Page 14 - Health Medical Pharma
Many factors influence decisions to withdraw life support to brain injury patients: Study
There are several factors that determine the decisions to withdraw life support treatments in critically ill patients with severe brain injury, says a recent study.The study, which has been published in the journal of 'Canadian Medical Association Journal,' provides a new understanding of the decision-making processes for this patient population, which accounts for most hospital deaths from trauma.Dr Alexis Turgeon, one of the researchers, said: "Many clinicians struggle to make recommendations to withdraw life-sustaining treatments because decision-making is often complicated by uncertainty from trying to match family or caregiver opinions about what they think the patient would have wanted in terms of quality of life and how well physicians can predict a prognosis."The death rate in critically ill patients with severe traumatic brain injury is generally high as it occurs after a decision to withdraw life-sustaining treatments.This patient population differs from the general ...
Hepatitis C transmission from mothers to babies can be prevented through universal screening
In a recent study conducted by researchers in Canada stated that the transmission of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) from mothers to babies can be prevented.The study was published in the journal, 'Canadian Medical Association Journal.'According to the study the transmission can only be prevented if Canada recommended universal screening for HCV in pregnancy.Dr Chelsea Elwood, the lead author of the research said, "We encourage all care providers to consider the reproductive implications of HCV, to consider HCV screening in pregnancy and referral for treatment of HCV.""The time has come to move toward universal HCV screening in women who are pregnant, with initial prenatal investigations that are then repeated based on risk factors in the third trimester," she concluded.Almost half of the women infected with HCV are unaware of their infection, and current treatment with direct-acting antiviral regimens is quite effective."With the care gaps in both maternal screening in pregnancy and ...
OPDs of Tripura hospitals closed following IMA strike call
Services in all Out-patient Departments (OPD) in government and private hospitals of Tripura on Monday remained closed as over 1,000 doctors joined the nationwide strike to show solidarity with their striking colleagues in Kolkata over the issue of security. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has given the strike call with the withdrawal of non-essential health services across the country. IMA Tripura secretary Dr Souvik Debbarma said, "The OPDs in the state remained closed today in solidarity to the doctors of West Bengal who are assaulted by patient parties." However, the causality services, trauma centres, emergency services remained open and the senior doctors provided health care to the patients, he said. All Tripura Government Doctors Association (ATGDA) Joint Secretary Koushik Chakraborty said no patient returned untreated from government hospitals since senior doctors and specialists joined emergency services to compensate for the absence of OPD. A group of ...
Healthcare services severely hit across country as doctors go on strike
Healthcare services were severely affected across the country on Monday as doctors wearing helmets and forming human chains went on a strike in solidarity with their protesting colleagues in West Bengal. A large number of patients and their relatives, caught unaware of the strike, were seen waiting outside various hospitals, appealing to authorities for help. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has given the nationwide call to withdraw non-emergency healthcare services after junior doctors in West Bengal went on a strike against a brutal attack on their colleagues by the relatives of a patient who died during treatment. In many government and private hospitals across the country, out-patient departments (OPD) remained closed and scheduled surgeries were postponed. However, emergency services remained operational. "Those patients or their relatives who take the law into their hands should be strictly dealt with. While we understand the pain of the doctors, is it justified that ...
Doctors in Madhya Pradesh boycott work; OPD services hit
Doctors in Madhya Pradesh Monday stayed away from attending OPD services in hospitals across the state in response to the nationwide strike call given by the apex medical body IMA in support of the agitating medicos in West Bengal, leaving patients in the lurch in the state. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has given a 24- hour strike call (from 6 am Monday to 6 am Tuesday) with the withdrawal of non-essential health services across the country in support of the striking junior doctors in West Bengal. Health services at outpatient departments (OPDs) in several government and private hospitals were paralysed due to the boycott of work by doctors in Madhya Pradesh. "Nearly 3,000-3,500 doctors took part in a protest march taken out from the government-run Gandhi Medical College (GMC) to divisional commissioner office in Bhopal in support of the agitating medicos in West Bengal, said United Doctors Forums Redressal Committee chairman Dr J P Paliwal. "We have submitted a ..
Heatstroke: Death toll reaches 35 in govt run hospital in Gaya
The death toll due to heatstroke touched 35 at a Bihar government-run medical institution in Gaya on Monday.Twenty-eight of them died while undergoing treatment and seven people were brought dead at Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College.Apart from this, 106 patients are undergoing treatment for heatstroke in the hospital.Bihar Health Minister Mangal Pandey, who visited the hospital to meet the patients, said, "The district and hospital management are doing their best in taking care of the patients and are providing proper treatment to them."He instructed the concerned officials to provide more beds and other medical facilities if needed.The state health minister also informed no medical services were affected in Muzaffarpur and Gaya due to the strike by the Indian Medical Association (IMA).Meanwhile, Hindustani Awam Morcha and Jan Adhikar Party Loktantrik supporters today showed black flags to Pandey's convoy in Aurangabad.Most heat wave deaths have been reported so far in south-west
TN doctors wear helmets, join protest seeking protection
Doctors in Tamil Nadu formed human chains, wore black badges and helmets as they joined their fraternity in the rest of the country to seek a central law to ensure protection and safety for them. Though services, including outpatient consultations, were not hit in the government sector, those in the private category were affected. Doctors in government hospitals worked wearing black badges, authorities here said. "We want protection and that was conveyed by wearing black badges. Our work is on as usual," a government medical college hospital dean here said. The doctors were expressing solidarity with the striking doctors in West Bengal. According to a top public health official, no type of service was affected in the outpatient department (OPD) or emergency ward. "Services were not boycotted by doctors.... But, at the same time, they expressed solidarity by holding demonstrations and wearing black badges," the official told PTI. Doctors, including postgraduate students, formed human ..
Ghaziabad doctors observe strike in solidarity with Bengal docs
Doctors in Ghaziabad observed a 24-hour strike in solidarity with the agitating doctors in West Bengal on Monday.
Bihar: Death toll due to AES rises to 103
The death toll due to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in Bihar's Muzaffarpur rose to 103 on Monday."Total death in Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital has touched 85," Dr Sunil Kumar Shahi, Superintendent, told ANI.Fatality at Kejriwal Hospital, a private hospital in Muzaffarpur has now risen by 1, reaching 18, today.Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar conducted an internal meeting with the health department senior officials at 5 in the evening.The Chief Minister had recently announced an ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh each to the families of the children, who died due to AES in the city.He had also given directions to the Health Department, district administration and doctors to take necessary measures to fight the disease.AES is a viral disease, which causes mild flu-like symptoms such as high fever, convulsions, and headaches.Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Sunday said the Centre would set up a state-of-the-art research centre here within a year to deal with the menace of ...
Mamata Banerjee directs police commissioner to deploy nodal police officer in every hospital
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee directed Kolkata Police commissioner Anuj Sharma to deploy a nodal police officer in every hospital, during the meeting with representatives of doctors at Nabanna.She has also accepted the proposal of doctors to set up Grievance Redressal Cell in government hospitals.As doctors' strike enters the seventh day in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will meet two representatives from each medical college of the state in Nabanna later on Monday.Banerjee on Saturday had extended an olive branch to the agitating doctors by promising not to invoke the stringent Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) and appealed to them to resume work immediately.She also said that the state government would bear all medical expenses for the treatment of the two junior doctors, who were assaulted in a Kolkata hospital that triggered the strike.Both the junior and senior doctors are on strike from the past five days after two of their colleagues were ...
Gut microbes can hamper efficacy of medications
Our gut microbes can 'eat up' the medications that we take -- degrading the efficacy of the drugs and often causing hazardous side effects, a study has found. Researchers from the University of California (UC) San Francisco in the US describe one of the first concrete examples of how the microbiome can interfere with a drug's intended path through the body. Focusing on levodopa (L-dopa), the primary treatment for Parkinson's disease, they identified which bacteria are responsible for degrading the drug and how to stop this microbial interference. Parkinson's disease attacks nerve cells in the brain that produce dopamine, without which the body can suffer tremors, muscle rigidity, and problems with balance and coordination. L-dopa delivers dopamine to the brain to relieve symptoms. However, only about one to five per cent of the drug actually reaches the brain. This number -- and the drug's efficacy -- varies widely from patient to patient. Since the introduction of L-dopa in the late .
Engaging in violence with doctors who are there to save lives isn't acceptable: Harsh Vardhan
Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Monday said he was against violence on doctors and had conveyed the same to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and other medical associations in a meeting in West Bengal."Being a doctor and health minister I have shared my views regularly with the doctors, Indian Medical Association (IMA) and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and other medical organisations. Any person who thinks objectively will understand that engaging in violence with doctors who are there to save lives is not acceptable," Harsh Vardhan told ANI here.Meanwhile, IMA held a pan-India doctors strike on Monday in solidarity with the doctors protesting in West Bengal. Healthcare services across the country continue to be disrupted due to the strike.Talking about the deaths due to encephalitis in Bihar, Harsh Vardhan said the Centre wants to set up a specialized research unit in Bihar to find out the cause behind the disease and was going to send another specialized team to carry out ...
Unnecessary exposure of Polyfluoroalkyl substances harmful for humans: Study
In a recent study it has been found that unnecessary exposure of harmful chemicals to humans must be avoided. It should only be used when essential in terms of health, safety and many more.The story was published in the journal, ' Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts'In this study, researchers proposed a structure based on the concept of "essential use" to understand whether a chemical is really needed in a particular application.The researchers demonstrated the concept of a class of synthetic chemicals known as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances).PFAS are used in many consumer goods because of their unique ingredients such as water and stain repellency. However, a number of scientists and health professionals expressed concerns over the use of these chemicals since they persist for a very long time, seep into our water and soil system, and may adversely impact human health and wildlife.Human health problems adversely affected by PFAS exposure are kidney and ...
Kenya tests woman for Ebola, as Congo, Uganda fight outbreak
Kenyan doctors are testing a hospital patient in western Kenya who has Ebola-like symptoms, as eastern Congo is struggling to control the outbreak and Uganda has reported two deaths from the deadly hemorrhagic fever. The female patient in Kenya is in isolation at Kericho County Referral Hospital where staff took precautions to ensure minimal contact, county spokesman Timothy Kimei said in a statement. The patient had visited her spouse at the Uganda-Kenya border and three other family members are also under observation, according to Kenyan media. Results from the test are expected in 12 to 24 hours. If confirmed as Ebola, it would be Kenya's first ever case of the virus and represent a worrying spread of the disease from eastern Congo. Kenya's health minister downplayed the threat Monday. "The rapid surveillance and response team, which has been sent to examine the patient who is in stable condition, has confirmed that she does not fit the case definition of Ebola. Allow me to repeat .
Multiple organ donation: Woman who died in accident gives new lease of life to several patients
Several people got a new lease of life after receiving organs of a 56-year-old woman, including her heart that was sent to a hospital in south Delhi for transplant for a man, through a green corridor from Noida, officials said Monday. The woman, from Ghaziabad, had suffered a serious head injury in an accident and was declared brain dead despite best efforts by doctors at a private hospital in Noida Sunday, a senior official of the hospital said. "After getting consent of the family, the harvested organs -- heart, liver, two kidneys and cornea -- were sent to multiple patients at different hospitals in Delhi-NCR. The heart was sent to Max Hopital, Saket and a green corridor was facilitated by traffic police authorities of both the cities," a senior official of Fortis Healthcare group said. The woman had died at Fortis Hospital in Noida. The distance of 28 km between the two facilities was covered in just 21 minutes, a spokesperson of the hospital group said, adding that the heart ...
OPD services hit in C'garh as doctors join IMA strike
Non-essential medical services in public and private hospitals in Chhattisgarh were affected Monday as doctors stayed away from work in response to their apex body IMA's 24-hour strike call following attack on two medicos in West Bengal. Around 500 doctors gathered at Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College here this morning and took out a march towards 'Rajbhawan', a senior doctor told PTI, adding that they demanded stringent laws to ensure safe environment for doctors at their workplace. However, police stopped the march at Ambedkar Chowk ahead of the Rajbhawan, he added. "Doctors belonging to all government hospitals, private clinics and nursing homes stayed away from work in support to the IMA's call," said IMA's Raipur district president Dr Anil Jain. As a result of the strike, all hospital services, including OPDs, except in the emergency section, were affected. The doctors handed over a memorandum to Additional District Magistrate (ADM) in the name of Prime ...
Doctors boycott work for 2 hrs in Kerala govt hospitals, services at pvt hospitals also hit
Healthcare services were affected across Kerala as doctors of state-run hospitals boycotted work for two hours on Monday and those in private facilities participated in a 24-hour nationwide strike being observed in support of protests by the medical fraternity in West Bengal. Long queues near outpatient departments (OPDs) were seen in several government hospitals across the state. Some patients said they didn't know about the strike and have been waiting for hours. "We left our homes at 3 am and do not know if the doctors will attend on us," a patient at the government hospital here said. A woman said she had come with her relative suffering from breathing problems early this morning and no doctors had attended her till 10 am. Another patient said she arrived at the hospital around 5 am to meet her doctor with her blood test reports. "If I can't meet the doctor today, I will have to get the tests done again," she said. IMA State Secretary Dr Sulphi N said, "While in government ...
AIIMS doctors demand tough law to protect medical practitioners from attackers
The striking resident doctors of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on Monday demanded a tough central law against anyone who engages in violence with medical practitioners."We want a tough central law which sends shivers down the spine of anyone who even thinks of attacking a doctor," said Dr Rajeev Ranjan, general secretary, Resident Doctors Association (RDA), AIIMS.The resident doctors of AIIMS - a Central government-run health facility for tertiary care - are on 18-hour long strike against the assault on doctors. Their strike will end at 6 am on Tuesday."We have faith in Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, who himself is a doctor. He will ensure that central legislation is framed to ensure the safety and security of doctors," he said.He said that the Union Health Minister should take cognizance of tough laws in other countries. "We also want the implementation of the law once is framed," said Dr Ranjan, while talking to the reporters.Dr Ranjan also asked the ...
Hypertension drug may help Alzheimer's patients
Seeking new treatments to slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease, researchers found the blood pressure drug nilvadipine increased blood flow to the brain's memory without affecting other parts of the brain.Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia. The risk for the disease increases with age and the causes are largely unknown. Previous research has shown that blood flow to the brain declines in early Alzheimer's disease.These findings indicate that cerebral blood flow in patients with Alzheimer's can be reversed in some regions, according to the study published in the Journal of Hypertension.Nilvadipine is a calcium channel blocker used to treat high blood pressure. Researchers sought to discover whether nilvadipine could help treat Alzheimer's disease by comparing the use of nilvadipine and a placebo (a medicine or procedure prescribed for the psychological benefit) among people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease.Researchers randomly assigned 44 participants
Nitish Kumar calls internal meeting with health department seniors
After acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) took at least 100 lives in Muzaffarpur, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar called an internal meeting with the health department senior officials at 5Nitish Kumar recently announced an ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh each to the families of the children, who died due to AES in Muzaffarpur. He had also given directions to the Health Department, district administration and doctors to take necessary measures to fight the disease.AES is a viral disease, which causes mild flu-like symptoms such as high fever, convulsions, and headaches.The death toll due to encephalitis in Muzaffarpur rose to 100 on Monday, officials said. According to official data, 83 children have died in Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH), while 17 have lost their lives in Kejriwal hospital in the city.Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Sunday said the Centre would set up a state-of-the-art research centre here within a year to deal with the menace of AES.Nitish Kumar .
