Is there anything wrong with not eating sugar? From morning tea to sweets. Sugar adds sweetness not only to our food, but also to our lives. Without this sugar, we would not be able to eat foods like sweets, chocolate, cakes or soft drinks. But where did this sugar come from and how did it reach our kitchen? Sugar and then brown sugar were first made in India from sugarcane juice. Historical books and various reports from India and abroad provide evidence of this. According to a research report titled ‘A History of Sugar: The Food Nobody Needs, But Everyone Craves’ published by the British media outlet network ‘The Conversation’, sugar was made in India around 2,500 years ago, i.e. 500 BC. From here, the technology to make it spread eastwards to China and reached the Middle East via Iran. In the first century, the historian Pliny the Elder, who wrote the encyclopedia ‘Naturalis Historia’, said that Indian sugar was better than sugar made in Arabia. It is said that sugar first reac...
Scrub typhus: a growing health challenge in children Recently, an 11-year-old girl was admitted to Rapti Institute of Health Sciences in Dang due to high fever and physical weakness. Initially, he was treated for a simple fever, but after a few days, his condition worsened. On further examination, it was discovered that he had scrub typhus. In the absence of timely treatment, the disease seriously affected his liver, kidneys, and lungs, resulting in multi-organ failure. The girl was kept on a ventilator, although various life-saving measures were taken, but it became a challenge to improve her health. In the last few years, there has been a significant increase in the incidence of scrub typhus in Nepal. Scrub typhus is a type of bacterial disease that is spread by insects (chiggers) found in wooded areas infected with the bacterium Orientia tsutsugamushi. In children, this disease can cause serious health problems, as evidenced by a recent complex case of multi-organ failure in an...