The Intern Doctors of Bhavnagar,Valsad & Rajkot writes to the State Government of Gujarat on Stipend they are getting during Covid Duty.
Nagpur: An 81-year-old Covid positive patient committed suicide by hanging himself with an oxygen pipe in the bathroom of Nagpur hospital where he was admitted for treatment.
The victim was found hanging from the exhaust fan of the bathroom after the doctors and attendants broke open the door. A case of accidental death has been registered where no suicide note was found by the police.
The long-awaited report on COVID-19 origin tracing following a mission in Wuhan of central China’s Hubei Province will be released on Tuesday, head of World Health Organization (WHO) said at a virtual press conference in Geneva on Monday.
Director-general of WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that “WHO has received the full mission report over the weekend on the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus from the team that visited Wuhan earlier this year.”
“All hypotheses are open, from what I read from the report… and warrant complete and further studies,” Tedros said.
The report was not public yet, he added. He said a mission briefing would be held between the international experts and the WHO’s 194 member states on Tuesday, after which the report would be published on the WHO’s website.
“We will read the report and discuss, digest its content and next steps with member states,” Tedros said. “I will have more to say following further review and understanding of the report. But for now, all hypotheses will be on the table and will need further study.”
Tedros said the international experts would hold a press conference on Tuesday to discuss their findings. “Listening to them will be very, very important,” he said.
As a part of global scientific research on the origin of the novel coronavirus, Chinese experts and WHO experts worked together in Wuhan from January 14 to February 10.
Pune: According to a study conducted by the scientists at the National Institute of Virology, the UK variant (B.1.1.7) of the coronavirus did not appear to be more transmissible than the variant of the virus most common in India.
The UK variant has mutations that enable it to spread more easily among people and was linked to a sharp spike in cases in the United Kingdom last December.
India has registered 771 cases of the three ‘variants of concern’ reported internationally. Of these 736 have been reported from B.1.1.7.
To establish how quickly the strain spread, NIV scientists infected two groups of nine hamsters, with one group give the B.1.1.7 and the other the dominant SARS-CoV-2 strain in India. The latter is characterised by a mutation called D614G that, early last year, made it the dominant strain globally.
“The study demonstrated comparable transmission efficiency of both UK and D614G variants of SARS-CoV-2 in Syrian hamsters,” the more recent study said.
Washington: Speaking at the White House, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Monday that 90% of all adults in the United States will be eligible for the coronavirus vaccination by April 19 as he warned about the potential for an upsurge in infections.
Biden called on some local leaders to reinstate mask mandates. He said some of the “reckless behaviour” he had seen on television in recent weeks, a possible reference to scores of college students on spring break vacations in Miami, means more infections will be reported in the days ahead, reports Reuters.
Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Health Minister, received the second dose of Covid-19 vaccine at Delhi’s Heart and Lung Institute on Tuesday. He said neither of them felt side effects after taking the second dose, reports ANI.
He appealed to people to get themselves vaccinated without hesitation. “There are only a few rare cases wherein people contracted Covid-19 after taking vaccines. Even if someone tests positive after taking vaccines, it minimizes the chances of their hospitalization or admission to ICU wards,” the Health minister said.
“Both Indian vaccines are safe and effective. A lot of people still have doubts regarding vaccines. I urge them not to believe what is being circulated in WhatsApp university,” he added.
Vardhan said that around seven more COVID vaccine candidates are in clinical trials. Some of them are in the advanced phase of the trials. Around two dozen vaccines are in pre-clinical trials.
“There are 430 districts in the country where not a single case of coronavirus has been reported in the last 28 days. The situation is under control but we do not have to be complacent in terms of observing COVID appropriate behavior,” said Dr. Harsh Vardhan.
30 years old Ms. Astha Mongia visited Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in February 2021 with a rare congenital fusion of the jaw joint with the skull bone because of which she was unable to open her mouth since birth. The mouth opening was so small that she was not even able to touch her tongue with hand. In last 30 years she was unable to eat solid and had difficulty in speaking. She had lost almost all her teeth due to dental infection. To make the situation even more complicated, the patient had a neuro-vascular malformation (Tumour) over the right half of the face, orbit and forehead. Also there was no vision in the right eye. It was such a complicated case that various leading hospitals in India, United Kingdom and Dubai had refused surgical solution.
According to Dr. Rajeev Ahuja, Senior Plastic Surgeon, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, “For such patients (picture attached) to open the mouth, both the condyles (ball like head of jaw joint) have to be removed. Many a times a tongue like bony extension in front of ball joint known as Coronoid Process also has to be either removed surgically or at least fractured but in her case this was easier said than done because there was bunch of vessels surrounding the Coronoid Process on the right side”.
The team for this complicated surgery was lead by Dr. Rajeev Ahuja and was assisted by Dr Raman Sharma & Dr Itishree Gupta from Plastic Surgery, Dr. Ambarish Satwik from Vascular & Endovascular Surgery and Dr. Jayashree Sood & Dr Amitabh from the Anaesthesia team. They decided to go ahead with the high risk surgery after extensive discussions and planning with radiology & vascular experts.
Three weeks before the surgery the entire surgical area was injected with a sclerosant to shrink the blood filled vessels, as far as possible. During surgery her fused temporo-mandibular joint (jaw joint) was reached after slowly pushing aside bulky neurovascular formations. At this stage, any misadventure would have led to excessive bleeding and possible death on the table. After this both the condyles which were hampering opening of the jaw were successfully resected on both the sides. We also gently dissected and teased of the bunch of vessels around the outer side of the Coronoid Process to make space for cutting the Coronoid Process, to allow mouth opening. The whole surgery done on 20 March 2021 took three and half hours (3½ Hrs). At the operation table the mouth opening of patient was 2.5 cm.
At the time of discharge on 25 March 2021, her mouth opening increased to 3 cms. A normal person has a mouth opening of 4-6 cm. Speaking clearly for the first time after 30 years, Ms. Astha Mongia who is currently Senior Manager in Punjab National Bank said, “It is a miracle that I am able to open my mouth as well as can eat without any difficulty. I am very happy”.
According to Dr. Rajeev Ahuja, “Her mouth opening will further increase in the coming days by way of mouth opening exercises”.
According to Shri Hemant Pushkar Mongia father of the patient, “We had gone to leading Indian Hospitals, as well as to United Kingdom and Dubai but she was refused surgical treatment due to high risk involved. My daughter has suffered a lot in last 30 years, her mouth opening was so small that she could not even touch her tongue by hand. Today, after successful surgery she can not only open her mouth but also touch her tongue. “
Opening her mouth after 30 years Astha Mongia said, “Thank you lord and Doctors for this second birth”.
India continues to report daily high surge in the number of Covid cases. In the last 24 hours, 56,211 new cases have been reported, 78.56% of which are from Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.
India’s total Active Caseload has reached 5,40,720 today. India’s present active caseload now stands at 4.47% of India’s total Positive Cases. A net incline of 18,912 cases recorded from the total active caseload in the last 24 hours.
Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has released applications for the post of Assistant Professor in various departments in Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Following are the details for the vacancies:
Important dates:
- Last date for submission of online application: April 15, 2021
- Last date for printing of completely submitted online application: April 16, 2021
UPSC Recruitment 2021: Vacancy details
- Specialist Grade-III Assistant Professor(Paediatrics), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare – 14 Posts
- Specialist Grade-III Assistant Professor(Physiology), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare – 2 Posts
- Specialist Grade-III Assistant Professor(Psychiatry) – 11 Posts
- Specialist Grade-III Assistant Professor(Surgical Gastroenterology) – 1 Post
Candidates can check the eligibility criteria from the official notification itself.
Application fees
Candidates are required to pay a fee of Rs 25/- (Rupees Twenty-five) only either by remitting the money in any branch of the SBI by cash or by using the net banking facility of the SBI or by using a visa/master credit/debit card.
No fee for SC/ST/PwBD/Women candidates of any community. No “fee exemption” is available to Gen/OBC/EWS male candidates and they are required to pay the full prescribed fee.
Candidates must apply online through the website– www.upsconline.nic.in
BS Yediyurappa, CM of Karnataka has said that no rallies, protests will be allowed in state for the next 15 days amid surge in coronavirus cases but there will be no lockdown as well.
After a meeting with ministers, health experts and senior officials of the state government in Bengaluru, CM said that the number of election rallies “will need to be dropped” to contain the covid situation in the city.
He said that strict action will be taken against people who don’t wear mask and no celebrations or parties will be allowed from Monday, 29 March 2021.
CM Yediyurappa appointed eight IAS officers as nodal officers to keep a check of the Covid situation and control the spread of the disease in eight zones of BBMP in Bengaluru.
CM also appealed to the public to observe proper Covid restrictions and avoid crowding.