The Drug Technical Advisory Board that advises the Centre on scientific matters also gave its nod to make this a law. ‘Digital consent, as much as it will safeguard the interest of a patient, will also make the process of counselling more transparent,’ a senior government official said. ‘This will ensure that no one is blindly made to sign some papers. More importantly, it will show how much the participants are informed about the possibility of failure or side effects.’

The Centre informed that last year that as many as 2,644 people died due during the clinical trials of 475 drugs between 2005 and 2012. Of this the Centre said that 80 deaths were directly attributable to the clinical trials. This forced the government to include the proposal in the drugs and cosmetics rules. The law will also require an investigator to explain the clinical trial in full detail and will also need the patient’s signature.

‘In reality, those indulging in unethical clinical trials just lure the patients and make them sign the documents,’ Dr Anand Rai of Clinical Trial Victims Help Group said. ‘There have been cases when doctors have recruited 150 children to participate in a trial within three hours. Here, it is anyone’s guess how much counselling was done.’ Most trial sites don’t even have counsellors.

Doctors also complained of lack of accommodation for them in the hostel. ‘As of now, a temporary arrangement has been made for 150 women resident doctors in DDA (Delhi Development Authority) flats,’ Prabhakar added. Since Tuesday evening, around 800 resident doctors at the central government-run hospital went on strike putting patients to inconvenience.

‘We went on a strike since yesterday (Tuesday evening) as the hospital administration took only token measures last week to pacify us, but nothing was done constructively. Now since the health ministry official has assured us, we hope our demands will be met,’ Prabhakar said. The strike hit the outpatient department but the emergency and the intensive care unit services were running smoothly at the hospital, officials said.

Source: IANS

The babies were nearly sacrificed though by their father who was hoodwinked by a black magic practitioner and it was only a neighbour’s timely warning to a local NGO Pratham who rescued the twins and admitted them to Wadia Hospital in Parel. Subsequently, her father has been arrested.

Though the girls are stable, doctors claim that only one of them can be saved. ‘One of the babies, who has difficulty in breathing, is critical. We might not be able to save both the girls. It’s a critical case and investigation reports will have to be studied before taking a call on surgery,’ the doctor told DNA.  The babies have separate arms and legs but a common anus and weigh around 5 kg.

The only way forward is surgery to separate the twins though a recent SC ruling might have set a precedent in a case like this when the court ruled that 17-year-old twins Saba and Farah wouldn’t be separated and instead be given medical assistance from the state because there’s a very high chance that one of the twins will pass away during or after the surgery. 

A handbook on TB in India, which provides a comprehensive overview of the challenges around TB control in India and the role of policy-makers was released. ‘The campaign should involve lakhs of school children, they would take the message to their parents and teachers. The handbook which provides information on TB should be distributed to them,’ Dikshit said. The forum will not only raise awareness on the need for improved TB control but its members will formulate key recommendations to address these challenges which will be presented to the ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) for further action. ‘The forum will serve as a platform to bring together various stakeholders to highlight and address the complex challenges facing TB in India, a disease that is easily preventable and treatable,’ Dalbir Singh, convener of the forum said. Tuberculosis kills one Indian every two minutes. India bears the highest burden of tuberculosis in the world, with two million suffering from this disease annually. 

What is tuberculosis?

Tuberculosis is a common infectious disease caused by bacteria called mycobacterium tuberculosis which affects the lungs. Main symptoms of TB are severe cough that lasts for three weeks or longer, bloody or discoloured sputum, night sweats, fever, fatigue and weakness, pain in the chest, loss of appetite, and pain during breathing or coughing. India had the highest total number of TB cases worldwide in 2010 partly due to poor disease management by the private healthcare sector. TB can be prevented by vaccination and maintaining high levels of hygiene. One infected, the patient should follow the medication regimen properly. By not doing so, there are chances of developing resistance to anti-TB drugs resulting in an aggressive form of TB called MDR-TB (multi-drug resistant TB).

With inputs from IANS

Source: IANS

The basic framework and the syllabus is being designed and developed by the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, a think-tank under the health ministry. Sources suggest it will take four to six months to finalise the textbooks.

‘We are hopeful that the course would get introduced as soon as next academic session. We intend to keep the content simple,’ said Prasad on the sidelines of a CII conference, which launched a platform to explore feasible public-private partnership models in the area of diabetes. Once the subject is launched by CBSE, the government plans to begin consultation with the state governments to introduce it in different state boards.

It’s believed that the move to integrate health as a part of mainstream education is inspired by the Finnish Model which has followed a similar route. It should be also noted that Finland is one of the healthiest countries on the planet. ‘Health education is integrated into environmental and natural studies in grades 1-4; in grades 5-6, it is integrated into biology and geography and into physics and chemistry. In grades 7-9, health education is an autonomous subject,’ said a case study of Finland government and World Health Organisation Regional Office for Europe.  The main themes of health education in Finland are growth and development, health choices in everyday life and other things.

India.com Health View

There is a dire need for health education for our adolescents. Children growing up in this era are prone to a variety of lifestyle diseases in adolescence and in later life because of changing living habits. While earlier, children would often play and participate in physical activities nowadays they’re more likely to play video games indoors. More stress on academics and competitive exams also means that they are facing a lot of pressure at a young age and this takes a toll on their health. Another aspect is the fact that with more and more women working and the breakdown of the joint family structure, more and more children are eating unhealthy, junk food on a regular basis. Childhood obesity has become a big problem in urban areas and it would be good to educate children on the importance of good healthy eating habits and exercise. After all they should know that the choices they make in their youth will affect them for the rest of their lives and the wrong ones can make them more prone to diabetes, hypertension and other cardiovascular ailments. 

The committee hit out at the government for its inefficiency in dealing with these matters, going to the extent of saying that they were colluding with the intention of saving the guilty. The committee asked the government to deal with two dangerous drugs – analgin and buclizine as soon as possible.

Both these drugs are banned in various countries including the US, UK, Japan, European Union, etc. but continue to be available over-the-counter in India.

The 33 drugs that have been approved without clinical trials the committee asked why the government even after several month hadn’t banned the drugs. It says ‘this inaction has led to unhindered marketing of these drugs with unknown and unspecified risks to unsuspecting people’.

The committee did appreciate the government’s efforts in examining applications for new drugs including fixed dose combinations

The conference will give information about a two-year diploma and a three-year degree course in family medicine for medical practitioners, he added.  Delegates from India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are participating in the conference.  ‘While there are very few doctors available in rural areas, in urban areas it is mostly specialists. There are very few practitioners of good old family health care,’ Sundaraman said.

‘The hospitals are for people who are rich and can afford it. People in small cities and rural areas go to quacks.’ 
Raman Kumar, president of Academy of Family Physicians of India, said: ‘India is moving towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and National Health Mission (NHM). Multi-skilled and competent primary care providers and their knowledge figure prominently in the evolving schemes, themes and initiatives of our health care systems’.

‘Current health care scenario in India is staring at a crisis, as patients face increasing health care expenses due to the skewed emphasis on hospitals and super-speciality care,’ said Santanu Chattopadhyay, founder and CEO of NationWide Primary Healthcare Services Pvt Ltd. ‘Much of this expense can be avoided if the primary care provision is strengthened, which can only happen when we have a robust system for training and producing more family physicians,’ he added.

Source: IANS

Farah said: ‘We are grateful, from the core of our heart. We are also thankful to Allah for it,’ she said. The court has directed the state government to ensure that the twins get the best medical attention, and said the Patna district civil surgeon must ensure regular check-ups for the conjoined sisters.  The father of the girls, Shakeel Ahmad, said: ‘The court order has given us fresh hope.’ Ahmad, who runs a small roadside eatery here, said only the government could help the family.

Ahmad recalled that a few years ago, one of the rulers of a Gulf country had promised to the bear the costs of surgically separating the two sisters. ‘After initial consultations at Delhi’s Apollo Hospital, everything was forgotten,’ he said. American neurosurgeon Benjamin Carson had travelled to India to study the twins. He had agreed to perform the risky operation, with assistance from Indian doctors.

Carson had warned that surgery would be risky, and only one girl might survive. Doctors have also said that the option of surgical separation might mean a series of surgeries, since one operation might not suffice. 

Although the twins have distinct brains and are neurologically and psychologically normal, only one of them has kidneys. The apex court Monday directed a panel of doctors, including those from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, to give their opinion on the scope of surgery. The court direction came on a public interest litigation by Aarushi Dhasmana, a law student at the Pune-based Symbiosis Law School.

Source: IANS

The standing committee noted that most healthcare services in the rural sector were being provided by untrained people and instead urged to government to increase the intake of MBBS graduates and make a compulsory one-year rural posting for them to tackle the manpower.

The committee went on to add that the infrastructure at district hospitals were inadequate to train students for the proposed Bachelor of Science (Community Health) course and the community added that these would endanger the lives of patients by creating ‘half-baked’ doctors. It’s also important to note that since the government can’t prevent doctors from starting private practices there was no way they could prevent the Bachelor of Science (Community Health) graduates from migrating to other areas and setting up clinics under the guise of being doctors and MBBS graduates.

India.com Health View

Ever since the economy was opened by our current PM the gap between the haves and have-nots has been increasing and that includes access to healthcare services. Gandhi had imagined India as a land of self-sustaining villages and the grim reality of life in rural India would’ve upset him greatly. While more and more private hospitals spring up in urban India, the access to even the most basic primary healthcare services remain non-existent in rural India. There have been various different initiatives that the government has proposed to improve rural healthcare including a compulsory period of service for MBBS and PG students but the IMA and various students’ associations have been up-in-arms against these courses and protested vehemently to have them reversed. Even if they were implemented most doctors would find a way of getting out of them by greasing a few palms.  The only feasible alternative is doing what the government is suggesting – training rural healthcare providers so that at least the basic primary services are available to people in rural India.  

An estimated 27 crore children in the age group of 0 to 18 years are expected to be covered in a phased manner under this programme, the official said, adding there is provision for early intervention centres at the district level for management of cases referred from the blocks and further referral to tertiary level health services when needed.

Existing services offered by ministry of women and child development, social justice and empowerment and education will also be optimally utilised in RBSK, which will also provide country-wide epidemiological data on various diseases of children for future planning of area specific services, the official said. Six percent of all children are born with birth defects. Birth defects, diseases, deficiencies and disabilities are important causes of mortality and morbidity in children under 5 years of age.

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Source: IANS