i. Treat tobacco as a drug and not as a food
ii. Every pack of cigarette must have a line “It is possible to stop smoking, contact your doctor”.
iii. By law every tobacco selling shop must have small billboard in the shop talking about how to quit smoking or tobacco.
iv. Medical Council of India should include doctors smoking in public place for consideration as unethical act.
Source: National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke (NPCDCS): TRG 1 meeting on 07.05.2013 at Nirman Bhawan
Some answers to tobacco control
H7N9 pandemic? Not yet but still worrisome
The H7N9 avian influenza now circulating in China has two of the three characteristics of a pandemic virus, according to a prominent infectious diseases expert. (Source: Medpage Today)
Simple tool stratifies mortality risk in type 2 diabetes
Researchers have created an online mortality-risk calculator for patients with type 2 diabetes, which stratifies patients into low, medium, or high risk of dying from any cause within 2 years. By plugging in values for 9 readily available patient characteristics — age, body mass index (BMI), diastolic blood pressure, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio, antihypertensive treatment, and insulin therapy — a physician can quickly determine whether a patient has a high risk for death. (Source: Medscape)
3 questions help docs predict pain course
Asking three simple questions of patients with non-inflammatory musculoskeletal pain improved primary care physicians’ ability to predict which patients would still be in pain 6 months later, a study found. The three questions the physicians asked were: (Source: Medpage Today)
• When was the last time you were free of pain for a month or more?
• In the last month, has this pain interfered with your daily activities?
• Have you had pain anywhere else in the last month?
Maternal inflammation linked to autism in offspring
Findings indicating a significant association between increasing levels of maternal C-reactive protein (CRP) and the risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were reported at the 12th Annual International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR). (Source: Medscape)
Clusters of new coronavirus add to concern
Close contact can spread the novel coronavirus hCoV-EMC, but there’s still no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission, the World Health Organization says. (Source: Medpage Today)
IAP to create infection-free environment for children
12 workshops to train 500 paediatricians and health professionals under Safe Injection Environment campaign in six months.
In view of creating a safer environment for children across the country, the Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) is launching a nationwide Safe Injection Environment (SIE) Campaign. The campaign aims at training over 500 paediatricians and health professionals from across the country in safe injection practices and protect children from infectious diseases. Injections are the most commonly used procedure of administering vaccines, medicines and other related medication across the world. A child is introduced to injections when he is only a few days old by means of immunisation, which accounts for only about 5 per cent of the total number of injections a person is administered with. The rest 95 per cent are for therapeutic reasons. Healthcare professionals often re-use syringes or needles, assuming that they are safe. They also recap the needles after use and throw the bodies of the syringes into a single container. Such practices need to be rectified. They need to be trained in sanitisation and other safe practices.
According to WHO estimates, 42 per cent of the Hepatitis C and 33 per cent of Hepatitis B cases can be attributed to such unsafe practices. Under the SIE campaign, IAP, which is the premier association of pediatricians in the country, will be conducting city-based training workshops in 12 locations across the country. The nationwide campaign will represent IAP members from five zones — East, West, North, South and Central. On May 12, the safe injection environment module was rolled out nationally.
IAP will be engaging with local government officials to leverage them as key influencers for the training programmes. Talking about the significance of the SIE campaign, Dr Sailesh Gupta, Secretary General, Indian Academy of Pediatrics, said, “According to a 2004 INCLEN study on injection practices, about 63 per cent of all injections administered in India are unsafe. Unsafe injection practices are a crucial reason behind spread of various diseases such as hepatitis. When it comes to children’s health, the importance of safe injections cannot be over-emphasised.” IAP recently released the Safe Injection Guidelines, which talks comprehensively about the current situation analysis, science behind injection techniques, the Do’s and Don’ts to ensure Safe Injection Practices. These have been developed by a group of experts from IAP and are also available on their website for wider dissemination. (Source: Indian Express, May 14 2013)
Results of the ROTAVAC Rotavirus Vaccine Study in India
NIH: We congratulate the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), Bharat Biotech International, Ltd., and the scientists, government and people of India on the important results from the ROTAVAC rotavirus vaccine study
End-of-life care guidelines updated
The Hastings Center has updated and expanded its landmark 1987 consensus guidelines for ethical care of terminally ill patients. Oxford University Press published this second edition of The Hastings Center Guidelines for Decisions on Life-Sustaining Treatment and Care Near the End of Life. (Source: Medscape)
New guidance for inherited arrhythmias
A redefinition of Brugada syndrome diagnosis based on ECG alone, and a new look at short QT syndrome and repolarization are featured in new consensus guidelines on inherited arrhythmias. The recommendations call for evaluation of all patients with such conditions and their first-degree relatives in a dedicated clinic with appropriately trained staff. (Source: Medpage Today)
Single-embryo screening equal birth rate, better outcomes
Single-embryo transfer with aneuploidy screening is not only as successful as double-embryo transfer, but results in healthier babies, report researchers, who say a paradigm shift is in the works in the field of in vitro fertilization (IVF). (Source: Medscape)
If job stress mounts, healthy living may be lifesaver
A handful of studies have suggested that high stress work environments are bad for the heart, but some of the job-related risk may be reduced by avoiding a quartet of known lifestyle risk factors: smoking, obesity, physical inactivity, and heavy drinking, researchers report. (Source: Medpage Today)
