Health budget: blessing in disguise?

In the union budget, health sector allocations of Rs 69,234 crores, an overall increase of 4.1 percent over the previous year’s allocation of Rs. 66,499 crores. Under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) the budget was allocated for various departments viz Rs. 65,012 crores to the Department of Health and Family Welfare (DoHFW) and Rs 2,100 crores to the Department of Health Research (DHR) and the Ministry of AYUSH was allocated Rs. 2,122 crores....read more

BSL-4 labs and not BSL-3 labs for coronavirus

Ordinarily, Biosafety level (BSL)-3 labs are enough to handle respiratory viruses. SARS and MERS were handled with these labs. But for coronavirus, the labs being used are BSL-4 labs. This could possibly be due to extra precautions or fear of it being much more deadly than SARS.

BSL-4 suit laboratories are designed to study high-consequence pathogens for which infection prophylaxes or treatment options do not exist....read more

Universal precautions to prevent droplet respiratory infections

Standard precautions for reducing the transmission of respiratory droplets infections include:

1.Hand hygiene - frequent washing of hands with soap and water, avoiding touching ones mouth, nose, and eyes and use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers or virucidal hand treatments (povidone iodine, salicylic acid)....read more

The Seven Dhatus in Ayurveda

As per Ayurveda physiology, food is Brahman and contains the same consciousness as in us and this consciousness is the essence of any food. Any food digested is converted into three portions, the gross undigested food is converted into waste (feces); the middle part is converted into one of the Dhatus and the subtlest form gets converted into ojha or the immunity....read more

Health Sutras By Dr K K Aggarwal

Longer the waistline shorter the lifeline.

Healthcare News Monitor

Cardiac stents account for 47.95% of total medical device associated SAEs reported so far

Pharmabiz India - Shardul Nautiyal

Cardiac stent was the most reported medical device for serious adverse events (SAEs) with 926 events out of 1,931 adverse events reported so far, as per Ghaziabad-based Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) which is the National Coordinating Centre (NCC) for the Materiovigilance Programme of India (MvPI) started in 2015. Cardiac stents SAEs alone accounted for 47.95% of the total adverse events. Six cases of SAEs alone reported were related to Absorbs Bio-resorbable Vascular Scaffolds stent with risks like stent thrombosis, myocardial infarction, stent stenosis and device malfunction. From July 2015 to October 2019, the IPC received 1931 adverse event reports, mostly from marketing authorization holders, 1,277 were serious events. Reporting increased markedly after 2017. Rapid growth in the use of medical devices has drawn attention to gaps in the systematic monitoring of medical device-associated adverse events in India. Supported by a nationwide network of monitoring centres, the IPC coordinates adverse event reports from manufacturers, legal representatives and patients or users. The commission follows-up and reviews reports with subject expert groups and sends recommendations on necessary action to the national regulatory authority. Before 2015, no systematic structure was in place to collate adverse events associated with medical devices. Several reports of deaths and hospitalization due to faulty hip implants, cardiac stents and poor-quality devices prompted the health ministry to launch MvPI.

Indian drug industry on tenterhooks due to coronavirus outbreak in China

Pharmabiz India - Laxmi Yadav

The Indian drug industry, heavily reliant on Chinese active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), is on tenterhooks in the wake of coronavirus outbreak in China threatening to disrupt the supply of bulk drugs to India. According to sources, a large number of pharmaceutical manufacturers are located in Zhejiang province and Hubei province, adjacent to Wuhan, which is the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak. Pharmaceutical manufacturers located in affected regions are responsible for the production of the diabetes drug acarbose, antibiotic ciprofloxacin, and various over-the-counter painkillers such as ibuprofen and paracetamol, amongst other APIs. Sources further said that the contingencies such as the most recent coronavirus outbreak could disrupt import of APIs from China as the Chinese authorities have extended New Year holidays till mid February to prevent the spread of the virus. As of now, Indian drug makers have two-three months stock but if supplies do not restore for long time, it might affect drug production in India, said a drug maker on condition of anonymity. Dr Rajesh Gupta, president, Himachal Drug Manufacturers Association and national head, Laghu Udyog Bharati (pharma wing), said, “Since last 4-5 years we have been demanding special task force from the government to clear all bulk drug proposals, so that contingencies like coronavirus outbreak would not take their toll on Indias drug manufacturing. So far nothing has been done.”

Coronavirus leads to first death outside China, Kerala gets a second case

Mint- Neetu Chandra Sharma

A second person was diagnosed with the deadly coronavirus in India on Sunday even as the first death outside of China was reported in the Philippines, prompting many countries to take stringent steps, including travel restrictions, to limit the spread of the disease. “The (second Indian) patient has tested positive for novel coronavirus and is in isolation in the hospital," the Union health ministry said in a statement on Sunday. The second patient is also from Kerala and had travelled to China. Last week, a student from Kerala, studying in China’s Wuhan University, tested positive. The health of the student is stable, the government said. Many countries have suspended flights to China or are denying entry to foreigners, who had recently been to the country, where the virus was first identified in December and has killed 304 people. The respiratory disease has spread rapidly to infect more than 14,500 people around the world. With the World Health Organization declaring the outbreak a global health emergency last week, countries can choose to close their borders, cancel flights, screen people arriving at airports or take other protective measures.

Coronavirus outbreak: Tamil Nadu doctor claims to have found herbal cure

IndiaTV

With rapid increase in Coronavirus cases worldwide, scientists are busy reasearching the treatment and the cure of this deadly infectious disease. The World Health Organisation has already declared the disease a global emergency, meanwhile, a doctor from Tamil Nadu claimed that he has found a herbal cure of Coronavirus. Dr Thanikasalam Veni, doctor in Siddha and Ayurvedic medicine said that he has found a herbal cure to the virus. He is currently practicing at Rathna Siddha Hospital in Chennai and has an experience of 25 years in the field of Siddha and Ayurvedic medicines. While speaking to ANI, Veni said that he has formulated a medicine made from an extract of herbs, which can cure any type of viral fever and one of the symptoms of Coronavirus is high fever. However, Veni claimed that the medicine could treat the infections caused by the corona virus within 24 hours to 40 hours. "When we treated the dengue virus with our medicine, many patients with reduced platelets count, acute liver failure, immunity deficiency and low white blood cell (WBC) were cured within 24-40 hours," said Veni. "In coronavirus too I am confident our medicine will be very effective," he added. So far, no doctor or scientist has found the cure but a vaccine is being developed which will be available only next year. The death toll due to Coronavirus outbreak has reached 250 with around 10,000 confirmed cases.