DAILY NEWS BULLETIN LEADING HEALTH, POPULATION AND FAMILY WELFARE STORIES OF THE Day Tuesday

Transcription

1 DAILY NEWS BULLETIN LEADING HEALTH, POPULATION AND FAMILY WELFARE STORIES OF THE Day Tuesday Leprosy Another step in the battle against leprosy (The Hindu:

2 Amendments to laws that discriminate against leprosy patients Over 110 Central and State laws discriminate against leprosy patients. The biased provisions in these statutes were introduced prior to medical advancements; now, modern medicine (specifically, multi-drug therapy) completely cures the disease. These laws stigmatise and isolate leprosy patients and, coupled with age-old beliefs about leprosy, cause the patients untold suffering. The Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2018, seeks to make a start in amending these statutes. It attempts to end the discrimination against leprosy persons in various central laws: the Divorce Act, 1869; the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939; the Special Marriage Act, 1954; the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955; and the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act of The Bill eliminates leprosy as a ground for dissolution of marriage or divorce. The condition under Section 18 (2) (c) of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, that a Hindu wife is entitled to live separately from her husband without forfeiting her claim to maintenance if the latter is suffering from a virulent form of leprosy, has been omitted. The amendments introduced in the Bill omit the provisions which stigmatise and discriminate against leprosyaffected persons. The Bill is meant to provide for the integration of leprosy patients into the mainstream. It is in keeping with the UN General Assembly Resolution of 2010 on the Elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members that it was introduced. India has signed and ratified the Resolution. The proposed law follows a National Human Rights Commission recommendation a decade ago to introduce amendments in personal laws and other statutes. Further, the Rajya Sabha Committee on Petitions, in its 131st Report on Petition praying for integration and empowerment of leprosy-affected persons, had examined various statutes and desired that concerned Ministries and State governments urgently wipe clean the anachronistic and discriminatory provisions in prevalent statutes.

3 The Law Commission of India, in its 256th Report, Eliminating discrimination against persons affected by leprosy, had also recommended removing the discriminatory provisions in various statutes against leprosy patients. Alcoholism- prostate cancer Early-life alcohol intake may increase prostate cancer risk (The Tribune: ) However, the current alcohol consumption was not significantly associated with high-grade prostate cancer, the researchers said. File NEW YORK: Consuming at least seven drinks of alcohol per week in your adolescence may increase the risk of high grade prostate cancer later, a new study has found. The study found that heavy alcohol intake at ages was not associated with overall prostate cancer. However, consumption of at least seven drinks per week during this age increased 3.2 times the odds of high-grade prostate cancer. The prostate is an organ that grows rapidly during puberty, so it s potentially more susceptible to carcinogenic exposure during the adolescent years, said co-author Emma Allott, assistant professor at the University of North Carolinap. For this reason, we wanted to investigate if heavy alcohol consumption in early life was associated with the aggressiveness of prostate cancer later, Allott added. For the study published in the Cancer Prevention Research, the research team evaluated data from 650 men undergoing a prostate biopsy between January 2007 and January These veterans had no prior history of prostate cancer, and their ages ranged from 49 to 89 years old. The population was racially diverse per cent of patients were non-white. Men completed questionnaires which assessed the average number of alcoholic drinks consumed weekly during each decade of life to determine age-specific and cumulative lifetime alcohol intake. Those who consumed at least seven alcoholic drinks per week at ages 20-29, 30-39, and 40-49, resulted in 3.14, 3.09, and 3.64 times the odds of high-grade prostate cancer, respectively, when compared with non-drinkers. However, the current alcohol consumption was not significantly associated with high-grade prostate cancer, the researchers said.

4 The team also evaluated the association between cumulative lifetime alcohol consumption and prostate cancer diagnosis. Compared with men in the lowest tertile of lifetime alcohol intake, those in the upper tertile had 3.2 times the odds of being diagnosed with high-grade prostate cancer at biopsy, the team said. IANS Smoking Vaping, smoking together up heart attack risk by 5 times (The Tribune: ) 5-times/ html Researchers report some good news if smokers quit. File Daily use of e-cigarettes combined with traditional smoking can lead to a five-fold increase in the odds of heart attack, according to study which also found that vaping alone doubles the risk. The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, examined the relationship between e-cigarette use and heart attacks, and begins to fill the understanding of the effects of e-cigarettes on long-term health. Most adults who use e-cigarettes continue to smoke cigarettes, said senior author Stanton Glantz, a professor at University of California - San Francisco in the US. While people may think they are reducing their health risks, we found that the heart attack risk of e-cigarettes adds to the risk of smoking cigarettes, Glantz said. Using both products at the same time is worse than using either one separately. Someone who continues to smoke daily while using e-cigarettes daily increases the odds of a heart attack by a factor of five, he said. The research found that dual use of e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes the most common use pattern among e-cigarette users appears to be more dangerous than using either product alone. The risks compound, so that daily use of both e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes raises the heart attack risk five-fold when compared to people who don t use either product. Researchers report some good news if smokers quit. The risk of heart attack starts to drop immediately after you stop smoking. Our results suggest the same is true when they stop using e-cigarettes, said Glantz.

5 Electronic cigarettes typically deliver an aerosol of nicotine and other flavours by heating a liquid and are promoted as a safer alternative to conventional cigarettes, which generate the nicotine aerosol by burning tobacco. While e-cigarettes deliver lower levels of carcinogens than conventional cigarettes, they deliver both ultrafine particles which are 1/50 to 1/100 the size of a human hair and other toxins that have been linked to increased cardiovascular and non-cancer lung disease risks. The analysis involved 69,452 people who were asked whether they had ever used e-cigarettes and/or cigarettes, and whether they had ever been told by a doctor or other health professional that they had had a heart attack. Among the 9,352 current and former e-cigarette users, 333 (3.6 per cent) had experienced a heart attack at some point, with the highest percentage (6.1 per cent) among those who used e- cigarettes daily. In the analysis, a quarter of the 2,259 people who currently used e-cigarettes were former smokers of conventional cigarettes and about 66 per cent of current e-cigarette users were also current cigarette smokers. The researchers found that the total odds of having a heart attack were about the same for those who continued to smoke cigarettes daily as those who switched to daily e-cigarette use. PTI Air pollution Air pollution reduces lifespan by over one year (The Tribune: ) Air pollution reduces lifespan by over one year PM2.5 pollution comes from power plants, cars and trucks, fires, agriculture and industrial emissions. Thinkstock HOUSTON: Air pollution shortens people s lives by over a year, say scientists who suggest that better air quality could lead to a significant extension of human lifespan around the world. This is the first time that data on air pollution and lifespan has been studied together in order to examine the global variations in how they affect overall life expectancy. The researchers from University of Texas at Austin in the US looked at outdoor air pollution from particulate matter (PM) smaller than 2.5 microns. These fine particles can enter deep into the lungs, and breathing PM2.5 is associated with increased risk of heart attacks, strokes, respiratory diseases and cancer. PM2.5 pollution comes from power plants, cars and trucks, fires, agriculture and industrial emissions.

6 The team used data from the Global Burden of Disease Study to measure PM2.5 air pollution exposure and its consequences in 185 countries. They then quantified the national impact on life expectancy for each individual country as well as on a global scale. The fact that fine particle air pollution is a major global killer is already well known, said Joshua Apte, who led the study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters. We were able to systematically identify how air pollution also substantially shortens lives around the world. What we found is that air pollution has a very large effect on survival on average about a year globally, said Apte. In the context of other significant phenomena negatively affecting human survival rates, Apte said this is a big number. For example, it s considerably larger than the benefit in survival we might see if we found cures for both lung and breast cancer combined, he said. For much of Asia, if air pollution were removed as a risk for death, 60-year-olds would have a 15 per cent to 20 per cent higher chance of living to age 85 or older, he added. PTI Pollution Explained Snippets: Country by country, years of life lost due to air pollution (The Indian Express: ) In a new study that has found that ambient air pollution shortens human lives by more than one year, India is placed fourth among 185 countries in terms of average years of life expectancy lost due to exposure to PM2.5

7 In a new study that has found that ambient air pollution shortens human lives by more than one year, India is placed fourth among 185 countries in terms of average years of life expectancy lost due to exposure to PM2.5. Bangladesh (1.87 years), Egypt (1.85) and Pakistan (1.56) have been found to be at higher risk than India (1.53 years). The study also estimated that if PM2.5 in all countries met the World Health Organisation s guideline for air quality (10 microgrammes per cubic metre), then life expectancy could increase by 0.6 years. In India, if PM2.5 levels were to be reduced from the current 74.1 microgrammes per cubic metre to 10, 15, 25 or 35 microgrammes/cu m, the study estimated that the potential increments in life expectancy would be between a year and about half a year (see table). The researchers used data from the Global Burden of Disease Study to measure PM2.5 exposure and its consequences in these 185 countries. They then quantified the national impact on life expectancy for each individual country, as well as on a global scale.

8 This Word Means Fluoroquinolones What do such drugs treat, why does the government want to issue labelling changes? On Thursday, The Indian Express reported that the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) is likely to issue changes in labelling for fluoroquinolones, a class of antibiotic drugs. Fluoroquinolones are approved for the treatment or prevention of certain bacterial infections but, like other antibacterial drugs, they do not treat viral infections such as colds or flu. Various fluoroquinolones such as Ciprofloxacin, Norfloxacin, Ofloxacin, Levofloxacin and Moxifloxacin are available in India. For example, Norfloxacin is sold under different brand names by different companies in India: Norflox by Cipla, Enflox by Sun Pharmaceuticals, Norflot by Natco Pharma, etc. CDSCO is contemplating labelling changes

9 following similar action taken by the United States Food and Drug Administration on July 10. The CDSCO is examining the issue in consultation with its subject expert committee. The USFDA made it clear on July 10 that pharmaceutical companies in the US would need to make labelling changes on fluoroquinolones to strengthen the warnings about the risks of mental health side effects and serious blood sugar disturbances, and make these warnings more consistent across all fluoroquinolones taken by mouth or given by injection. The USFDA added that these labelling changes have been decided based on a comprehensive review of the drugs adverse event reports and case reports published in medical literature. Edward Cox, director of the Office of Antimicrobial Products, USFDA, stated on July 10: The use of fluoroquinolones has a place in the treatment of serious bacterial infections such as certain types of bacterial pneumonia where the benefits of these drugs outweigh the risks, and they should remain available as a therapeutic option. Sleeping Pills (The Asian Age: )

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11 Honey (The Asian Age: )

12 Life expectancy ((The Asian Age: )

13 Health complications Fine dust triggers 60% heart attacks, strokes (Hindustan Times: ) Inhaling PM 2.5 leads to health complications From page 3 :Outdoor air pollution leads to 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide each year, with close to 60% of the deaths from heart attacks and strokes, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Finally, scientists appear to have figured out just how fine dust attacks the cardiovascular system. An analysis of the effect of the different components of polluted air, including ozone, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide, showed that small particulate matter is the most damaging to the body s vascular system, reported a team of researchers from Germany, England and the US. Ultrafine dust (particulate matter 2.5 microns or less in diameter, or PM2.5) is the size of a virus and can penetrate the lung barrier to enter the blood system, leading to local inflammation in blood vessels, the researchers found. This leads to atherosclerosis (plaque or fatty deposits in the side wall of the arteries), which stops blood flow to cause heart attacks, heart failure and irregular heartbeat (arrhythmias), they said. It was PM2.5 and not nitrogen dioxide (NO2) both of which are found in diesel exhaust emissions which affected vascular function and posed a bigger risk to cardiovascular health, found the study published in the European Heart Journal on Thursday. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in India, which has 14 of the world s most polluted cities by small particulate matter concentration (see box). According to the Global Burden of Disease report, an estimated 1.1 million deaths in India were linked to PM2.5 air pollution in the year Globally, 58% of outdoor air pollution-related premature deaths are due to heart disease and strokes, 18% due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 18% from lung infections, and 6% because of lung cancer, said WHO s 2016 estimates. PM 2.5 inhalation causes hypertension, insulin resistance, and endothelial dysfunction with impaired vasodilation (stiffening of the arteries), inflammation and clot formation, which can trigger heart attack and stroke, said Dr Ravi R Kasliwal, chairman of clinical and preventive cardiology at Medanta, Gurugram. Studies show that staying just 2km away from a polluted arterial road can affect development of heart disease and outcomes, he said.

14 The fine dust particles are chemically formed mainly in the atmosphere from emissions from traffic, industry, and agriculture. In order to achieve low, harmless concentrations, emissions from all these sources need to be reduced, said lead author Thomas Münzel, director of cardiology at the Medical Center of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany. While governments need to introduce strong regulatory policies to regulate emissions and invest in clean transport, green power generation and efficient waste management, at a personal level, people can counter the effects high pollution by using personal breathing protection and exercising indoors or in green areas. That said, lowering salt, sugar, fat and stress, and staying active can further help lower cardiovascular risk, said Dr Kasliwal. Eye Diseases (Navbharat Times: )