Despite progress in childbirth safety, one woman or baby dies every 11 seconds

(WHO): Childbirth survival rates are now a “staggering success” compared with the year 2000, but one pregnant woman - or her child - still dies every 11 seconds from largely preventable causes, UN health experts said on Thursday. In a joint appeal for all nations to do more to provide better medical care for all, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) outlined several ways to help protect the 2.8 million pregnant women and newborns who die every year.

Their recommendations tackle immediate and underlying problems, such as ensuring that midwives have water to wash their hands and helping teenage girls to stay in school longer, where there is less chance of them getting pregnant. In addition, communities should have access to cheap medicines, such as oral rehydration salts used to treat diarrhoea, and “ten cent vaccines” to keep tuberculosis at bay, the UN agencies insisted...

Healthcare News Monitor

Jr resident doctors protest suspension of colleague

The Tribune

A group of post graduate students cum junior resident doctors at Government Medical College staged a protest against the suspension of one of them on a complaint of a senior doctor. The junior resident doctors stated that the suspended doctor had filed a complaint of ragging against him. Earlier, a woman doctor had complained of harassment by one Abhishek Khera on duty. The protesting doctors stated that Khera was suspended for being forced to withdraw his complaint about ragging. They submitted a notice to the principal stating that if the suspension was not revoked, they would initiate the protest in afternoon. The college authorities stated that the student was suspended on the basis of an enquiry report submitted by faculty members.

Lucknow reports 125 dengue cases in 2 months

IndiaTV- IANS

Lucknow has reported 125 cases of dengue in two months, with 13 more patients testing positive. The victims who have tested positive on Thursday include six females, one of them an 82-year-old woman. Of the seven male patients, two are minor boys - aged 11 and 15 years. The cases have come in from different localities inclding Gomti Nagar, Ruchi Khand, Hazratganj, Tikrohi, Bazarkhala, Salehnagar, Neelmatha, Indira Nagar, Sharda Nagar and Rajajipuram. According to health officials, dengue fever has affected 173 persons in the state capital alone, with the maximum number of cases being reported in August and September. The officials said of the total breeding grounds found till date, 70 per cent were found in water accumulated in desert coolers. People need to clean coolers on a weekly basis or pour kerosene oil in the water tank to kill larvae, the officials said. "A number of cases go unreported because people mistake the symptoms for viral fever which is also very common in this season," said a senior doctor of the Balrampur hospital.

Dengue crisis in Hyderabad worst in three decades: Doctors

ET Healthworld

HYDERABAD: Doctors who participated in a round-table discussion here on how to check the spread of dengue unanimously slammed the state government for not acknowledging the precariousness of the health situation in the city. It is a cause for concern that dengue, which was until recently not a major concern in the city, has become an alarming health threat, doctors at the event organised by Institute of Engineers said. “The first step by the state should be to accept the situation. Cases of dengue and chikungunya have been increasing since mid-June this year. Though we have had cases every year, never has it been so bad in the last three decades,” said Dr Vasant Kumar, general physician. “We have not seen the manifestation of the vector-borne disease in such a manner. The cases coming out now show different symptoms. Several affected pregnant women show few symptoms dissimilar with pregnancy — nothing more than nausea etc. By the time we diagnose dengue, the foetus would have been affected. In one such case, a six-week pregnant woman had a spontaneous abortion within days of being diagnosed with dengue,” said Dr Vijaya Lakshmi, a senior gynaecologist and obstetrician.

27% Deaths in India caused by poor access to drugs and knowledge: Medicus

BioSpectrum India

An independent study finds that only 1.2 percent chemists in Maharashtra — three of the 252 reviewed in five cities – have stocks as the rest chose not to cite legal hassles. India ranks at a dismal 145th in quality and accessibility of health services globally where as many as one-third of the deaths are preventable with timely communication about and availability of medicine. Medicus aims to utilize the flourishing digital landscape in India to connect all the stakeholders in the healthcare sector – doctors, pharmaceutical companies, social sector organizations, medical associations and government bodies – to ensure that people in remote areas can access round-the-clock and quality health services. The government’s flagship Ayushman Bharat scheme strives to provide affordable healthcare to the last man in the queue, but every year, as many as 122 people per 100,000 in India die due to poor quality of care– independent studies have found that more Indians die of poor quality of healthcare than due to lack of access to healthcare. Maharashtra is one among the five states that register the highest combined risk of ischemic heart disease, stroke, and diabetes in 2016, which has significantly increased since 1990. As per the data of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS 4), only 56.2 percent of children is fully immunized in 2015-16, which is a drop of more than 2 percent since the previous survey.