WHO South-East Asia Region sets 2023 target to eliminate measles and rubella

(SEAR/PR/1719): Member Countries of WHO South-East Asia Region have resolved to eliminate measles and rubella by 2023, to prevent deaths and disabilities caused by these highly infectious childhood killer diseases. The Member countries adopted a “Strategic Plan for Measles and Rubella Elimination 2020-2024” that lays down the road map and focus areas to achieve the elimination targets in the Region.

• Five countries have eliminated measles– Bhutan, DPR Korea, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Timor-Leste.
• Six countries have controlled rubella- Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Timor-Leste.

“The new target to eliminate both the diseases will leverage the existing momentum and strong political commitment which is being demonstrated through unprecedented efforts, progress and successes in recent years,” said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director WHO South-East Asia, as a resolution to eliminate the two diseases was adopted at the Seventy Second Session of WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia here in New Delhi. “Eliminating measles will prevent 500,000 deaths a year in the Region, while eliminating rubella/ CRS would avert about 55,000 cases of rubella and promote health and well-being of pregnant woman and infants,” the Regional Director said.

A new DGHS appointed

The Health ministry has appointed Dr Sanjay Tyagi as the new Director General of Health Services (DGHS). Till his appointment as the DGHS, Dr Sanjay Tyagi, Director Professor (Cardiology) was the Dean, Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) and Director, GB Pant Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research (GIPMER).

Healthcare News Monitor

Will increasing supply of contraceptives help government stabilize population?

Mint – Neetu Chandra Sharma

Demand for contraceptives in India will continue to rise for the next five years, according to estimates by the Union ministry of health and family welfare. The demand for condoms increases by about 5% every year, according to the estimates. The demand for oral contraceptive pills (OCPs), emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs), Chhaya (weekly oral contraceptive pills), intrauterine device (IUD), tubal ring, and pregnancy test kits (PTK), is estimated to increase by 10% in the year to 31 March 2021 and by about 5% in subsequent years (these years are yet to be completed). Demand for Antara, an injectable contraceptive, is estimated to rise by around 10% annually till 2023-24. “It is assumed that government will procure the commodities based on these estimates. It will be helpful to understand how increased contraceptive supply will contribute in meeting the existing unmet need of more than 29 million women who are not able to use contraceptives for various reasons," said Poonam Muttreja, executive director, Population Foundation of India (PFI). “We need to see that is it based on systematic need assessment of eligible couples in states. Also, have we taken into account the contraceptive needs of unmarried youth," she said.

Health ministry partners with ECHO Trust to provide universal healthcare in India

Pharmabiz India – Shardul Nautiyal

The Union health ministry has signed an MoU with Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) Trust, India to provide universal healthcare in India. The collaboration is envisaged to support various program divisions, central government institutes and hospitals within the Union health ministry. The partnership will be instrumental in utilising the ECHO Model for continuous capacity building of healthcare providers at all levels of healthcare system which includes specialists, doctors, paramedical professionals, mid-level health providers and frontline workers. Its key objectives are to provide comprehensive primary and specialist healthcare services, review various disease programs and for dissemination of knowledge, best practices and policy updates for improving health of the masses through accessible healthcare. Project Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) aims to improve access to care for rural and traditionally under-served patients by training health professionals in high quality, evidence based treatment of complex diseases. Clinicians based in rural and under-served communities participate in teleECHO ‘clinics’ through a Hub and Spoke model. This model also offers an opportunity for reviewing programs, capacity building of staff and dissemination of programmatic updates.

Pharmacovigilance training for NABH accredited hospitals in Kolkata to be held on Sept 27

Pharmabiz India

To train NABH accredited hospital staff on Pharmacovigilance (PV), a one-day workshop-cum-training programme is scheduled to be held at Fortis Hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal on September 27, 2019. Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) which is the National Coordination Centre (NCC) for Pharmacovigilance Programme of India (PvPI) has signed an MoU with National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH) for effective implementation of Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) reporting in hospitals. This training programme intends to provide a platform for the NABH accredited hospitals and Non NABH-accredited hospitals of Kolkata to understand the systems and procedures involved in ADR reporting and relevant practices in PV. To track ADRs in Indian population, union health ministry launched PvPI which has outreach all over the country but irony is that only a small portion of healthcare professionals have formal training in PV. The resource persons from NABH, IPC and representative from Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) will provide training on subjects like basics of pharmacovigilance and updates on PvPI, importance of ADR reporting for NABH accredited hospitals in India, monitoring and reporting adverse events (AEs)/ADRs (methodology, forms and formats), setting up of a pharmacovigilance system in hospitals and causality assessment its logics and methods.

India home to nearly 40% of world’s heart failure patients

ET Healthworld

India is home to 40% of the world’s 2.6 crore patients with heart failure, yet there is poor awareness about the condition and its treatment. Maharashtra public health minister Eknath Shinde delivered this pithy message while kickstarting the Times of India’s initiative on heart failure last week. Called the Beat Heart Failure, the initiative is partnered by pharma major. Novartis and aims to educate the masses about heart failure and encourage them to undertake a basic symptom check. The meeting—first in a series of discussions to be held in various cities—was attended by select bureaucrats and academicians in Mumbai who discussed ways to tackle this relatively new epidemic in India. Setting up heart failure registry and starting heart failure clinics in medical schools and private hospitals emerged as main solutions.

Chandigarh: Transplantation of bone and soft tissue facility launched at GMCH-32

ET Healthworld- Shimona Kanwar

Chandigarh: A new facility of transplantation of bone and soft tissue has been started at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) 32 for the first time by Dr Anand Gupta, assistant professor in oral and maxillofacial in the Department of Dentistry. Dr Gupta completed his prestigious fellowship by International Association for high skilled training in Oral Cancer and Microvascular Reconstructive Surgery at Shanghai, China. Three oral cancer patients have been given new lip and check by doing reconstruction of face using transplant of tissue from hand and other two patients have been given new jaw bone by doing transplantation of leg bone and hip bone on face. This new facility has been started at GMCH for the welfare of advance staged oral cancer and facial deformity patients.