#TFOD (The Fate Of Diseases) --- SynTalk

Is your disease human? Are you infected? Do you have an orphan or a rare disease? Has (the) polio (virus) been eradicated? ‘Can’ vaccines be made for all infectious diseases, & is eradication for ever? Why was there an epidemic of measles after the collapse of Soviet Union? Can anything be done about the strong genetic predisposition to (say) Huntington’s Chorea? Is diabetes non-communicable? Does society create different kinds of disabilities? Is all blindness treatable? Why aren’t radical interventions possible on the brain? Do infection, disease and mortality rates always follow a pattern across time? How does childhood variously influence diseases later in life? Will there always be new diseases, & why? Why don’t plants infect humans, when animals do? Can mosquitoes transmit HIV? How did we get dengue? Are vectors also hosts? Can cures cause diseases? Are all (including ‘lifestyle’?) diseases systemic? How do young landless labourers get diabetes? Is inequality a significant determinant of diseases? Is a disease free (sub) world possible? Or, can diseases eradicate entire species (including the human race)? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using concepts from neuroscience (Dr. Garga Chatterjee, ISI, Kolkata), virology (Dr. Shahid Jameel, The Wellcome Trust/ DBT India Alliance, New Delhi), & political economy/history of health (Prof. Mohan Rao, JNU, New Delhi). Listen in....