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In order to reduce the risk of disease transmission, the Joint Secretary of the Union Health Ministry has written to Dr. Hussain Abdul Rahman, Executive Director and IHR focal point in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), asking him to step up screening to make sure that people with symptoms suggestive of monkeypox disease are not allowed to board flights to India.

In the letter, dated August 1, the Joint Secretary said, “It is requested that exit screening of may be further intensified so as to ensure persons exhibiting symptoms suggestive of Monkeypox disease are not allowed to board the flight to minimize the risk of disease transmission.”

“As the global community grapples with yet another Public Health Emergency of International concern, it is essential that IHR Focal points maintain a continuous coordination and share key information to avoid the spread of disease information across international boundaries,” the letter accessed by ANI said further.

To date, India has reported a total of eight confirmed cases of Monkeypox disease, of these cases four cases were with travel history who have arrived in India from UAE.

“As evident three of the cases were already exhibiting symptoms suggestive of Monkeypox disease before arrival in India,” the Joint Secretary mentioned in the letter.

He stated in a letter referencing the regulations that, under article 18 of the International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005, Member States should implement exit screening procedures at Points of Entry and, if necessary, impose restrictions on people from affected areas in response to a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). He further explained in the letter regarding WHO recommendations on screening procedures and restrictions.

Also Read: Petitions related to COVID-19 outbreak: Delhi HC closed proceedings

Five cases of monkeypox that have a history of travel to the UAE have recently been reported from Kerala.

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Even if it feels like an anvil is looming over your head, the approaching deadline that is stressing you out at work may actually be healthy for your brain, according to recent study from the Youth Development Institute at the University of Georgia.

The study’s results were released in the journal Psychiatry Research. According to the study, low to moderate amounts of stress can foster resilience in people and lower their risk of mental health issues including depression and antisocial behaviour. Low to moderate levels of stress can also assist people manage difficult situations in the future.

“If you’re in an environment where you have some level of stress, you may develop coping mechanisms that will allow you to become a more efficient and effective worker and organize yourself in a way that will help you perform,” said Assaf Oshri, lead author of the study and an associate professor in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences.

Work Related Stress

Stress from preparing for a major meeting at work, studying for an exam, or working longer hours to finish a sale may all help you grow as a person. For instance, a writer’s style may change after being rejected by a publisher. Additionally, getting fired could make someone reevaluate their skills and decide whether to pursue new opportunities or stick with what they know best.However, there is a fine line between healthy stress and excessive stress.

“It’s like when you keep doing something hard and get a little callous on your skin,” continued Oshri, who also directs the UGA Youth Development Institute. “You trigger your skin to adapt to this pressure you are applying to it. But if you do too much, you’re going to cut your skin.”

A healthy amount of stress can protect against the negative effects of future hardship.

The Nationwide Institutes of Health-funded Human Connectome Project, a national initiative that attempts to shed light on how the human brain operates, provided the researchers with the data they needed.

A questionnaire that is frequently used in research to gauge how chaotic and stressful people feel their life was used to collect data from more than 1,200 young adults who reported their perceived stress levels for the current study.

Participants answered questions about how frequently they experienced certain thoughts or feelings, such as “in the last month, how often have you been upset because of something that happened unexpectedly?” and “in the last month, how often have you found that you could not cope with all the things that you had to do?”

Then, tests were used to evaluate their neurocognitive abilities, including measures of working memory, processing speed, picture sequence memory, attention, the capacity to suppress automatic responses to visual stimuli, cognitive flexibility, or the capacity to switch between tasks, and cognitive flexibility.

In addition to other behavioural and emotional issues, the participants’ responses to several measures of anxiety, attention issues, and aggressiveness were compared to the researchers’ findings.

According to the investigation, low to moderate levels of stress were psychologically advantageous and may even serve as a preventative measure for the onset of mental health symptoms.

“Most of us have some adverse experiences that actually make us stronger,” Oshri said. “There are specific experiences that can help you evolve or develop skills that will prepare you for the future.”

But each person has a different level of tolerance for stress and adversity.

How successfully people handle problems depends on a variety of factors, including age, genetic predispositions, and having a strong support system. Oshri cautions that while a little stress might be beneficial for cognition, sustained excessive levels of stress can be extremely harmful to the body and mind.

Also Read: Monkeypox: Indian govt asks UAE to intensify exit screening

“At a certain point, stress becomes toxic,” he said. “Chronic stress, like the stress that comes from living in abject poverty or being abused, can have very bad health and psychological consequences. It affects everything from your immune system, to emotional regulation, to brain functioning. Not all stress is good stress.”

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India recorded 17,135 fresh cases of Coronavirus infection in the last 24 hours, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed on Wednesday.

The nation reported 13,734 instances of Covid-19 earlier on Tuesday. According to the Union Ministry, India now has 1,37,057 active cases, or a 0.31 percent caseload growth rate.

In the past 24 hours, 19,823 recoveries have occurred in India. As of right now, 4,34,03,610 people have recovered from the Covid-19 illness, bringing the nation’s current recovery rate to 98.49%.

The Health Ministry, in its official statement, further informed that the daily positivity rate and weekly positivity rate stand at 3.69 per cent and 4.67 per cent, respectively.

Also Read: Stress can be good for functioning of brain sometimes, research reveals

A total of 204.84 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses–which included 93.36 crore Second Dose and 9.47 crore Precaution Dose– have been administered to the people under the Centre’s Nationwide Vaccination Drive.

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According to a recent American Cancer Society (ACS) study, fewer individuals attempted to stop smoking in the United States following the commencement of COVID-19, and the pattern remained for more than a year.

People who had disproportionately bad outcomes during COVID-19, such as Black those, people with comorbidities, people in their middle ages, and people with less education, had the biggest decreases in efforts to quit smoking. The findings were published today in the American Medical Association’s JAMA Network Open publication.

“Smoking cessation is an urgent public health priority given that smoking is associated with an increased risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes and at least 12 cancers,” said Dr. Priti Bandi, principal scientist, risk factors and screening surveillance research at the American Cancer Society and lead author of the study.

“It is essential to re-engage persons who smoke in serious attempts to quit smoking, considering a typical smoker tries to quit on average six times before being successful.”

From 2011 to 2020, researchers examined data from the nationally representative Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey on over 800,000 persons who had smoked in the preceding year. Representative NielsenIQ retail scanner sales data for 1004 unique nicotine replacement treatment (NRT) universal product codes were also utilised between January 2017 and July 2021 in 31 American states.

Also Read: Don’t panic: Union Health Minister’s advise citizens for Monkeypox

According to the statistics, the yearly prevalence of recent quit attempts among American smokers fell for the first time since 2011–from 65.2 percent in 2019 to 63.2 percent in 2020. The prevalence of quit attempts began to fall in the first quarter of 2020 and continued to fall throughout the year.

Declines started as soon as COVID-19 (which started in April 2020) started, and they continued through the first quarter of 2021.

Dr William Dahut, chief scientific officer at the American Cancer Society, said, “These results remind us how crucial it is for clinicians and healthcare systems to support persons who smoke with evidence-based quitting strategies.” Such initiatives must pay special attention to those who have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as Black people, people in their middle years, people with comorbid conditions, and people with less education.

According to Lisa Lacasse, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), an advocacy arm of the ACS, “Tobacco is the number one, preventable cause of cancer and is responsible for up to one-third of all cancer deaths.”

“We must exert every effort to ensure that people trying to quit tobacco have access to the cessation services they require because we are aware that it is not simple to do so. We can assist more people in quitting and aid in the reduction of cancer disparities brought on by this deadly product by ensuring Medicaid programs in every state pay for all FDA-approved cessation treatments and services and that state tobacco prevention and cessation programs receive adequate funding.”

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In the wake of an increase in Monkeypox cases in the nation, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya stated on Tuesday that public should not worry and that an awareness campaign is being undertaken in partnership with state governments to prevent the sickness from spreading.

Speaking in Rajya Sabha today during the ongoing Monsoon session of the Parliament, the Union Minister said, “There is no need to be afraid of monkeypox, an awareness campaign is being run in collaboration with the state governments: Public awareness is very necessary in the context of monkeypox. We have also formed a task force under the chairmanship of a member of NITI Aayog on behalf of the Government of India.”

“On the basis of the observations of the task force, we will assess and study the further action to be taken. If the state government of Kerala needs any kind of help from the Central government, it will be given. Also, an expert team of the Central government is guiding the state government from time to time,” he said.

The Union Minister highlighted that when (Monkeypox) cases started appearing in the world, India had already started preparations. “Before the first case in Kerala, we had issued guidelines to all the states,” he said.

The Health Minister said that it has been written to the governments at the international level that the screening report of the travellers should also be sent to the respective authorities concerned. “If someone in the family has had Monkeypox, then keeping a distance from him for 12-13 days is advised and thus, the spread can be controlled. With constant vigilance, we can control it well,” he said.

Also Read: Fewer people tried to quit smoking during COVID-19 pandemic, study reveals

Noting that the first case of Monkeypox in India was reported in Kerala, the Health Minister said, “When the case came to Kerala, we sent an expert team, helped the state government. Contact tracing was done. Just like we exercised caution in the case of COVID-19, we are also doing our best to implement what we learned in battling Monkeypox,” Mandaviya said.

Recalling that Monkeypox is not a new disease, the Union Minister said that since the 1970s, a lot of cases are being seen in the world from Africa. “WHO has paid special attention to this. Monitoring has started in India also,” he said.

Highlighting that the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is willing to make available a vaccine to contain the impact of Monkeypox, the minister said, “For the first in the country, the monkeypox virus strain has been isolated by the Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Virology, Pune. The institution has invited an Expression of Interest (EOI), proposing to hand over the strain to industry partners for the development of indigenous vaccine and diagnostic kits for the disease.”

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A recent study offers a novel learning strategy for persons with autism that may speed up the learning process and potentially greatly enhance visual perception abilities.

According to the researchers, enhancing persons with autism’s perceptual capability is frequently difficult, requiring extensive and laborious training in addition to other learning issues that define autism, such as the ability to generalise learning to new settings. The researchers’ new strategy is based on the use of “memory flashes,” which include exposing a person to a previously mastered activity for a few seconds.

In comparison to standard teaching practises that emphasise length and repetition of new skills, the new method demonstrated success in improving both visual perception abilities and generalisation of learning (that is, excelling in a similar task in conditions they have not previously learned) for people with autism.

The research was carried out by PhD student Shira Klorfeld-Auslender and Prof. Nitzan Censor from Tel Aviv University’s School of Psychological Sciences and the Sagol School of Neuroscience, in partnership with Prof. Ilan Dinstein and his colleagues from Ben-Gurion University. The findings were reported in Current Biology.

Prof. Censor explains: “In my laboratory we focus on the study of learning in humans, and already today we know that a large part of learning does not happen in formal training settings but afterwards, in processes of assimilation and reinforcement of memory that occur ‘offline’; for example, when our brain is asleep.

“However, standard teaching methods still advocate an approach where longer practice equals better learning: if you want to play the piano, you should practice playing the piano for many hours every day until the playing becomes second nature to you. We have identified an alternative learning mechanism that uses ‘memory flashes’ — a brief exposure to a task that has already been learned — in order to assimilate and generalize skill developed. ”

The study included roughly 30 high-functioning persons with autism who were challenged to learn a visual task (for example, identifying the direction of lines that appear for a few milliseconds on the screen). Instead of repeating the task for an extended period of time each day, the examinees in the main experimental group mastered the task thoroughly on the first day and were exposed to the visual stimuli for only a few seconds on subsequent days.

Also Read: Don’t panic: Union Health Minister’s advise citizens for Monkeypox

Despite studying the task for a short period of time, the research participants’ performance increased dramatically, by around 20-25 percent, equal to multiple-repetition learning and comparable to the successes of persons without autism.

Furthermore, even when presented with a task under novel, unlearned conditions (for example, when the stimulus learned is in a new location), the examinees who learned the memory flash method outperformed those in the control group; that is, they knew how to generalise the skills learned in the first task. The participants’ effectiveness in generalising their learning to new contexts is regarded as crucial, as they are abilities that autistic persons struggle with.

“We have already proven in previous studies that processes of learning assimilation can be improved through flashes of memory,” says Prof. Censor. “We have shown that it does not take prolonged practice time to assimilate the task — it is enough to flash it for a few seconds to stimulate the relevant brain network, and the brain will then assimilate the material on its own. In this case we tested people with autism.

People with autism often have difficulty learning and generalizing repetitive learning, that is, using tools that have also been learned in new tasks. Through short flashes of visual stimulus in the task learned, we were able to produce learning that is identical to repetitive learning in terms of its effectiveness; meaning, we significantly shortened the learning time. The added value is the ability to generalize: the examinees performed a task under new conditions, as if they had fully learned it. ”

.According to Prof. Censor, the new method may have significant potential implications in a wide range of areas. “The new study could pave the way for more meaningful approaches to learning for people with autism, in a wide variety of tasks. In addition, the method may help in rehabilitation after neurological injuries, that is, in training the brain to regenerate the damaged connections, through shorter training. ”

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According to new study, microbial instability in the gut can impair the performance of elite endurance athletes, and short-term, high-protein diets are linked to this sort of imbalance.

Researchers from across the UK investigated the influence of high-protein and high-carbohydrate diets on the performance and intestinal health of a group of well-matched, highly trained endurance runners. The study discovered that those who followed a high-protein diet had a disruption in the stability of their gut microbiota. This was followed by a 23.3% decrease in time trial performance.

The gut phageome’s diversity and composition were shown to be drastically decreased, with increased amounts of particular types of virals and bacterial compartments. Participants with more stable gut microbiomes fared better throughout time trials.

Gut imbalance affects various people in different ways, but it can cause acute symptoms like cramping or nausea. The scientists speculate that because there is cross-talk between the stomach and the brain, this might be significant.
A high-carbohydrate diet resulted with a 6.5 percent improvement in time trial performance.

Dr Justin Roberts, Associate Professor in Health and Exercise Nutrition at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) and co-author of the study, said: “These results suggest that athletic performance may be linked with gut microbial stability, where athletes who had more stable microbial communities consistently performed best in each dietary intervention compared to those with a more turbulent gut microbiota.

Also Read: Visual perception of people with autism can be improved through a new method: Study

“While we cannot be certain that the high amount of protein in the body was entirely responsible for the significant drop in time-trial performance, it was found that there were certainly changes to the gut microbiome following a short-term high-protein diet which appeared to be associated with performance.

“These results suggest that consuming a high-protein diet may negatively impact the gut via an altered microbial pattern, while a high-carbohydrate intake, for example containing a variety of grains and vegetables, was associated with greater gut microbial stability.

“The diets were well controlled and carefully balanced and so we think it is unlikely that the protein itself caused a drop in performance. Instead we think it is possible that the changes to the gut microbiome could impact intestinal permeability or nutrient absorbtion, or the messages between the gut and the brain, affecting perceived effort and therefore performance.”

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The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has sent a notice to the Delhi Department of Health and Family Welfare over the unavailability of Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) at government facilities in the national capital.

According to an official statement, the Commission interacts with the transgender community on a daily basis and is aware of numerous difficulties that they confront in Delhi. The absence of adequate government-sponsored sex reassignment surgery (SRS) in hospitals is one of the most prominent concerns confronting the community. At this context, the commission filed a notice to the health department, requesting information on the availability of free sex reassignment surgery in Delhi government facilities.

The department then notified the commission that SRS was not offered at Delhi government hospitals, according to the press release.

Also Read: Short-term high protein diets may hinder endurance athletes: Research

The panel suggested to the Delhi Department of Health and Family Welfare that sex reassignment procedures be made available in government hospitals.

The Secretary of Health and Family Welfare had asked the Director General of Health Service to form a committee to investigate the problem and report back to the government.

DCW Chairperson Swati Maliwal has now filed a notice to the Health and Family Welfare Department requesting information on the committee formed by the Department in this subject, as well as minutes of the committee’s previous meetings.

The commission has also requested information on any report or suggestion made by the committee, as well as any action taken by the department in response.

‘”Lack of free Sex Reassignment Surgery is one of the main problems faced by the transgender community in Delhi. Presently, most transgenders undergo immense suffering as they are unable to get these surgeries done due to the exorbitant costs of the same,” Maliwal said.

“I have issued a notice to the health department in the matter and we shall work towards ensuring that free sex reassignment surgeries are provided in government hospitals in Delhi,” she added.

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Renal stones are associated with cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and chronic kidney disease in addition to being excruciatingly painful. If you’ve already had a kidney stone, your chance of getting another one within five years rises by 30%.

The Mayo Clinic Proceedings journal reported the study’s findings. Dietary modifications are frequently advised to stop kidney stones from symptomatically returning. However, there is no evidence on dietary adjustments for people who only get kidney stones once vs people who do so often.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic created a prospective study to look into the effects of dietary changes. Their research demonstrates that adding foods high in calcium and potassium to the diet can help prevent kidney stones from developing again.

Dietary variables were based on a questionnaire given to 411 patients who had first-time symptoms of kidney stones and a control group of 384 individuals; both groups were seen between 2009 and 2018 at Mayo Clinics in Rochester and Florida. The results of the study indicate that lower dietary intakes of calcium and potassium, as well as fluids, caffeine, and phytate, are linked to greater probabilities of developing a kidney stone for the first time.

Within a median of 4.1 years of follow-up among the patients who had stones for the first time, 73 of them developed stones again. Lower dietary calcium and potassium levels were found to be predictive of recurrence in further study.

“These dietary findings may have particular importance because recommendations for preventing kidney stones have been based primarily on dietary factors associated with first-time rather than recurrent stone formation,” says Andrew Rule, M.D., a Mayo Clinic nephrologist and senior author of the study.

“Patients may not be likely to adjust their diet to prevent an incidence of kidney stones, but they are more likely to do so if it can help prevent a recurrence.”

The study indicates that ingestion of phytate, caffeine, and fewer than 3,400 millilitres of fluid per day (approximately nine 12-ounce glasses) are all related to the development of new stones. Drinking water each day also entails eating things like fruits and vegetables.

Also Read: Short-term high protein diets may hinder endurance athletes: Research

Reduced fluid and caffeine intake can cause low urine volume and higher urine concentration, which can aid in the development of stones. Whole grains, nuts, and other foods include phytate, an antioxidant molecule that can enhance urine calcium excretion and calcium absorption.

“Changing your diet to prevent kidney stones can be very difficult,” says Dr. Rule. “Thus, knowing the dietary factors that are most important for preventing kidney stone recurrence can help patients and providers know what to prioritize.”

Low dietary calcium and potassium was a more important predictor than fluid intake of recurrent kidney stone formation, says Api Chewcharat, M.D., the article’s first author and a postdoctoral research fellow at Mayo Clinic at the time of the study. “This is not to say high fluid intake is not important. We just did not find benefits of increasing fluid intake among those patients with a history of kidney stone formation.”

The study concludes that diets with daily intake of 1,200 milligrams of calcium may help prevent first-time and recurrent kidney stones. That daily intake is in line with the Department of Agriculture’s daily recommended nutrition.

While higher potassium intake also is recommended, the USDA does not make a recommendation for daily potassium intake. The study also doesn’t recommend an intake level.

Dr. Chewcharat says the takeaway is that patients should add more fruits and vegetables that are high in calcium and potassium to their diets. Fruits that are high in potassium include bananas, oranges, grapefruits, cantaloupes, honeydew melons and apricots. Vegetables include potatoes, mushrooms, peas, cucumbers and zucchini.

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According to information provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India saw a modest decrease in the number of new COVID-19 infections on Tuesday, with 13,734 cases over the previous 24 hours.

India reported 16,464 cases of COVID-19 on Monday. The current COVID-19 total for India is 4,40,50,009. 1,39,792 of these are current cases, making about 0.32 percent of all cases.

The Ministry further informed that the COVID-19 death toll is now at 5,26,430 as the country saw 27 fresh fatalities.

Also Read: Fewer people tried to quit smoking during COVID-19 pandemic, study reveals

Moreover, there were 17,897 new recoveries from Coronavirus in the last 24 hours taking the total recoveries to 4,33,83,787.

The daily positivity rate is at 3.34 per cent while the weekly positivity rate is 4.79 per cent. As many as 4,11,102 COVID-19 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours. Till date, the ministry informed that over 87.58 crore total tests have been conducted.

Covid vaccine

On the COVID-19 vaccination front, 204.6 crore total vaccine doses have been administered so far under the nationwide vaccination drive.

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