In a latest development on vaccination the Union Minister Prakash Javadekar has informed that those who are above 45 years of age can get themselves vaccinated from April 1.
“It has been decided that from 1st April, the vaccine will open for everybody above 45 years of age. We request that all eligible should immediately register and get vaccinated.” he said reports ANI.
Must watch the video about the updates on COVID-19 Vaccination
Chandigarh –With 81% of the latest 401 samples sent by the state for genome sequencing turning up positive for the new UK Covid variant, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday appealed to the people to get themselves vaccinated, even as he urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to widen the vaccination ambit to cover those younger than 60 since this mutant has been found to be infecting young people more.
Expressing concern over the emerging situation, the Chief Minister stressed the need for the central government to urgently open up the vaccination for a bigger section of the populace. The process needs to be expedited, he said, pointing to the fact that experts had found the existing Covishield vaccine to be equally effective against the UK variant – B.1.1.7. It was essential to vaccinate more and more people to break the chain of transmission, he added.
Captain Amarinder Singh appealed people to follow all Covid safety protcols
Captain Amarinder also urged the people to strictly adhere to all Covid safety protocols, including wearing of masks and maintaining social distancing. The state government, which has already announced fresh restrictions, would be forced to impose more curbs if the people do not follow the Covid appropriate behaviour, he warned.
The appeal from the Chief Minister came after the state’s Covid expert committee head, Dr K.K. Talwar, apprised him of the developments on the new variant in the state, which has been witnessing a surge in the number of COVID-19 positive cases during the last few weeks. The state health department had sent 478 COVID positive samples to NIB, IGIB, and NCDC for genome sequencing, of which results of 90 samples were received and those showed only two samples for N440K variant.
A team from the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, visited the state to review the increase in positivity. The team was informed about the pending results of genome sequencing. Thereafter, 401 more samples, collected between 1.1.2021 to 10.3.2021, were sent to NCDC for genome sequencing. The result of these samples was worrying as it showed presence of B.1.1.7 variant in 326 COVID samples, said Dr K.K. Talwar.
The Chief Minister said he had been informed by Dr Talwar that though this UK variant B.1.1.7 is more infectious yet not more virulent. Further, the Oxford (Covishield) vaccine is equally effective against this new UK variant.
The B.1.1.7 variant is now spreading rapidly in many parts of the world, representing 98% of the new cases in UK and 90% in Spain. UK authorities have suggested it is up to 70% more transmissible than the original virus.
Through a release, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals said that its subsidiary Glenmark Specialty S.A. in Switzerland and an affiliate of Bausch Health Companies Inc. have entered into an exclusive licensing agreement for the commercialization of Glenmark’s innovative nasal spray RYALTRIS™ under review by Health Canada.
Under the terms of the agreement, Glenmark will be responsible for regulatory approvals and supply of RYALTRIS™ for the Canadian market while Bausch Health, Canada will be responsible for its commercialization following regulatory approval. Glenmark will receive an upfront payment, launch & sales‐based milestone payments in addition to royalties and supply price from sales of RYALTRIS ™. RYALTRIS ™ (Olopatadine Hydrochloride 665 mcg and Mometasone Furoate 25 mcg), is currently under review by Health Canada with a proposed indication for the treatment of seasonal allergic rhinitis in adults and children over 12 years of age.
Commenting on the agreement, Mr. Sanjeev Krishan, President & Business Head ‐ North America, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, said, “We are pleased to partner with Bausch Health Canada, and recognize their strong foothold in the prescription and OTC market in Canada. This agreement will help us reach a larger patient population and extend the multiple benefits of RYALTRIS ™ to a significant market. Glenmark continues to build a strong portfolio in respiratory medicine, and RYALTRIS ™ marks our first true global brand launch till date.”
“We are pleased to add Ryaltris to our allergy product portfolio and eager to make it available to Canadian patients suffering from allergies,” said Richard Lajoie, President of Bausch Health, Canada.
World TB Day 2021 is observed on 24 March each year, this day is to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences of TB, and to step up efforts to end the global TB epidemic. Each day, nearly 4000 lose their lives to TB and close to 28,000 people fall ill with this preventable and curable disease. The theme of World TB Day 2021 – ‘The Clock is Ticking’ –conveys the sense that the world is running out of time to act on the commitments to end TB made by global leaders.
“After four decades of dormancy in tuberculosis research, two effective and less toxic medicines were finally released in 2012 – Bedaquiline and Delaminid. Bedaquline blocks the mechanisms used by the TB bacteria to produce energy, effectively killing it in the process. Thousands of patients across the country are in need of these medicines. Although the government announced that patients will get universal access to Bedaquiline, a lot of them are still denied access. According to authorities, its use has to be carefully monitored to prevent misuse. This is complicated by the fact that it is expensive and we are yet to scale up affordability and access. More recently, a three drug regimen, consisting of Bedaquline, Pretomanid, and Linezolid, showed a 90 percent favorable outcome in treating extensive drug-resistant tuberculosis( XDR TB) .The results of the study, which was published in The New England Journal of Medicine, comes as a ray of hope for people suffering from Extensive drug-resistant TB.” Said Dr. Arunesh Kumar, HOD, Paras Chest Institute & Sr. Pulmonologist, Paras Hospital, Gurugram
According to Dr Shuchin Bajaj who is Founder & Director, Ujala Cygnus Group of Hospitals said, “Although tuberculosis is considered a disease of the past, there has been a resurgence, especially in developing countries across the world. According to estimates by the World Health Organization, there are over 10 million new cases in the world. It also added that the epidemic is larger than previously estimated, owing to data from India. 60 percent of TB cases are concentrated in six countries. India Leads the pack, closely followed by Indonesia and China, while Nigeria, Pakistan are not far behind. Drug-resistant tuberculosis is particularly hard to treat using medicines that are currently available in the market. Since the drug-resistant variants come in different forms – extensively drug-resistant and multi-drug resistant – patients who are infected are resistant to at least four of the main anti-TB drugs. This is complicated by the fact that rifampicin and isoniazid, two of the most effective anti-TB drugs, have become both ineffective and toxic.”
The experts says that treatment of TB is available if it’s diagnosed timely , “Tuberculosis is a contagious bacterial infection that affects the lungs and can spread to other parts of the body such as the brain and spine. The disease is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis and common symptoms are cough, fever, night sweats, and weight loss. The disease spreads from one person to another through the air when an infected person coughs, speaks or sings. People with HIV infection and / or other immunocompromised health conditions; who became infected with TB bacteria in the last 2 years and/or not treated correctly for TB in the past; those who inject illegal drugs; babies, young children, and the elderly; are at a higher risk of getting infected. Detection of TB in the early stages is key to prevention and better treatment outcomes. However, in the past one year, COVID-19 has dealt a serious blow to the screening exercise — as per a recent report, TB notifications in India dropped by 70% between 10th and 15th week of 2020. The World Health Organization (WHO) is correct in determining this year’s theme as ‘The Clock is Ticking’ — there is an urgent need to address the lag that happened due to COVID-19. Treatment of TB is available — it is treated with antibiotics while multidrug resistant (MDR) TB is treated with a 6-drug regimen. ” Said Dr. Piyush Goel, Senior Consultant- Pulmonary and Critical Care, Columbia Asia Hospital, Palam Vihar, Gurugram
Backing the AstraZeneca vaccine, Dr Dhiren Gupta, Pediatrician from Sir Gangaram Hospital, said that the result of the trial conducted by the US with the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine areout and reveal that the vaccine was 79% effective at stopping symptomatic Covid disease and 100% effective at preventing serious illness.
The data revealed that there were no safety issues regarding the blood clots and confirmed that the shot is both highly effective and safe.
The trial was conducted by experts at Columbia University and the University of Rochester in collaboration with AstraZeneca, on more than 32,000 volunteers, mostly from America, and also from Chile and Peru.
Lead investigator of the Oxford University trial of the vaccine, Prof Andrew Pollard said: “‘These results are great news as they show the remarkable efficacy of the vaccine in a new population and are consistent with the results from Oxford-led trials.
Prof Sarah Gilbert, co-designer of the vaccine, said: “In many different countries and across age groups, the vaccine is providing a high level of protection against Covid-19 and we hope this will lead to even more widespread use of the vaccine in the global attempts to bring the pandemic to an end.”
Prof Gilbert said there were always cases of people falling ill after receiving a vaccine, particularly when very large numbers of were receiving a jab, but that did not mean that the vaccine was responsible for the problems. Meanwhile thousands of people a day were now dying across Europe from Covid-19.
She said: “It is really important that we get the chance to protect people as quickly as possible. This vaccine will save lives.”
Stress is a universal human experience that almost everyone deals with from time to time. But a new study found that not only do some people report feeling no stress at all, but that there may be downsides to not experiencing stress.
The researchers found that people who reported experiencing no stressors were more likely to experience better daily well-being and fewer chronic health conditions. However, they were also more likely to have lower cognitive function, as well.
David M. Almeida, professor of human development and family studies at Penn State, said the study suggests that small, daily stressors could potentially benefit the brain, despite being an inconvenience.
“It’s possible that experiencing stressors creates opportunities for you to solve a problem, for example, maybe fixing your computer that has suddenly broken down before an important Zoom meeting,” Almeida said. “So experiencing these stressors may not be pleasant but they may force you to solve a problem, and this might actually be good for cognitive functioning, especially as we grow older.”
According to the researchers, a large number of previous studies have linked stress with a greater risk for many negative outcomes, like chronic illness or worse emotional well-being. But Almeida said that while it may make sense to believe that the less stress someone experiences the more healthy they will be, he said little research has explored that assumption.
“The assumption has always been that stress is bad,” Almeida said. “I took a step back and thought, what about the people who report never having stress? My previous work has focused on people who have higher versus lower levels of stress, but I’d never questioned what it looks like if people experience no stress. Are they the healthiest of all?”
The researchers used data from 2,711 participants for the study. Prior to the start of the study, the participants completed a short cognition test. Then, the participants were interviewed each night for eight consecutive nights, and answered questions about their mood, chronic conditions they may have, their physical symptoms — such as headaches, coughs or sore throats — and what they did during that day.
The participants also reported the number of stressors — like disagreements with friends and family or a problem at work — and the number of positive experiences, such as sharing a laugh with someone at home or work, they had experienced in the previous 24 hours.
After analyzing the data, the researchers found that there did appear to be benefits for those who reported no stressors throughout the study, about 10 percent of the participants. These participants were less likely to have chronic health conditions and experience better moods throughout the day.
However, those who reported no stressors also performed lower on the cognition test, with the difference equaling more than eight years of aging. Additionally, they were also less likely to report giving or receiving emotional support, as well as less likely to experience positive things happening throughout the day.
I think there’s an assumption that negative events and positive events are these polar opposites, but in reality they’re correlated. But really, I think experiencing small daily stressors like having an argument with somebody or having your computer break down or maybe being stuck in traffic, I think they might be a marker for someone who has a busy and maybe full life. Having some stress is just an indicator that you are engaged in life.”
David M. Almeida, Professor, Human Development and Family Studies, Penn State
Almeida said the findings — recently published in the journal Emotion — suggest that it may not be as important to avoid stress as it is to change how you respond to stress.
“Stressors are events that create challenges in our lives,” Almeida said. “And I think experiencing stressors is part of life. There could be potential benefits to that. I think what’s important is how people respond to stressors. Respond to a stressor by being upset and worried is more unhealthy than the number of stressors you encounter.”
Study by news-medical.net
Source:
Journal reference:
Charles, S. T., et al. (2021) The mixed benefits of a stressor-free life. Emotion. doi.org/10.1037/emo0000958.
A committee formed by the District Development Commissioner (DDC) Shopian has fined the staffers of Shopian hospital authorities two days salary after they found out medical negligence on the latter’s part.
The staffers had allegedly administered expired medicines to an infant who was admitted for the treatment of pneumonia four days ago.
The committee member, Sachin Kumar told that the parents of the infant showed him “the medicines administered [by the hospital] and it was found that there were two expiry dates on the same medicine”. After this, Kumar had visited the hospital and constituted a committee comprising Assistant Commissioner Revenue and Chief Medical Officer Shopian and directed to submit the report.
“Medical superintendent being the head of the institution should have put in place a proper mechanism for the medicines being administered to the admitted patient with the maintenance of consumption register, expiry medicine register, and the medical store diary,” the committee found out.
A first-year medico, PG Pharmacology, allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself at her flat located at Sail City in Pundag on Thursday night. The 30-year-old student attached to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences and had married a doctor 3 years ago.
An FIR has been registered at the Sadar Hospital. A friend of the medico informed UNI that on Friday, she worked all day in the hospital and wasn’t found under any kind of stress or worry.
The PG student’s neighbors informed that the fight the couple had before the incident was heard by them. It was informed that the couple was not happy with their marriage.