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Showing posts from January, 2020

Coronavirus outbreak in China: Pakistan issues health advisory

NIH advised health staff to take precautions in light of the recent outbreak of the coronavirus in China. — Photo: CNN The National Institute of Health (NIH) advised health staff on Tuesday to take safety measures in light of the recent outbreak of the coronavirus in China and neighbouring states. The institute directed health officials to investigate a person who may have travelled to Wuhan or any other affected area of China within the last 15 days. It also directed the officials to investigate anyone who may be suffering from severe acute respiratory infections (SARI). Symptoms of the deadly virus ranged from a history of fever, to coughing or difficulty breathing, the NIH said. The advisory maintained that health officials investigate anyone who may have had “close physical contact with a suspected or confirmed case”. It instructed officials to probe anyone who may have had "direct contact with infected animals, seafood, meat or any other animal products in the markets of W...
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No smoking four weeks before operation cuts risks: WHO

GENEVA: Patients who stop smoking at least four weeks before an operation significantly reduce the risk of having postsurgical complications because their blood flow improves, according to a study published Monday. The World Health Organisation (WHO) study argued that minor or non-essential operations on regular smokers could be delayed to give them time to quit and thereby improve outcomes such as wound healing and heart function. The WHO study, conducted in cooperation with the University of Newcastle, Australia and the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA), found that every additional tobacco-free week beyond the four weeks improved health outcomes by 19 percent. "The report provides evidence that there are advantages to postponing minor or non-emergency surgery to give patients the opportunity to quit smoking, resulting in a better health outcome," Dr Vinayak Prasad, head of the No Tobacco unit at WHO, said in a statement. The study found that nic...
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China reports 17 more cases of new virus strain

The total number of patients infected by the disease in China, all of them in central Chinese city of Wuhan, has now climbed to 62. Photo: File China reported 17 more cases of pneumonia caused by a new coronavirus strain on Sunday, stoking worries as the country gears up to celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year when much of the population travels. Three of those patients are seriously ill, according to a statement issued by the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission. The total number of patients infected by the disease in China, all of them in central Chinese city of Wuhan, has now climbed to 62. Two have died. The 17 new patients began exhibiting symptoms such as a fever or cough before Jan.13, the statement said. The Chinese Lunar New Year is a one-week holiday that starts from January 24 this year. The new virus belongs to the large family of coronaviruses that includes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which killed nearly 800 people globally during a 2002-2003 outbreak that also...
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Sepsis has resulted in more deaths globally than cancer: study

Sepsis has resulted in more deaths globally than cancer: study Blood poisoning, known in the medical world as sepsis, is said to be the cause of more deaths around the world than cancer, suggests a new theory. Conducted by the researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Washington schools of medicine, the study cites that around one in five deaths appear to be a cause of the disease as 48.9 million cases of sepsis worldwide were reported in 2017, with 11 million deaths. If the statistics mentioned in the study are to be believed, this accounts for almost 20 percent of the deaths worldwide. A detailed version of the study that took place recently revealed that over 109 million individual death records and trends within the period of 1990 till 2017. This was concluded through the records of people admitted into hospitals infected with the disease as compared to the one who had not been hospitalized. Sepsis infects the body upon its overreaction to an infection t...
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African swine fever that killed millions of China's pigs pose global threat

African swine fever, which has hit the world's top pork producer, China, originated in Africa before spreading to Asia and Europe. Photo: Reuters CHICAGO: A detector dog in the US Customs and Border Protection, Bettie the beagle, identified a pork scent on a woman arriving from China at O’Hare International airport, Chigao. Soon the dog’s handler discovered and confiscated a ham sandwich in the purse of a passenger who had flown on a China Eastern Airlines flight from Shanghai. The danger? That the food might be contaminated with African swine fever and spread the disease to the United States. China has lost millions of pigs in outbreaks of the disease, pushing its pork prices to record highs, forcing purchases of costly imports and roiling global meat markets. “It’s very likely it may come here if we aren’t more vigilant,” said Jessica Anderson, the handler for the pork-sniffing dog and an agricultural specialist for the border protection agency. Bettie is among an expanded te...
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No smoking four weeks before operation cuts risks: WHO

GENEVA: Patients who stop smoking at least four weeks before an operation significantly reduce the risk of having postsurgical complications because their blood flow improves, according to a study published Monday. The World Health Organisation (WHO) study argued that minor or non-essential operations on regular smokers could be delayed to give them time to quit and thereby improve outcomes such as wound healing and heart function. The WHO study, conducted in cooperation with the University of Newcastle, Australia and the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA), found that every additional tobacco-free week beyond the four weeks improved health outcomes by 19 percent. "The report provides evidence that there are advantages to postponing minor or non-emergency surgery to give patients the opportunity to quit smoking, resulting in a better health outcome," Dr Vinayak Prasad, head of the No Tobacco unit at WHO, said in a statement. The study found that nic...
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China reports 17 more cases of new virus strain

The total number of patients infected by the disease in China, all of them in central Chinese city of Wuhan, has now climbed to 62. Photo: File China reported 17 more cases of pneumonia caused by a new coronavirus strain on Sunday, stoking worries as the country gears up to celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year when much of the population travels. Three of those patients are seriously ill, according to a statement issued by the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission. The total number of patients infected by the disease in China, all of them in central Chinese city of Wuhan, has now climbed to 62. Two have died. The 17 new patients began exhibiting symptoms such as a fever or cough before Jan.13, the statement said. The Chinese Lunar New Year is a one-week holiday that starts from January 24 this year. The new virus belongs to the large family of coronaviruses that includes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which killed nearly 800 people globally during a 2002-2003 outbreak that also...
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Sepsis has resulted in more deaths globally than cancer: study

Sepsis has resulted in more deaths globally than cancer: study Blood poisoning, known in the medical world as sepsis, is said to be the cause of more deaths around the world than cancer, suggests a new theory. Conducted by the researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Washington schools of medicine, the study cites that around one in five deaths appear to be a cause of the disease as 48.9 million cases of sepsis worldwide were reported in 2017, with 11 million deaths. If the statistics mentioned in the study are to be believed, this accounts for almost 20 percent of the deaths worldwide. A detailed version of the study that took place recently revealed that over 109 million individual death records and trends within the period of 1990 till 2017. This was concluded through the records of people admitted into hospitals infected with the disease as compared to the one who had not been hospitalized. Sepsis infects the body upon its overreaction to an infection t...
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African swine fever that killed millions of China's pigs pose global threat

African swine fever, which has hit the world's top pork producer, China, originated in Africa before spreading to Asia and Europe. Photo: Reuters CHICAGO: A detector dog in the US Customs and Border Protection, Bettie the beagle, identified a pork scent on a woman arriving from China at O’Hare International airport, Chigao. Soon the dog’s handler discovered and confiscated a ham sandwich in the purse of a passenger who had flown on a China Eastern Airlines flight from Shanghai. The danger? That the food might be contaminated with African swine fever and spread the disease to the United States. China has lost millions of pigs in outbreaks of the disease, pushing its pork prices to record highs, forcing purchases of costly imports and roiling global meat markets. “It’s very likely it may come here if we aren’t more vigilant,” said Jessica Anderson, the handler for the pork-sniffing dog and an agricultural specialist for the border protection agency. Bettie is among an expanded te...
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Study terms self-esteem key to treat mental health patients

ISLAMABAD: Improving how mental health patients perceive themselves can be critical in treating them, a first of its kind study has claimed. The findings of the study suggest that youths with psychiatric disorders, currently receiving inpatient services, reported lower self-concept, particularly global self-worth, compared to those receiving outpatient services. "This was the first study that examined youth with psychiatric disorder by comparing what type of service they were receiving and whether that was associated with self-concept," said Mark Ferro, Assistant Professor at the University of Waterloo. "We know that global self-worth is lower in the inpatient group and we know from other research that lower self-concept is a precursor to other more serious mental health problems," Ferro said. For the study, published in the Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, researchers examined a group of youth aged between 8-17 years who were ...
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Six new polio victims, including four girls, identified in KP

The News/Files Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's health ministry has identified  at least six more victims of the polio virus. The victims, including four girls and two boys, belong to districts Torghar and Lucky Marwat, the ministry said on Monday. According to the KP health ministry, the total number of reported polio cases across the province reached 97 in 2019, with the majority recorded in district Lucky Marwat. The number of polio cases were calculated based on samples taken up until December 2019. The tally of affected increased to 141 in 2019, the highest in recent years. On the other hand, the ministry initiated a five-day polio eradication campaign in eight different districts of the province in an attempt to administer polio vaccines to more than 2.1 million children. from The News International - Health https://ift.tt/2RbwS9H
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WHO confirms new virus behind China outbreak found in Thailand

Photo: AFP GENEVA: The first case has been found in Thailand of a new virus from the same family as SARS that is behind a Chinese pneumonia outbreak, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed Monday. The UN health agency said a person travelling from Wuhan, China, had been hospitalised in Thailand on January 8 after being diagnosed with mild pneumonia. "Laboratory testing subsequently confirmed that the novel coronavirus was the cause," WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told AFP in an email, referring to the new virus. WHO said it might soon host an emergency meeting on the spread of the new virus. The case marks the first outside of China, where 41 people with pneumonia-like symptoms have so far been diagnosed with the new virus in the central city of Wuhan, with one of the victims dying last Thursday. The episode has caused alarm due to the spectre of SARS, or Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which in 2002-2003 killed 349 people in mainland China and another 299 in H...
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Mystery pneumonia outbreak claims first death in China: report

WUHAN: A 61-year-old man has become the first person to die in China from a respiratory illness believed caused by a new virus from the same family as SARS, which claimed hundreds of lives more than a decade ago, authorities said. Forty-one people with pneumonia-like symptoms have so far been diagnosed with the new virus in Wuhan, with one of the victims dying on Thursday, the central Chinese city´s health commission said on its website on Saturday. Seven others remained in serious condition, two were discharged from treatment, and the rest were stable, it added. The episode has caused alarm due to the spectre of SARS, or Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which in 2002-2003 killed 349 people in mainland China and another 299 in Hong Kong, whose economy was hit hard by the epidemic´s devastating impact on tourism. The Wuhan health commission said the man who died had purchased goods from a seafood market in the city identified by authorities as the centre of the outbreak. It was cl...
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Man Infected with virus (pneumonia) in China dies after outbreak

File/ Reuters. SHANGHAI: A 61-year-old man has died from pneumonia in the central Chinese city of Wuhan after an outbreak of a yet to be identified virus while seven others are in critical condition, the Wuhan health authorities said on Saturday. In total, 41 people have been diagnosed with the pathogen, which preliminary lab tests cited by Chinese state media earlier this week pointed to a new type of coronavirus, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said in a statement on its website. It said the pathogen was an “unknown cause of viral pneumonia”. Two of them have been discharged from hospital and the rest are in stable condition, while 739 people deemed to have been in close contact with the patients have been cleared, it said. The man, the first victim of the outbreak that began in December, was a regular buyer at a seafood market in the city, who had been previously diagnosed with abdominal tumors and chronic liver disease, the health authority said. Treatments did not impro...
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China: Mystery pneumonia outbreak kills one

The outbreak has caused alarm due to the link to SARS which killed 349 people in mainland China and another 299 in Hong Kong more than a decade ago. Photo: AFP Central China's health authorities on Saturday reported the first death from a mysterious pneumonia outbreak that has been blamed on a new strain of virus from the same family as SARS. Out of 41 people diagnosed with the new type of coronavirus in the city of Wuhan where it was first confirmed, one had died, two were discharged from treatment, and seven remained in serious condition, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said in a statement. Authorities had earlier said that 59 people were affected by the pneumonia outbreak. The commission's new statement said, however, that just 41 had been diagnosed with the new coronavirus. The outbreak has caused alarm due to the link to SARS, or Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which killed 349 people in mainland China and another 299 in Hong Kong more than a decade ago. Chin...
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Six new polio cases surface in Pakistan

The News/Files Six new polio cases have been detected in Pakistan, bringing  2019's tally to a total of 134. The overall tally of reported polio cases across the country has climbed to 134 this year, including 91 cases in KP, 24 cases in Sindh, eight in Punjab, and 11 in Balochistan. These cases fall in last year's tally based on the date of detection of the virus in the children. A three-year-old child, the first case of Sindh, was reported in union council Lalu Raunk of Qambar, reported APP. According to the parents, the child did receive oral polio vaccine but no routine immunization or IPV. Another polio case was that of a 12-year-old boy from Sehwan area of district Jamshoro in Sindh. The boy was tested for the polio virus after he complained of weakness in his facial muscles. Two girls were infected by polio virus in Punjab's Dera Ghazi Khan District. The cases of the girls, one aged six months and the other a year old, were confirmed by the concerned authorities...
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Researchers say 'habitual green tea drinkers could live longer'

The News/Files A new Chinese study has found that drinking tea at least three times a week could increase your chances of living a longer and healthier life. "Habitual tea consumption is associated with lower risks of cardiovascular disease and all-cause death," said the study's first author Xinyan Wang at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in Beijing. The analysis — published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology — included 1,00,902 participants of the China-PAR project with no history of heart attack, stroke or cancer. Participants were classified into two groups: habitual tea drinkers (three or more times a week) and non-habitual tea drinkers (less than three times a week) and followed up for a median of 7.3 years. Compared to non-habitual tea drinkers, habitual tea consumers had a 20 percent lower risk of incident heart disease and stroke, 22 percent lower risk of fatal heart disease and stroke, and 15 percent decreased risk of all-cause death. Ha...
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Surgeries stopped, ICU closed in NICVD Karachi

KARACHI: Surgeries were stopped in the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD)  and the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) has also become  inactive here on Tuesday. The executive director of NICVD said that due to smell spread in the ICU and the Operation Theatre of the hospital these departments have been closed and their machinery are temporarily being shifted to centres in Larkana and Sukkur and the satellite centres of Larkana. from The News International - Health https://ift.tt/2s2S8G1
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Prices of 89 essential medicines reduced by 15pc

KARACHI: The Ministry of National Health Services Regulations and Coordination (NHSRC) has decreased the prices of essential medicines by 15 per cent and issued notification in this regard. According to a notification, the ministry under continuation of Drug Pricing Policy 2018 reduced the prices of 89 life saving drugs by 15 per cent. Special Assistant to Prime Minister SAPM Dr Zafar Mirza said the prices of 89 essential medicines had been reduced by 15 per cent on the directives of Prime Minister Imran Khan. He said reduction of medicine prices will be implemented on urgent basis. Earlier, Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) and another health watchdog monitoring the drugs regulation, declared it an eye wash as public paid exorbitant prices for six months despite issuance of the SRO in June last. Dr Mirza had held a press conference with SAPM Awan last month where he said the government has to reduce the price of any medicine which is included in its essential medicines list by 1...
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PFA destroys 18749 litres adulterated milk

Photo: File The Punjab Food Authority (PFA) on Saturday recovered and destroyed 18749 litres adulterated milk in an investigation spree across the entire province. According to the authority, dairy safety teams of the PFA on the direction of the DG PFA Irfan Memon inspected 1817 vans of milk at the exit and entrance points of different cities across the province. During inspection, as many as 18749 litres of adulterated milk in 162 vans was recovered and destroyed on the spot. The PFA inspected 992 vans in the Lahore zone, 611 in Rawalpindi zone, 163 in Multan while 153 milk vans were inspected in Muzzafargarh zones. The DG PFA said that adulterated milk was an impediment with the 'Healthy Punjab' vision of the government and caused made children as well as adults susceptible to diseases.  He vowed to continue the drive against the adulterated milk mafia. from The News International - Health https://ift.tt/2rUaF7n
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US unveils partial ban on flavored e-cigarettes

WASHINGTON: The US government on Thursday announced it would soon ban most flavored e-cigarettes as it tries to curb a rising tide of youth vaping, but stopped short of the full ban promised in September by President Donald Trump. The Food and Drug Administration said cartridge-based e-cigarettes in flavors "other than tobacco or menthol" would be illegal unless they receive specific authorization from the government. Companies that do not cease making and selling such cartridges within 30 days will face punishment, the FDA said. "The United States has never seen an epidemic of substance use arise as quickly as our current epidemic of youth use of e-cigarettes," Health Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement. Azar said prioritizing flavors most widely used by children would ensure e-cigarettes were a potential "off-ramp" for adult smokers but not an "on-ramp" to nicotine addiction for youngsters. "We will not stand idly by as this crisi...
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