India continues to report dip in daily number of Covid cases with 1,00,636 cases being registered in last 24 hours. According to a report by health ministry, 2427 deaths and 1,74,399 discharges have been reported in the last 24 hours.
Total cases: 2,89,09,975
Total discharges: 2,71,59,180
Death toll: 3,49,186
Active cases: 14,01,609
The All India Medical Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is expected to start screening of children for clinical trials of India-made Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin from Monday. Last week, AIIMS Patna started a similar trial for Bharat Biotech’s children aged between 12 and 18.
After getting permission from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), AIIMS Delhi is now starting the screening process before starting the actual trials, news agency ANI reported.
The DCGI’s approval came after a recommendation on May 12 by a Subject Expert Committee (SEC), it further reported.
The paediatric trials for Covaxin started in AIIMS Patna last Tuesday after Bharat Biotech’s vaccine received DCGI nod on May 11 to conduct clinical trials on children.
“After these trials, the age group will be 6-12 years and then 2-6 years but now we have started trials in the age group of 12-18 years,” said Dr Prabhat Kumar Singh, Director, AIIMS, Patna.
Dr Singh informed that 54 children registered for the trials of which 16 were in the age group of 12-18. Apart from physical examination, RT-PCR tests were also conducted on these children to check for Covid-19 antibodies or any other pre-existing diseases, he added.
Resident doctors from AIIMS and Sajdarjung Hospital held a candlelight march on Sunday supporting the protest of Madhya Pradesh doctors demanding hike in stipend and beds for them and their families in case they contract Covid-19.
The doctors from the two hospitals marched to Sri Aurobindo Marg and shouted slogans demanding justice for their fraternity members in Madhya Pradesh.
Representatives of the Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) also met National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chairman Justice Arun K Mishra (retd) and appraised him about the concerns of the agitating doctors in Madhya Pradesh.
“We are enraged to learn about the atrocities and callousness of the government of Madhya Pradesh. The resident doctors are protesting for their rightful demands which were denied outrightly and the outraged administration is headed to spoil the careers of thousands of trainee doctors,” a FORDA statement read.
“Our healthcare system is anyways in shambles and any further reduction in manpower will affect it adversely,” it added.
An office-bearer of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Resident Doctors’ Association said the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh should schedule an urgent meeting with the protesting doctors and solve the issue within the next 24 hours, “failing which a nationwide protest will be held”.
The Madhya Pradesh government had on May 6 said steps will be taken for the safety and security of doctors in hospitals, treatment to ‘corona warriors’ and their families will be provided on a priority basis, and a stipend hike of about 6 per cent per year from 2018 along with Covid incentives will be provided to them, he said.
“It is really sad that all these demands fell on deaf ears of the Madhya Pradesh government, forcing the resident doctors to go on indefinite strike from May 31,” the official said.
Nearly 3,000 doctors in Madhya Pradesh had resigned from their posts after the Madhya Pradesh High Court directed the striking junior doctors in the state to resume their duties within 24 hours, terming the protest “illegal”. The state government had on Saturday sent eviction notices to the doctors who had resigned, asking them to vacate their hostels.
The Uttarakhand unit of the Indian Medical Association has opposed the inclusion of Patanjali Ayurved’s Coronil in the Covid-19 kit of the Uttarakhand government. The doctors’ body said Coronil is not approved by the World Health Organization; it does not either have any approval from the Drug Controller General of India of Ayush as a medicine. “Coronil is however recognised as a food supplement by Ayush Vibhag of central government and is not a drug or medicine as claimed by Baba Ramdev on National TV on hourly basis advertisements” Dr Ajay Khanna, state secretary of IMA Uttarkhand wrote to the chief secretary of the state.
This “retaliation” comes at a time the association is at loggerheads with Ramdev over the yoga guru’s disparaging comments on modern medicine. The controversy has been going on and the IMA filed complaints against Ramdev and sent a legal notice to Patanjali Ayurved.
Amid this ongoing tussle, it has been reported that Patanjali has proposed to add Coronil as part of Covid-19 kit in Uttarakhand. This is medically wrong, the IMA said as this will result in a mixing of allopathy and Ayurved, the IMA said.
“Addition of Coronil with allopathic drugs shall amount to mixopathy that is a cocktail of Allopath and Ayurved which is not permitted as per the rulings of the honourable Supreme Court. Apart from the Apex Court, several high courts of various states have also ruled that mixopathy is not allowed,” the IMA said.
Chandigarh: Over 50 per cent patients visiting the PGI with mucormycosis symptoms were also diagnosed with Covid-19 on the same day.
“A lot of people are presenting to our hospital with symptoms of mucormycosis (commonly known as black fungus) but they are found Covid positive as well on the same day,” said Dr Gyan Ranjan Nayak from the Department of ENT, PGI.
“The association may be partly explained by the fact that many of them were borderline diabetic or pre-diabetic and their blood sugar levels shot up when they contracted Covid-19. The patients can be asymptomatic for Covid but can develop mucormycosis symptoms,” said Dr Nayak.
Prof Arunaloke Chakrabarti, Head of Department, Medical Microbiology, PGI, said, “A lot of people in our country take medicines without consulting doctors. There is hardly any patient of mucormycosis in the PGI who does not have hyper glycemia.”
“Almost 80 per cent mucormycosis patients were also taking steroids. When they came to the PGI, they were found infected with the fungal infection as well as the Covid,” said Prof Chakrabarti.
The PGI has so far seen 189 patients of mucormycosis, of which 60 per cent (115) are Covid positive.
HYDERABAD: Officials figures published in an RTI response revealed that in 2020, the number of people who died of Tuberculosis (TB) was nearly double the Covid-19 casualties in Telangana. While TB claimed 2,784 lives in the State, Covid-19 killed 1,544 people, the response stated.
The RTI was filed by Varsha Bhargavi, an activist. She said, “A TB patient I was assisting, Bhagyamma, suffered a lot due to medical negligence all through last year. Initially, the PHC in Maredpally, where she used to get her routine medication from, refused to let her inside at least four times as she did not have a Covid-19 negative report. In November, 2020, this was very difficult, as the test was not done unless one was symptomatic. She then went to Erragadda Chest Hospital, and they referred her to Gandhi Hospital for a sputum test. She was again denied treatment there, and passed away within a month.”
Varsha said that the direct transfer benefit of `500 a month for TB patients was also delayed for most part of 2020. “The lockdown made it harder for patients to access medicines. That was why Bhagyamma had to discontinue her treatment. TB officials, who usually visit homes of patients for follow ups, couldn’t do it anymore during the pandemic. This made things worse for Bhagyamma,” she added.
TB works have taken a hit on the State-level too. Telangana wanted to eradicate TB from 10 districts, but the programme had to be postponed due to the pandemic. “TB is a bigger problem than Covid-19, but the number of deaths due to TB has not increased year after year. Last year, we saw nearly 80,000 cases in the State, for which the death rate was up to 4 per cent. However, the pandemic has had an adverse impact on TB prevention work as the staff had to be put on Covid-19 duty,” said Dr A Rajesham, joint director of State TB Cell.
The National Medical Commission (NMC) has framed guidelines to determine fees for MBBS and postgraduate courses in private medical colleges and deemed-to-be-universities. As per the guidelines, no medical institution should charge a capitation fee. Besides, no additional expense should be added to the fees. All operating costs and other expenses for the maintenance of the institution should be covered in the fees.
For the determination of fees for MBBS/PG courses, it needs to be ensured that the principle of education being “not-for-profit”, is strictly adhered to, said the NMC in its official guidelines. The regulation of fee will ensure that no college charges exorbitant fees for MBBS courses or donations during admissions. This will ensure that students do not have to drop out of seats due to lack of funds.
The operating cost should primarily form the basis for the determination of fees for medical education and should be arrived at on the basis of the last annual audited accounts of the institution, suggested NMC. It had further sought suggestions or feedback on the guidelines if any.
NMC further added that for newly established medical colleges where overheads like interest, depreciation, and salary would be very high in comparison to old-established medical colleges, the determination of fee for a newly established college should be made on an ad-hoc basis. It should be based on the fee structure of the most recently established medical colleges in the state, whose audited balance sheets are available.
Further, since most colleges had to suspend physical classes for some time for the academic year 2020-21 due to the Covid-l9 pandemic, some expenses such as hostel maintenance, mess, and other expenses directly related to students had decreased but expenses such as hospital running expenditure, salaries and overtime allowances of medical staff and doctors, medical facilities expenses and other related administrative expenses had increased. In such cases, the State Fee Regulatory Authority may consider the average audited financial result of the previous three years, with appropriate inflation adjustment.
The total sanctioned strength of the number of students is to be taken into account for the purpose of determination of cost per student, separately for MBBS and PG courses, as per the guidelines.
Puducherry government has been directed by the Madras High Court to release payments due to the private medical colleges on a priority basis so that the treatment rendered to Covid patients is not compromised by the private organizations for lack of funds.
The Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy was hearing a petition stating that private hospitals and medical colleges which have been earmarked as Covid treatment centres by the government of Puducherry have been demanding fees and charges from patients despite not being so entitled
The Government of Puducherry submitted that Rs.20 lakh had been released to each of the private medical colleges towards food charges of the Covid patients referred by the government.
After the registration of a police complaint by a trade unionist against an alleged Tocilizumab injection scam in Calcutta Medical College, a PIL has been filed for an independent enquiry by Calcutta High Court on Friday.
Filed by Saloni Bhattacharya, the petition demands an independent agency to start a criminal proceeding against the alleged accused. The petition also asks the court to prepare appropriate guidelines for use and distribution of essential drugs.
The petition also asked for the removal of TMC MLA Nirmal Majhi from the post of chairman in Rogi Kalyan Samiti.
Almost 48 hours back, trade unionist Pramod Pandey filed his complaint after a leaked audio tape surfaced in which a doctor at the medical college is purportedly telling a nurse that she was taking away some vials of tocilizumab injection “after taking permission from TMC MLA Nirmal Majhi”.
Pandey has alleged that there is a nexus between doctors at the Calcutta Medical College and the senior TMC leader due to which “vital injections worth lakhs have been siphoned off from the medical college.
The High Court will be hearing the case on June 7.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Saturday announced the formation of a high-level committee led by retired judge AK Rajan to assess the impact of the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) on medical college admissions over the last few years in the state. The committee of educationalists and government officials will thoroughly study the impact of NEET on medical college admissions of students in government schools and economically weaker sections of the society.
The committee will study how many students, specifically those who studied in government schools and those from economically weaker backgrounds, have lost medical seats due to NEET in Tamil Nadu in the last few years. The press note added that if the committee finds that NEET has affected these students, it will also propose alternate admission procedures, as well as the legal scope to implement them.