River Ganga and Jumna

[Guest guest]

|| Om Gurave Namah ||Dear Jyotish, Here is something interesting for your study. Warm RegardsSanjay PErnest Hankin is credited with being the first person to observe the potential therapeutic effects of bacteriophage when in 1896 he noted that the waters of the Ganges and Jumna rivers in India possessed antibacterial properties which seemed to reduce the number of cases of cholera in those villages close to the river. He did not realise that the effect was due to a bacterial virus, however, and it was not until 1915 that Frederick Twort in a note to the Lancet made the connection. Two years later Felix d'Herelle claimed to have made similar observations independently from Twort and named the viruses bacteriophages (bacteria eaters).

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriophage

 

Since ancient times, there have been documented reports of river water having the ability to cure infectious diseases, such as leprosy. In 1896,

Ernest Hanbury Hankin reported that something in the waters of the Ganges and

Jumna rivers in India had marked antibacterial action against

cholera and could pass through a very fine porcelain filter. In 1915, British

bacteriologist Frederick Twort, superintendent of the Brown Institution of London, discovered a small agent that infected and killed bacteria. He considered the agent either 1) a stage in the life cycle of the bacteria, 2) an enzyme produced by the bacteria themselves or 3) a virus that grew on and destroyed the bacteria. Twort's work was interrupted by the onset of World War I and shortage of funding. Independently, French-Canadian

microbiologist Félix d'Hérelle, working at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, announced on

September 3, 1917 that he had discovered " an invisible, antagonistic microbe of the

dysentery bacillus " . For d'Hérelle, there was no question as to the nature of his discovery: " In a flash I had understood: what caused my clear spots was in fact an invisible microbe ... a virus parasitic on bacteria. " D'Hérelle called the virus a bacteriophage or bacteria-eater (from the Greek phago meaning to eat). He also recorded a dramatic account of a man suffering from dysentery who was restored to good health by the bacteriophages. In 1926 in the Pulitzer-prizewinning novel Arrowsmith, Sinclair Lewis fictionalized the application of bacteriophages as a therapeutic agent. Also in the 1920s the Eliava Institute was opened in Tbilisi, Georgia

to research this new science and put it into practice. In 2006 the UK Ministry of Defence took responsibility for a G8-funded Global Partnership Priority Eliava Project as a retrospective study to explore the potential of bacteriophages for the 21st century.

[Guest guest]



||Namah Shivaya||

Dear Sanjay P,

Sadly this isnt true any more. My professional instincts made me read this historical bit but here is a glimpse how this stands for now. This is only bacteria, many epidemics have taken place due to Hep E virus from the Ganga waters.

 

Best

Sharat

 

 

Bacterial contamination in water of the River Ganga and its risk to human health

Author: K.S. Bilgrami Sanjib Kumar

 

Publication Frequency: 6 issues per year

Published in: International Journal of Environmental Health Research, Volume 8, Issue 1 March 1998 , pages 5 - 13

 

 

 

 

 

Abstract

Water of the River Ganga is extensively used for drinking, bathing and cleaning purposes. Bacterial analysis of Ganga water was carried out at three different sites in Bhagalpur town which discharges untreated municipal and industrial effluents in river at various points. Total bacterial density (TBD), total coliform (TC), faecal coliform (FC), faecal streptococci (FS), Escherichia coli and Clostridium perfringens were substantially high and much beyond the permissible limit of ISI and WHO. There was a marked correlation between physico-chemical quality of water and bacterial density. The presence of Actinomyces sp., Aerobacter aerogenes, A. Cloacae, Micrococcus sp., Salmonella sp., Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus sp. and Shigella sp. indicated the level of faecal contamination in water. Hence, direct consumption of untreated Ganga water and bathing in this stretch poses a great health risk.

 

 

-

Sanjay Prabhakaran

sohamsa

Friday, August 17, 2007 9:24 PM

River Ganga and Jumna

 

 

 

|| Om Gurave Namah ||Dear Jyotish, Here is something interesting for your study. Warm RegardsSanjay PErnest Hankin is credited with being the first person to observe the potential therapeutic effects of bacteriophage when in 1896 he noted that the waters of the Ganges and Jumna rivers in India possessed antibacterial properties which seemed to reduce the number of cases of cholera in those villages close to the river. He did not realise that the effect was due to a bacterial virus, however, and it was not until 1915 that Frederick Twort in a note to the Lancet made the connection. Two years later Felix d'Herelle claimed to have made similar observations independently from Twort and named the viruses bacteriophages (bacteria eaters).

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriophage

 

Since ancient times, there have been documented reports of river water having the ability to cure infectious diseases, such as leprosy. In 1896, Ernest Hanbury Hankin reported that something in the waters of the Ganges and Jumna rivers in India had marked antibacterial action against cholera and could pass through a very fine porcelain filter. In 1915, British bacteriologist Frederick Twort, superintendent of the Brown Institution of London, discovered a small agent that infected and killed bacteria. He considered the agent either 1) a stage in the life cycle of the bacteria, 2) an enzyme produced by the bacteria themselves or 3) a virus that grew on and destroyed the bacteria. Twort's work was interrupted by the onset of World War I and shortage of funding. Independently, French-Canadian microbiologist Félix d'Hérelle, working at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, announced on September 3, 1917 that he had discovered "an invisible, antagonistic microbe of the dysentery bacillus". For d'Hérelle, there was no question as to the nature of his discovery: "In a flash I had understood: what caused my clear spots was in fact an invisible microbe ... a virus parasitic on bacteria." D'Hérelle called the virus a bacteriophage or bacteria-eater (from the Greek phago meaning to eat). He also recorded a dramatic account of a man suffering from dysentery who was restored to good health by the bacteriophages. In 1926 in the Pulitzer-prizewinning novel Arrowsmith, Sinclair Lewis fictionalized the application of bacteriophages as a therapeutic agent. Also in the 1920s the Eliava Institute was opened in Tbilisi, Georgia to research this new science and put it into practice. In 2006 the UK Ministry of Defence took responsibility for a G8-funded Global Partnership Priority Eliava Project as a retrospective study to explore the potential of bacteriophages for the 21st century.