Page 383 - Health Medical Pharma
China orders probe into sale of faulty vaccines
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has called for an immediate investigation into the sale of 250,000 faulty rabies vaccines as panic grows over product safety.
Talking therapy not beneficial for schizophrenia treatment: Study
Talking therapy is likely to have no benefit for improving quality of life and reducing distress in people diagnosed with schizophrenia, says a study.
Medical board examines Sharif after reports of health related complications
A medical board was examining jailed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif today to decide about shifting him to a hospital after the Pakistani media reported that he is on the verge of a kidney failure. Sharif, 68, and his daughter Maryam, 44, are serving jail terms of 10 years and 7 years respectively in Adiala jail in Rawalpindi, after an accountability court convicted them on July 6 over the family's ownership of four luxury flats in London. A four-member medical board was examining Sharif in jail to decide about shifting him to the hospital following health related complications, sources said. The team comprising cardiologist Dr Naeem Malik, Medical Specialist Dr. Shaji Siddiqui, neurologist Dr Sohail Tanvir and Dr Mashood visited him in jail to carry out a detailed check-up. Sharif has multiple health issues like heart problems, hypertension and diabetes. He already underwent open heart surgery in London in 2016. Earlier, a team of doctors from Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology ...
Doctors, nurses assaulted by attendants of patient in Jammu
Doctors and nurses of a government hospital here were allegedly assaulted by some attendants of a patient after his death, officials said today. Butta Singh (58), a critically ill patient suffering from bilateral extensive disease and respiratory failure, died at the hospital last evening following which some of his attendants allegedly assaulted a doctor and some nurses besides smashing a window screen and damaging the hospital property, they said. The doctors and paramedical staff, including nurses, staged a peaceful demonstration here this morning against the hospital administration for its failure to provide secure atmosphere to them. A police official said an FIR was registered in connection with the incident but no one was arrested so far. The protesters, however, resumed their duties after the hospital administration and senior police officials visited them and assured that a case already stands registered and appropriate measures would be taken to avoid such incidents in ...
Goa Assembly: Parrikar to stand in for three ill ministers
Three ministers of the Goa government are indisposed and are not attending the Assembly Session which got underway here on July 19. Questions in the House related to these ministries would be answered by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, sources said. While Power Minister Pandurang Madkaikar is in a Mumbai hospital since last month, Urban Development minister Francis D'Souza too is in Mumbai for a health check-up and Transport Minister Sudin Dhavalikar has also told the Speaker that he would be unavailable for a few days. "D'Souza has informed the Speaker that he will be on leave and will not be attending the session till July 30. He has gone to Mumbai for follow-up medical treatment," a senior official from the Legislature department told PTI. D'Souza is a BJP legislator from Mapusa constituency in North Goa. Dhavalikar, who was admitted to a hospital in Mumbai on July 9 and was discharged on July 18, has informed the Speaker that he would not be coming to the House for .
Bitter pill: China vaccine scandal sparks fury, roils markets
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A vaccine scandal in China, which has prompted angry reactions from citizens fed up with safety scares, is sending ripples across the local drug market and threatening Chinese ambitions to play a larger role in the global pharmaceutical space.
Drug for Parkinson's may benefit heart failure patients too
A drug currently in clinical trials for treating symptoms of Parkinson's disease may someday help treat patients with heart failure, a research suggests.
Drug-filled 'nano-submarines' can target tumours
Scientists have developed miniature drug-filled 'nano-submarines' that can latch on to immune cells and empower them to attack tumours without damaging to healthy tissue. In modern medicine, patients receiving medication to treat tumours or for pain therapy are often given drugs that disperse throughout the entire body, even though the section of the organ to be treated may be only small and clearly demarcated. One solution would be to administer drugs that target specific cell types. Such nanocarriers are just what scientists are working to develop. These contain, in a manner of speaking, miniature submarines no larger than a thousandth of the diameter of a human hair. Invisible to the naked eye, these nanocarriers are loaded with a pharmacologically-active agent, allowing them to function as concentrated transport containers. The surface of these nanocarriers or drug capsules is specially coated to enable them, for example, to dock on to tissue interspersed with tumour cells. The ...
Perfectionism in young children indicates OCD risk
Children who tend to be perfectionists and show excessive self-control from a young age are two times more likely than their peers to develop obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) by the time they reach their teens, a study has found. MRI scans taken as part of the research, published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, showed that the perfectionists often had smaller volumes of a brain structure previously linked to OCD. "Having a lot of self-control and striving for perfection often are considered by parents and society as good because they can eliminate mistakes, but excessive self-control and perfectionism raise a red flag," said Kirsten E Gilbert, from the Washington University in the US. "In adolescents and adults, these characteristics are associated with OCD and other disorders, such as anorexia and social anxiety. We've now been able to link this to OCD risk in children," said Gilbert. OCD is a chronic mental health disorder that often involves uncontrollable, recurring thoughts, ..
Board of Max Financial Services appoints director
At meeting held on 23 July 2018
Staff's poll duties to hit working of prominent hospitals in Karachi
With over 1,500 medical staff put on poll duty, the working of 12 major hospitals, including that of a prominent cardiac hospital, here is going to be affected on July 25 when Pakistan goes to polls, according to a media report. This is for the first time that the medical staff of hospitals, considered essential service, has been deputed to do poll duties by the Election Commission of Pakistan in general election as presiding officer and assistant presiding officers, the Dawn News reported. The Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases (KIHD), one of the major facilities for heart patients in the city, will not be able to run its Coronary Care Unit and male and female wards on July 25 due to severe staff shortage. As many as 500 doctors, 300 nurses, which constitute 99 per cent of its nursing staff, and majority of its paramedical staff have been put on election duties and the department is left with only six staff nurses, the report said. The hospital would run only emergency services in ..
Perfectionism in young children may indicate OCD risk: study
Does your child act finicky, even for small things? Beware, that perfectionism and excessive self-control behaviour could be a predictor of the risk of developing obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in teenage, finds a study
Big Data-based health calculator can predict heart disease risk
Scientists have developed a novel online health calculator using Big Data, that can help people determine their risk of heart disease as well as their heart age.
'New health calculator can help predict heart disease risk'
Scientists have created a novel online health calculator which they say could help people predict the risk of heart disease, and estimate their heart age. The calculator, described in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, accounts for socio-demographic factors such as ethnicity, sense of belonging and education, as well as health status and lifestyle behaviours. "What sets this cardiovascular risk calculator apart is that it looks at healthy living," said Doug Manuel, a senior scientist at The Ottawa Hospital in Canada. Using a "big data" approach, researchers used routinely collected data on 104,219 Ontario residents from the Canadian Community Health Surveys (2001 to 2007) to develop and validate the Cardiovascular Disease Population Risk Tool (CVDPoRT). The calculator allows individuals to accurately predict their risk of hospitalisation or death from cardiovascular disease within the next five years. For example, if their risk is five per cent, it means that five in 100 people
Secondhand smoke behind thousands of still births: Study
Over fifty per cent of pregnant women in developing countries are exposed to second hand smoke, according to a study which found that such exposure causes about 17,000 still births every year in Pakistan alone. Exposure to secondhand smoke during pregnancy increases the risk of stillbirth, congenital malformations, low birth-weight and respiratory illnesses. However, little is known about the extent of secondhand smoke exposure during pregnancy. Researchers from University of York in the UK looked at the number of pregnancies alongside smoking exposure data in 30 developing countries from 2008 to 2013. The analysis revealed that in Armenia, Indonesia, Jordan, Bangladesh and Nepal more than 50 per cent of pregnant women reported exposure to household secondhand smoke. According to the study published in the journal BMJ Tobacco Control, this led to over 10,000 still births in Indonesia alone. Over 40 per cent of all pregnant women in Pakistan are exposed to secondhand smoke - causing ...
Chinese premier vows crackdown in latest pharma scare
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has vowed stern action over the latest safety scare to hit the country's pharmaceutical industry, as a mounting scandal over a rabies vaccine sent drug stocks tumbling. China's Food and Drug Administration announced late yesterday that it had ordered all production stopped at one of the country's biggest vaccine makers, Changchun Changsheng Biotechnology. Li said the latest case had crossed a "line of human ethics", and he vowed a thorough investigation and harsh consequences for any infractions or lax supervision. "(We) must resolutely strike with heavy blows all law-breaking criminal behaviour, severely punish the criminals according to the law, and hold accountable those who were negligent in supervision," Li said in a statement posted late yesterday on the government's website. Regulators said last week they had halted production of a rabies vaccine made by the company, which is based in northeastern China, after finding fabricated records and other ...
Sharif on verge of kidney failure in jail: Report
Jailed Former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif is on the verge of a kidney failure and doctors have recommended to shift him to a hospital immediately, according to a media report. Sharif , 68, is serving a 10-year jail term in a corruption case over his family's purchase of luxury apartments in London. He has been lodged in the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi since July 13. A team of doctors from Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology (RIC), headed by its Chief Executive Major General (retd) Dr Azhar Mehmood Kayani, visited the prison and compiled a report after carrying out a detailed medical check-up. The report has now been sent to the Punjab Health secretary. The findings in the report suggest that Sharif be shifted to a hospital immediately, The Express Tribune reported. Although his personal physician Dr Adnan had seen him twice in recent days, the jail administration called doctors from RIC to be sure of what had happened. The team spent about one-and-a-half hour inspecting his ...
Cause of prostate cancer progression uncovered
The cause of prostate cancer progression to the incurable stage has likely been uncovered in a recent study.Researchers at the University of Oulu in Finland have discovered novel genes and mechanisms that can explain how a genomic variant in a single nucleotide polymorphism influences prostate cancer aggressiveness.Their findings also suggest ways to improve risk stratification and clinical treatment for advanced prostate cancer.Three billion base pairs in the human genome are nearly identical between any two individuals. Nevertheless, genome sequence variation such as single nucleotide polymorphism does occur in the population and may have profound effects on an individual's risk of developing various diseases, including prostate cancer.Academy Research Fellow Gong-Hong Wei said, "How human genomic variants cause disease and its progression is in general one of the most compelling puzzles and questions in medicine."Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer and the fifth ...
Supplemental oxygen eliminates rise in morning blood pressure
Supplemental oxygen eliminates the rise in morning blood pressure experienced by obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients who stop using continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), the standard treatment for OSA.According to a new research, co-authors reported that in patients with moderate to severe OSA, supplemental oxygen prevented the rise in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and the increase in oxygen desaturations that were seen in the control arm of the study after CPAP was withdrawn.Twenty-five adults living in the United Kingdom participated in the study. All had been using CPAP successfully for over a year.Many studies have demonstrated an association between OSA, hypertension and cardiovascular disease.Some of these studies have linked the acute rises in blood pressure that OSA patients experience while sleeping to the constant need to wake up when their breathing stops or is partially blocked.The authors of the current study wanted to find out if these recurrent ...
Efforts needed to address 'financial toxicity' of cancer treatment
Individuals who are diagnosed with cancer often worry about the financial burdens of treatment, in addition to facing health-related concerns.A new study indicates that many patients feel that such 'financial toxicity' is not adequately addressed by their doctors and other clinicians.There is growing awareness that cancer diagnosis and treatment can create financial difficulties even for patients with health insurance, but it is unclear whether patients today are being helped in this by their doctors or staff.To investigate, Reshma Jagsi, MD, DPhil, of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and her colleagues surveyed patients with early-stage breast cancer and their physicians: 2502 patients, 370 surgeons, 306 medical oncologists, and 169 radiation oncologists.Half of the responding medical oncologists reported that someone in their practice often or always discusses financial burden with patients, as did 15.6 percent of surgeons and 43.2 percent of radiation oncologists.The survey