admin
New Delhi, September 26, 2018 :
Delhi diphtheria death toll rises to 20. As many as 19 children have died of diphtheria at a municipal hospital in north-west Delhi, taking the death toll in the city to 20, according to a North Delhi Municipal Corporation report issued Monday. Diphtheria is a contagious bacterial infection which affects mucous membranes of the throat and nose. While 19 children died at the North Corporation-run Maharishi Valmiki Infectious Diseases Hospital, one child died at the Delhi government-run Lok Nayak Hospital. “From September 6-24, there have been 157 admissions, of which 128 were from UP. Rest of the cases are from Haryana and Delhi,” a senior North civic body official said (HT).
Diphtheria is caused by the bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheria that affects the throat and upper airways, which causes sore throat like symptoms and difficulty in breathing initially. If left untreated, the infection causes production of a toxin that can damage the body’s peripheral nerves and other important organs. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the disease can be fatal in 5-10% cases. Globally, the cases of diphtheria have declined from nearly 1 lakh in 1980 to closer to 9,000 cases in 2017. But the decrease has stalled over the past decade, with India a key drive.
Longer sleep duration is associated with uncontrolled BP. People with hypertension who slept 9–10 hours on workdays and ≥10 hours on non-workdays were found to be more likely to have unsatisfactory BP control than those who slept for 5–9 hours. The association between a longer sleep duration (≥10 hours) and unsatisfactory BP control was more pronounced among women aged 65–70 years, with BMI ≥ 24 kg/m2. The study examined the association between sleep duration on workdays or non-workdays and unsatisfactory BP control (systolic BP of ≥140 mm Hg or diastolic BP of ≥90 mm Hg) in more than 4000 hypertensive patients (Journal of the American Society of Hypertension, October 2018).
Clinical practice guidelines for heart failure diagnosis and treatment: National Heart Foundation of Australia and the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand
- A 12-lead ECG is recommended in patients with suspected or new diagnosis of heart failure to assess cardiac rhythm, QRS duration, and underlying conditions such as myocardial ischemia or LV hypertrophy.
- A chest x-ray is recommended in patients with suspected or new diagnosis of heart failure to help identify pulmonary congestion and alternative cardiac or noncardiac causes of symptoms.
- Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) should be considered in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) 3 to 6 months after the start of optimal medical therapy or if there has been a change in clinical status, to assess appropriateness of other treatments such as device therapy (e.g., implantable cardioverter defibrillator [ICD] or cardiac resynchronization therapy [CRT]).
- Invasive coronary angiography should be considered in patients with heart failure associated with refractory angina, resuscitated cardiac arrest, sustained ventricular arrhythmias, or evidence of ischemic heart disease to determine the need for coronary revascularization.
- Monitor peripheral arterial oxygen saturation in patients with acute heart failure.
- Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors are recommended for patients with type 2 diabetes associated with heart disease and insufficient glycemic control despite metformin.
Vedic Health – A Dialogue with Ashwini Kumar Choubey https://www.youtube.
TEDx Video: Doctor-patient relationship https://www.
Dr KK Aggarwal
Padma Shri Awardee
President Elect CMAAO
President HCFI
HealthySoch
