Dr.S.Revathi's Blog

What is Zika? Zika virus is a member of virus family Flaviviride and genus Flavivirus . It is transmitted by mosquitoes such as Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus which are active in the day time. These are the same type of mosquitoes which transmit diseases like dengue, yellow fever and Japanese Encephalitis. The disease caused by Zika virus is known as Zika fever. It can be transmitted from the infected pregnant woman to her fetus. History of Zika In 1950s, it was spread from Africa to other countries. Recently in 2016, Zika virus was spread over Latin America and the Caribbean islands, causing birth defects mainly microcephaly which causes abnormal head sizes in the new born babies of infected mothers. Now, cases of Zika virus are reported in states like Rajasthan. Adverse effects The virus has been linked to thousands of birth defects like microcephaly, wherein the babies are born with smaller heads and brains, other problems like  seizures, vision problems,

GAC FRUIT Gac fruit is an edible fruit which is highly nutritious and has a lot of attractive medicinal benefits. Botanical name of this fruit is Momordica cochinchinensis . It belongs to the family of Curcubitaceae . Traditionally, gac has been used as food as well as medicine for treating many diseases in China, India, Carribean islands and in Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia, Vietnam, Phillipines, etc. Leaves and fruits are used in Vietnamese culinary dishes. There are several beverages prepared from gac fruit for wedding and other festivals in their culture. Gac is purely seasonal fruit that only ripens once in a year. It is a climber plant and is usually cultivated to grow on fences. Gac fruits round to oval in shape and  orange in color. The outer layer of this fruit is covered with red color thorns which are toxic and whole outer layer is not edible. So, these should be removed while consuming and the soft pulp inside the fruit surrounding the seeds is th