Visiting Central Medical Team shocked

The three-member team of experts from New Delhi, which visited Gandhi Hospital on Thursday, was surprised to find nursing students manning the swine flu isolation wards in the hospital. The young nurses were clueless on how to handle the personnel protection equipment, safety masks and could not properly answer basic questions on personal hygiene posed by the visiting team, hospital sources revealed on the condition of anonymity.

While senior staff nurses, trained well to handle swine flu cases, abstained from duties demanding better safety precautions, the hospital management had to quickly rope in replacements at a short notice. The visiting team of doctors advised the hospital staff to lay more stress on general sanitation and personal hygiene among health care workers and general public, which was very important to curb the spread of swine flu, they said.

The expert team, consisting of Ashok Kumar and Dr. Pradeep from Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) and Dr. Shashi Khare from National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) suggested that authorities collect swab samples from other districts to find the exact spread of swine flu in Telangana.

Interacting with press persons after meeting Gandhi Hospital doctors, Dr. Ashok Kumar appreciated efforts of the hospital staff in admitting swine flu patients.

Seven die of swine flu in Rajasthan, 19 test positive

Jaipur: Seven people have died and 19 tested positive for swine flu in Rajasthan this year, forcing the state government to put its health department on alert, an official said Wednesday.

The deaths have been reported from Banswara, Barmer, Tonk, Kota and Jaipur areas, while the positive cases have been reported from Jaipur, Sikar, Tonk, Kota among other districts, an official told IANS.

"We have decided to do a survey of at least 50 houses near the house where a positive case of swine flu has been reported," a senior medical department official said.

"We are requesting all the patients suffering from cold, fever, cough or running nose to come to hospital for a check-up. We do not want to take any chances," he added.

The official said that after the sudden spurt in swine flu cases since the beginning of this year, the state health department has been geared to face any eventuality.

Health Minister Rajendra Rathore has directed all district hospitals to collect samples of suspected swine flu patients and send them to government-run medical colleges for tests.

Health officials have also been asked to keep stock of medicines used for the treatment of H1N1 influenza.

First Hand Transplant Done in Amrita Institute, Kerala But…

Doctors of Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre (AIMS) have successfully tansplanted India’s first hand transplant, rare surgery that has been done in 110 cases so far around the world but it will be known only after two weeks whether the body of the recipient has accepted it or not as is the case in many such surgeries.

The surgery wasn conducted on Tuesday for over 16 hours on a 30-year-old youth, who had lost his hands in a train accident. The transplanted organ was taken from a brain-dead 24-year-old accident victim with same bloood group, said doctors.

Manu, the recipient belongs to Thodupuzha in Idukki District of Kerala a year ago. Dr. Subramania Iyer, head of the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Amrita Hospital, said, “Technically everything went well. It may take another 10-14 days before confirming the acceptance of the limbs by the recipient.”

A report in the Indian Science Journal said both the blood group and lymphocyte of the donor and recipient were matching and there are many chances of it turning into India’s first such successful surgery.

Dr. Iyer is upbeat about the success of limb transplant and its failure may mean removing the organ since hands and legs are exterior parts of the body with corrective medication to be taken up in case of rejection by the donor’s body.

If accepted, the hand will take a year to become 90 percent normal though some small muscles may not be equally functional as in a normal hand, he said.

Researchers Identify Substance Protects Against Pre-Term Birth

Hyaluronan (HA), a critical substance made by the body that protects against premature births, caused by infection has been found by the researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

This is the first study to identify the specific role that hyaluronan (HA) plays in the reproductive tract, the researcher noted. Hyaluronan is a natural substance found in many tissues, and is both a lubricant and a beneficial component of eyes, joints and skin.

Being thought to play an essential role in increasing the cervix’s flexibility during the birth process by HA, the study that was conducted using mouse models showed that HA is not essential for increased cervical pliability during late pregnancy.

According to World Health Organisation, pre-term birth from infection is the leading cause of infant mortality in many countries. It estimates that about 1.09 million children aged less than five die from direct complications of being born prematurely.

“We found that HA is required to allow the epithelial lining of the reproductive tract to serve as the first line of defence against bacterial infections,” said senior author Mala Mahendroo, associate professor at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre in the US.

“Because of this action, HA offers cervical protection against the bacterial infections that cause 25 to 40 percent of pre-term births in women,” Mahendroo said.

Meanwhile, the previous studies by UT Southwestern reproductive biology researchers showed that HA is present in both the cervix and cervical mucus of pregnant women.

However, the first author of the study Yucel Akgul from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre, said, “This study demonstrates that HA plays a crucial role in the epithelial barrier as well as the cervix’s mucus. Our next step is to identify how exactly HA protects the cervix, which can have important clinical implications in the effort to reduce infection-mediated pre-term labour.”

The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation