2, December 2014

World AIDS Day 2014: Health Minister launches a helpline number for HIV patients

Addressing the nation on World AIDS Day, union health minister, J.P. Nadda, urged people to get involved in achieving the goal of zero new infections3 and deaths due to HIV/AIDS.

The number of new infections in India has come down by 57 percent and related deaths by 25 per cent in the last decade.

The minister also launched a new helpline number – 1097, a digital resource centre and a supply chain management system for HIV patients. He also said that it is the responsibility of every individual to fight HIV, each one should be committed towards it and there should be no discrimination against people  with HIV.

Emphasizing on the importance of self control and precaution, he said it was people’s initiative to choose a proper life style. He also said that preventive health care is a new way forward and gone are the days when antibiotics could cure everything. ‘We should be working on two fronts. We should be aware and put special emphasis on prevention and help those living with HIV and AIDS so that they face no discrimination’, he said.

To establish better coordination in tackling HIV, the Minister has signed MoUs with 11 ministries and five more are in pipeline sources from the ministry said.

The country’s efforts in battling AIDS and bringing down the number of cases is considered a success even as 2.6 billion people currently battle with the disease, the third highest number in the world.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

02.12.2014

Woman delivers after 15 miscarriages

Chennai: After 19 years of dreaming of a baby, the dream came true for a 40-year-old woman of Neyveli who had 15 miscarriages previously. She finally gave birth to a girl baby three days ago at Aakash Fertility Centre in Chennai.Director of Aakash Fertility Centre, Dr K.S. Jeyarani, says, “Forty-year-old S. Abhirami had a complaint of cervical incompetence where the cervix (mouth of the uterus) is weak and loosens, so that the uterus cannot hold the baby. This results in pre-term babies.”

The woman had approached various hospitals in Coimbatore and the cervix was sutured. Abhirami underwent cervical cerclage eight times through the vagina, a procedure in which sutures are used to close the cervix, to help prevent a premature birth.But this did not work and she repeatedly had pre-term deliveries. She usually delivered during the second trimester, between 13 to 28 weeks. Some of the newborns were born dead, while a few would die in the next few days, she added.

Abhirami also underwent sutures through open surgery in the abdomen at a hospital in Coimbatore in 2010. However, she failed to deliver successfully this time also, she says.
She then approached Aakash Fertility Centre in 2011 where cervical cerclage was done once and this failed. The hospital then decided to conduct a laparoscopic abdominal cerclage, which entails placing sutures inside the cervix at the pre-conception stage itself.

Treatment was initiated in July 2013 and Abhirami became pregnant in February 2014. She delivered on November 27, after a full term. The baby weighs only 2 kg and so is kept in the neonatal ventilator, and will be handed over to the mother in a day, adds Dr Jeyarani. The happy mother says, “I underwent a stressful life all these years and was depressed. I was always criticised and insulted in my circle, which is why I was so desperate to have a baby. Since I have no problem in conceiving, I did not think of other methods like surrogacy.”

“We have not decide any name for the child, but are extremely happy to welcome the long-awaited third person to our family,” adds G. Sridhar, her husband.“The sutures are not removed and Abhirami can become pregnant again,” notes Dr Jeyarani.

Source: www.deccanherald.com                         02.12.2014

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