US doctors petition FDA to include a breast cancer warning label on cheese

Dairy cheese contains reproductive hormones that may increase breast cancer mortality risk. That’s the message from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine who issued a petition to the FDA on Oct. 3, the start of the Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Dairy products contain traces of estrogens from cows, and as milk is converted to cheese, the estrogens are more concentrated. While they are only traces, they appear to be biologically active in humans, increasing breast cancer mortality.

According to the Life After Cancer Epidemiology study, Intake of high-fat dairy (one or more servings), but not low-fat dairy, was related to a 49% higher risk of breast cancer mortality among women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer compared with those consuming less than one-half serving daily…(Source: Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine)

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is a non-profit research and advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., which promotes a plant-based diet, preventive medicine, and alternatives to animal research, and encourages what it describes as "higher standards of ethics and effectiveness in research…(Wikipedia)

Healthcare News Monitor

IIT Kharagpur to start MBBS course with 50 students in 2021-22

TNN-Saibal Sen

KOLKATA: IIT Kharagpur is likely to roll out its ambitious MBBS programme with an initial intake capacity of 50 students from the 2021-2022 academic session. The OPD services in the 400-bed superspecialty hospital is likely to start by the end of the year. Professor Sriman Kumar Bhattacharyya, the officiating director, said: “We plan to start the OPD services this year. By early next year, we plan to start the indoor facilities in the first phase with 400 beds. Once the hospital is operational, we plan to roll out the MBBS curriculum as per MCI guidelines.” “The plan in the second phase is to scale it up to a 750-bed hospital and increase the intake capacity to 100 MBBS students,” Bhattacharyya added. He said, “IIT Kharagpur will award the MBBS and postgraduate degrees, chart out the curriculum and manage the academic affairs while the day-to-day hospital management will be run by the special purpose vehicle floated under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013. The hospital’s board of directors will be headed by the IIT Kharagpur director and will include senior IIT faculty.” The hospital, he added, will be run on a cross-subsidy model in a not-for-profit mode. Sources said 10% of the beds would be free and 65% of the beds would be charged as per the rates in the central and state health insurance schemes.

Plastic bag used for garlands, chief guest fines MP principal

TNN

BHOPAL: In a stern message to stop use of single use plastic, district collector of Bhind fined a government school principal Rs 1000 for carrying garlands to welcome guests in plastic bags during a function at the at government school of excellence No 1 in Bhind on October 18. Bhind collector, Chhote Singh, was chief guest at a function on bio-diversity organized at the school in collaboration with the forest department where students of about 57 schools from the district were participating. The district education officer, DFO and additional district magistrate were also present at the function. School principal, PS Chauhan, carried garlands and flowers to welcome the guests in a plastic bag. On spotting, collector Singh slapped a fine of Rs 1000 on the principal for using single use plastic, that is now banned. While Chouhan was left embarrassed, the audience and organisers were stunned into silence.

Kovind interacts with parents of infants in the Philippines who underwent liver transplant in India

ET Heathworld- PTI

Manila: President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday interacted with the parents of the infants in the Philippines who successfully underwent liver transplant in India, expressing happiness about the countrys engagement with the key Southeast Asian country that has brought peoples causes within its expanding ambit. In the last 28 months, 35 babies from the Philippines have underwent successful liver transplant in India as part of the Philippines-India Pediatric Liver Transplant Program. "Indian medical institutions are working with their counterparts in the Philippines to see how the success rate as well as the costs of similar transplant in the Philippines could be brought down," President Kovind said in a tweet. Kovind said that he is delighted that Indias engagement with Philippines has brought "peoples causes and life-giving projects within its expanding ambit." Spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet that the president listened to the stories of liver transplant performed on Filipino infants. "President of India listened to stories of liver transplantation performed on Filipino infants by Indian doctors at Max and Apollo hospitals to cure Biliary Atresia. Filipino chapter of FICCI is supporting poor patients to meet the treatment," he tweeted. According to media reports, the Philippines is struggling with the high cost of specialised medical procedures, such as liver transplants, in the country.

Nagpur: DMER to conduct equipment audit of medical colleges

ET Healthworld- Chaitanya Deshpande

Nagpur: Government medical colleges and hospitals across the state get latest machinery worth crores of rupees for patient services. But how many of them are really being used to their optimum capacity is a major question. Director of the Medical Education and Research (DMER), Maharashtra State Dr T P Lahane has declared that the DMER will conduct audit of these machines soon. The DMER will study how effectively the equipments are being used for the patient service. It will also study if the installation and operation cost of the machine is recovering through its functioning or not. Dr Lahane was in Nagpur for the ophthalmology conference where he visited both the government medical college hospitals and super speciality hospital in city and took ‘college council’ meetings with respective deans. Sources at GMCH Nagpur informed that Dr Lahane’s focus was mainly on increasing the number of surgeries in the hospital. He also directed the dean and HODs to decide the schedules of resident doctors so that they will get necessary rest in between. Senior resident doctors were asked to distribute work properly to their juniors. While speaking on the security issue, Dr Lahane assured the number of security guards will be increased soon in both the medical college hospitals.

Jaipur: Healthcare to go digital with Janta clinics’ launch

ET Healthworld

JAIPUR: Janta clinics are all set to redefine healthcare facilities in the city as the health department is roping in NGOs for paperless registration of patients as doctors will prescribe medicines on computer applications. This has been planned to ease overcrowding in hospitals attached to Sawai Man Singh Medical College and to bring healthcare services at doorstep. A computerised machine will be installed at the Janta clinic, on which a patient will file his/her details on his/her own or with a helper. The prescription will go to pharmacists directly online and the patients will get medicines as well as the prescriptions from the pharmacist. Janta clinics will be different from urban Primary Heath Centres (PHCs) as Janata clinics will have out patient department and will focus on child and reproductive health services. “We have identified 10 locations in the city and finalised them for first Janta clinics of the city,” said Dr KK Sharma, director (health), health department. The tentative date of its inauguration is December 10. Dr Sharma said, “These Janta clinics will offer only OPD facilities and they will have no facility for indoor patients’ admission, whereas in primary health centres and urban primary health centres, a patient can be admitted for treatment. Moreover, Janta clinics will be used for outreach camps of the health department for reproductive and child health services such as ante-natal checkups, immunization and other such activities.” Besides, just like urban PHCs, the Janta clinics will have the facilities of free medicines and free diagnostic schemes. The health department will deploy one doctor, two nursing staff, one pharmacist and one helper.

Chandigarh dispensaries set to have OPDs in morning, evening

ET Healthworld- Shimona Kanwar

CHANDIGARH: City dispensaries will have two OPDs in the morning and evening, as recommended by the administrative advisory council, UT. According to sources, double timings will be implemented soon. These dispensaries will be handed over from the municipal corporation (MC) to the UT health department next month. Presently, only Government Multi-specialty Hospital, Sector 16, has two timings for the OPDs. Many years back, PGI had planned to start evening OPDs but the move was rejected following opposition from the faculty. This is not feasible for tertiary care centres, said Dr G Dewan, director, health services, “We can’t reduce tertiary care centres to the level of primary health centres. All the dispensaries are now restructured as health and wellness centres. Such centres are at the level of primary healthcare centre where many patients visit daily,” he said. There are 26 dispensaries in urban sectors and eight in rural sector of the city. Around 8,000 OPD patients daily visit the dispensaries and civil hospitals. “These dispensaries cater to the poor patients and most of them are labourers. They are unable to come in the morning due to work and often miss the OPDs,” said Dr Dewan. These health and wellness centres have allopathic and Ayush doctors posted for integrative health care. “We are utilizing the services of the doctors under the National Health Mission programme,” said the DHS. The GMSH-16 has been running the evening OPDs since 2015. “Even if we do not run the OPDs in the evening, our doctors are available round-the-clock in the emergency. But the services are mostly required in dispensaries,” the DHS said.

Over-the-counter heartburn drug Zantac pulled in US, Canada

ET Healthworld

Drugmaker Sanofi is recalling its over-the-counter heartburn drug Zantac in the U.S. and Canada because of possible contamination. The French company on Friday joined other drugmakers that have recently recalled their versions of the popular heartburn and ulcer drug. In September, the Food and Drug Administration said a potentially cancer-causing chemical had been detected at low levels in prescription and over-the-counter versions of Zantac. The federal agency said consumers could consider taking another heartburn medicine or contact their doctor. Several drugstore chains have already removed Zantac and generic versions from store shelves.