Morning MEDtalks with Dr K K Aggarwal

New Delhi, July 19, 2018 :

Around the globe

• Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal Delhi High Court observed that “Pendency of Litigation is like having Cancer!”
• A recent study carried out by The Lancet Planetary has shown that air pollution causes an estimated 14% of all diabetes cases worldwide in 2016. To prove their study, the researchers say that particulate matter (PM2.5) when inhaled, reduces the body’s ability to respond to insulin.
• In a proof-of-concept trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers have found that fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is a feasible treatment alternative to antibiotic therapy in patients with a primary Clostridium difficile infection, with no differences between the two strategies regarding  overall treatment response or treatment-related adverse events
• Over 60 students have fallen sick apparently due to food poisoning at a hostel of Popular Academy School situated at Madina Market in Baisi, around 360km northeast of Patna Sunday late evening.
• Scientists supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, have discovered a set of powerful, broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) in the blood of EVD survivors. In animal studies, two of these antibodies provided substantial protection against disease caused by Zaire Ebola virus, Bundibugyo Ebola virus and Sudan Ebola virus, the three species known to cause fatal human illness.
• Medical institutions in Ireland paid out more than 99 million Euros last year for negligence, according to the Courts Service. The Courts Service Annual Report reveals there were 50 cases of medical negligence in 2017. The lowest amount awarded was 17,500 euro, while the highest payout totalled 15 million euro, an increase of six million euro from 2016.
• Higher late-life systolic blood pressure has been tied to more brain infarcts and more markers of Alzheimer’s disease, specifically neurofibrillary tangles, results of a novel autopsy study July 11 in Neurology
• Double trouble: Concomitant use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and oral anticoagulants in patients with atrial fibrillation increases the risk for major bleeding and stroke, according to RE-LY trial.
• The US Food and Drug Administration has ordered label changes for fluoroquinolones to strengthen warnings about the antibiotics’ risks for mental health side effects and serious blood sugar disturbances
• Johnny Clyde Benjamin, MD, an orthopedic surgeon in Florida, was sentenced to life in prison on July 6 in a federal district court in Fort Lauderdale for his role in the overdose death of a 34-year-old woman, as per the US Department of Justice. In April, a jury found that Benjamin, 52, used his Vero Beach office to make counterfeit oxycodone. The pills, which were laced with furanyl fentanyl, were linked in an investigation to the overdose death of Margaret “Maggie” Crowley, of Wellington, Florida, in Palm Beach County. Fentanyl is much stronger than heroin or oxycodone.

Dr KK Aggarwal
Padma Shri Awardee
Vice President CMAAO
President HCFI