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Apollo Hospitals Group to enter the metaverse using 8chili Hint VR™ platform

by Medically Speaking February 25, 2022

written by Medically Speaking

Apollo Hospitals Group has announced a unique collaboration with ‘8chili Inc’ to enable engagement in the metaverse, in the first-of-its-kind initiative. Virtual reality will provide an immersive experience that has been proven to increase patient engagement and skill mastery for hands-on training.

Patient counselling pre/post-operation in virtual reality will help increase patient outcomes by bringing generic environments filled with relaxing “narratives” that will induce control over one’s own body and physiological response. It will also engage the users in virtual reality-mediated activities to empower their abilities to regulate emotion. This personalized approach to every patient will help result in higher patient satisfaction.

“At Apollo Hospitals we are constantly exploring ways to enrich and expedite the healthcare community, and the patient experience. Virtual Reality (VR) will change how both these things are done. 8chili is a leader in the VR space and we are excited to work with them to integrate VR solutions into our care continuum.” said Dr. Prathap C Reddy, Chairman Apollo Hospitals on this collaboration.

On this association Dr. Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals said, “People learn best by doing which is why healthcare is a natural fit for immersive VR training. Findings support the equivalence and superiority of VR training, the time to skill mastery, and the economic savings compared to traditional methods. Our need to train healthcare professionals to the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) of care effectively and efficiently just keeps growing. We strongly believe 8chili’s platform helps us deliver VR immersive training at scale and efficiencies”

“From the beginning, our focus has been to deliver a platform that makes it easier for organizations to tap into the full potential of the metaverse. HintVR™ is an end-to-end platform to manage your metaverse strategy helping in original 3D content creation, metaverse customization, and also delivery of this content across various metaverse real estates. We are very excited about working with Apollo Group Hospitals as this allows us to deliver the immersive experience to the millions of patients they serve.” said Mr. Aravind Upadhyaya, Founder, and CEO, 8chili.

February 25, 2022 0 comment

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National Oral Pathologists Day: ICPA Organizes Webinar On Oral Manifestations of Endocrine Disorders

by Medically Speaking Team February 25, 2022

written by Medically Speaking Team

On the occasion of National Oral Pathologists Day, Feb 25, India’s leading Pharma Company in the oral healthcare segment – ICPA Health Products Ltd (ICPA) has organized a special webinar on ‘Oral Manifestations of Endocrine Disorders’ in association with Etsah Trinity Providers, Jaipur. The webinar will be held on the same day at 9:30 pm (IST) and will have Dr Sasi Mouli, MBBS, MS, DNB, MCh (Endocrine Surgery) – Consultant Surgeon at Lilavati Hospital as the Guest Speaker. The webinar will aim to address the critical oral manifestations of endocrine disorders in order to help dentists in accurately diagnosing and treating patients.

Dr Nilesh Pardhe (Organizing Chairman), Dr Pradakshana Vijay (Organizing Secretary) and Dr Priyanka Singh (Organizing Co-secretary) will host the webinar with Dr Rajeev Chitguppi, ICPA’s Technical Head of Marketing as the moderator for the session.

“Dentists should be aware of endocrine disorders because sometimes the dentist is the first to observe the oral manifestations, thus helping with an early diagnosis of an underlying endocrine problem. Furthermore, dental patients with endocrine disorders, especially diabetes mellitus, thyroid disorders and Addison’s disease, among others may need special care in various dental surgeries. We are sure that Dr Sasi Mouli’s rich clinical experience in the domain will benefit not only the academicians but also the practicing dentists,” says Dr Rajeev Chitguppi.

National Oral Pathologists day was instituted by the Indian Association of Oral and Maxillofacial pathologists to honour Dr Harnath Manishankar Dholakia, India’s first post-graduate teacher in Oral Pathologist on his birthday, 25^th Feb.

February 25, 2022 0 comment

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Important notice on NEET UG 2022 released for withdrawal of seats

by Medically Speaking Team February 24, 2022

written by Medically Speaking Team

NEET UG Counseling 2021, the National Eligibility Cumulation Entrance Test, is now under progress. The second round of registration has been finished, and the results for the second round of counselling will be released on February 26, 2022. MCC has issued a crucial notice on the withdrawal of seats on its official website, mcc.nic.in, ahead of the outcome.
A total of 7 All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) seats have been removed from the counselling process. All of these seats are in the unreserved or general category, with one at AIIMS New Delhi and two in each of AIIMS Rishikesh, Jodhpur, and Raipur. The seat’s institute code and quota have also been noted.

As per the notice, “the seat mentioned for withdrawal will be removed with immediate effect from the Seat Matrix of Round 2”. The notice further reads that the “seat will be deleted from the database before allotment process of Round 2”.

Students may please understand, the notice means that now these seats would no longer be available. In other words, in case the Vacancy Notice on seats available suggests there are 32 open category seats now available in AIIMS Raipur, now they must be read as 30.

Students are advised to keep a check on the official website. The second round result would be released on February 26 and students would be required to report to the allotted institutes till March 5, 2022. A Mop-up round for All India Quota, deemed and Central Universities, AIIMS and JIPMER seats would be conducted from March 8, 2022 to March 9, 2022.

February 24, 2022 0 comment

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Complications in children identified by the Drug that may treat serious Covid-19

by Medically Speaking February 24, 2022

written by Medically Speaking

Scientists have discovered a promising therapeutic candidate for the treatment of COVID-19, an uncommon but severe and potentially fatal illness that affects children infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Multi-inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) usually develops weeks to months after children have experienced a mild or even asymptomatic case of COVID-19, the researchers said.

MIS-C leads to high fevers and a hyperinflammatory response that can affect multiple organs, including the heart, brain and gastrointestinal organs, they said.

A previous study by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) in the US showed that in cases of MIS-C, the SARS-CoV-2 virus can remain in the gut for weeks to months after the infection.

When SARS-CoV-2 is present in the gut, an impaired mucosal barrier can allow small viral particles, such as the spike protein, to enter the bloodstream, leading to infections such as COVID-19 and in rare cases, the hyperinflammatory response that triggers MIS-C.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus uses the spike protein to enter and infect the cells.

“Working collaboratively, we have been able to demonstrate that viral particles that remain in the gut long after COVID-19 infection can instigate MIS-C,” said David Walt, senior author of the study published in the journal Critical Care Explorations.

“Building on this important discovery, we wanted to see if treatment with a drug developed for another condition — celiac disease — could help resolve symptoms in children experiencing MIS-C, said Walt.

The team administered the drug larazotide acetate to four extremely ill children ages 3 to 17 being treated for MIS-C.

The study shows that larazotide decreases the release of zonulin, a molecule that can lead to increased gut permeability and an impaired mucosal barrier, a layer of thick mucus in the gut.

The researchers compared the clinical outcomes of the four children who received larazotide plus steroids and intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) to 22 children who received only steroids and IVIG.

The children who received four daily oral doses of larazotide acetate had a significantly faster resolution of gastrointestinal symptoms and a slightly shorter hospital stay, they said.

The study also found that serum levels of the spike protein dropped much more quickly in children treated with larazotide, clearing from the blood within one day, versus 10 days for children not treated with the drug.

“These findings suggest that larazotide may provide a safe and beneficial adjuvant therapy for the treatment of MIS-C,” the researchers said.

“Expansion of clinical trials is urgently needed to ascertain the clinical impact of larazotide on MIS-C,” they added.

February 24, 2022 0 comment

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GSK & Sanofi to seek regulatory authorization for COVID-19 vaccine

by Medically Speaking February 24, 2022

written by Medically Speaking

Sanofi and GSK have announced that data from their booster and Phase 3 efficacy trials would be used to support regulatory applications for a COVID-19 vaccine.

The production of significant immune responses and a favourable safety profile in diverse contexts underscore the public health significance of Sanofi-refrigerator GSK’s temperature-stable adjuvanted protein-based vaccine. The Sanofi-GSK booster vaccination caused a significant rise in neutralising antibodies of 18 to 30-fold across vaccine platforms and age categories in participants who had already received a primary series of an already authorised mRNA or adenovirus vaccine.

When the Sanofi-GSK vaccine was used as a two-dose primary series followed by a booster dose, neutralizing antibodies increased 84- to 153-fold compared to pre-boost levels (see Figures 1a and 1b for details).

Thomas Triomphe, Executive Vice President, Sanofi Vaccines, said: “We’re very pleased with these data, which confirm our strong science and the benefits of our COVID-19 vaccine. The Sanofi-GSK vaccine demonstrates a universal ability to boost all platforms and across all ages. We also observed robust efficacy of the vaccine as a primary series in today’s challenging epidemiological environment. No other global Phase 3 efficacy study has been undertaken during this period with so many variants of concern, including Omicron, and these efficacy data are similar to the recent clinical data from authorized vaccines.”

Roger Connor, President of GSK Vaccines, said: “The evolving epidemiology of COVID-19 demonstrates the need for a variety of vaccines. Our adjuvanted protein-based vaccine candidate uses a well-established approach that has been applied widely to prevent infection with other viruses including pandemic flu. We are confident that this vaccine can play an important role as we continue to address this pandemic and prepare for the post-pandemic period.”

When used as a two-dose primary series, the Sanofi-GSK vaccine delivered robust levels of neutralizing antibodies, with GMTs reaching 3711 units. For comparison, a panel of sera from volunteers in the same age range who received two doses of an already approved and highly effective mRNA vaccine displayed a GMT of 1653 units, measured simultaneously in the same laboratory.

Data from the VAT08 efficacy study showed that two doses of Sanofi-GSK vaccine generated an efficacy of 57.9% (95% confidence interval [CI, 26.5, 76.7]) against any symptomatic COVID-19 disease in the seronegative population. The Sanofi-GSK vaccine provided 100% protection (0 vs 10 cases post-dose 1, 0 vs 4 cases post-dose 2) against severe disease and hospitalizations and 75% (3 vs 11 cases) efficacy against moderate-to-severe disease in seronegative populations. While sequencing is still in progress, early data indicate 77% efficacy against any Delta variant-associated symptomatic COVID-19 disease, in line with expected vaccine effectiveness.

Across both studies, the Sanofi-GSK vaccine was well-tolerated in younger and older adults with no safety concerns.

The companies are in discussions with regulatory authorities, including the US FDA and European Medicines Agency (EMA), and plan to submit the totality of the data generated with this vaccine candidate to support regulatory authorizations.

February 24, 2022 0 comment

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mRNA Covid vaccine scientist Dr Weissman and team working on development of Universal Covid Vax

by Medically Speaking Team February 24, 2022

written by Medically Speaking Team

Dr. Drew Weissman and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine are working to produce a universal coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccine. Furthermore, he and his colleagues are already constructing mRNA production facilities all over the world, and have spoken with folks in India about doing so.

Drew Weissman, the man behind the development of an effective mRNA Covid-19 vaccine, and his team at Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine are working on developing a universal coronavirus vaccine.

Speaking at BioAsia 2022, Weissman, professor at the department of medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, said that they have already developed a ‘couple of candidates’ and that they are showing ‘promise’. They are protecting against every variant that has come out so far, he claimed.

“The variants are going to keep coming as long as there is widespread infection. We have only vaccinated 15 percent of Africa, and immunized low levels of many countries in the world. Until the world is fully vaccinated, the variants are going to keep coming,” he said.

Weissman added that there are two options – one is to make a new vaccine every time there is a new variant, “but then by the time we are done making the vaccine”, the variant may have gone. The second option is to make a pan-coronavirus vaccine.

“What we are doing is we are making a pan-coronavirus vaccine that will protect against any bad coronavirus. There have been three coronavirus epidemics in the past 20 years and there are going to be more in the future. We want to make a vaccine that would stop any bad coronavirus from infecting the humans,” Weissman said.

Whether

we would need to take booster doses, Weissman said that it was not yet clear whether we would need boosters every year or every ten years.

Speaking about spreading the mRNA technology across the globe, Weissman said that at the beginning of the pandemic, researchers from Thailand had approached him saying that any vaccine which is made in the West will take years before South East Asian countries can have it. “They are making their own production center with money from their government. In early spring of 2020 we started working on the vaccine and a GMP production site. That vaccine is now in phase 3 clinical trials and it will be going to patients soon. This vaccine is being produced in Bangkok, and we are collaborating with all of South Asia.

Weissman elaborated that he and his team is already working on GMP production site in South Africa, talking to countries in South America Kazakhastan etc. “We have also spoken to people in India as well for building mRNA production sites,” Weissman said.

He feels that the advantage of mRNA platform is that it can offer low cost solutions – for example the cost of gene therapy for sickle cell anaemia patients is a few million dollars, while the cost could be as low as a few thousand dollars with mRNA tech.

He also added that the mRNA platform had many other future possibilities – from vaccines to therapeutics.

For example, vaccines for HIV, Hepatitis C, Malaria, TB, allergies like food, environmental allergies (peanuts or dust mites) etc can be developed using this technology platform.

Moreover, cancer vaccines, auto-immune diseases, therapeutics for genetic disorders (like sickle cell anaemia) etc can be developed using mRNA tech.

Weissman is also acknowledged for his contributions to the development of various vaccines including Covid19, universal flu vaccine, herpes vaccine etc.

The nucleoside modified mRNA lipid nano-particle vaccine platform that Weissman’s laboratory created is used in the first two approved Covid19 vaccines by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

February 24, 2022 0 comment

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Is BA.2, Omicron subvariant disarming key antibody treatment?

by Medically Speaking February 24, 2022

written by Medically Speaking

According to a report published in the journal Nature, while US health regulators added a new antibody drug to the country’s arsenal against the Omicron variant of coronavirus, the rapidly spreading subvariant, BA.2, may force doctors to reconsider antibody treatments for coronavirus disease (Covid-19). Based on multiple investigations, the research implies that sotrovimab, one of the few treatments for Covid-19 induced by the Omicron, is losing its ability to neutralise BA.2.

A team of US researchers at the department of microbiology, NYU Grossman School of Medicine found that the Omicron BA.2 is not neutralised by Regeneron, Eli Lilly, Sotrovimab and the Evusheld therapeutic monoclonal antibodies. The researchers highlighted that the results “demonstrate the difficulty of identifying broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibodies against SARS-CoV-2”.

Another team of researchers from Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons concluded that BA.2 exhibited marked resistance to 17 of 19 neutralizing monoclonal antibodies, which had retained “appreciable activity” against BA.1. Both studies have not been peer reviewed and are available in pre-print.

David Ho, a virologist at Columbia University and co-author of one of the studies, however, said that they cannot extrapolate laboratory findings to human treatment outcomes.

“We’re just drawing attention to the fact that BA.2 is quite resistant to sotrovimab in the lab, and that raises questions about whether you can adequately cover BA.2 in patients,” Ho added, as quoted by Nature.

While BA.1 remains the most prevalent variant of concern in several countries, including the US and Britain, cases of BA.2 are rising in India, China, and Denmark.

On Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the BA.2 variant of the Omicron is not more severe than the original. During an online question and answer session, Maria Van Kerkhove, a senior WHO official, said that no difference in disease severity from BA.1 compared to BA.2 has been established.

“So this is a similar level of severity as it relates to risk of hospitalisation. And this is really important, because in many countries they’ve had a substantial amount of circulation, both of BA.1 and BA.2,” she said.

February 24, 2022 0 comment

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Not to publish any more defamatory reports, Court orders The Wire to take down 14 articles against Bharat Biotech and Covaxin

by Medically Speaking February 24, 2022

written by Medically Speaking

A Telangana court has ordered the communist propaganda website The Wire to remove 14 posts it had written critical of Indian pharmaceutical company Bharat Biotech and its Covid-19 vaccination Covaxin. The order came after Bharat Biotech filed a defamation suit against The Wire and 12 people linked with it for Rs100 crore.

The court has also barred The Wire, its editor Siddharth Vardarajan, and the individuals named in the suit from publishing any defamatory stories against Bharat Biotech, according to legal portal Bar & Bench.

The company argued in the court that The Wire had published articles that contained false allegations against Bharat Biotech and COVAXIN. The company’s counsel Senior Advocate Vivek Reddy said that the portal published the reports with malicious intent to undermine the reputation of Bharat Biotech.

Reddy said in the court that Bharat Biotech had previously developed vaccines for Tuberculosis, Zika Rotavirus, Chikungunya and Typhoid and received national and global recognition and has now collaborated with leading Government of India institutions to develop the Covid-19 vaccine. The company said that The Wire published a series of articles making fake allegations on authorisation and approvals of Covaxin without checking the facts.

Other than The Wire, the other defendants named in the case are Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia, MK Bhanu, Neeta Sanghi, Vasudevan Mukunth, Shobhan Saxena, Florencia Costa, Prem Anand Murugan, Banjot Kaur, Priyanka Pulla, Seraj Ali, and Jammi Nagaraj Rao.

Responding to the arguments, the court noted that even after the government had approved the vaccine, The Wire continued to publish reports against it. The court said that only the Covaxin has been approved for the age group 15 to 18, but the portal still published reports which can lead to vaccine hesitancy.

Therefore, the court ordered The Wire to remove the articles from their website within 48 hours, and also restrained them from publishing any defamatory articles targeting Bharat Biotech and Covaxin.

Responding to the report, Siddharth Varadarajan alleged that a local Andhra Pradesh court has ordered to take down the 14 articles without serving any notice on the portal. Calling the propaganda articles ‘deeply reported’, he claimed that no change was given to them to refute the ‘false claims’ made by Bharat Biotech.

February 24, 2022 0 comment

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PGIMER study said Over 3 million people in Punjab consume drugs

by Medically Speaking February 23, 2022

written by Medically Speaking

Over 3 million people in Punjab, or 15.4 percent of the population, are currently abusing narcotics of some type. However, alcohol is the most commonly misused substance in the state, with over 2 million people abusing it.

On Monday, the community medicine section of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) released the results of a study.

The second edition of the book: ‘Roadmap for Prevention and Control of Substance Abuse in Punjab’, edited by Dr JS Thakur, professor of community medicine at the PGIMER, was released by Banwarilal Purohit, Punjab governor and UT administrator, on Monday. The report contains comprehensive information on the burden of substance abuse in India and the state of Punjab, various types of substances abused by people, strategies for the prevention and control, the district substance abuse prevention plan and implementation.

While detailing the findings, Dr Thakur said, “As per the State of Punjab Household Survey (SPHS) and state-wide NCD STEPs Survey by the PGIMER, the projected number of overall substance use in Punjab is 15.4%, with more prevalence among the men. Over 2 million people consume alcohol, followed by tobacco, which is consumed by more than 1.5 million people. Also, around 1.7 lakh people consume opioids, followed by cannabinoids as well as sedative-inhalant- stimulants. These are largely a class of pharmacological or prescription drugs being used illicitly.”

The study also revealed that there is also a large number of injecting drug users in states with a high prevalence of HIV (19.5%) in the survey.

He added that there should be a self-sustained strategy, which will work towards supply, demand and harm reduction measures. Supply reduction strategy means to target illegal drugs, whereby the efforts generally involve attempts to disrupt the distribution and supply chains for these drugs. Demand reduction can be mediated via the efforts aimed at reducing the public desire for illegal and illicit drugs. De-addiction services are contributing to demand reduction measures.

February 23, 2022 0 comment

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Doctor couple out on a stroll attacked, robbed of ₹2,500

by Medically Speaking February 23, 2022

written by Medically Speaking

On Monday evening, a city-based medical couple was assaulted with sharp-edged weapons and robbed of 2,500 rupees while out for a stroll in Bagga Kalan hamlet in Ladhowal.

Complainant Dr Daljit Singh, 54, of Basant Avenue, Dugri, who is a surgeon, said that he, along with his wife Gunamrit Kaur, a gynecologist, had gone towards Ladhowal to click pictures of sunset and nature. As they were busy clicking pictures, two miscreants turned up at the spot, and one of them attacked Dr Singh with a sharp-edged weapon. The accused then snatched his wallet, containing ₹2,500 cash.

Dr Singh was able to click the picture of one of the accused, which he has handed over to the police. He suffered severe head injuries in the attack.

Assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Raj Kumar, the investigating officer, said a case under Sections 379-B (snatched) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against the unidentified accused.

February 23, 2022 0 comment

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