Tag: media

Myths about medical-Ventilator; Corona may help to burst


Unfortunately, celebrities and media have most of the time fuelled the myths and common allegations against the medical profession and ventilator. The myths have been propagated rather than disseminating the truth. This is no truth in such projected and perceived hearsay.

Someone who is drowning, a small boat can save his life, till sea storm settles or the victim reaches a safe land. The boat will not settle the sea storm, but enough to save a person from catastrophe. In reality, a ventilator is the invention, which should be worshiped. But contrarily, due to wrong projections and misguided perceptions, it has been hated despite saving lives.

Although doctors and ventilators are in a similar situation, projected in the wrong way, hated in spite of doing good work and saving lives. They are hated and despised, despite the only ones of help in life and death situations. The following are a few myths and facts about the ventilator.

  1. Myth: Once on a ventilator, patients do not survive: the common myth is that once the patient is placed on a ventilator, he will not survive. The human body, when it gets severely diseased or under stress, heart and lungs need to be supported for saving the life, till ailment So, when the battle for saving a life is ongoing, almost all the patients will have to be placed on the ventilator. It is a last-ditch attempt made to save the patient’s life. However when the patients do not survive people feel that it’s the ventilator that has caused death, rather than a rational thought about the severe disease as a cause.

In reality, it is the severity of disease and the possibility of death, when the ventilator is required. It is necessary to support life.

  1. Myth: Ventilator is a modality for the mere prolongation of life: every disease has a spectrum. Every disease can progress from a reversible to an irreversible state. As an effort is ongoing while waiting to reverse the process, the patient will need ventilator to sustain life. Unless the disease reaches a stage of irreversibility, the ventilator is indispensable for an absolute need to maintain life. Since in serious condition, it is an uncertain prognosis. In retrospect, combined with the application of average wisdom, the time of uncertainty and institution of the ventilator can be interpreted as a mistake. As the whole exercise is labeled as futile and expensive by relatives. it’s a grey area and the negative thoughts are fuelled because of retrospective wisdom in hindsight. The real prognosis cannot be predicted in real-time.

In reality, Ventilator is a machine which just supports respiration and not responsible for heart beating. Therefore it buys time for healing and treatment of primary disease.

  1. Myth: Ventilator will cause death:

one can understand this simple logic on the basis that patients are placed on dialysis when kidneys fail. Patients are placed in the cast when bones are fractured for a fixed predefined period of time. Similarly, patient is placed on a ventilator when the lungs fail. The ventilator is used till the time lungs recover and become fully functional.

In reality; Risk is because of disease, which needs ventilator and not vice versa. Ventilator is a friendly machine which helps people who have failed lungs.

  1. Myth : Doctors and hospitals keep dead patients on ventilator for financial gains

Fact: placing patient on ventilator is a very critical decision, taken in best interest of patient to buy time, to so as to treat the disease. A patient needing on ventilator is actually so sick, that not instituting ventilator will risk the patient’s life. Knowing all these facts, doctors take a decision to keep the patients on a ventilator.

Once the patient is on ventilator, it is a stress for the doctor to take the patient off the ventilator. As such ventilator is a SANCTUM SANCTORUM lifesaving machine, to be used only in life and death situations.

  1. Myth : Its a miracle if the patient placed on ventilator survives.

Given the fact that placing the patient on ventilator on scientific facts. There are clear indications for putting the patient on ventilator. A much larger patients put on ventilator are actually saved and go home.

Fact: Everyday thousands of patients are placed on ventilator and sent home to lead a normal life: Any patient who is given general anesthesia is placed on ventilator in the operation theater and then taken off the ventilator at the end of the surgery. In these cases patients are placed on ventilator so as patient can be put to deep sleep (called anesthesia) during which surgery on desired part can be carried out. Soon after the surgery patient are taken off the ventilator and soon thereafter discharged for home after few days of healing.

  1. Myth :Doctors place patients on ventilator at their own will:

Fact: there are scientific parameters which decide when the patient should be placed on the ventilator and when the patient should be taken off the ventilator. So the decision to place the patient is scientific and based on objective parameters.

Contrary to this popular myth, it is a compulsion for the doctor to put patient on ventilator to prevent death in serious situations. Doctors are usually thinking several steps ahead of lay person about medical science.

  1. Myth :All patients placed on ventilator are unconscious:

Fact: this is not necessary. Usually patients are sedated for their comfort. they can be made to walk, write and even perform small tasks when on ventilator, depending upon their lung condition.

Patients are also put on ventilator in case of airway failure when unable to protect their airway for various reasons. Another reason why patients are placed on ventilator is inability of the patients to protect his or her airway. Conscious and alert patients can swallow normally formed mouth secretions. When patients consciousness level is dulled the ability of the patient to protect his airway is lost or compromised. This causes secretions from mouth to enter into the lungs through the airway i.e. trachea causing infections in the lungs. The only way to prevent this and protect the patient’s lungs is to place a tube in his airway and then place them on the ventilator.

  1. Myth: Patients can be kept alive by placing on the ventilator:

General masses have a feeling that patient can be kept alive by keeping them on the ventilator. Even a dead person can be kept alive by placing on the ventilator, which is not true.

In reality: It is machine used only for breathing and not heart and brain.

  1. Myth : Ventilating the dead patients:

this is a common allegation on medical profession. This is no truth in this projected and perceived hearsay.

Facts: Assumptions are based on thoughts of lay persons. Patients on ventilator, may look like dead, because of the disease, sedation and paralyzed by drugs. But their heart and brain are working, so they cannot be declared dead.

If there is some incident, it needs to be proved by medical personnel. In reality, it can be a very rare and remote exception. These untrue projection are creating lots of mistrust about life saving machine.

The problem is about correct projection and majority of people without knowledge of medical science do not even know the large number of lives been saved by the ventilators.

In nutshell: serious conditions and life threatening situations need higher technical interventions, to save a life. If correct projections are made, ventilators are lifesaving machines.

About ventilator

History of ventilator

2

How to achieve “Effective Lock-Down” to prevent community spread @Corona pandemic


  To identify communities at  risk

“Battle of Corona” Only people can win this war, not doctors or Governments

         Preventing Community spread at this time  is the key to  control  the  Corona pandemic.  Strict  Lock down needs to be effective to achieve the desired objectives. Therefore it is necessary to identify the communities at  risk, where lock-down is not complete and hence these may be need to identify the weak points to achieve effective lock-down.

   These communities can be:

  1.    Surveillance in high population density zones: India  and specially large cities have areas with thick population density.  There is a tendency to come out of houses for  informal chatting.  People need to understand that effective lockdown is more than just not attending to the office work.  Such collections of people can be  prevented by strict enforcement:

A.   Police patrolling in thickly populated residential or good administrative control.

B.   Drone surveillance

C.   Camera surveillance and administrative control

  • Medical needs: people may come out of houses for medical needs. This can be minimized by
  1. Online consultations
  2. Telephonic consultations

These tele-consultations to be used  to differentiate whether it is an emergency or not. The emergencies should be guided to attend hospital, that may be different from Covid 19. So these consultations will help to segregate these patients from  Covid patients.

3.Strengthening of Ambulance service- Network of ambulances can be used to assess at homes and hence  the need for hospitalization may be minimized.  Besides it may help in preventing gathering of relatives and guiding the patient  to appropriate hospital.

4. Providing PPE’s to doctors to prevent loss of work force.

  • Need for essentials: System for community delivery  or   decongestion at market places need to be checked and gathering to be discouraged.

                   Effective Lock-down  can be a key  for winning the “Battle of Corona”. Only people can win this war, and not doctors or Governments.

1

“Battle of Corona”-Win or loss in People’s hand: not doctors or Governments


 

This is a disease that people can prevent, but doctors cannot treat.

Prevention is better than cure

In this era with knowledge of modern medicine, we know how to prevent the infection from Coronavirus. This is a completely preventable infection and everyone has enough knowledge about it. Heads of Governments requesting people to follow rules of prevention. Strangely these rules are not difficult. Hon’ble Prime minister Mr. Modi has himself requested people to follow simple precautions. Imagine if just by following simple rules can prevent a catastrophe in countries, world and families,  there should be no reason to not follow them.  If it happens, it shows the sheer carelessness and irresponsible attitude of people.  The success or failure or winning the battle against Coronavirus will not be of doctors, but people themselves.

This is a disease that people can prevent, but doctors cannot treat.

India Ahead News Video

1

#Nurse/doctor/soldier vs Filmy superstar: Reel Heroes or Real Heroes. what does the society Need/deserve?

REEL HEROES VS REAL HEROES in PANDEMIC

 

     In the current era of media domination where media projection shapes the perception and may defy reality.  Media has dominated our lives and can sway the opinion formation of masses.  Written media, television, social media can collectively influence the mass opinion.

   A reel hero who acts like a soldier is famous and richer and than the actual soldier, who dies unnamed and in penury.   Children of today’s times will strive to become, who is worshiped and paid respect by society and therefore will prefer to become the ‘Reel heroes’.

Even a junior doctor saves many lives in a  day in emergencies as compared to the work of a superstar in films.  A teacher, nurse or scientist have a contribution which is more fruitful to our generation. Also, the scientists, who contribute immensely and bring about the real change in our lives. Their contribution is huge to our society and much more than doing just acting on screen. The reel actor merely imitates the real-life lived and actual work done by real heroes like a soldier, doctor or teacher. Someone who only acts and  behaves like one, is respected and paid thousand times or more than the real one. In reality, people need  more than mere entertainment and reel role models and actors in their real lives.

       A  society truly needs the real people, who work and act for them, more than just entertainment. It will need a total change in the attitude of people to deconstruct their perceptions, which are based on mere projections and are away from reality.

21 occupational risk to doctor and nurses

The naivety of masses to perceive the projected character as real one  goes beyond a reasonable thought process and imagination.

These roles played in films are  not  really acts of   inspiration  in real life as the actual purpose accomplished at the end of a movie  is entertainment of society and business for themselves.

   At the best, a particular projected character  (and not individual acting star) may be a  role model. An actor or superstar, is simply doing his work of “acting” in  the end. This work of acting may bring an entertainment of few hours at the most.

One  cannot stray away from the wisdom to  choose between what we consume merely for our entertainment and  what we believe or face in real life. One needs to differentiate between rational truth behind the celebrity gimmicks in the media and exaggerated sensationalism. Sensation created merely for a commercial successful venture should not be allowed to overpower the judgments of real life.

 

But the problem starts, when these false perceptions created merely   by a projected  glimmer    takes the shimmer  away from the real worthy. The real  professionals and people who are worthy of glory become invisible behind  the glittery mist, a haze, which is unreal and unhelpful in real life.

  Compare the trivial  amount of  remuneration, fame  and respect the real worker  gets  as compared to the film stars, who merely imitate their actions. Reel projection for the purpose  of entertainment is more easier to enact and more profitable  than actual performance  in real life.  It is easier to become a reel hero, as it requires little hard work or just connections to get an opportunity.  Some one can be a reel hero just  by  dynastic factor  easily. Hard work is definitely required but that may or may not be prerequisite.

In present era, real contributions by people, who are saviours of human life and  the real heroes, remain unappreciated. People are so besotted by  fame and money that they fail to appreciate the sacrifices made by real heroes. Filmy super hero  just imitates  a doctor, soldier,  dacoit or a street hooligan and just pretends to be one on the screen.

     But there are  real life heroes that exist around us. Doctors awake at night saving lives every minute or soldier in freezing cold are worthy  of more respect and are real heroes.  And it is up to the society  to look beyond the superficial and reel story, and focus on the real life actors. There has to be an true effort to make, respect and appreciate  real heroes.

Point to  ponder  is that whether society needs people  just  acting like   doctors,  soldiers  and not the  actual and real ones, who saves lives. Does Society need  only  entertainment, because respect  which is paid to someone who is  just  an   actor, is  not extended to real doctors, soldiers or other altruistic professions.

         It is time to recreate and worship real heroes, who have become invisible behind the glittery mist.

Society needs to envisage the bigger real picture, and should not be mistaken for another projected story.                          

The perception of the projection will decide, what does the   society actually  need- or desire-or deserve , “Reel Heroes or Real Heroes”.

5

Whistle-blower Doctor who informed about Corona-sacked in Kerala


 

The ease with which doctors can be punished for doing even the right has finished the independence of the medical profession. The harassment of Chinese whistleblower doctor and now  sacking of the doctor who informed authorities about the coronavirus patient in Kerala are just an example of day to day troubles doctors are facing in every day working. These incidents are just the tip of the ice-berg. The evolving systems in the present era have made it difficult to deliver health care in the right way, as a consequence to routine harassment of doctors. Who will be the ultimate sufferer does not need an Einstein brain to predict.

 

 Kerala: Doctor who informed authorities about patient with coronavirus symptoms sacked by clinic.. Adoctor in Kerala on Tuesday alleged that she was sacked by the management ofthe private clinic she was working with for informing authorities about an NRI patient who reportedly declined to undergo the mandatory check for coronavirus. Dr Shinu Syamalan said the patient had come to the clinic recently with suspected symptoms of the virus. “When he was asked whether he had visited any foreign countries, he said he was coming from Qatar. But he had not reported to the health department about his foreign trip,” she said. When he was directed to inform about his foreign travel to the state health department, which has been monitoring people coming from abroad for the virus, he refused and said he was going back to Qatar, she told reporters. Concerned over the health of the person who had a high fever, Syamalan informed health and police authorities. “Officials who let the patient go abroad do not have any problem, but I have become jobless,” she posted on social media. 3/10/2020 Kerala: Doctor who informed authorities about patients with coronavirus symptoms sacked by the clinic – Times of India https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kochi/kerala-doctor-who-tipped-authorities-about-patient-with-coronavirus-symptoms-sacked-by-clinic/articleshowprint/74564864.cms 2/2 She alleged she was sacked by the management of the clinic for reporting the matter to police and informing the public about the incident through social media and through television. “The argument of the management is that no one would turn up for treatment in the clinic if they come to know that it was visited by patients with suspected symptoms of Coronavirus,” she said. There was no immediate reaction from the management of the private health clinic. Official sources said the district medical officer (DMO) at Thrissur has complained to the collector against Shinu Syamalan accusing her of defaming health officials. Sources said the DMO informed the collector that health officials had tried to prevent the patient from traveling abroad immediately after getting information from Syamalan.

corona virus unmasks risk to doctor and nurses

21 occupational risk to doctor and nurses

1

Reverberations of the slap #CMRI-hospital-Kolkata;whether to choose medical profession?


The consequence and reverberations of the slap landed on the doctor, subsequent to the death of patient in CMRI hospital  Kolkata,    are  more than  routine.  Media and celebrities usually   have proudly  projected on screen and television that doctors can be beaten and assaulted, in case there are unexpected results or in case of dissatisfaction. But the news is viewed by medical community anxiously and is definitely a poor advertisement for younger generation to take medicine as profession. As incidents are widely publicized and masses following their “Reel Heroes” depicting violence against the doctor is seen as a routine and looked as an   easily do-able  adventure  due to  non-willingness of  authorities to take stringent action.

doctor assault is like corona virus

In such cases, everybody seems to get falsely satisfaction  by the fact that the doctor must have been the culprit, who was   unable to save the patient. Medical community becomes anxious as the fear of more brazen attacks as the incidents can trigger   many more. As patients will continue to get treatment in hospitals and few cannot be saved, so every death declaration may be a harbinger to such attacks in future.

Doctors will be scared and avoid risky patients   or difficult surgeries may be avoided.

There can be complications or genuine poor prognosis. Even mistakes and errors are part of treatment.  The problem is that soft skills, deep knowledge and polite behavior is now been taken as weakness of doctors and not helping them   anymore. A notion  that   assaulting a doctor under emotional  outburst is taken as normal and should not be punished.

Brutality against doctors reveals a deep prejudice and lawlessness, merely on the basis of perceived negligence. Government is either unwilling to act and establish a strong culture of deterrence, so justice been elusive for medical professionals.

Even murderous assaults on doctors are not enough to shake administrators, courts  and doctors’ body out of slumber.  Definitely such violence, if unabated will be   poor advertisement for   next generation to take medical profession as a first choice.

female doctor assault 

#Choosing-to-be-doctor in lawless society: A self inflicted disaster #uncivilized-society #Govt-apathy serving an uncivilized society

21 occupational  risk to doctor and nurses

1

Corona Virus unmasks danger to nurses and doctors, which administrators prefer to refrain or oppress


 

Working of a doctor and nurses has never free from risk to themselves. The risk is generally underestimated, although it often involves major  risk  to their  life. Problem is that  majority of people, society, governing bodies  and even doctors themselves do not perceive or acknowledge  many times  the risks seriously.  Deadly Corona virus has unmasked and unveiled the danger to nurses and doctors,  the topic often suppressed, shunned by administrators and those who govern.

    An extreme example is the Chinese doctor, who was reprimanded, humiliated and made to apologize for doing right.  But this one example  is tip of the iceberg, for the Global phenomenon, where risk to front line workers is ignored routinely. They are just taken as  the routine workers, who have consented to be sacrificed. Chinese doctor Li Wenliang, one of the eight whistle-blowers who warned other medics of the coronavirus outbreak but were reprimanded by the police, died of the epidemic on Thursday,

 

  As per reports, 40 staff members of Wuhan hospital are  infected with Virus.

    Administrators and regulators refrain to study data that would establish and quantify the occupational hazards of being a doctor and nurses. Some of these hazards may be known, but there is no comprehensive analysis of workplace risk for physicians and nurses, like those that have been done for other professions. As physicians, we have a sense of the risk, and yet we remain engaged, continuing to care for our patients as we know  “these things” happen. Perhaps society prefers to remain blissfully ignorant of the sacrifice and risk their doctors  and nurses take on, comforted by the fantasy of the serene  hospital. Perhaps we  all despise to let reality and data shatter the illusion.

   But since  these risks are increasing exponentially every day, because of unknown and mutated germs (bacteria and viruses),  awareness is needed.  There are lesser set procedures, lack of awareness, not protective equipment or supportive society, governance and  laws, at most of  the places globally.  doctors  and nurses continue to work  in danger zones. These risks can be of varied types and contracting the diseases is just one of them.

Patients carrying specially unknown germs are  handled by doctor and nurses, who have no clue, what they are dealing with.   Time gap in such  patients coming to the  hospital  and  the exact diagnosis of finding a dreaded disease, may be  quite dangerous to doctors and nurses. To add to the problem, In  large number of patients, exact viruses cannot be diagnosed or even suspected. In many cases of ARDS, the causative organism cannot be  isolated or identified.  It is important for  doctors and nurses  to take universal precautions at every level. There can be many more viruses or germs which are yet to be discovered or mutated ones that  are unknown.

H1N1, Zika,  Ebola,  SARS  are few examples,  just to imagine that they existed and handled by health workers as unknown germs, till they were discovered.

Worst part is that our systems are not defined to prevent, treat or compensate or even acknowledge for these big disasters, if it happens to healers. These problems are not known to students, when they decide to take medicine, nor they are taught in medical school. Most of the time they have to fend for themselves, if problems occur.

Everyday globally, the doctors and the nurses  greet the new day and return to their work of taking care of their patients, knowing well the risk  involved.

Maybe it is time that we are little more aware  and acknowledge that even doing everything in best manner and honestly, they are in a  conflict zone and  are all in harm’s way. Just be careful and be mindful that  doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers,  may get  sickened, injured, disabled even  as they care for their patients in best manner.

21 occupational hazards to nurses and doctors

8

‘Reel Heroes vs Real Heroes’ Naseeruddin Shah’s Daughter Assaulted Vet clinic staff


‘Reel Heroes’ are seen proudly hitting the doctors and health staff in films and earn money and accolades for “acting” so well. But in the process, they give a message to society that they can hit and assault doctors and health staff with impunity, in case the patients feel unsatisfied. Being right or wrong does not matter. Projecting only negativism about medical profession by ‘REEL Heroes’ has resulted in demoralization, belittling and consequent increasing assaults on doctors.

Working on same principles, there was an incident, where health staff of vet clinic was assaulted by kin of “REEL Heroes”. An impression is being created to assault health staff, when-ever there is some dissatisfaction, specially by ‘Reel actors against Real actors’.

A non-cognisable offence has been registered against Naseeruddin Shah’s daughter Heeba Shah for allegedly assaulting two employees of a veterinary clinic reported mid-day. The complaint was registered on 17 January. The NC has been registered under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult) and 506 (criminal intimidation). The incident allegedly occured on 16 January and was captured in the clinic’s CCTV camera. The footage has been submitted to the Versova police, where the complaint has also been registered. The clinic is called The Feline Foundation. Heeba was helping out a friend, Supriya Sharma, by taking her two cats for sterilisation to the clinic.According to the report by mid-day, Heeba Shah entered the clinic in the afternoon at 2.50 pm on 16 January. She was asked to wait outside as surgery was on inside the clinic. After waiting for some time, Heeba allegedly got aggressive with her words and said, “Don’t you know who I am? How can you make me wait for so long outside without any assistance? How come no one helped me to get my cats’ cage out of the rickshaw on arrival?”As can be seen in the video, Heeba also physically assaulted the staff by pushing and slapping the person. She can also be seen yelling at the staff.

Reel heroes or Real heroes-Media projection

Self-proclaimed social activist ‘the Hero’ tring to espouse the cause of hapless patients, by projecting doctors as deceitful. In the process of self-projection as saviours of innocent patients, the ‘hero’ presents doctors as villains of the fleece tragedy as a generalization. Whole profession is painted with the same brush by ‘Reel Hero’, thereby creates a wave of huge mistrust among masses against ‘Real Heroes’ and true saviours.

Unfortunately masses trusted more on the person, who was dancing to entertain them rather than a doctor who was awake at night, trying to save lives. Sadly, in an era of media dominance, ‘Reel heroes’ get projected as ‘Real heroes’. The real become invisible behind the glittery mist. Masses fail to envisage the bigger real picture and are grossly mistaken by another projected story.

The old adage “All that glitters is not gold” is particularly relevant in current era of media domination, where media projection shapes the perception and may defy the reality. Media has dominated our lives and can sway the opinion formation of masses.

Media projections create a mirage of illusional glitter wherein there is blurring of real life from the reel life of heroes. The larger-than-life unreal persona of the celebrities on screen looks too charming and sometimes becomes undeniable and dominates mind of masses. The super-human characters played out in films and television appear to be too real. The problem arises when the imaginary characters of the reel life stories are emulated in real life. The naivety of masses to perceive the projected character as the real one goes beyond a reasonable thought process and imagination.

These roles played in films are not really act of inspiration in real life as the actual purpose accomplished in the end of a movie is entertainment of society and business for themselves. In present era, more people will choose to watch the criminal trial of a celebrity rather than the biography of a truly great human being.

At the best, a particular projected character (and not individual acting star) may be a role model. An actor or super star, is simply doing his work of “acting” in the end. This work of acting may bring an entertainment of few hours at the most.

One should not stray away from the wisdom to choose between what we consume merely for our entertainment or face in real life. One needs to differentiate between rationale truth behind the celebrity gimmicks in the media and exaggerated sensationalism. Sensation created merely for a commercial successful venture should not be allowed to overpower the judgments of real life.

But the problem starts, when these false perceptions created merely by a projected glimmer takes the shimmer away from the real worthy. The real professionals and people who are worthy of glory become invisible behind the glittery mist, a haze, the unreal and the unhelpful in real life.

A soldier contributes to our society much more in real terms. Even a junior doctor saves many lives in a day in emergencies as compared to work of a superstar in films. A teacher, nurse or scientist have contribution which is more fruitful to our generation. The reel actor merely imitates the real life lived and actual work done by real heroes like soldier, doctor or teacher. Someone who only acts and behaves like one, is respected and paid thousand times or more than ‘the real one’.

In reality, people need more than mere entertainment, reel role models and actors in their real lives. Unfortunately, reel projection for purpose of entertainment is more easier to enact and has become more profitable than actual performance in real life.

0

Doctor & nurses at risk from unknown or mutated germs@ Mystery virus in China


 

First pneumonia death from mystery virus in China, world on high alert

          The  viruses, bacteria are germs  had been discovered only in last one century and many more are still not known. Patients carrying specially unknown germs are  handled by doctor and nurses, who have no clue, what they are dealing with.   Time gap in such  patients coming to the  hospital  and  the exact diagnosis of finding a dreaded disease, may be  quite dangerous to doctors and nurses. To add to the problem, In  large number of patients, exact viruses cannot be diagnosed or even suspected. In many cases of ARDS, the causative organism cannot be  isolated or identified.  It is important for  doctors and nurses  to take universal precautions from the beginning. There can be many more viruses or germs which are yet to be discovered or mutated ones that  are unknown.

21 occupational risk to doctor and nurses

H1N1, Zika,  Ebola,  SARS  are few examples,  just to imagine that they existed and handled by health workers as unknown germs, till they were discovered.

The death of a 61-year-old man  due to pneumonia from a mystery virus in the central Chinese city of Wuhan on Saturday has put the world on high alert against another new life-threatening illness. Seven of the 43 others diagnosed with the disease are in a critical condition, but no new cases have been reported since January 3.

To protect the world still smarting from the lightning spread of devastating viral diseases such as H1N1, Zika and Ebola, the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued this year’s first  international travel and trade alert on  on January 10 that advised all international travellers to report symptoms of fever with breathlessness and difficulty breathing, especially if they have travelled from China.

On January 9, China announced that the cluster of pneumonia cases reported in December in Wuhan in the Hubei Province of China was caused by a new coronavirus.

Only six viruses from the coronavirus family infect humans, which would make the new one the seventh to cause human disease. The coronavirus viruses cause diseases ranging from the common cold to very severe and life-threatening illness from Middle-East Respiratory Syndrome that caused 851 deaths since it was identified in 2012, and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which killed 774 of the 8,098 people infected in an outbreak that started in China in 2002.

“Though currently there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission, we need to remain vigilant. WHO has shared with all Member States technical guidelines on surveillance, testing as well as infection prevention and control practices for suspected cases. WHO is in close contact with national authorities in the region and will extend all possible support to ensure core capacities are geared up for addressing potential cases that may come to countries,” said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO regional director, South East Asia Region.

Unknown threat

Some countries in the region, including Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand, have started screening passengers travelling from China for pneumonia symptoms at airports. The health ministry reviewed the situation with WHO experts on Wednesday and plans to start providing travellers with risk-reduction information at airports and other ports of entry, travel agencies and conveyance operators.

“We are waiting and watching as entry screening at ports of entry like airports, seaports, train stations and border check-posts are not cost-effective. It is resource-intensive but offer little benefit,” said a health ministry official, who did not want to be named.

Though no pneumonia have been reported outside Wuhan, which has a population of 11 million, WHO said there is need for caution as the city is a major domestic and international transport hub with heavy population movement. Travel in the region is expected to significantly increase during the Chinese New Year in the last week of January, which increases the potential of infected travellers carrying to other parts of China and the world.

New viruses are formed when mutate to jump species and cause infection in humans. SARS jumped from the civet cat into humans, MERS from dromedary camel, H1N1 from pigs, and Ebola from bats, just to name a few.

The Wuhan City cases have been linked to the South China Seafood Wholesale Market, where some of the patients worked as dealers or vendors. The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market deals with fish and other seafood, including sea mammals, along with chicken, bats, rabbits and snakes.

Signs of trouble; The clinical signs of the new lung infection are mainly fever, with a few persons reporting difficulty in breathing. Clinical signs include chest x-rays showing bilateral lung infiltrates (markings) associated with pneumonia and tuberculosis.

With no infection among health care workers treating the patients, preliminary information suggests there is no significant human-to-human transmission, but till the mode of transmission is clearly established, it’s best to take precautions to stay safe.

The WHO advises people travelling in or from affected areas (currently Wuhan) to avoid close contact with people with acute respiratory infections; wash hands frequently, especially after direct contact with ill people or their environment; and avoid close contact with live or dead animals. In case of respiratory symptoms before, during or after travel, travellers must seek medical attention and share their travel history with the doctor.

“The WHO advises against travel or trade restrictions on China based on the information currently available on this event,” said Dr Singh.

 

 

1

Healthcare system a sinking ship: Says Niti Aayog


A chaotic and non-uniform system, after years of neglect cannot be corrected overnight or by change in piecemeal policies. It needs to be revamped from the roots. To do it from grass root  level especially with financial constraints,  it will need a  sincere will to develop  the system.

                     India’s top think tank said Thursday that the country’s healthcare system resembled a “sinking ship”and desperately needs more private participation in smaller towns to run the government’s ambitious Ayushman Bharat program efficiently.

“We would require all hands on deck, as they say,” Niti Aayog adviser Alok Kumar said at the Healthcare Federation of India’s Sixth Annual Summit, referring to the poor state of healthcare in India. The Ayushman Bharat’s insurance program, Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), has been facing constraints in smaller cities due to a dearth of hospitals.

“We can’t have all the patients being transported to tier-1 and tier-2 cities for treatment because that is not a model which is sustainable,” Kumar said.

The Lancet, the world’s oldest and most prestigious journal, had last year ranked India’s healthcare system at a dismal 145 out of 195 countries, worse than even North Korea and Syria. The ranking was worse than its smaller Asian peer Philippines and neighbour Sri Lanka, a fact also pointed by Kumar.

Kumar said that a number of hospitals in smaller cities, including those run by public sector enterprises, are under-utilized even though there is strong demand for their services in these regions, especially because of the insurance program.

“Singrauli, for instance, the power capital of India, has hospitals of NTPC, Coal India Ltd; all of them underutilized (like) shells standing. Railway hospitals (are like) shells standing but not being utilized efficiently enough,” Kumar said.

He urged large private hospital chains to manage the hospitals run by state enterprises better by widening the scope of their services to beyond their own employees.

The PMJAY was introduced last year, and aims to provide health insurance cover of ₹5 lakhs per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families, which would total around 50 crore beneficiaries.

Ayushman Bharat is the umbrella program, with PMJAY for secondary and tertiary hospitalization, and health and wellness centres for primary healthcare facilities. Under the Ayushman Bharat, the government aims to create around 1.5 lakh health and wellness centres.

While the Indian government aims to increase the share of public health spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2025 under the National Health Policy, currently it is still only around 1%.

Another major problem for the poor state of the sector is the lack of health insurance for patients, leading to an out of pocket expenditure making up for 61% of total health expenses for households, as of 2015-16, latest National Health Accounts data showed.

To reduce out of pocket expenses, the government introduced the Ayushman Bharat insurance scheme, but large private hospital chains have shown resistance to participating in it due to ‘low package rates’ for various treatment procedures. Kumar said that the government was willing to listen to hospitals and other private entities and make changes to policy if they were ready to invest in the sector.

 

1

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑