365 days of simple thinking, healthy eating and sustainable living

(FSSAI): Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare kick-started POSHAN Maah 2019 last week with a year-long social and mass media campaign on the Eat Right India movement.

Leading with1 tweet-a-day focusing on a weekly theme of eating right for the next 365 days, Dr. Harsh Vardhan also launched the new Eat Right India logothat represents a healthy plate, an online Eat Right Quiz, the Eat Right Online Course for frontline health workers and the Eat Right India Store featuring merchandize to nudge right eating habits. The groundwork for escalating the Eat Right India Movement to the level of a Jan Andolan has been underway during the past few months. FSSAI has put in place robust regulatory measures under three major pillars: Eat Safe, Eat Health and Eat Sustainably.

The Eat Right India movement is being helmed by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) as a crucial preventive healthcare measure to trigger social and behavioural change through a judicious mix of regulatory measures, combined with soft interventions for ensuring awareness and capacity building of food businesses and citizens alike. This movement is aligned with the Government’s flagship public health programmes such as POSHAN Abhiyaan, Anemia Mukt Bharat, Ayushman Bharat Yojana and Swachh Bharat Mission.

WMA is updating its International Code of Medical Ethics: Suggestions invited

Dear colleague

The World Medical Association (WMA) is updating its International Code of Medical Ethics. CMAAO has taken the responsibility to communicate the Asian perspectives.I invite your suggestions on the same.

The WMA International Code of Medical Ethics is reproduced as below:

Healthcare News Monitor

Drop in Dengue Cases No Miracle, Awareness Helped Achieve It: Delhi Health Minister

News18

Delhi has witnessed a sharp decline in dengue cases. According to Health Minister Satyendra Jain, the national capital has seen 80 percent decline in dengue cases in the last four years. He added that the fewer dengue cases reported so far this year is "no miracle". The health minister said that the reduction in number of the mosquito-borne disease comes from the fact that, “people have been made aware that prevention begins at home.” "In 2015, the first year of our government (Aam Aadmi Party), 15,867 cases were reported. In 2018, the number came down to 2,798. Within these years, Delhi witnessed 80 percent decrease in dengue cases. This is no miracle,” The Hindu quoted Satyendra Jain saying. The Delhi health minister noted that systems and checks were in place even before. Employed every person in Delhi as a health inspector - Satyendra Jain said that residents of the capital are being made aware that dengue occurs due to “collective irresponsibility”. “However, the preventive cycle has been reinforced this year. We have employed every person in Delhi as a health inspector to check the breeding of mosquitoes in and around their house and workplace. Awareness has been spread among the public that dengue occurs due to our collective irresponsibility,” the daily quoted Jain as saying. Talking about what helped in fall in number of dengue cases in Delhi, Jain said, “We have to be in charge of our own health. We cannot wait for the government to come to our homes to check. This shift in responsibility has caused the fall in numbers.”

DBT and CRUK call for seed funding under ‘Affordable Approaches to Cancer initiative

Pharmabiz India

Under the Affordable Approaches to Cancer initiative, the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) of India have called for seed funding from eligible scientists. Under the Affordable Approaches to Cancer initiative, the CRUK and the DBT have partnered to launch a £10 million, 5-year research initiative focused on finding affordable approaches to cancer. The Affordable Approaches to Cancer research initiative aims to stimulate a focused bilateral, multidisciplinary research effort to address important challenges in affordability in cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment. It is intended to drive collaboration and support innovative and readily translational research. By bringing together the complementary research strengths of India and the UK, the initiative will accelerate progress in research that will impact cancer outcomes on a global scale. Research proposals must address one of the seven key research challenges. The research proposals must build on the complementary research strengths in both India and the UK, building research alliances between the two countries; focus on hard-to-treat cancers where there is the potential to have an impact in India, the UK and globally; clearly address the key theme of ‘affordable approaches to cancer’; aim to produce outputs that are readily translatable to patients e.g. a proposal focusing solely on basic biological research would fall outside the remit of this scheme (though may be eligible for other CRUK or DBT funding schemes); and be innovative and involve multidisciplinary work as they encourage proposals that utilise affordable technology alongside biomedical research.

Ghaziabad: Free treatment for kids with malnutrition in private hospitals

The Times of India- Aditya Dev

GHAZIABAD: From now, children below two years of age and suffering from acute malnutrition (red category) will not only be provided with free treatment by private hospitals but also be given a balanced diet till they become medically fit. The district has 2,425 children in the red category and district magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey said the administration is planning to connect such children with private hospitals in each block, apart from the government clinic. A Kaushambi-based private hospital has announced the adoption of 500 children who would be given free treatment and food, the DM added. Of the 2,425 children, 250 have been traced to Rajapur block, 263 in Bhojpur, 186 in Muradnagar and 257 in Loni. According to the State Nutrition Mission, infants who weigh less than 2.5 kg at the time of birth are classified in the red category. They are to be kept under regular check-ups and their weight is monitored every month. The government also provides them with sweet/salty porridge and other food items. When the weight goes above 2.5 kg, the child is put in the yellow category. At two years, if a child weighs around 5 kg, it is considered in the general category.

FIR against hospital over allegations of child swapping

India Today- PTI

After struggling for almost seven months, a city-based couple had some relief when an FIR against a private hospital for allegedly swapping their newborn was registered by police following a complaint at the chief ministers window. Following directions, police registered a case against the management of the hospital on Sohna Road. "On February 7, I gave birth to a boy but my husband was not allowed by the doctors and the hospital management to see the child," Marjina alleged. "After a couple of hours, the hospital nurses returned with a baby girl. They informed my husband that I had delivered a girl," she said, adding that the head of the child was stronger than a newborn. "Besides, her umbilical vein was removed. She must have been around seven-day old," Marjina said, alleging that when his husband enquired about it, a newborn boy was found in the hospital, whose mother was not admitted there.

Woman Dies Of Excessive Blood Loss During Delivery, Family Drags Doctor Out Of Hospital And Thrashes Him

Swarajya

A doctor was mercilessly beaten on Saturday (7 September) by a mob in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly district after he failed to save life of a woman who was admitted in the hospital on Friday (6 September), days after delivering a baby at her home. According to an Amar Ujala report, Gulshan, the 30-year-old wife of Naeem Baig, gave birth to a child at their home in Haridaspur village on Wednesday (4 September). However, on Friday (6 September), Gulshan’s condition started deteriorating following which her husband took her to Leelawati General hospital in the village, where Dr Manoj sent her blood sample for a test in a local lab. The test report revealed that haemoglobin level in Gulshan’s blood had fallen to a dangerous 3.9, after which Dr Manoj advised blood transfusion for which she was admitted in the hospital on Friday (6 September). However, during the blood transfusion process, Gulshan’s condition started worsening and she died at 11am on Saturday (7 September).