Morning MEDtalks with Dr KK Aggarwal 23^rd October 2018

Nearly a month after the roll out of the Centres PMJAY health insurance scheme, one lakh people have availed the benefits of the ambitious programme, Union Health Minister J P Nadda said Sunday. 

Malaysia eliminates mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis. Malaysia is the first country in the WHO Western Pacific Region to be certified as having eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis.

The CDC has issued a Level 2 travel alert “Practice Enhanced Precautions” for Nigeria due to monkeypox. An outbreak of monkeypox has been ongoing since September 2017 in Nigeria. CDC recommends that travelers to Nigeria should protect themselves from monkeypox by washing hands often with soap and water, and avoiding contact with close contact with people who are sick or avoiding contact with wild animals or wild animal products and meat that could harbor the virus.

As of September 2018, health officials in Nigeria have reported more than 100 confirmed cases of monkeypox, including multiple deaths. As of October 2018, three cases of monkeypox have been reported in travelers to the United Kingdom (2) and Israel (1), including one to GeoSentinel (a global travel surveillance network).

Hyderabad: Thanks to the consumer help desk of the Civil Supplies Department, three children who lost their mother in a family planning operation were handed over a compensation of Rs.3 lakh by the registered medical practitioner.

The haze surrounding the deaths of Asiatic lions in Gir sanctuary has become thicker with the disappearance of two important reports from the website of the Indian Council of Medical Research. The country’s apex bio-medical research body had conducted tests on samples of 27 big cats, which showed that 21 of them were positive for Canine Distemper Virus (CDV), a virus that had wiped out 30% of the total lion population in East Africa (Ahmedabad Mirror).

Zika Update: Eight new cases of Zika virus were detected in Jaipur on Saturday, taking the total number of infected people to 117, a Rajasthan health department spokesperson said. Out of the total 117 patients, 98 have recovered after treatment, he said …The disease is under surveillance of the Union Health Ministry although it is no longer a Public Health Emergency of International Concern under WHO notification since November 18, 2016 (The Hindu).

The first Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health will be held at WHO Headquarters in Geneva from 30^th October to 1^st November 2018. The conference is being held in collaboration with UN Environment, World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (CCAC) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).European explorers and invaders could be to blame for the global spread of TB and making it one of the top 10 global causes of death. A study, published in the journal Science Advances, has traced the most common strain of the disease - Lineage 4 - over time and found it began in Europe around 1,000AD before spreading outwards. And the time periods TB began to be found on other continents match up with when Europeans began to sail to the unfortunate countries. Antibiotic resistant strains, however, do not move much at all. They began to appear soon after antibiotics began to be used but do not move much outside of localised areas … (Daily Mail UK)

20 Nobel Prizes that changed medicine forever: Karl Landsteiner (1930) “For his discovery of human blood groups” Karl Landsteiner, an Austrian physician and immunologist helped pave the way for successful blood transfusions by identifying the existence of different blood groups among people, which he classified as A, B, AB and O. He was the first to realize that blood groups could be used in cases of doubtful paternity. HE also conducted immunologic studies in syphilis and polio myelitis and discovered the rhesus factor… (Medscape)

Study determines the number of readings to reliably diagnose HT using home BP monitoring: Using the average of morning and evening readings, 3 days of home BP monitoring (HBPM) are needed to reliably estimate mean home BP and diagnose out‐of‐clinic hypertension. In the Improving the Detection of Hypertension (IDH) study reported in the November 2018 issue of the Journal of the American Heart Association, 13.6% of participants had clinic hypertension and 18.0% had home HT. The average of 2 morning and 2 evening readings or 1 morning and 1 evening reading over 3 days of HBPM are needed to reliably estimate mean home BP and diagnose out‐of‐clinic HT. These results inform how patients should be instructed to conduct HBPM and will help guide clinicians in their interpretation of home BP data.

10 eye-opening benefits of walking

1. It helps you maintain a healthy weight.
2. It can help you live longer.
3. Walking strengthens bones and muscles.
4. It eases joint pain.
5. It boosts your mood.
6. It can reduce your breast cancer risk.
7. Walking can help you sleep.
8. It can reduce your risk of diabetes.
9. It helps your heart.
10. It saves your brain.

7 signs there may be inflammation in your brain

1. You experience brain fog
2. You feel more down than usual
3. You get tired easily
4. You have headaches and migraines
5. You have neck stiffness
6. You experience nausea or vomiting
7. You have changes in vision

Video to watch: TEDx Video: Doctor-patient relationship www.youtube(dot)com/ watch?v=i9ml1vKK2DQ

Dr KK Aggarwal

Padma Shri Awardee

President Elect CMAAO

President Heart Care Foundation of India