Health

Guwahati, August 29: Patients admitted to government hospitals in Assam will receive a day cash allowance of up to Rs.100 besides free meals and medicines, an official said Saturday.

The bonanza will be for those who get treated in medical college hospitals and other district health centres under a Rs.50 million Assam government scheme.

As part of the scheme named ‘Maram’ (Assamese for love), a patient in medical college hospitals will receive Rs.100 daily in cash while those in district hospitals will get Rs.75. The scheme will start Sep 15.

Bangalore, August 29: Most swine flu deaths in Karnataka – where the casualty figures are second only to that of Maharashtra – have taken place in Bangalore, and experts say one reason could be the number of visitors the city gets from other parts of the country and abroad as an IT hub.

With three more fresh cases of deaths due to Influenza A (H1N1) reported Friday – two of them in Bangalore – Karnataka’s toll has risen to 23 while the Maharashtra figure stands at 48.

Patna, August 29: Twenty-one patients in the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) have died after a strike by junior doctors that entered its third day Saturday, authorities said.

‘While six patients died Thursday, 15 died in the last 24 hours. Lack of doctors in the emergency ward led to most deaths,’ a government official said.

More than 400 junior doctors are on an indefinite strike from Thursday demanding hike in their stipends.

The strike has badly hit the emergency, outdoor and surgery services in the hospital.

New Delhi, Aug 29:A three-day-old boy born with his heart outside the chest — ‘a rarest of rare defects’ — continued to battle for life at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Saturday, with doctors keeping their fingers crossed.

Doctors say the boy is crying incessantly for his mother Vibha Manjhi, a poor woman who is warded in a hospital in Chapra in Bihar after a cesarean section.

New Delhi, August 29: Even as the first batches of swine flu vaccine rolled out on Friday from US based Baxter International Inc, there was hardly anything to cheer for India as the starting batches of the vaccine have long been booked by other countries.

After the first batch supplies to the British health network, the later batches from Baxter and other pharma companies will go to US and UK who are trying to pre-empt another wave of the deadly flu by stockpiling the vaccine.

Washington, August 29: Doctors are reporting a severe form of swine flu that goes straight to the lungs, causing severe illness in otherwise healthy young people and requiring expensive hospital treatment, the World Health Organization said Friday.

Some countries are reporting that as many as 15 percent of patients hospitalized with the new H1N1 pandemic virus need intensive care, further straining already overburdened healthcare systems, WHO said in an update on the pandemic.

Sydney, August 29: Physical activity, non-smoking, social engagements and mental stimulation cut down the risk of dementia, a new study says.

“What’s interesting is that these lifestyle changes … don’t just have benefits for memory and preventing Alzheimer’s disease, they can also ward off heart disease and assist in overall well being,” said Leon Flicker, who conducted the study.

Flicker is the director of the Western Australian Centre for Health and Ageing and professor of geriatric medicine at the University of Western Australia (UWA).

New Delhi, August 29: A foetal heart monitor designed by Indian scientists can save unborn infants in complicated pregnancies.

Developed by A.K. Mittra, from the Manoharbhai Patel Institute of Engineering and Technology in Maharashtra, and his colleagues, the simple device comprises a two-microphone system that can monitor foetal heart rate (FHR) when the mother is resting and asleep.

During complex pregnancies that end in preterm labour, miscarriage or foetal death, problems usually occur over days.

Sydney, August 29: Physical activity, non-smoking, social engagements and mental stimulation cut down the risk of dementia, a new study says.

“What’s interesting is that these lifestyle changes … don’t just have benefits for memory and preventing Alzheimer’s disease, they can also ward off heart disease and assist in overall well being,” said Leon Flicker, who conducted the study.

Flicker is the director of the Western Australian Centre for Health and Ageing and professor of geriatric medicine at the University of Western Australia (UWA).

Washington: Doctors are reporting a severe form of swine flu that goes straight to the lungs, causing severe illness in otherwise healthy young people and requiring expensive hospital treatment, the World Health Organization said Friday.

Some countries are reporting that as many as 15 percent of patients hospitalized with the new H1N1 pandemic virus need intensive care, further straining already overburdened healthcare systems, WHO said in an update on the pandemic.

Brasillia, August 28: A total of 577 people have died from swine flu in Brazil, putting the South American nation at the top of the list of countries reporting fatalities from the Influenza A (H1N1) virus, the health ministry said.

The mortality rate, however, is 0.29 percent in Brazil, well below the 1.08 percent rate in Argentina, the 0.75 percent rate in Chile and the 0.67 percent rate in Costa Rica, which have the highest levels in Latin America, health officials said Thursday.

Hyderabad, August 28: With 31 cases being reported in a single day, Andhra Pradesh leapfrogged into the top slot of swine flu cases chart on Thursday.

An official press release said that all the cases were indigenous which included patients already cured of the A H1N1 Influenza.

With Thursday’s addition, the total number of swine flu cases in the State has reached 154.

New Delhi, August 28: Following a notice from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the Uttar Pradesh government has admitted that extraction of animal bone fat in illegal furnaces in Meerut city is causing pollution and posing a serious health hazard.

The state’s chief secretary Aug 25 admitted to the health implications and said that corrective measures would be taken, a NHRC official said Friday.

According to the official, the commission has been informed that 24 teams have been constituted to ensure that illegal furnaces for extraction of fat are not allowed to operate.

Madurai, August 28: A feat by a team of doctors in the government hospital here operating 14 cancer patients in three-and-half hours may have won them instant fame but the Tamil Nadu Government has taken exception to it and ordered an inquiry.

Health Secretary V K Subburaj said in Chennai that he had also sought an explanation from the Dean of Government Rajaji Hospital on the feat achieved recently. State Director of Medical Education Dr S Vinayagam would conduct the inquiry.

Washington, August 28: In a breakthrough, US scientists have found a way to replace genetically abnormal parts of an egg which may eradicate many hereditary diseases like cancers and diabetes passed from the mother to child.

The findings, which reopens the raging ethical debate over embryo research allows the scientists for the first time to safely remove and replace genetically abnormal mitochondrial DNA from an ovum.

Brasilia, August 28: A total of 577 people have died from swine flu in Brazil, putting the South American nation at the top of the list of countries reporting fatalities from the Influenza A (H1N1) virus, the health ministry said.

The mortality rate, however, is 0.29 percent in Brazil, well below the 1.08 percent rate in Argentina, the 0.75 percent rate in Chile and the 0.67 percent rate in Costa Rica, which have the highest levels in Latin America, health officials said Thursday.

Washington, August 28: Mothers with an “insecure” attachment style react differently to their children and are also likely to pass on the problem, a new study says.

An international team, led by Queensland University, has based its findings on an analysis of 30 first-time mothers who’re asked to look at their baby’s facial expressions while inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner.

“For mothers with ‘secure’ attachment, we found that both happy and sad infant faces produced a reward signal in their brain, or a ‘natural high’.

Melbourne, August 28: Moderate drinking later in life can help prevent dementia, a new study says.

The study, led by Kaarin Anstey of Centre of Mental Health Research at Australia National University (ANU) analysed 10,000 people worldwide and found that light to moderate drinkers were 26 per cent less likely to develop any form of dementia than non-drinkers, ABC reported today.

Although people should never drink alcohol excessively, small amounts have been associated with improving some health conditions, Anstey said.

Sydney, August 28: Australia Friday said a massive swine flu vaccination programme would start in October but warned of a possible “second wave” of infections in the hard-hit country.

Chief medical officer Jim Bishop said he was hopeful A(H1N1) influenza had peaked, with 147 related deaths and almost 35,000 cases, but cautioned it could surge again.

“The intensity of the epidemic may have been reached but we don’t know if that’s going to come back in a second wave,” Bishop said.

New Delhi, August 27: Minister of State for Health Dinesh Trivedi Thursday called for taking “a serious look” at the intellectual property rights regime so that Indian patients are not adversely affected.
“It is time to take a hard look at the intellectual property rights (IPR), innovation, development of new drugs, affordability and accessibility from an entirely new perspective in the new era of the product patent regime,” Trivedi said at the Life Science Conclave here.

Hyderabad, August 27: Switch to brown rice to avoid getting diabetes, advises Dr V Mohan, Chairman and chief diabetologist of Dr Mohan’s Diabetes Specialties Centre.

Stockholm, August 27: European health officials said more than 43,000 people have been affected by the swine flu in Europe.

On Wednesday 745 new cases of swine flu reported in the European countries.

Of the new cases, 615 were confirmed in Germany, 84 in Sweden, 25 in Switzerland and the remaining cases were reported in eight other European countries, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said in its latest report.

London, August 27: A new test can significantly improve diagnosis of the asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma, a joint team from the University of Oxford and the Oxford Centre for Respiratory Medicine at the John Radcliffe Hospital has shown.

The test will now be added to the diagnostic options available to clinicians in Oxford, when patients come to them with excess fluid in the space around the lungs.

Washington, August 27: A simple new method can help Parkinson’s patients speak normally.
“People with Parkinson’s… commonly have voice and speech problems,” said Jessica Huber, associate professor at Purdue University’s speech, language and hearing sciences department, who has developed the method.

“A major therapy is to get people to speak louder, which also may cause them to articulate more clearly,” Huber said.

The most common therapy, the Lee Silverman voice treatment programme, trains patients to speak louder in one-hour sessions four days a week for a month.

Gurgaon, August 27: A rare, multiple cardiovascular surgery that lasted eight hours was successfully performed in the national capital region (NCR) on a 33-year-old woman who was suffering from a large blood clot in an artery near her heart, doctors said on Wednesday.

The procedure was carried out on Shailesh Devi, who lives in Gurgaon and was admitted to the Artemis Health Institute with chest pain and breathlessness along with palpitation induced by exertion.