Page 305 - Health Medical Pharma

Ayushman Bharat will prove jumla: Kejriwal

Calling it a personal relations exercise, Aam Aadmi Party head Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said the Centre's Ayushman Bharat scheme will prove to be another 'jumla'.

Diphtheria death toll at Delhi civic hospital rises to 18, mayor sets up panel

The death toll of children from diphtheria at a municipal hospital in north-west Delhi has risen to 18, even as the area's mayor has set up a panel to look into it, officials said Sunday. Twelve deaths were reported at the Maharishi Valmiki Infectious Diseases Hospital on September 20 and another one at LNJP Hospital. "A total of 18 children have died at the civic hospital so far, 17 of the patients were from outside Delhi and only one belonged to Delhi," a senior NDMC official said. He quoted the figures from the information obtained from the medical superintendent of the hospital. The hospital in north-west Delhi is governed by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation. "From September 6-23, there have been 147 admissions, out of which 122 belonged to Uttar Pradesh, 11 from Haryana and 14 from Delhi for diphtheria cases. 18 of them have died till date," he said. Meanwhile, North Delhi Mayor Adesh Gupta has set up a panel to look into the death cases and sought a report, sources ...

Health bodies, experts laud rolling out of PMJAY-Ayushman Bharat scheme

Lauding the roll out of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY)-Ayushman Bharat, health bodies and experts Sunday said it will bring the much-needed "revolutionary" change to healthcare in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday rolled out the scheme which aims to provide coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family annually, benefiting more than 50 crore people for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation through a network of empanelled health care providers. Prathap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals congratulated the prime minister on the launch of this "historic" initiative, saying, "While we all work together to ensure the success of this scheme, there are areas that need focus and fine tuning". "Ensuring the robustness of the IT backbone, weeding out potential fraud, ensuring coverage to only identified beneficiaries and ensuring more adoption by the private sector, who are rightly worried about the pricing and reimbursements, must remain paramount moving forward. "I believe ...

Ayushman Bharat a PR exercise, will prove to be another jumla: Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister and AAP National Convener Arvind Kejriwal claimed that Ayushman Bharat, the healthcare scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, is a public relation exercise which will prove to be another "jumla" (rehtoric). The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) termed the scheme "another white elephant in the making" and alleged that it covers only six lakh out of 50 lakh families in Delhi. "Pl read - why Ayushman Bharat is another PR exercise and will prove another jumla," Kejriwal said in tweet while referring to the AAP statement. The prime minister rolled out the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY)-Ayushman Bharat from Ranchi Sunday, and termed it a "game-changer initiative to serve the poor". The health scheme would come into effect from today (Sunday), he said. "PMJAY-Ayushman Bharat is the biggest government-sponsored healthcare scheme in the world. The number of beneficiaries is almost equal to the population of Canada, Mexico and the US taken together," Modi .

Deendayal Upadhyaya's dream realised with Ayushman Bharat scheme: Adityanath

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said BJP ideologue Deendayal Upadhyaya's dream to uplift the poor was realised Sunday with the launch of a central government scheme that aims to provide health insurance cover to nearly 50 crore Indians. He was praising the rolling out of the ambitious Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY)-Ayushman Bharat programme by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Ranchi in Jharkhand. The scheme aims to provide a coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family annually and is likely to benefit more than 50 crore people for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation through a network of empanelled healthcare providers. Speaking at Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur, Adityanath said, "Today the dream of Deendayal Upadhyaya Ji has come true as the man at the bottom of the social order will be able to get medical treatment under Ayushman Bharat scheme without any discrimination. Poor people won't die...due to lack of money." The medical college was in news in August last ..

Dengue patient dies in Odisha

With the death of one more dengue patient at the SCB Medical College and Hospital here on Sunday, the mosquito-borne disease has claimed five lives in Cuttack in the past six months. Hospital sources said one Soumya Ranjan Naik (18) of neighbouring Jagatsingpur district was admitted here with dengue on Thursday last. "As the patient's condition was critical, he was undergoing treatment with special care inside the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). But he died on Sunday morning," the sources said. At present, 92 dengue patients are undergoing treatment at the special dengue ward of the SCB Medical College and Hospital here. Seventeen others, whose conditions are stated to be critical, are undergoing treatment for dengue in the ICU.

Empowerment is a gift you give yourself: Milind Soman at Pinkathon

A team of visually challenged girls, hearing impaired girls, cancer 'sheroes', 'baby-wearing' mothers and senior citizens were among the participants at the sixth edition of Pinkathon here on Sunday. Actor and Pinkathon founder Milind Soman says ladies need to realise that a healthy nation and a healthy world begins with empowered women.

Ayushman Bharat scheme to cover 90 pc of Maha population: Guv

As many as 90 per cent population of Maharashtra will be eligible for the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana-Ayushman Bharat scheme, Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao said here on Sunday. Rao was speaking after attending launch of the Ayushman Bharat healthcare scheme at the state government's Sahyadri Guest House in Mumbai. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and public health minister Dr Deepak Sawant were also present. The ambitious healthcare scheme was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Jharkhand Sunday. It was simultaneously launched in other parts of the country. As many as 83.71 lakh families in Maharashtra, accounting for 90 per cent of population, would benefit from the scheme, Rao said. The scheme will be implemented alongwith Maharashtra government's existing Mahatma Phule Janarogya Yojana. "In the post-independence period, research (in medical science) has helped increase life expectancy from 35 to 70. Infant mortality and number of deaths of pregnant women ..

Personalised therapies may help better manage diabetes

Inherited genetic changes can explain why a "one-size-fits-all" treatment for diabetes is not always successful, say scientists who identified five distinct groups of DNA sites that drive the illness in unique ways. The study, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, suggests that a personalised therapy tailored to each person's physiology may help better manage diabetes. Scientists from the Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US analysed genomic data with a computational tool that incorporates genetic complexity. "When treating type 2 diabetes, we have a dozen or so medications we can use, but after you start someone on the standard algorithm, it's primarily trial and error," said Jose Florez, an endocrinologist at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in the US. "We need a more granular approach that addresses the many different molecular processes leading to high blood sugar," said Florez, also a professor at Harvard Medical School. It is known that ..

Dr Kafeel Khan released on magistrate's order after arrest

Dr Kafeel Khan was released on orders of a magistrate hours after his arrest Saturday allegedly for arguing with doctors and "disturbing" treatment being given to patients at the district hospital here, police said. Khan is currently out on bail in a case related to death of infants at a state-run hospital in Gorakhpur last year. ASP Ajay Pratap said he was arrested for arguing with doctors and "disturbing" treatment being given to patients at the district hospital here and he was later released on orders of the magistrate. Khan left Bahraich limits Saturday night itself, he said. His brother, Adeel Khan, said he was arrested just before he was going to address reporters on the deaths due to acute encephalitis syndrome in the state. Khan is one of the nine accused in a case involving the deaths of several children due to alleged disruption in the supply of oxygen at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College in August 2017. He was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police in September 2017. The ..

Vadodara doctor offers to conduct ankle surgeries free

A city-based doctor has announced that he would perform ankle surgeries at his hospital free of cost for patients belonging to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category. Dr Rajiv Shah of Sunshine Global Hospital, who is also past president of the Indian Foot and Ankle Council, said many patients can not afford this surgery as it is costly. He said he was inspired to offer the surgery free of cost by the Ayushman Bharat insurance scheme of the government. The surgery involves correcting the position of the 'Talus' bone in the ankle, he said.

Miniature human oesophagus grown in lab

In a first, scientists have successfully grown oesophageal organoids -- miniature, functional versions of the human food pipe -- using stem cells, paving the way for new ways to study and test drugs against gut disorders. The research, published in the journal Cell Stem Cell, shows how human oesophageal tissue was grown entirely from pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), which can form any tissue type in the body. The work by researchers at the Cincinnati Children's Center for Stem Cell and Organoid Medicine (CuSTOM) in the US may lead to personalised diagnostic methods and focused in part on developing regenerative tissue therapies to treat or cure GI disorders. "Disorders of the esophagus and trachea are prevalent enough in people that organoid models of human esophagus could be greatly beneficial," said Jim Wells, a chief scientific officer at CuSTOM. "In addition to being a new model to study birth defects like esophageal atresia, the organoids can be used to study diseases like ...

Delhi hospital treats Iraqi girl with rare spinal disease

A 19-year-old Iraqi girl has been given a new lease of life after a team of doctors from the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital here successfully treated her for a rare spinal disease.

Eight of 10 people with cancer genes unaware of risk

More that 80 per cent of those who are genetically predisposed to have cancer are unaware about their risk, a study of over 50,000 people has found. In the absence of routine screening, most people only discover they carry cancer-associated variants in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes when that person or family members receive a cancer diagnosis. "As a colleague said, it usually takes a tragedy for people to get tested," said Michael Murray, professor at Yale University in the US. "Our reliance on a documented personal or family history as a trigger to offer testing is not working. Hopefully, one day we can change that with effective DNA-based screening for everyone," said Murray. The mean age of subjects in the study was 60. Two hundred and sixty-seven of those screened possessed a BRCA risk variant, yet only 18 per cent of them were aware they possessed this risk factor for cancer prior to being informed by the study. Among the group of living BRCA-positive patients, 16.8 per cent of them ..

8 of 10 people unaware of having cancer risk genes

Due to the absence of routine screening, more than 80 per cent of people are unaware of their genetic risk for cancers of the breast, ovarian, prostate and pancreas, a study of over 50,000 people has shown.

Intas Pharma's US arm recalls blood pressure drug due to labelling mix-up

Hydrochlorothiazide tablets belong to a class of drugs known as diuretics and are used for treatment of high blood pressure and edema

An insight into autism and other brain disorders

Turns out, a protein that lingers too long on the membrane may compromise the connections, or synapses, between cells in the brain.In a new study, Rockefeller scientist Mary E. Hatten and research associate Hourinaz Behesti demonstrated that the protein ASTN2 helps move proteins away from the membrane in a timely fashion. The researchers also propose a mechanism by which ASTN2 defects lead to neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and intellectual disabilities.Hatten, the Frederick P. Rose Professor, has demonstrated that the protein ASTN2 acts as such a trafficker during cell migration in early development.Specifically, the protein appears to be disproportionally expressed in the cerebellum- a brain region that some researchers suspect may govern complex aspects of cognition, in addition to its more-established role in regulating movement.The researchers used a special microscopy technique to determine where ASTN2 is expressed in the mouse cerebellum. They found that it appears .

Research reveals mitochondrial gene that protects against dementia

A previously unknown genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias has been uncovered, providing insights into how these conditions, and other diseases of aging, might one day be treated and prevented.The research from the Cohen Lab at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology sheds new light on the protective role of a naturally occurring mitochondrial peptide, known as humanin. Amounts of the peptide decrease with age, leading researchers to believe that humanin levels play an important function in the aging process and the onset of diseases linked to older age.Senior author Pinchas Cohen said, "Because of the beneficial effects of humanin, a decrease in circulating levels could lead to an increase in several different diseases of aging, particularly in dementia."Among the findings, the researchers discovered a significant difference between the circulating levels of humanin in African-Americans, who are more impacted by Alzheimer's disease and other diseases ..

Predicting autism risk in pregnant mothers

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute- led by Juergen Hahn, professor and head of biomedical engineering- are continuing to make remarkable progress with their research focused on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).A recent paper authored by Hahn and Jill James from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences discusses the work on predicting with approximately 90 percent accuracy whether a pregnant mother has a 1.7 percent or a tenfold increased risk of having a child diagnosed with ASD.Currently, there is no test for pregnant mothers that can predict the probability of having a child that will be diagnosed with ASD. Recent estimates indicate that if a mother has previously had a child with ASD, the risk of having a second child with ASD is approximately 18.7 percent, whereas the risk of ASD in the general population is approximately 1.7 percent.In this study, metabolites of the folate-dependent transmethylation and transsulfuration biochemical pathways of pregnant mothers ..

Injecting insulin can help treat chronic colitis

Not just diabetes, even chronic bowel inflammation can be treated effectively by injecting insulin into the rectum.In a new study between departments at the University of Copenhagen and Roskilde University, researchers examined the effect of the treatment in a series of tests on mice with chronic colitis of the type Colitis Ulcerosa, among others.The cause of these bowel disorders is unknown, but they cause patients great discomfort and can involve bloody diarrhea, anaemia, stomach ache, and weight loss.Co-inventor of the treatment, Jørgen Olsen said, "Our new treatment with insulin on mice shows great potential against chronic bowel inflammation in humans like Colitis Ulcerosa, which causes a lot of people great discomfort. Existing treatments attack the bowel's immune system, dampening it; instead, our method strengthens the bowel cells' own defence. It appears to work equally well, and it can probably be used in combination with existing treatments."The researchers have studied the