Mandatory tobacco cessation clinics in every medical college?

Public Health

A report from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has traced an outbreak of Salmonella enterica serotype Newport to dairy cattle and indicates a need for better traceability system. From October 2016–July 2017 an outbreak of Salmonella Newport was sourced to ground beef by the CDC. The protracted outbreak infected 106 people in 21 states, hospitalizing 42 and leading to one death. 

A defibrillator should be installed in every school in the country, the Scottish Parliament has heard. Parliament was discussing the case of Jayden Orr, a 10-year-old ice skater from Port Glasgow who died last August after collapsing on an ice rink. In January, the Show Some Heart campaign was launched in Jayden’s memory by his parents, with a target of reaching £50,000 to fund a defibrillator in every school in Inverclyde.

ICMR is planning to recommend mandatory tobacco cessation clinics in every medical college.

According to data provided by the Indian Society of Assisted Reproduction, infertility is seen to affect about 10 to 14 percent of the Indian population. The rate of infertility seems to be higher among the urban population, with one out of six couples experiencing the problem

Over a median follow-up of 4.7 years, 24-hour systolic pressure held a stronger association with both all-cause and cardiovascular mortality than did clinic systolic pressure after mutual adjustment. (José Banegas, MD, of Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain, and colleagues reported Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.)

FOUR doses of azithromycin could save the lives of thousands of children under the age of five in sub-Saharan Africa as per a study led the University of California San Francisco.  The researchers looked at the effect of giving  azithromycin twice a year to more than 97,000 children aged between one month and five years in Niger, Malawi and Tanzania during a two-year period. An additional 93,00 children were in a control group.   The study, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, discovered the mortality rate among children in communities given the antibiotic was 14 per cent lower than those who received a placebo  instead. Azithromycin is a safe and inexpensive drug widely used to treat conditions such as ear infections, strep throat, pneumonia and travellers diarrhoea. The antibiotic has also been distributed through so-called “mass drug administration” programmes in poor communities with high rates of trachoma.

India has set a target of being malaria-free by 2027 and eliminating the disease by 2030. However, there are many challenges before this can be achieved. What is needed is large-scale detection of cases and major awareness campaigns.

Clinical

Adolescents who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or are questioning their sexual orientation have significantly more depressive symptoms than their heterosexual counterparts, new research shows (Jeremy Luk, PhD, postdoctoral researcher, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health)

Celecoxib painkiller that has been under a cloud for more than a decade is apparently safer than previously believed as per US FDA. The drug poses no greater risk for causing heart attacks and strokes than two other widely used pain relievers, the committee voted 15-5. Based on the committees conclusion, the FDA may change the advice about the drugs safety that it provides to doctors.  The availability and safety of alternatives to opioid painkillers have become increasingly important as the nation grapples with the deadly epidemic.

The scientists, from the nanoscience and water research unit of the central government’s department of science and technology, found a close link between toxic heavy metals used in fertilizers and the prevalence of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases among farmers. Around 82.5% of the study population in Tamil Nau was involved in farming and high levels of toxic metals were detected in the synthetic fertilizers used in the study village. The prevalence of pre-diabetes, diabetes and atherosclerosis was 43.4%, 16.2% and 10.3%, respectively (Pradeep Thalappil, professor of chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology- Madras)

Legal

In a bid to increase awareness regarding sexual abuse, the Acting Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court Justice Gita Mittal has adopted a unique approach of creating a module on sexual violence for school students between the age group of 14 to 18 years. The module included discourses on: Law & Punishment on bullying, eve- teasing, and stalking, dating violence, peer abuse, elopement cases, and consensual sex, technology & violence – social media cases, Redressal: when offense happens,  Helpline, Legal aid, Police Functioning, Hospital, Court functioning.