Morning MEDtalks with Dr KK Aggarwal 4^th December, 2018

A new “Heart Attack Rewind” campaign from FSSAI:  A new mass media campaign calling for the elimination of industrially produced trans fat in the food supply has been launched by the  Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). Entitled “Heart Attack Rewind,” the 30 second public service announcement (PSA) - the first mass media campaign of its kind – will support FSSAI‟s global target of eliminating trans fat in India by the year 2022, a year ahead of the global target by the World Health Organization (WHO) for complete elimination of trans fat.

Pawan Agarwal, CEO FSSAI said “FSSAI is committed to reducing the industrially produced trans fatty acids to less than 2% by the year 2022 in a phased manner. This is in line with our objective to get Freedom from ‘Trans Fat: India@75.’ I am hopeful that this media campaign will educate consumers about the harmful effects and its link to cardiovascular diseases.” “Heart Attack Rewind” warns citizens about the health hazards of consuming trans fat and offers strategies to avoid them through healthier alternatives… (FSSAI)

Global Nutrition Report 2018: Key findings: There has been some progress in reducing malnutrition, but it has been too slow and not spread across all forms of malnutrition

1. Stunting in children under five years of age is declining at a global level but numbers in Africa are increasing, and there are significant disparities in progress at the subnational level.
2. At global level, progress in addressing underweight and anaemia among women has been extremely slow while overweight and obesity among adults is getting worse, with higher rates of obesity among women than men. 
3. Several countries are on course to meet at least one of the globally adopted nutrition targets set for 2025, but most are off-track and none are making progress on the full suite of targets.
4. Different forms of malnutrition continue to compound one another – with new analysis further confirming this reality.
5. Crises around the world are increasingly protracted and significantly hamper tackling all forms of malnutrition. 

Asian Longhorned Tick spreading in the US: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working with public health, agricultural, and academic experts to understand the possible threat posed by the spread of the Asian longhorned tick (Haemaphysalis longicornis) in several US states since its discovery in 2017, according to today’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. In contrast to most tick species, a single female tick can reproduce offspring (1-2,000 eggs at a time) without mating. As a result, hundreds to thousands of ticks can be found on a single animal, person, or in the environment. Livestock producers and pet owners should work with their veterinarians to maintain regular tick prevention and report any unknown tick species to their local department of agriculture.

“The full public health and agricultural impact of this tick discovery and spread is unknown,” said Ben Beard, Ph.D., deputy director of CDC’s Division of Vector-Borne Diseases.  “In other parts of the world, the Asian longhorned tick can transmit many types of pathogens common in the United States. We are concerned that this tick, which can cause massive infestations on animals, on people, and in the environment, is spreading in the United States.” (CDC)

New HIV diagnoses at alarmingly high levels in the European Region despite progress in EU/EEA: With nearly 160 000 people newly diagnosed with HIV, 2017 marked another year of alarming numbers of new HIV diagnoses in the WHO European Region. Encouragingly, the overall increasing trend is not as steep as before. The eastern part of the Region recorded over 130 000 new HIV diagnoses, the highest number ever. On the other hand, the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA) countries reported a decline in rates of new diagnoses, mainly driven by a 20% decrease since 2015 among men who have sex with men.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the WHO Regional Office for Europe release the latest data on the HIV epidemic in the European Region, marking the 30th anniversary of World AIDS Day. “It’s hard to talk about good news in the face of another year of unacceptably high numbers of people infected with HIV. While efforts to prevent new HIV infections are gradually showing signs of progress, we are not on course to meet the 90–90–90 targets by the 2020 deadline. My call to governments, ministers of health and decision-makers is bold: scale up your response now,” says Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe... (WHO Europe, Nov. 28,2018)

Disproving the long-held belief that bone marrow is the exclusive source of blood cells, researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons have found that the human intestine may provide up to 10% of blood cells in circulation from its own reservoir of blood-forming stem cells.

Treatment in ICU increases risk of depression: Over half of those who respond to postal questionnaire following treatment on ICU in the UK had significant symptoms of depression, anxiety, or PTSD. When symptoms of one psychological disorder are present, there is a 65% chance they will co-occur with symptoms of one of the other two disorders. Depression following critical illness is associated with an increased mortality risk in the first 2 years following discharge from ICU (Critical Care, Nov. 23, 2018)

Evening persons at greater risk of suffering from heart disease and type 2 diabetes than early risers: A review of recent epidemiologic research on chronotype, its determinants, and its association with dietary intake and cardiometabolic health published online Nov. 30, 2018 in Advances in Nutrition demonstrated that evening chronotype is associated with lower intake of fruits and vegetables and higher intake of energy drinks, alcoholic, sugary, and caffeinated beverages and higher energy intake from fat. Evening chronotype was also associated with irregular eating, and meal skipping, particularly breakfast skipping. 

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