Mamata announces plan to revamp Bengal's medical infrastructure |  |
- Mamata announces plan to revamp Bengal's medical infrastructure
- Administrative lapses led to doctor's lynching: Nitish
- Low-carb, higher-fat diets add no arterial health risks to obese people seeking to lose weight
- BJP expels Jammu and Kashmir leader Chaman Lal Gupta
- Government for public-private tie-up on organ transplants
- No 'fish medicine' for kids, says Andhra rights panel
- Delhi homemaker gets new heart
- Mumbai cabbies say no to tobacco
- Mental illness most discussed online: Survey
- Good guy or bad guy? Diagnosing stomach disease in pet reptiles
| Mamata announces plan to revamp Bengal's medical infrastructure Posted: 01 Jun 2011 11:28 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Tuesday said existing hospitals and health centres across the state will be upgraded while four super-speciality hospitals will come up in Purulia, Bankura, West Midnapore and Birbhum to revamp the medical infrastructure. 'In districts like Purulia, Bankura, West Midnapore and Birbhum, the health infrastructure is poor and I have plans to set up ultra modern hospitals in the districts. I have talked with the people concerned but I cannot reveal now with whom I have talked. I also cannot say about the policies of the hospitals until they are finalised,' Banerjee told media persons at the state secretariat - Writers' Buildings. She also said the government would provide land for these hospitals. Blaming the former Left Front government for neglecting the health sector, she said her government has come up with short, medium and long-term measures to shore up the sector. 'What could not be done in 34 years cannot be done in a year. We need time. We have chalked up short, medium and long-term measures to revive the health sector. We need at least five years' time.' Banerjee also said that the existing hospitals and health centers down to the block level would be modernised. Most of them are under-staffed so the government will recruit technicians, doctors and other medical staff to provide health facilities properly, she said, adding that all this will be done within a year. 'We would also be setting up special orthopaedic and neurology hospitals along with special care centres for women. We are in the process of identifying the areas which need emphasis. The people of Bengal who have to go to Vellore and other cities for treatment won't have to go once our projects come up,' said Banerjee. She also said they have plans for beautification of the city. An inter-ministry meeting was held at Writers' Buildings for initiating projects for beautification of the city. The meeting was... http://www.rxpgnews.com    |
| Administrative lapses led to doctor's lynching: Nitish Posted: 01 Jun 2011 07:13 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Tuesday admitted that administrative lapses led to the lynching of a doctor by prisoners inside a jail. 'There were administrative lapses behind the incident,' Nitish Kumar said. Buddhadev Singh was beaten to death Sunday afternoon by some jail inmates in Gopalganj, some 125 km from Patna, when he went inside a ward to conduct a medical checkup of a prisoner. According to a police officer, the prisoners wanted the doctor to issue them a certificate that they were ill and needed to be shifted out of the jail. But Singh refused, after which he was thrashed. Nitish Kumar also blamed the jail officials. 'The incident was result of failure of the jail authorities.' The chief minister announced a compensation of Rs.10 lakh to the family of the deceased. All the government doctors in Bihar are on a day-long strike Tuesday to protest the incident. http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Low-carb, higher-fat diets add no arterial health risks to obese people seeking to lose weight Posted: 01 Jun 2011 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Overweight and obese people looking to drop some pounds and considering one of the popular low-carbohydrate diets, along with moderate exercise, need not worry that the higher proportion of fat in such a program compared to a low-fat, high-carb diet may harm their arteries, suggests a pair of new studies by heart and vascular researchers at Johns Hopkins. Overweight and obese people appear to really have options when choosing a weight-loss program, including a low-carb diet, and even if it means eating more fat, says the studies' lead investigator exercise physiologist Kerry Stewart, Ed.D. Stewart, a professor of medicine and director of clinical and research exercise physiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and its Heart and Vascular Institute, says his team's latest analysis is believed to be the first direct comparison of either kind of diet on the effects to vascular health, using the real-life context of 46 people trying to lose weight through diet and moderate exercise. The research was prompted by concerns from people who wanted to include one of the low-carb, high-fat diets, such as Atkins, South Beach and Zone, as part of their weight-loss program, but were wary of the diets' higher fat content. In the first study, scheduled to be presented June 3 at the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine in Denver, the Hopkins team studied 23 men and women, weighing on average 218 pounds and participating in a six-month weight-loss program that consisted of moderate aerobic exercise and lifting weights, plus a diet made up of no more than 30 percent of calories from carbs, such as pastas, breads and sugary fruits. As much as 40 percent of their diet was made up of fats coming from meat, dairy products and nuts. This low-carb group showed no change after shedding 10 pounds in two key measures of vascular health: finger tip tests of how fast the inner vessel lining in the arteries in the... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| BJP expels Jammu and Kashmir leader Chaman Lal Gupta Posted: 01 Jun 2011 12:04 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) New Delhi/Jammu, May 31 - The Bharatiya Janata Party - Tuesday expelled its seniormost leader in Jammu and Kashmir and former union minister of state Chaman Lal Gupta for six years for 'anti-party activities'. The party earlier suspended Gupta and six other legislators from the state last month for cross-voting during the legislative council elections April 13. The BJP's decision to expel Gupta comes after he recently issued disqualification notices to four party legislators who had been exonerated by the party leadership of cross-voting in the legislative council elections. The BJP parliamentary board met here Tuesday evening and decided to expel Gupta, who was union minister of state of defence from 2002 to 2004, from the party's primary membership for six years. In Jammu, Gupta expressed ignorance about the expulsion order. 'I will react only when I get the notice,' he said. 'They - must realise that I am the architect of the party and have strengthened it all along,' Gupta told IANS. The BJP parliamentary board meeting in Delhi was presided over by party president Nitin Gadkari. A statement issued by the party after the meeting said that the parliamentary board noted with concern the 'anti-party activities' of Gupta. 'Though he had already been suspended from the party on charge of anti-party activity, yet he issued show cause notices to four BJP members of legislative assembly of Jammu and Kashmir. This, the parliamentary board, treats as a further case of gross indiscipline and resolves to expel Chaman Lal Gupta from the primary membership of the BJP for a period of six years with immediate effect,' the statement said. The party's decision will also be communicated to Jammu and Kashmir assembly Speaker Mohammad Akbar Lone. Gupta, one of seven legislators suspended by the party for cross-voting in the legislative council elections, earlier in the day issued disqualification notices to four party... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Government for public-private tie-up on organ transplants Posted: 31 May 2011 11:08 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) New Delhi, May 31 - To meet the increasing demand of organ transplantation, public-private partnership between hospitals in the country is the way forward, Director General of Health Services R.K. Srivastava said here Tuesday. 'There is tremendous planning and meticulous research required before any transplant takes place. To meet the dearth of donors in the country, it is very important to have a strong public-private partnership among hospitals,' Srivastava said at a press conference held to announce a heart transplant on a 44-year-old woman. 'The National Organ Transplant Programme, which started as a pilot project in Delhi, aims at creating a donor registry, conducting audits of hospitals, connecting registered hospitals and their ICUs for organ donations and connecting patients in the waiting list for receiving organs,' he added. According to preliminary figures given by the government before the first Organ Donation Day observed Nov 18 last year, India has an annual demand of about 175,000 kidneys, 50,000 hearts and 50,000 livers for transplant each year. Hospitals such as Sir Ganga Ram, Fortis, Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, and Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, have been roped in for the venture between the government and private healthcare providers. http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| No 'fish medicine' for kids, says Andhra rights panel Posted: 31 May 2011 08:45 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Hyderabad, May 31 - A fresh controversy hit the famous 'fish medicine' therapy for asthma patients as Andhra Pradesh Human Rights Commission Tuesday ordered that children below the age of 14 should not be administered it. Acting on a petition by Balula Hakkula Sangham, an NGO working for children's rights, the commission asked the Hyderabad district administration to ensure that no child below 14 years is given the 'fish medicine'. The annual event of distribution of fish medicine is to take place at Exhibition Grounds here June 8-9. The Bathini Goud family of Doodhbowli in the old city of Hyderabad has been administering the medicine free of cost for 165 years. Asthma patients from different parts of India every year gulp down a live 'murrel' fish with a yellow herbal paste in its mouth. The herbal paste, the contents of which remain a family secret, is believed to cure asthma and other respiratory diseases. The NGO president Achyut Rao said since the 'medicine' is given by the family members under unhygienic conditions, it may also spread infection. The fish medicine lost its popularity in recent years after NGOs, working to inculcate scientific temper among people, termed it as a fraud and approached court. They argued that the herbal paste contains heavy metals and caused more harm than good to the patients. After the controversy, the Goud family began calling it 'fish prasadam' or holy offering. The Goud family claims that the secret formula for the herbal medicine was given to their ancestor in 1845 by a saint after taking an oath from him that it should be administered free of cost. http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Delhi homemaker gets new heart Posted: 31 May 2011 07:28 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) New Delhi, May 31 - After years of shuttling between hospitals, 44-year-old Sunita, a homemaker in Delhi, got a new lease of life when doctors at a city hospital transplanted a 'new' heart inside her. 'It is difficult to believe. Thanks to the doctors, I am better now,' Sunita from west Delhi's Baljeet Nagar, still in the hospital, said in her message through a video-conference Tuesday. The surgery was carried out around two weeks ago at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in central Delhi involved a team of over 50 doctors coordinating for the transplant. 'Although heart transplant surgeries are conducted at the AIIMS -, Sunita's is the first successful surgery in a non-governmental institution in north India,' said Sujad Shad, director of cardiac transplantation centre at the Dharma Vira Heart Centre at the Ganga Ram Hospital. The first heart transplant surgery was conducted at AIIMS in 1994. Sunita, a diabetic, had a heart muscle disease known as cardiomyopathy, severe left ventricular dysfunction that lead to heart failure. She was given a heart retrieved under difficult circumstances from a donor whose family chose to remain anonymous. 'Heart transplants happen when the patient's heart has almost stopped functioning at a normal rate. This includes symptoms such as abnormal blood pressure, blockages in blood carrier vessels such as veins and arteries, swelling, abnormal heart beats, and heart attack,' Shad explained. The patient is kept under constant observation and given expensive immuno-suppressant drugs that help in better compatibility of the donor's heart and the recipient's body. The cost of the surgery has been Rs.12 lakh till now, and is expected to reach Rs.18 lakh after immunosuppressant drugs are given. 'The survival rate is usually 90 percent for the first one year, and chances of improvisation are there,' said Harsha Jauhari, chairman of department of renal transplant surgery at the Ganga Ram... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Mumbai cabbies say no to tobacco Posted: 31 May 2011 07:15 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Mumbai, May 31 - More than 50,000 taxi drivers here lent their support to the 'Smoke Free Mumbai' campaign on World No Tobacco Day Tuesday and pledged to ensure that neither they nor their passengers would smoke in cabs. 'Mumbai now joins several cities in the world like New York that protect the health of their taxi drivers and of passengers, especially children who are in no position to object from exposure to second-hand smoke,' said Prakash Gupta, president of the Action Council against Tobacco, India. Quoting a recent survey held among the taxi drivers, Gupta said that in spite of the fact that nearly 80 percent taxi drivers are non-smokers, almost all were being exposed to second-hand smoke from the passengers. 'SFM is working towards reducing and completely eliminating this involuntary and highly risky exposure of taxi drivers during their job hours,' he said. According to the survey by SFM, 79 percent taxi drivers are exposed to second-hand smoke daily, and 96 percent felt that a law banning smoking in taxis is useful. Only 14 percent had 'No Smoking' stickers in their taxis. The taxi drivers also pledged to display stickers informing passengers about anti-smoking laws and fines in English, Marathi and Hindi. The move was also supported by city-based Kalpataru Hospitality Facility Management - - a corporate hygiene and facility management organisation, which banned its 5,000 employees from consuming tobacco at work place on World No Tobacco Day. 'The move to ban tobacco at work serves the dual purpose of safeguarding health and projecting a responsible image of a serving unit,' the company's managing director R.M. Hegde said. Thane-based realty firm Soham World also banned its employees from consuming tobacco at the workplace. According to company spokesperson Manoj Asrani, the anti-tobacco drive should be taken up on an aggressive note by other companies as well. http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Mental illness most discussed online: Survey Posted: 31 May 2011 05:53 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) New Delhi, May 31 - Mental illness is the most discussed health problem online in India surpassing other major health problems, including heart diseases, AIDS, or malaria, a new survey said Tuesday. According to the Asia Pacific Digital Health Index, depression, anxiety and stress are the most common health topics being discussed online. This is followed by infectious diseases like AIDS, malaria and cholera in second place, and women's health issues like menopause, birth control and fertility in the third place. 'Mental health is of significant concern in India, with depression, anxiety and stress being the most talked about online. This is understandable in a society undergoing rapid change where traditional family and social structures are breaking down and the certainties of the past, like job security, do not exist any more,' said Robert Holdheim, managing director for India of the Asia Pacific Digital Health Index. Metabolic diseases, which is one of the biggest health risk faced by Indians, come only in the fourth position in the index, with topics like diabetes and obesity, while cardiovascular diseases is in the fifth position. These are followed by skin diseases, cancer, gastrointestinal diseases like acidity, respiratory diseases like asthma, and muscular diseases like arthritis. The study was published after a survey of over 18,000 online mentions pertaining to 17 disease areas across 60 online channels. It was monitored in Singapore between October and December 2010. http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Good guy or bad guy? Diagnosing stomach disease in pet reptiles Posted: 31 May 2011 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Although known for over a century, cryptosporidiosis was believed to be an extremely rare condition and it only gained attention with the discovery that it can affect humans, especially immune-compromised individuals. It is caused by a single-cell parasite, one of a family known as cryptosporidia. Some cryptosporidia also infect reptiles, where after a sometimes lengthy incubation period they cause gastrointestinal problems even in otherwise healthy individuals. The condition is usually persistent and is presently impossible to cure. It is therefore important to minimize infections and in this regard reliable diagnostic procedures are essential. Diagnosis is based on the detection of parasites in faeces but is complicated by the fact that snakes in particular excrete parasites that they swallow together with their prey, so the presence of cryptosporidia in faeces does not necessarily mean the animals are infected. For this reason it is essential to be able to distinguish between prey cryptosporidia and those that cause infection in the snake. Barbara Richter and colleagues at the Institute of Pathology and Forensic Veterinary Medicine in the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna now report a DNA-based procedure able to determine not only whether cryptosporidia are present but also whether they are of mammalian or snake origin. By means of the test, Richter was able to show that a particular type of cryptosporidium is present in about one in six samples from the popularly kept corn snake and in about one in twelve samples from the attractive leopard gecko, a lizard frequently found in reptile collections. These prevalence figures are far higher than previously suspected, showing the widespread nature of the disease. The corn snake in particular seems highly susceptible to infection. Worryingly, the new tool revealed that a large proportion of captive leopard geckos contain cryptosporidia of one form or another. It is... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| You are subscribed to email updates from RxPG News : Latest Medical, Healthcare and Research News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Post a Comment