March 12, 2012 Clippings

India’s 1st health advice helpline flooded with calls

Nearly two months have passed since India’s first health advice call centre initiated under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) started taking calls at Pune’s Aundh Chest Hospital.

Yet the helpline, serving as a lifeline to health workers in rural areas giving them access to specialist’s advice, is yet to have a formal launch. Reason: ministers were unavailable for ribbon-cutting ceremony after the model code of conduct came into place for local body elections. The delay of the launch has also held up distribution of literature on the helpline amongst health workers.

However, refusing to deny access of services to people, the helpline 104 started functioning and the word of mouth publicity resulted in an average call log of 800 calls per day.

“The helpline is getting good response without been formally launched. Post-formal launch, we will get more calls,” said information, education and communication bureau (IEC) deputy director, Dr Vilas Deshpande.

Health advice call centre incharge, Dr TK Pandve, said that on an average about 800 calls are received per day. “The calls are increasing daily. In many situations, we have been able to give life-saving information to callers like calls regarding snakebite, poisoning cases, complicated pregnancies or disease breakouts. For eg, we have begun to get calls from health workers on chickenpox cases in certain areas,” said Pandve.

However, he added that since most publicity about the helpline is through health workers, a formal launch can help as more activities can be carried out to spread information about the helpline later. “We have certain restrictions now,” he said.

Sources added that publicity material like literature on the helpline cannot be distributed amongst healthcare workers, auxiliary nurse midwifes and anganwadi workers unless the launch takes place.

Meanwhile, the officials added that the early response to helpline despite obvious lack of publicity is a good indicator of the success of the helpline.

“The helpline is started to prevent maternal mortality rate and will definitely prove to be a success story given the kind of queries received,” said Pandve

Source: www.dnaindia.com

12.03.2012

Avoid antidepressants during pregnancy

Women exposed to certain antidepressants during pregnancy are less likely to breastfeed their babies as compared to unexposed ones, a new study has revealed.

The study, conducted by researchers from California Teratogen Information Service (CTIS) Pregnancy Health Information Line, uses data obtained by counsellors at the CTIS Pregnancy Health Information Line, a toll-free service offering evidence-based clinical information about exposures during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

It focused on 466 pregnant women who contacted the CTIS Pregnancy Health Information Line over a ten-year period with questions about a wide variety of exposures and, after being counselled, agreed to participate in a follow-up study of their pregnancy outcome.

The study specifically examined breastfeeding choices of women exposed to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants at the time of delivery, compared to those who discontinued use of antidepressants earlier in pregnancy, as well as to those women who report not taking antidepressants at all.

The results showed that women exposed to an SSRI anytime in pregnancy were about 60 percent less likely to initiate breastfeeding than women who took no antidepressant.

"While the benefits of breastfeeding an infant are very clear, this study suggests that women who are taking antidepressants in pregnancy are not engaging in this behaviour as often as we would like to see," Christina Chambers, co-author of the study, said.

"Whether this is due to the mother's fear of harming her baby by breastfeeding while taking the medication, or due to the mother's depression itself is unclear," she said.

According to Chambers, regardless of the reason for breastfeeding choice, the study suggests that women who have depressive disorders and-or take antidepressants in pregnancy may require additional encouragement and support when making the choice to breastfeed an infant.

The study has been published online in The Journal of Human Lactation.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

12.03.2012

Fear is the father of courage and the mother of safety

Henry H. Tweedy