals. The device was built from the ground up for secure work environments and includes a built-in smart card reader, a removable SSD, and the HP Client Security Suite Gen3, along with an optional fingerprint sensor and optional Near Field Communications (NFC), HP said. HP also announced a range of new vertical workflow accessories for the company's x2 lineup and Elite x3 platform. These accessories are designed with versatility in mind, helping mobile professionals be productive and remain connected whether they are in the office or on the go, HP said.

New York, Feb 26 (IANS) Although the last Neanderthal died tens of thousands years ago, their DNA sequences still influence how genes are turned on or off in modern humans, and their effects can contribute to traits such as height and susceptibility to schizophrenia or lupus, says a study.

Experts know that after leaving Africa, our ancestors -- the homo sapiens -- mated with Neanderthals thousands of years ago, and today Neanderthal DNA makes up one to four per cent of the genomes of modern non-African people. 

"Even 50,000 years after the last human-Neanderthal mating, we can still see measurable impacts on gene expression," said study co-author Joshua Akey from the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.

"And those variations in gene expression contribute to human phenotypic variation and disease susceptibility," Akey added.

Previous studies have found correlations between Neanderthal genes and traits such as fat metabolism, depression, and lupus risk.

In this study, published in the journal Cell, researchers analysed RNA sequences in a dataset called the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) Project, looking for people who carried both Neanderthal and modern human versions of any given gene -- one version from each parent. 

For each such gene, the investigators then compared expression of the two alleles head-to-head in 52 different tissues.

"We find that for about 25 per cent of all those sites that we tested, we can detect a difference in expression between the Neanderthal allele and the modern human allele," added Rajiv McCoy, post-doctoral researcher at the University of Washington.

One example uncovered by this study is a Neanderthal allele of a gene called ADAMTSL3 that decreases risk of schizophrenia, while also influencing height.

"Hybridisation between modern humans and Neanderthals increased genomic complexity," Akey explained.

"Hybridisation wasn't just something that happened 50,000 years ago that we don't have to worry about anymore. Those little bits and pieces, our Neanderthal relics, are influencing gene expression in pervasive and important ways," Akey said.

Beijing, Feb 25 (IANS) China will lift 10 million people out of poverty in 2017, and the country will strictly review the spending of poverty relief funds to ensure transparent and efficient use of the money, the authorities said.

New York, Feb 25 (IANS) Researchers have found a 700-per cent surge in infections caused by bacteria that is resistant to multiple kinds of antibiotics among children in the US.

According to researchers, these antibiotic resistant infections -- caused by Enterobacteriaceae, a family of bacteria that also include such pathogens as Salmonella and Escherichia coli -- are linked to longer hospital stays and potentially greater risk of death.

The findings showed that the proportion of these infections in children caused by bacteria increased from 0.2 per cent in 2007 to 1.5 per cent in 2015, a more than 700 per cent increase in prevalence over the eight-year period.

"There is a clear and alarming upswing throughout US of antibiotic resistant Enterobacteriaceae infections in kids and teenagers," said lead author Sharon B. Meropol, a pediatrician and epidemiologist at Case Western Reserve University in the US. 

Bacterial infections resistant to multiple drugs are especially concerning in children, for whom there are a limited number of stronger antibiotics currently approved for use compared to adults, putting kids at higher risk for worse outcomes, the researchers said. 

For the study, published in the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, the team analysed data from 48 children's hospitals throughout the US, focusing on approximately 94,000 patients under the age of 18 who were diagnosed with Enterobacteriaceae - associated infections between 2007 and 2015. 

More than 75 per cent of the antibiotic-resistant infections were already present when the young people were admitted to the hospital, upending previous findings that the infections were mostly picked up in the hospital. 

This suggested that the bacteria may be increasingly spreading in the community. 

In addition, the bacterial infection may also cause a greater mortality risk among pediatric patients.

"Health care providers have to make sure we only prescribe antibiotics when they're really needed. It's also essential to stop using antibiotics in healthy agricultural animals", Meropol added.

​San Francisco, Feb 24 (IANS) US wireless communications service provider Verizon on Friday launched a new venture called Exponent Technologies that will help telecom carriers fuel digital transformation by expanding their Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and other internet service delivery platforms.

​London, Feb 24 (IANS) Royal Bank of Scotland on Friday reported losses of 7 billion pounds sterling ($8 billion) for 2016, taking its overall losses since its 2008 government bailout to over 58 billion pounds.

Beijing, Feb 24 (IANS) China on Friday said it has no intention of devaluing the yuan to boost exports, and expressed readiness to coordinate its economic and trade policies with the US.