September 11, 2012 Clippings

NRI medicos need not serve in rural areas

NRIs and foreigners studying in medical colleges in the state have been exempted from serving in rural areas for one year, something that has been made compulsory for medical students.

The state government has passed a bill that makes it mandatory for medical students to serve at a primary health centre for one year after the completion of their course, failing which the students will have to pay a penalty in the range of Rs15 lakh-Rs30 lakh.

NRIs and foreigners have been given an option: if they do not want to serve in a rural area, they can work with a government hospital in a city.

Medical education minister SA Ramadas informed this to DNA on the sidelines of the monsoon session. He said the rule would come into effect from this academic year itself.

He said medical students who wish to go to a foreign country for higher education will be given a provisional degree certificate. It will be provided only after the students submit an undertaking that they will serve for one year in a rural area upon finishing their education abroad. The minister maintained that there was no way out and rural service was compulsory.

He evaded a clear response when asked what if medical colleges in foreign countries do not accept provisional degree certificates.
MBBS students serving in rural areas will get a stipend on par with general duty doctors. The stipend of post-graduate medical students will be on par with specialists. Those studying super-specialty graduate courses will get stipend on par with the pay of senior specialty doctors.

The compulsory rural service bill does not apply to students learning Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (Ayush) ways of treatment. However, Ramadas said the state government would come out with a rule in this regard in the coming days.

He said there is a pressing demand for allopathy doctors in rural areas, while there is no such urgent requirement for Ayush doctors and that is why the latter were not included in the compulsory rural services bill. He said the government would frame rules on the basis of requirement.

Source: www.dnaindia.com

11.09.2012

Absence of proteins causes diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis

Scientists have discovered that absence of two proteins – Puma and Bin – prompts immune cells to turn against human organs they are meant to protect. This leads to autoimmune diseases like type-1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.

Daniel Gray and colleagues from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute’s Molecular Genetics of Cancer division and the University of Ballarat, have discovered that these pair of protein molecules work together to kill so-called ‘self-reactive’ immune cells that are programmed to attack the body’s own organs.

Autoimmune diseases, such as type-1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and multiple sclerosis, develop when immune cells launch an attack on the body’s own cells, destroying important body organs or structures, the journal “Immunity” reports. Puma and Bim are so-called ‘BH3-only’ proteins that make cells die by a process called apoptosis or self death. Defects in apoptosis proteins have been linked to many human diseases, including cancer and neurodegenerative disorders, according to an Eliza Hall statement.

Gray said one way the body protects itself against autoimmune disease is by forcing most self-reactive immune cells to die during their development. “If any self-reactive cells manage to reach maturity, the body normally has a second safeguard of switching these potentially dangerous cells into an inactive state, preventing them from causing autoimmune disease,” he said. Gray is now collaborating with researchers who have identified human gene defects linked to the development of autoimmune conditions. ”We now know that self-reactive cell death is an important protection against autoimmunity,” Gray said. “The next stage of our work is to discover whether defects in the cell death process cooperate with other factors to cause human autoimmune disease.”

Source: http://health.india.com

11.09.2012

You are Braver than you Believe, Smarter than you Seem, and Stronger than you Think

Winnie the Pooh