Morning Medtalks with Dr KK Aggarwal

Top News: PM to address on end TB strategy today morning

New Delhi, March 13, 2018:

1. WHO has put global alert for the new pathogen, called “Disease X’ an unknown mass killer. ”Disease X represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease.”
2. Disease X, the mysterious illness now classed as more serious than Lassa fever in Nigeria and Ebola, which has killed thousands of people.
3. If Disease X is as deadly as Spanish flu, which killed between 3% and 6% of the world’s population, it would be a disaster like never seen before.
4. WHO: 4.23 lac Indians die each year of TB. Standard drugs are ineffective for 1.3 lac of 28 lac TB patients. 2 new drugs, bedaquiline & delamanid, can benefit MDR. 13-20K qualify for treatment with these drugs but only 1,000 pts are on bedaquiline & 81 on delamanid.
5. FDA fromFeb. 2, has shortened the waiting period for those wishing to donate blood who’ve recently received a tattoo, from one year to seven days.
6. For most women of reproductive potential, one must take one multivitamin containing 0.4 mg of folic acid once per day beginning at least one month prior to conception and continuing through the first trimester
7. For women with a previous pregnancy affected by an neural tube defect or with an neural tube defect in either parent take 4 mg of folic acid once per day beginning at least one month prior to conception and continuing through the first trimester. The dose is decreased to 0.4 mg per day after the first trimester.
8. WASHINGTON — A key Republican lawmaker released a new version of so-called “right to try” legislation aroundmidnightFriday, a pivotal next step in the effort to help dying patients get access to experimental therapies.
9. For every woman who dies during childbirth 70 others reach the brink of death.
10. Despite all the research time and development money pumped into infertility treatments, medical science knows shockingly little about how male sperm function.
11. : National Human Rights Commissionon Mondayissued a notice to state government over the Jhansi episode in which severed leg of a youth was used as a pillow at Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College.
12. Police have registered an FIR against three senior doctors of government-run SCB Medical College and Hospital for alleged negligence in treatment of a teenager. “A case under section 304-A (causing death due to negligence) and 34 (criminal act with common intention) of IPC has been registered
13. ICMR along with several partners, including the WHO India and the McGill University is coming out with national lists of essential diagnostic tests and tools to facilitate access to treatment, particularly in low-resource countries.
14. A meta-analysis by Musa-Veloso and colleagues published in the August 16, 2016, issue of the Journal of Nutritional Science in 18 published studies found that compared with the control group, individuals eating almonds experienced a relative reduction in total cholesterol and LDL values of -0.153 mmol/L and -0.124 mmol/L, respectively. Triglyceride levels were also significantly improved but levels of HDL cholesterol were not.
15. The two most common preventive medications for gout — febuxostat (Uloric) and allopurinol — came out largely similar for cardiovascular outcomes, except for a worrying and unexplained higher risk of mortality with febuxostat, the CARES trial showed.
16. Beta blocker use starting 2 to 4 hours before noncardiac surgery protected patients against myocardial infarction (MI) but was associated with more death and stroke at 1 year, the POISE (Perioperative Ischemic Evaluation) trialists found, confirming earlier 30-day results.