Medically Speaking Team

The National Eligibility Cumulative Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET UG) 2022 is only a few weeks away. The NEET UG 2022 Admit Cards are scheduled to be announced soon. However, students have continued to protest, requesting that the exam be postponed.

With the All-India Medical Entrance Exam slated on July 17, hopefuls have escalated their demand by going on hunger strike, according to reports. Aspirants for NEET UG 2022 have been requesting a 40-day postponement to allow them to prepare for the important exam.

The reason for the call, according to pupils, is that the exam dates conflict with other key exams. Furthermore, the NEET UG 2021 counselling was postponed, leaving students with less time to study for this year’s test, according to students.

Also Read: SII urges Health Ministry to include Cy-Tb injection in National TB elimination program

Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Education Minister, recently cleared the air on the Centre’s objectives. A postponement is quite improbable.

Amid the calls by students, parents associations also joined in and so did student body NSUI, seeking the Centre to intervene, but to no avail.

Consequently, protesting students have called a hunger strike and are seeking a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lay out their side of the story.

According to government sources, Serum Institute has suggested that their Cy-Tb injection for detection of latent TB be included in the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) to help India achieve TB-free status by 2025. According to an official source, the Serum Institute recently told the government that it provides Cy-Tb injectable for Rs 350 + GST per dosage.

Prakash Kumar Singh, Director, Government and Regulatory Affairs at SII, sent the letter requesting the inclusion of Cy-Tb.

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On May 9, 2022, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) approved the Cy-Tb injectable for marketing.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) sought the pricing of Cy-Tb injection in response to Singh’s request. According to an official source, Serum Institute has told MoHFW that the company will deliver Cy-Tb injectable for Rs 350 + GST per dosage.

According to official sources, the ministry has not made a decision on the acquisition of this product since the Serum Institute’s Cy-Tb kit has a few programmatic problems.

India is committed to eliminate tuberculosis by 2025, five years ahead of the target for TB elimination set by Sustainable Development Goals 2030.

According to Press TV in Iran, medical racism in the US has a negative impact on ethnic minorities’ general well-being and health as well as their mistrust of the US healthcare system.

“Some American doctors can tell so much just by the colour of your skin. If it happens to be black, or off-white, for example, they staunchly believe you do not feel as much pain as white people do,” said the report. What is more disturbing is that if you’re not white, doctors may think that you are probably lying about your condition and the extent of pain experienced. You will not receive the same treatment even with the same insurance coverage, it added.

In 2020, The Undefeated and the Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a national study, and the results showed that seven out of ten African Americans thought patients were treated entirely unjustly when they sought medical attention based on their race or ethnicity.

According to the essay, the persistent racial stereotype that African Americans are “less than human” in American society is the primary cause of medical racism.

According to the paper, as long as these belief systems persist, efforts to eradicate racism will simply be tokenistic and futile.

According to a press release from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya stated on Thursday that numerous measures have been made in accordance with Supreme Court orders to make the Amarnathji Yatra easier for devotees.

The announcement said, “Amarnathji Yatra began today and will end on August 11, 2022.” According to the statement, state governments have been informed of the necessary preparations for medical care, including the services of specialists and general duty medical officers (GDMOs), to support the efforts of the government of Jammu and Kashmir, particularly by those States from which large numbers of pilgrims arrive.

Medical personnel, including physicians and paramedics, will be sent out in groups to respond to medical situations.

Beginning on June 25, 2022, and ending on July 13, 2022, is the first batch. From July 11, 2022, to July 28, 2022, and from July 26, 2022, to August 11, 2022, the second and third batches, respectively, would begin.
Medical specialists are being sent out from CGHS and Central Government facilities.

The Central Government Hospitals and CGHS were asked to provide 155 medical staff (87 physicians and 68 paramedics) at the request of the Government of J-K through the Director of Health Services (DHS Kashmir).

The Central Government Hospitals and CGHS have received 176 nominations in total (115 physicians and 61 paramedics). DHS Kashmir has been informed of the whole list for future deployment.

Doctors and paramedics are being sent from 11 states and UTs to the area. The Director of Health Services (DHS Kashmir), on behalf of the Government of J-K, solicited 437 medical personnel (154 physicians and 283 paramedics) from 11 states and UTs (Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, West Bengal, Maharashtra).

In total, 433 nominations (214 doctors and 219 paramedics) have been received from nine states. Deployment of 428 medical personnel (211 doctors, 217 paramedics) has already been made by DHS (Kashmir) for all three batches.

The 50-bedded hospital has been set up at Baltal and Chandwari by DRDO through the funds provided by MoHFW.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that it is stepping up its response to the impending health catastrophe in eastern Africa, which is also experiencing severe food shortages.

The region’s health hazards are rising as access to healthcare is getting worse, according to Ibrahima Soce Fall, WHO Assistant Director-General for Emergency Response.

“The cost of inaction is high. While the clear priority is to prevent people from starving, we must simultaneously strengthen our health response to prevent disease and save lives,” Fall said in a statement issued in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.

The WHO held a two-day conference earlier this week in Nairobi to coordinate with other UN agencies and partners and prepare its response across the seven countries affected by the health emergency — Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda.

The UN health agency said that it is establishing a centre in Nairobi from which it would manage the delivery of life-saving medical supplies to where they are most needed and coordinate the response.

These items, according to the statement, include medications, immunizations, as well as the materials and tools required to treat extremely malnourished children.

The effects of the pandemic, rising worldwide food and fuel costs, violence, extreme weather events brought on by climate change, and the region’s acute food insecurity, according to the WHO, have all contributed to the region’s greatest food insecurity in 40 years.

The UN health agency stated that the main goals of its emergency response are to ensure that the affected communities have access to basic medical care, to treat severely malnourished children, and to stop, identify, and contain infectious disease outbreaks.

In order to promptly identify and respond to disease outbreaks, WHO stated that it is collaborating with the ministries of health in the impacted countries to establish effective disease monitoring systems.

On Thursday evening, according to official sources, Union Health Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya will congratulate and engage in conversation with the top 25 scorers in the NEET-PG test for the medical and dentistry programmes.

The occasion will occur the night before National Doctors’ Day, which is observed annually on July 1. In medical colleges around the nation, many events are held on this day. The top rank holders will be treated to a banquet at the Union Health Minister’s residence this evening, according to official sources.

First-time interactions between a Union Health Minister and top students from Master of Dental Surgery (MDS), Master of Science (MS), and Doctor of Medicine programmes (MD)

There will be 50 medical students in all who will speak with the minister.

On July 1, the Union Health Minister will honour physicians at Lady Hardinge College in New Delhi.

Every year, National Doctors’ Day is observed in honour of Dr. BC Roy, a physician who served as West Bengal’s chief minister.

In his National Doctors’ Day speech from the previous year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked the medical professionals on behalf of 130 crore Indians for their assistance during the challenging COVID pandemic.

The prime minister thanked those who sacrificed their life for mankind while also recognising the doctor’s contribution and recalling their valiant efforts throughout the pandemic.

Scientists have shown that a group of viruses that are known to cause severe diarrheal illnesses, including the one infamous for massive outbreaks on cruise ships, may develop in mice’s salivary glands and spread through their saliva. The results demonstrate that these widespread viruses, which can be fatal and affect billions of people annually around the world, have a novel pathway of transmission.

The fact that these so-called enteric viruses are shared by saliva means that other methods of transmission, such as coughing, talking, sneezing, sharing food and utensils, and even kissing, may also be effective. Studies on humans are still required to corroborate the new findings. The results, which are published in the journal Nature, might result in more effective strategies to prevent, identify, and cure illnesses brought on by these viruses.

The study was led by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of NIH.

Researchers have known for some time that enteric viruses, such as noroviruses and rotaviruses, can spread by eating food or drinking liquids contaminated with fecal matter containing these viruses. Enteric viruses were thought to bypass the salivary gland and target the intestines, exiting later through feces. Although some scientists have suspected there may be another route of transmission, this theory remained largely untested until now.

Now researchers will need to confirm that salivary transmission of enteric viruses is possible in humans.

The research, which was published in the journal Nature, may help doctors better predict, identify, and treat illnesses brought on by these viruses, potentially saving lives. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), a division of NIH, was in charge of the investigation.

It has long been understood by researchers that enteric viruses, such as noroviruses and rotaviruses, may spread through consumption of contaminated food or beverages. It was believed that enteric viruses attack the intestines instead of the salivary gland and then leave the body through faeces. Even while some researchers hypothesised there could be another method of transmission, this hypothesis has mostly gone untested up to this point.

Now, scientists must establish if enteric viruses may spread through saliva in people. The researchers claimed that if they determine that it is, they may also find that this method of transmission is much more widespread than the traditional method. A discovery like that, they suggested, would help explain why the large number of enteric virus infections each year reported globally do not sufficiently take into account faecal contamination as the exclusive route of transmission.

“This is completely new territory because these viruses were thought to only grow in the intestines,” said senior author Nihal Altan-Bonnet, Ph.D., chief of the Laboratory of Host-Pathogen Dynamics at the NHLBI. “Salivary transmission of enteric viruses is another layer of transmission we didn’t know about. It is an entirely new way of thinking about how these viruses can transmit, how they can be diagnosed, and, most importantly, how their spread might be mitigated.”

Altan-Bonnet, who has long studied enteric viruses, claimed that the discovery was entirely accidental. Infant mice are the ideal animal models for studying these infections because of their immature digestive and immune systems, which make them susceptible to infections. Her team had been performing experiments with enteric viruses in these mice.

The likelihood of acquiring Alzheimer’s disease in the future may be predicted using a mix of genetics and brain MRIs, according to research being done in this area.

In a recently released study, scientists from SFU’s Functional and Anatomical Imaging & Shape Analysis Lab (FAISAL) identified specific traits of brain MRIs and genetics that affect the prediction of Dementia of Alzheimer’s Type, or DAT, for patients at different stages of the disease, and then developed a biomarker that can aid in predicting future conversion to DAT.

“Our findings reveal that while genetic features have lower predictive power than MRI features, combining both modalities can improve the performance in predicting the future conversion to DAT,” says study lead author Ghazal Mirabnahrazam, a research assistant currently completing a master’s degree in engineering science at SFU.

Dementia scores based on genetic data were shown to better predict future DAT progression in currently normal patients who will develop DAT at a later time, while MRI data, which reflects anatomical changes in the brain, was shown to better predict future DAT in those with mild cognitive impairment.

“In a clinical setting, clinicians can use our model to predict a quantitative score indicating the similarity between a subject’s observed patterns based on MRI and genetic data at the time of clinical visit and DAT patterns,” says senior author Mirza Faisal Beg, a professor in SFU’s School of Engineering Science.

“This is extremely useful, specifically at the MCI (mild cognitively impaired) stage in identifying those who will progress to DAT in the future. Being able to accurately estimate the chance of future conversion to DAT using only baseline information is extremely valuable because it provides practitioners with deep insight and enough time to plan appropriate care for each patient based on their probability of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

“Furthermore, it can provide potentially critical information for drug trials and the development of preventative measures,” adds Beg. “This information can aid in the selection of the appropriate cohort of patients for clinical trials, which can lead to a more promising outcome.”

Menopausal women may have greater amounts of a brain biomarker called white matter hyperintensities than premenopausal women or males of the same age, according to a recent research.

The research’s findings were disseminated in the journal Neurology. White matter hyperintensities are microscopic lesions that may be seen on brain scans and are more prevalent as people age or when their blood pressure is uncontrolledly high. Some studies have connected certain brain biomarkers to a higher risk of stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, and cognitive decline.

“White matter hyperintensities increase as the brain ages, and while having them does not mean that a person will develop dementia or have a stroke, larger amounts may increase a person’s risk,” said study author Monique M. B. Breteler, MD, PhD, of the German Center of Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), in Bonn, Germany, and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.

“Our study examined what role menopause may have on amounts of these brain biomarkers. Our results imply that white matter hyperintensities evolve differently for men and women, where menopause or factors that determine when menopause starts, such as variations in the ageing process, are defining factors.”

3,410 individuals with an average age of 54 participated in the research. Of those, 58% were female, and 59% of the females were postmenopausal. Additionally, 50% of patients with high blood pressure had it uncontrolled, making about 35% of the total.

A brain MRI was performed on each individual.

Researchers analysed the scans and determined each participant’s average number of white matter hyperintensities. These brain biomarkers had an average total volume of 0.5 millilitres (ml). For males and women, respectively, the average total brain volume was 1,180 ml and 1,053 ml. In the region of the brain where white matter hyperintensities can be observed, the average total white matter volume was 490 ml for males and 430 ml for women.

Researchers discovered that postmenopausal women had higher levels of these brain biomarkers when compared to males of similar ages after controlling for age and vascular risk factors such high blood pressure and diabetes. Men exhibited an average total white matter hyperintensities volume of 0.72 ml in adults over 45, compared to 0.94 ml for postmenopausal women. Researchers also discovered that women saw a quicker rate of rise in brain biomarkers with age than men did.

Similar-aged premenopausal men and women did not vary in the average number of white matter hyperintensities.

Additionally, researchers discovered that premenopausal women of a similar age exhibited less white matter hyperintensities than postmenopausal women did. Postmenopausal women showed an average total volume of white matter hyperintensities of 0.51 ml compared to 0.33 ml for premenopausal women in a cohort of individuals aged 45 to 59.

Hormone treatment did not differ between postmenopausal and premenopausal women. According to Breteler, this study shows that hormone replacement treatment may not have a brain-protective impact after menopause.

Women with uncontrolled high blood pressure reported greater levels of this brain biomarker than males did, regardless of menopausal state.

“It has been known that high blood pressure, which affects the small blood vessels in the brain, can lead to an increase in white matter hyperintensities,” said Breteler.

“The results of our study not only show more research is needed to investigate how menopause may be related to the vascular health of the brain. They also demonstrate the necessity to account for different health trajectories for men and women, and menopausal status. Our research underscores the importance of sex-specific medicine and more attentive therapy for older women, especially those with vascular risk factors.”