India will
battle child deaths: Azad
India
will be in the forefront of the war against child deaths and ensure that no
child dies owing to causes that can be prevented, union Minister for Health and
Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad said on Thursday. ‘India will remain in the
forefront of the war against child deaths and do everything that it takes to
ensure that no child dies of a cause that can be prevented,’ Azad said while
inaugurating the health summit ‘India’s Call to Action – Child Survival and
Development Summit’ at Mamallapuram, around 70 km from here.
The
minister added: ‘If we can win the battle against polio, we can surely win the
war against child mortality.’ The three-day summit is being organised by the
central government in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The
minister also hoped that the delegates present at the summit would ‘join hands
to collectively bend the curve on child mortality in India, something that I
believe is quite possible, though by no means easy.’ Referring to the fall in
the mortality rate of under five children at a rate faster than the global
average, Azad said its decline in rural areas and in states with weak health
indicators is both sharp and steady. He said the fall in under five mortality
rate has boosted the government’s confidence in several innovative measures
taken under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).
The
government plans to cover over 270 million children from birth to 18 years of
age for early identification of birth defects, diseases, disabilities,
deficiencies and developmental delays under the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya
Karyakrama (RBSK) scheme, according to the minister. He also said that children
diagnosed with any such illnesses would be managed and treated free of cost
under the NRHM.
Azad
added that the biggest challenge facing the country is bringing down the
neonatal mortality which accounts for 55 percent of under five deaths. Given
the fact that child mortality is linked to social aspects, Azad expressed
satisfaction that other arms of the government are taking initiatives like
restructuring of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), focusing on
nutrition in 200 ‘high-burden’ districts and improving sanitation.
08.02.2013
Fish oil
protective against cardiac death in dialysis patients?
The
five-year survival rate for patients on haemodialysis is 35 percent, with the
risk of death highest in the first few months of starting treatment. The most
common cause of death in these patients is sudden cardiac death, which accounts
for about one out of every four deaths. According to a new study, omega-3 fatty
acids found in fish oils could protect dialysis patients from such sudden
cardiac deaths.
‘We
found that higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids in the blood of patients who
were just starting (haemo) dialysis were very strongly associated with a lower
risk of sudden cardiac death over the first year of their treatment,’ says
Allon N. Friedman, associate professor of medicine at the Indiana University
School of Medicine and study co-author. ‘This study is a first step toward
identifying a possible treatment for sudden cardiac death in dialysis
patients,’ adds Friedman.
Sudden
cardiac death is an unexpected death due to cardiac causes occurring in a short
period (generally within one hour of symptom onset) in a person with known or
unknown cardiac disease. The study is based on 100 patients who died of such
causes during their first year of haemodialysis, and 300 patients who survived,
according to an Indiana statement.
‘The
risk of sudden cardiac death in haemodialysis patients is highest during the
first year of treatment. The annual rate of such deaths is about six to seven
percent, which may even exceed the rate in patients with heart failure,’
Friedman said. ‘Because omega-3 fatty acids can be obtained from certain foods,
such as fish oil, our findings also have important implications for the type of
diet we recommend to patients on dialysis,’ Friedman said.
08.02.2013
High
achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation
Jack
Kinder
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