Indian
women show higher rates of tobacco use
The largest ever world wide study has dug its heels into the
tobacco crisis. According to the international survey , nearly half of all men
and 1 in 10 women use tobacco in many developing countries.
In 2008, India banned smoking in public places. However,
very little has been done to implement these directives. According to the
survey, done by the Buffalo School of Public Health, India’s anti-tobacco drive
is extremely ineffective. The survey covered over three billion people across
16 countries.
To back up this proclamation, the study goes on to show that
India has among the slowest tobacco-quit rations in the world. Very few smokers
or smokeless tobacco consumers have kicked the habit in the last four years. An
estimated 10 lakh Indians lose their life every year due to disease
Its lead author Gary Giovino has pointed out that 100
million lives were lost prematurely due to tobacco use in the last century. “In
the absence of effective actions, about one billion people worldwide will die
prematurely in the next century from tobacco use,” Giovino has been quoted as
saying. Worse, most of these deaths will come in lower and middle-income
countries.
While quit rates are high in countries like the USA and UK,
they are abysmally low in countries like India and China which is home to a
combined total of 575 million smokers.
The study concluded that the tobacco industry’s promotion of
its products through subtle surrogate advertising is more effective that the
anti-tobacco ones put forward by governments. “Our data reflect industry
efforts to promote tobacco use,” said the study. “These include marketing and
mass media campaigns by companies that make smoking seem glamorous, especially
for women. The industry’s marketing efforts also equate tobacco use with
Western themes, such as freedom and gender equality.”
Source: http://health.india.com
21.08.2012
Indian
docs save Pakistani woman’s life with successful liver transplant
In a world fraught with riots and hate, a young boy has
shown that humanity and compassion still exists. A Pakistani woman, suffering
from liver cirrhosis underwent a successful liver transplant at Sir Gangaram
Hospital. The woman’s son had donated his liver saving her from the potentially
fatal liver cirrhosis.
“A team of 21 people including doctors and other staff of
Sir Ganga Ram Hospital successfully transplanted the liver of her son in the
Pakistani woman, Zaib Un Nisa, curing her of cirrhosis of liver August 14,”
said Associate Director, Hepatobiliary and liver transplant department of the
hospital, Dr Naimish N. Mehta. Dr. Mehta said the liver was voluntarily donated
by the woman’s 27-year-old son Umar Subhani, who works in the office of the
chief minister of Punjab, Pakistan. The family lives in Sialkot. “Nisa was
affected with Hepatitis-C four years ago and was undergoing treatment in a
hospital in Pakistan. Hepatitis for a long period damaged her liver
completely,” Mehta told IANS. The woman was so unwell that she was unable to
walk even a short distance.
“In January this year, the family approached the Sir Ganga
Ram Hospital via email. They come to Delhi in February after getting a medical
visa,” said the doctor. The doctor explained that the operation was technically
challenging as Hepatitis C virus had caused damage to Nisa’s hepatic artery
(which carries oxygenated blood to the liver). “During the liver transplant,
the artery had to be reconstructed with a conduit. The conduit was obtained by
removing a portion of the patient’s right thigh vein. This reconstruction was
simultaneously performed with implantation of the new liver so that an arterial
supply carrying oxygenated blood was established for the new liver,” said the
doctor.
This operation was complex due to the arterial
reconstruction; it took 16 hours, and cost Rs.17.75 lakh, the cheapest rate for
a liver transplant in the country. The patient’s son told IANS that the
hospital staff and the Indian student community had been very supportive. He
had pasted notices seeking blood donors in Rajinder Nagar, and many students
had volunteered. “I have not donated my liver to my mother. I have only
returned to her a body part that I got from her 27 years ago,” Umar quipped.
The donation was also an Eid-ul-Fitr gift.
He who does
not know how to be silent will not know how to speak
Ausonius
No comments:
Post a Comment