The best of treatments won’t help in case of chikungunya. After wife of Justice R G Shah (of the Nanavati-Shah panel) Saroj Shah succumbed to the disease on Friday, officials are debating if chikungunya can be fatal. On Friday itself, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) confirmed that more than 14,000 of suspected cases have been reported in the last fortnight, but its health officials denied that cases were on the rise. Till date, the number of cases of suspected chikungunya in the city has touched a staggering 28,148.

Private hospitals say the number is higher, indicating that the disease is gaining epidemic proportions. More and more elderly persons are becoming victims as they already suffer from other health complications. But municipal and health officials appear unmoved. While government hospitals deny any chikungunya cases, municipal health officers and Municipal Commissioner I P Gautam say it is not fatal in itself. Saroj Shah (69), who had lung infection for the last six years, was diagnosed with chikungunya on September 4.

“Initially she was treated by a general practitioner. She was admitted to Sterling Hospital after she developed kidney and lung complications. She was given the best treatment there,” said her daughter Pallavi Patel. Deputy Municipal Commissioner D B Makwana said,‘‘The Ahmedabad Medical Association advertisements clearly state that the disease is not fatal. We just need to take precautions against ‘aedis aegypti’ female mosquito by keeping our surroundings clean. Otherwise, there is no need to worry. Chikungunya is in no way fatal.” He also denied that cases of chikungunya were on the rise in the city.

“Our official records say cases are on the decline, Other reports are rumours,” he added. “Reports from Sterling Hospital state that Sarojben was suffering from pulmonary fibrosis, which was the cause behind her death, not chikungunya. Chikungunya can be controlled with painkillers even in old patients,” said Municipal Commissioner I P Gautam.

Doctors, however, said that chikungunya can prove fatal for the aged with other health complications. Tushar Patel, pulmonologist at Sterling Hospital who treated Saroj Shah said, “If a person with any underlined prevalent contracts chikungunya, it can prove fatal as the disease aggravates the condition. Sarojben had pulmonary fibrosis. Chikungunya affected her lower limbs and led to kidney complications. Her condition worsened and she had to be put on ventilator.”

Government hospitals kept denying anything was wrong. Civil Hospital’s Resident Medical Officer claimed: “We have patients with joint pains and fever, but no confirmed cases of chikungunya.” VS Hospital’s RMO too had the same thing to say. However, SAL Hospital’s Deputy Director Dr Dinesh Desai said the hospital received an average of 20 patients a day, with 4-5 needing hospitalisation.

“Chikungunya is rarely fatal. To say that elderly people are dying of it is medically incorrect,” said Dr Desai. “Old age may cause complications, but people don’t die of chikungunya itself,” he said. Sterling Hospital’s medical director Dr Bharat Gadhvi’s acknowledged that persons above 55 years are falling victim to a disease that could be fatal, but was unwilling to speculate on whether the new disease is a mutant form of chikungunya.

IP Gautam said about 150 blood samples from Sterling, Shardaben, Civil and VS hospitals had been sent to Pune’s National

Source: Expressindia.com

Music phones, those dinky little devices, will be the in-thing in the coming years, and handset manufacturers appear to laying the groundwork to cash in on the expected demand. Nokia, the world’s last largest handset maker, has decided it wants to be a "global leader in mobile music experiences." To that end, the company has been sliding into place a number of key building blocks to turn that wish into a reality, says ABI Research, a technology and market research firm. Music capability has become a key feature of nearly all of Nokia’s mid to high-tier mobile devices. In particular, the 6233, 6280 and the N-series have strong digital music functionality, it says.

However, according to ABI Research, for Nokia "to become a global leader in mobile music, Nokia needs to move onto the hallowed turf dominated by Apple’s iPod."Apple’s dominance of the portable music experience stems not just from the iPod’s functionality, ease of use, and cool design, but also its tight integration with the music delivery platform, iTunes. In many respects the iTunes brand is as robust and well appreciated as the iPod device.

Hence Nokia’s bold move to acquire Loudeye, a Seattle-based music delivery platform vendor, for $60 million. "But why the haste and the enthusiasm? You don’t have to wander into too many mobile phone stores to realise that 2006 is proving to be very kind to mobile device manufacturers. The third and fourth quarters always build on the first half of the year. ABI Research forecasts that handset shipments will clear one billion in 2006," the research firm says. "The Loudeye acquisition is intended to assist Nokia in strengthening its position in the music market’s premium, heavy duty user categories: consumers who typically purchase multi-purpose and dedicated music player mobile devices," it says. ABI Research estimates that these two categories will represent more than 125 million annual shipments by 2009. "Will Nokia succeed? It would be unwise to underestimate the market leader in mobile phones," ABI Research says.

Cellular modem

Meanwhile, the cellular modem market, which has taken many years to develop, now seems to have got some traction, and is expected to reach a notable milestone, with annual shipments to exceed five million units in 2006. What changed? "This market got a boost from embedded cellular modems in laptop computers, a class of modem only introduced toward the end of last year, the high-tech market research firm says. Embedded cellular modems should account for more than 10 per cent of total modem shipments in 2006," says In-Stat, a research firm.