Page 259 - Health Medical Pharma
India's September tea output rises 5.5 percent
MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's September tea production was up 5.5 percent year on year at 160.65 million kg, helped by a bigger harvest in Assam, the state-run Tea Board said on Friday.
Parvathy Hospital to set up facility in Bahamas
City-based Parvathy Hospital Friday said it proposed sign an agreement with the Government of Bahamas for setting up a health facility in the archipelago in the West Atlantic. The health care provider had drawn up plans to expand across the country and overseas to add 500 beds by 2020, Parvathy Hospital Chief Executive Officer Sujay Sambamoorthy said in a release. "We are signing up with the Government of Bahamas and its operations will roll up by first week of December 2018. With these thoughts in place, we have drawn up plans to spread our wings across India and other countries to add 500 beds by 2020", he said. The city-based hospital recently inaugurated a new 40 bedded 'Parvathy Jeevan Hospital' at Mahindra World City in Singaperumalkoil near here. Sambamoorthy said it was the first of their expansion plan. "We have planned to open new hospitals in Alwarpet, Koyambedu, Valasarawakkam and Oragadam," he added. The hospital at Singaperumalkoil is spread on a 6,000 ...
Uganda to vaccinate health workers against Ebola
Uganda will begin vaccinating frontline health workers against Ebola next week as the threat increases of the deadly virus spreading from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, the health minister said Friday. An outbreak of Ebola in the DRC has claimed 180 lives so far, and with high numbers of people moving across the border "the public health risk of cross-border transmission of Ebola to Uganda was assessed to be very high", according to minister Jane Ruth Aceng. "Compassionate use of the Ebola vaccine for healthcare and frontline workers," will begin on Monday, she told journalists. It will be the first time the vaccine is used in a country not in the midst of an active Ebola outbreak. The DRC's health ministry said Thursday it had recorded 285 possible Ebola cases in the highly-restive northeastern region of North Kivu, which is home to a clutch of armed groups. It is the tenth outbreak of Ebola in the country, then called Zaire, where the disease was first detected in ...
FDA completes Laurus Labs facility with 'oneobservation'
: Laurus Labs Limited, a city-based pharmaceutical company Friday saidthe US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) completed theaudit for its facility in Andhra Pradesh, with one observation under Form 483. As per the USFDA, Form 483 is issued to a firm's management at the conclusion of an inspection when the investigator has observed any conditions that in its judgement may constitute violations of the Food Drug and Cosmetic (FD&C) Act and related Acts. A press release issued by the drug maker said the FDA inspection was done for its Active Pharma Ingredients (API)-Intermediates facility Unit 6 with one observation. "The observation is related toa 'procedure'and on Method Validation, which is considered to be very minor," a senior official of the drug maker told PTI. The manufacturing facility Unit 6 is located at Atchutapuram in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh and has 42 reactors with 253 Kilo liters capacity,the release said.
NPPA fixes retail price of 68 drug formulations
Drug price regulator NPPA Friday fixed prices as well as revised ceiling and retail prices of 68 formulations, including those used for treatment of diabetes, blood pressure and HIV. The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) said while the retail price of 55 scheduled formulations has been fixed, that of 10 has been revised. Further, the authority has also fixed ceiling prices of three scheduled formulations. "NPPA has fixed/revised ceiling prices/retail prices of 68 formulations under Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013," it said in a notification. NPPA fixes the ceiling price of essential medicines of Schedule I under the Drugs (Prices Control) Order (DPCO) 2013. In respect of medicines that are not under price control, manufacturers are allowed to increase the maximum retail price by 10 per cent annually. The calculation for essential drugs is based on the simple average of all the medicines in a particular therapeutic segment with sales of more than 1 per cent. Set up in
Childhood violence may spur puberty, depression: Study
Children who are exposed to violence such as physical, emotional, or sexual abuse are more likely to experience faster biological ageing, including pubertal development and increased symptoms of depression, finds a research.
Doctors awaiting Oli's kidney test reports before discharge
Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli who has been undergoing treatment in a hospital will be discharged once doctors attending to him review his kidney test reports.Oli's personal doctor Divya Singh said, "We are waiting for the report about his kidney (functioning) which will be ready by evening. His other tests and reports are normal.""Only after seeing the report of his kidney test we will be able to confirm the date of his discharge; we cannot make any guess now," Dr Singh added.Nepal Prime Minister has been undergoing treatment in the Manmohan Cardiothoracic and Transplant Center in Maharajgunj, Kathmandu. The hospital had declared Oli all fit and fine two days ago. But the report of his kidney status has compelled him to be in the hospital for additional days."Despite his condition being normal, the Prime Minister cannot be discharged. He will be discharged once we review his kidney reports," Dr Divya Singh asserted.
'Better treatment for common childhood brain cancer in the offing'
Scientists have been able to identify the group of children needing more intensive, aggressive chemotherapy treatment for the most common form of brain cancer. The chromosome signature they found in medulloblastoma may allow medics to adapt treatment so that each child is targeted individually, improving the 60 per cent survival rate for high-risk patients, said researchers from the Newcastle University in the UK. The findings, published in The Lancet Oncology journal, also show that many youngsters with medulloblastoma could avoid unnecessary doses of chemotherapy and radiotherapy with less toxic side effects. While others, who have the most serious form of the disease, may be targeted with more intensive chemotherapy. Currently all patients receive the same treatment. "Our findings provide a new blueprint for the personalisation of treatment in medulloblastoma so that all children are not given the same intensity of therapy," said Professor Steve Clifford from Newcastle ...
7-month-old girl undergoes surgery to remove parasitic twin
A parasitic twin attached to the torso of a seven-month-old baby has been surgically removed at Tura Civil Hospital in Meghalaya's West Garo Hills district, a hospital official said. The child was born with the parasitic twin attached to the upper part of her abdomen and the lower part of her chest, he said. Pediatric surgeon Lee Roger Ch Marak, along with Anaesthetist Stevie Jaseng N Sangma, conducted the operation, which lasted for several hours, the official noted. The baby girl was admitted at the hospital on September 11, and after medical observations and investigations, the procedure to remove the parasitic twin was successfully undertaken last week, Tura Civil Hospital Superintendent M A Sangma said. "It was a complicated case. The parasitic twin was connected to the vital organs of the living twin. The liver, prolapsed intestine of the twin had come out of the girl's umbilicus," she said. A parasitic twin is a smaller and less-developed member of a pair of ...
Important for mothers to keep their nutrition game up: Nutritionist
Nutritionist and fitness expert Madhuri Ruia says that mothers are constant multi-taskers and hence it is important for them to keep their nutrition in check and also to ensure that that their family members are taking adequate amount of vitamins and minerals.
'Novel contact lens could treat eye injuries'
Australian scientists are developing a therapeutic contact lens that acts as a bandage for eye surface injuries, and could fast track the healing of previously difficult to treat corneal wounds. The 'bandage' consists of cells with special wound-healing properties, said researchers from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia. "These cells, known as limbal mesenchymal stromal cells (L-MSC), would be isolated from donor eye tissue and subsequently attached to the inner surface of a special type of contact lens known as a scleral lens," said Professor Damien Harkin from QUT, who is based at the Queensland Eye Institute. "The donor cells are readily accessible from tissue that is usually discarded after routine corneal transplants," Harkin said. "Based upon preliminary data we believe that the donor cells release a range of wound-healing factors that encourage repair of the eye's surface," he said. Harkin said the lenses could be available within hours of patients ...
New 'bandage' contact lens aims to boost corneal treatment
Australian researchers have developed a new therapeutic contact lens that acts as a bandage for eye surface injuries, an advance that aims to significantly improve treatment for major corneal injuries.
High exposure to radio frequency radiation linked to cancer
Exposure to high levels of radio frequency radiation (RFR) -- used in 2G and 3G cell phones -- can increase the risk of cancerous tumours in the heart, brain and adrenal gland, researchers have warned.
Tennis elbow treatments provide little to no benefit: Study
Findings of a recent meta-analysis has found that treatments for tennis elbow do not provide much benefit.The study appears in the American Journal of Sports Medicine.The painful condition results from overuse of the tendons in the forearm, typically in a patient's dominant arm. A repetitive stress injury, tennis elbow affects not just athletes, but also tradesmen, food industry workers, manufacturers and office workers - anyone who uses the hands and wrists for hours each day.In the largest analysis to date, researchers and clinicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have compared the efficacy and safety of non-surgical treatment options for tennis elbow - also called enthesopathy of the extensor carpi radialis brevis (eECRB).The meta-analysis reveals that none of the 11 non-surgical treatment options - including physical therapy, acupuncture, oral anti-inflammatory medications, local botulinum toxin injection therapy, ultrasound, laser therapy and more - performed ...
Good sleep leads to better recovery after sports-related concussion
According to a recent study, young athletes who have good sleep after sustaining a concussion are more likely to recover within two weeks. Those who don't have good sleep quality often take longer to recover, sometimes longer than 30 days.The study abstract, 'Association between Sleep Quality and Recovery Following a Sport-Related Concussion in the Pediatric Population', will be presented on November 3 at the American Academy of Pediatrics 2018 National Conference and Exhibition, in Orlando.Researchers at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children examined data from four outpatient clinics in North Texas that specialise in treating concussions, analysing records from 356 athletes younger than 19 who were diagnosed with a sport-related concussion between October 2015 and June 2017.Researchers looked at overall sleep quality for these young athletes by asking them to complete a commonly used sleep questionnaire. Those athletes who reported a score of five or fewer were considered to have
'New antibiotic to combat drug-resistant TB found in soil'
An antibiotic found in soil may help treat drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) by destroying the mutant bacteria responsible for the disease, a study claims. For decades, doctors have been using antibiotics to fight tuberculosis, said researchers from Rockefeller University in the US. Consistently, the microbe responsible for the disease, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, has been fighting back, they said. When confronted with current drugs, such as the antibiotic rifamycin, the bacterium often mutates in ways that make it resistant to the treatment. Rates of rifamycin resistance are steadily rising, which presents a major problem to doctors attempting to treat TB. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, suggests that an antibiotic found in dirt can destroy mutant mycobacteria. Rifamycin, or Rif, works by targeting RNA polymerase (RNAP), an enzyme crucial to bacteria's survival. Resistance develops when the genes coding for RNAP mutate: Even a small genetic change can ...
Traumatic brain injuries may lead to long-term neurological, psychiatric disorders
Children who experience traumatic brain injuries are at increased risk of developing neuropsychiatric disorders, a new study has revealed.The study will be presented at the 2018 American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference and Exhibition.Traumatic brain injury is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in children, and rates of injury have increased over the past decade and injuries have long-term consequences. Researchers found, children who experience traumatic brain injury are at higher risk of developing headache, depression, and mental or intellectual disorders up to five years after the event.For the study abstract, 'Long-term Outcomes Following Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in Children', researchers obtained diagnostic codes from medical records in the Military Health System Data Repository to analyze clinical data on children. They compared patients diagnosed with traumatic brain injury to those who suffered orthopedic injury, matching patients by age, gender and ...
Physical activity a vital sign of children's overall health
According to a recent study more than half of the children are not getting the recommended amount of weekly physical activity. And most of those who do meet the recommendations are exercising longer and for fewer days, risking burnout or repetitive injury risk.The study will be presented on November 3 at the American Academy of Pediatrics 2018 National Conference and Exhibition in Orlando.The study examined self-reported physical activity of 7,822 children over a three-year period. The children were seen at outpatient pediatric sports medicine clinics.Data indicates that only 5.2 percent of children reported meeting the daily goals for physical activity. In addition, 49.6 percent were insufficiently active, and 5 percent reported no physical activity. The categories were based on the number of minutes per week in which children participated in physical activity based on the recommended 60 minutes per day or 420 minutes of activity per week."Exercise should be used as a vital sign of ..
Hyderabad cops create green corridor for speedy heart transportation
The Hyderabad Traffic police on Thursday provided a green channel to an ambulance for the speedy transportation of a heart. As a result of the swift mobilisation, doctors of Care Hospital were able to successfully transplant a live heart into 47-year-old Meka Adilakshmi.The vehicle carrying the heart traversed a distance of 8 kilometres in seven minutes. The medical team carrying the organ left Yashoda Hospital in Secunderabad at 12.46 pm and reached Care Hospital in Nampally at 12.53 pm.As per Additional Traffic Commissioner of Hyderabad, Anil Kumar, the traffic cops provided a green channel for taking the heart of 51-year-old Manjushri from Yashoda Hospital to Care Hospital.The family members of Meka Adilakshmi and staff of Care Hospitals lauded the efforts of Hyderabad Traffic Police for aiding the speedy transportation of the heart.
GSK Consumer advances after strong Q2 result
GlaxoSmithkline Consumer Healthcare rose 2.2% to Rs 7,230 at 09:35 IST on BSE after net profit rose 43.18% to Rs 275.49 crore on 16.41% rise in total income to Rs 1361 crore in Q2 September 2018 over Q2 September 2017.