Health

As per the recommendations of the senior citizens health insurance committee, the regulator has constituted a separate grievance cell for senior citizens' health issues. R Srinivasan has been appointed as an officer on special duty and senior citizens can air their grievances related to health insurance provided by public sector general insurers to him through a dedicated email id. The senior citizens health insurance committee was set up to look into the availability of health covers to people above the age of 60.

Public sector general insurers hiked premiums on health policies for people above the age of 60 by 100%-200%. In a few instances, the additional loadings on premiums were as high as 400%. Given the increases, there's been a spate of complaints sent to the insurance regulator both from individual senior citizens as well as senior citizens' groups.

The group will also help medical and engineering students in the state to develop networking in their fields to enhance their job prospects in multi-national companies, Kumar said.

US Medical Co strikes deal with Bihar Govt. Photo by Shashi Uttam"This is a pilot project undertaken by the United Health Group and if successful, the scheme would be implemented in other parts of the state," the Chief Minister said.

The meeting was also attended by the representatives of the networking global giant CISCO. Mike Harding, Account Manager CISCO, said his company would set up infrastructure in Bihar so the medical and engineering students have easy access to American companies that also have operation in India and other countries.

State Health Minister Chandramohan Rai, Chief Secretary R. J. M. Pillai, and Health Secretary Deepak Kumar were also present during the meeting.

This is an alarming rise compared to only 11 cases in the first two months of 2007. Currently, 25 of 38 districts in Bihar are in the grip of the polio virus.

"The state recorded 89 new cases of polio in the first two months (January and February) and 10 cases till March 11, compared to the figure of 11 last year. There is all possibility that polio cases will go up in the coming months," a health department official said.

Most new cases were reported from Samastipur (15), Darbhanga (10), Muzaffarpur (7), Madhubani (7), Saharsa (6), Vaishali (5), Purnea (5), Khagaria (5) and Nalanda (4) districts. Unofficial sources put the figure of polio cases at over 140 till the first week of March.

India, which recorded 864 cases last year, is the number one polio endemic country in the world with Bihar and Uttar Pradesh described as 'sick' states for their poor economic and social parameters recording the highest incidence. Bihar surprised many with its high 396 cases in 2007 as against just 61 in 2006.

The target of eradicating polio in Bihar remains a big challenge for national and international organisations, including UNICEF and WHO as the new cases have surfaced despite millions of rupees being spent on a series of immunisation drives.

This was disclosed by Dr Rajay Narain Secretary, Bihar Foundation, UK after meeting of the Foundation in Manchester, which was attended by Prof Gajendra Verma, Dr Murli Sinha, Dr Ashok Pathak, Dr Ajay Kapoor, Dr Amit Kishore, Dr Anurodh Bhawnani and Dr Vishwajeet Singh.

The Camp will be attended by leading Physicians and surgeons of the state including Dr S N Arya, Dr H R P Verma, Dr Gopal Prasad Sinha, Dr Ranjan Akhaury, Dr R N Singh, Dr Ashok Bhawnani, Dr S N Mishra, Dr Vinay Karak, Dr S K Prasad, Dr N P Narayan and Dr Manju Gita Mishra.

The Coordinator of Bihar Foundation in India Dr Bimal Karak also held a meeting with Mr. R R Verma IPS Secretary, Red Swastik for long term partnership between two organizations.

The camp will screen thousands of residents of Lalganj free of charge for day to day illnesses and free cataract operation will be done on site. Patients who need further surgeries and special treatment will be brought to Patna.  

The National Urban Health Mission (NUHM), to be launched in a couple of months, would cater to a population of around 22 crore in 429 cities and towns of the country, Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said.

"Out of this nearly six crore of the slum population would be insured," he said.

The premium for the insurance scheme with a coverage of around Rs 40,000-50,000 would be paid by the government to the hospitals directly.

"The beneficiaries of this scheme can approach both government and private hospitals," the minister added.

According to Ramadoss, this will help in ensuring a huge inflow of funds into the government hospitals as the Centre will pay the amount directly to the hospitals.

The beneficiaries might have to pay a premium of Rs 600 annually later.

The insurance will cover maternal benefits, Out Patient Department (OPD) facilities and other general diseases.

In his speech, Rai lauded the efforts of NGOs in spreading awareness about various health issues and enunciated the need for private and government partnership in improving the health conditions of those who had little or no access to quality care services.

The event was also attended by the recent recipient of the Padmashree award Dr. Gopal Prasad Sinha and noted physician and AIDS expert Dr. Diwakar Tejaswi.

Pediatricians Dr. (Mrs.) Kiran Sharan and Dr. A. N. Thakur were among the judges in the baby show contest while the health quiz was coordinated by Medical Director, International Health Organization, Dr. Tejaswi.

Among the seven participating schools in the quiz contest, Red Carpet School was awarded the first place while DAV School and Patna Collegiate earned the second and third place respectively.

SGD Pataliputra was ranked a close fourth.

Ms Minati Chaklanwis, chief organizer of the event, highlighted the efforts of other agencies for making the event a success.

A painting competition and a health quiz for college students is scheduled for Sunday, Dr. Tejaswi said.

``Influenza is a serious threat in the country, especially among people who have a lung disease. The flu vaccine can save people from falling victim to serious complications but unfortunately, the awareness is very low,'' says Dr Sanjay Lalwani, HOD, paediatrics, Bharati Vidyapeeth University Medical College, Pune.

It's particularly tough for asthmatic children. ``At our nursery care centre, we get at least 40-50 admissions of children suffering from influenza during the flu months, which are from October to March. Things wouldn't be so bad if they had been given the vaccine,'' he adds.

The flu vaccine is the most effective prevention for high risk patients. Its given before the onset of flu months. But in a tropical country like India, where the virus circulates round the year and not necessarily during winter, it can be given any time.

Children between the ages 6 months to five years, and adults above 65 years, should ideally take the vaccine. But it's essential for those suffering from diabetes, pulmonary or cardiovascular illness, renal dysfunction and even pregnant women --i.e. all those in the highrisk group.

PAY HEED

• Heart patients should avoid exercises involving rapid breathing exercises.
  
• Wrong breathing techniques could lead to an asthma attack.
  
• Correct exercises relieves pain, but a wrong move could leave an arthritis patient in terrible pain.

According to experts, before starting any exercise or taking ayurvedic medicine, a person's physical examination and history charting is a must. "What may be good for everyone else might not suit your body type," said Sudha Malik, a yoga expert.

Sudha said one wrong move could leave the person in a lot of pain.

"You are making nice money. But the trade-off is also big," said Vats, who spent nearly two years at IBM Corp.'s call centre arm in India, answering customer calls from the US.

Call centres and other outsourced businesses such as software writing, medical transcription and back-office work employ more than 1.6 million young men and women in India, mostly in their 20s and 30s who make much more than their contemporaries in most other professions.

They are, however, facing sleep disorders, heart disease, depression and family discord, according to doctors and several industry surveys. Experts warn the brewing crisis could undermine the success of India's hugely profitable outsourcing industry that earns billions in dollars annually and has shaped much of the country's transformation into an emerging economic power.
Heart diseases, strokes and diabetes cost India an estimated $9 billion (Rs35,460 crore today) in lost productivity in 2005.

But the losses could grow to a staggering $200 billion over the next 10 years if corrective action is not taken quickly, said a study by New Delhi-based Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations.
The outsourcing industry would be the hardest hit, it warned.

The milk of every species of mammal is said to be unique and specifically tailored to the requirements of that animal. For example, researches show cows' milk is three to four times as much richer in protein than human milk, with five to seven times the mineral content, but markedly deficient in essential fatty acids compared to human mothers' milk. On the other hand, mothers' milk has six to ten times as much of the essential fatty acids, especially linoleic acid which cow's milk does not have. While animals stop taking in milk from weaning however, man is known to continue with his fill, and is in fact the only specie that drinks the milk of other species.

TIME TO ACT

• Increased awareness is needed for easier acceptance and to remove the stigma attached to seeking counselling or psychiatric help for children
  
• More training should be given to school teachers to handle mental, emotional and behavioural problems in kids
  
• More specialised counselling courses should be introduced
  
• Parenting workshops should be organised at various levels to explain the needs of children
  
• A healthy, open rapport system should be built between parents and schools
  
• Regular students' workshops are needed for different age groups to give them better social, emotional and lifestyle skills
  
• Officials guidelines are needed to make it mandatory for schools to conduct regular mental health workshops and medical check-ups for students

"There is a lot of work needed in the area of children's mental health," says Dr Shoba Srinath, professor, department of psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore. The institute is one of the handful in India with a full-fledged child and adolescent psychiatry unit. We still seem far from having an exclusive hospital working for the mental health of younger people, like the Bradley Hospital in United States, which was opened as far back as 1931.

Hospitals, of course, can come only if we realise the magnitude of the problem. The World Health Organization indicates that by the year 2020, childhood neuropsychiatric disorders, internationally, will rise proportionately by over 50%, to become one of the five most common causes of morbidity, mortality, and disability among children. But there are hardly any figures or researches in India that show the mental, emotional and behavioural problems being faced by the children today. "The issue is huge, but the level of intervention is at an infantile stage," says Dr Deepak Gupta, child and adolescent psychiatrist at Delhi's Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. "We need to have adequate systems at all levels to provide positive mental health to kids. For this, we need big epidemiological studies and data." While a few community surveys have been done on the subject, they mostly take into account severe problems such as mental retardation and epilepsy, leaving out other serious issues like behaviour problems and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

"We are discussing the modalities of this scheme with the Union Human Resources Development Ministry as part of our plans to ensure better health care for school children," Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss told reporters here on Wednesday.

The Government is planning to rope in NGOs and doctors as well as dental associations to help keep a tab on the scheme which would be operationalised by the end or middle of next year, Ramadoss said.

Under this programme, the students will undergo a complete health check-up, including testing of eyes and teeth.

If there anything is found wrong with the children, then they would be referred for further treatment, he said adding the cost of the treatment as well as the entire programme would be shared by the state government.

Apart from this, a separate subject on health will be introduced in schools, which will educate students on the entire gamut of health problems, including lifestyle diseases and common ailments.

"All students would be issued smart cards containing information regarding their health parameters to keep a check on their health problems if any," the minister said.

According to health secretary, Deepak Kumar, the state government has already initiated the process of recruitment and will soon send the number of vacancies to the Bihar Public Service Commission. The appointment would be made to fill vacancies in paediatrics, gynaecologists, anaesthesia and general medicine in the health cadre.

The specialist doctors would be recruited against permanent vacancies. Doctors with the post-graduate degrees in the above-mentioned stream alone would be eligible to apply for the post.

The whole process of appointment would take another few months as the vacancies have been sent to the personnel department for roster clearance and from there it would be sent to the BPSC.

At present the total strength of the medical officers in the health cadre is 5,400.

The only exception will be those who are diagnosed with terminal illness at the first time of entry.The panel, set up by Irda, has made a number of recommendations, including making all health insurance policies portable and giving a clear definition of pre-existing diseases in insurance policies. It has also pitched for a progressive tax concession for health insurance to enable taxpayers with a lower income to get a proportionately higher benefit.

Crediting at least 50% of the service tax on all health insurance schemes to an insurance pool to be created by Irda to deal with high risk insurance cases of senior citizens also features in the recommendations. It has also made a case for having an apex regulatory authority for hospitals and other healthcare providers.

A division bench comprising Justice Chandramauli Kumar Prasad and Justice Mihir Kumar Jha disposed of the PIL after perusing the exhaustive supplementary counter-affidavit regarding the state government's recent grant of Rs 50 crore for improving the infrastructural facilities in the IGIMS, the recent purchases of equipment and enhancing the medicare facilities in its different departments.

On the court's remarks regarding the efforts for improvement of the IGIMS as mentioned in the supplementary counter-affidavit, the petitioner's counsel, M P Gupta, submitted that the the PIL should be disposed of.

Welcoming the FDA stance, which claimed that there was little proof that such medicines eased cold and cough symptoms in children, paediatrics in Delhi said a ban on similar drugs is required in India as well.

CHILL PILLS

• Don't give your child cold and cough medicines without getting them clinically examined.
  
• Never give drugs on the recommendation of chemists.
  
• Don't give a combination without consulting a doctor.
  
• Avoid frequent use of vapour rubs & nasal drops * Give child time to recover & don't start self-medication.
  
• Watch out for any signs of your child reacting to any of the medicines

Children are more susceptible to cold than adults and might suffer from it six to 10 times a year. Some of the common cold and cough medicines available over the counter are antihistamines (for allergies) expectorants (used in cough syrups and clears the nasal tract), suppressants (medicines that suppress cough), decongestants (used to relieve nasal congestion), bronchial dilators and mucolytes.

``It is quite common for people to not consult a doctor for common cold and cough. OTC cough and cold medicines can do little harm to adults but for children, especially those below the age of five years, they can sometimes be fatal,'' said Dr S K Mittal, department of paediatrics, Max Healthcare.

With the addition of 120 more beds, the hospital now boasts a total capacity of 210 beds with facilities for open heart surgery, Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) director Dr. S. N. Mishra said.

The Chief Minister also inaugurated a health-related program named 'Muskan, Ek Abhiyan' (Smile - a Campaign) jointly sponsored by the UNICEF and the state health committee.

Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, in his address, said the government was soon going to introduce health insurance scheme for those living below the poverty line.

"Under this scheme, the patient would be able to buy medicines up to a total cost of Rs. 30,000 each year along with a stipend for other medical expenses," Modi said adding the plan would be included in five districts initially but expanded to all other districts in next five years.

Health Minister Chandramohan Rai, Health secretary Deepak Kumar, BJP MLA from Patna Central Arun Kumar Sinha, and Institute's joint director Dr. Basant Singh were among other VIPs who were present on the occasion.

Health Department chief secretary Deepak Kumar said the hospital built at the cost of Rs. 12 lakh, currently has four beds - 3 in the men's ward and 1 in the women's section with six doctors, including one female physician, to handle any medical emergency.

Kumar said the hospital would further be expanded to include an eye doctor, an orthopedic surgeon, a full-fledged intensive care unit (ICU) along with a well-stocked pharmacy.

The legal community would also be able to avail the facilities of the pathology lab at highly subsidized rates, he said.

Interestingly, it was Chief Justice R. S. Raghwan who laid the foundation stone of the hospital in 2004.

The Gaya IMA also felicitated three senior citizens on this occasion -former IPS Balbir Chand and freedom fighter Govind Chaurasia. The participants of the Indian Medical Association function, organised on the occasion of the Elders Day, expressed concern over the plight of the elders, degeneration of family ties and ever growing materialism.

So, there are four stages of chanting a mantra.

• In the first stage it is repeated aloud, so others can hear it. At this stage you are not alert enough to repeat it without making a sound and if you only repeat it inside without your lips moving, you may not be able to be aware. The mantra has to be chanted loudly.

• When you have learned to repeat the mantra loudly, then repeat it with your mouth closed, your lips not moving at all. Just repeat it within yourself. It will be in your throat and the sound will become a bit more subtle.

• Now, go a bit deeper. Don't repeat the mantra consciously, let it happen. When you have worked on the sound for long, it repeats itself subconsciously, automatically. When a person has been working for years on a sound then there is no need to repeat, he simply sits silently and the sound comes up; it repeats itself. Now you are just a listener, a watcher.

• At the final stage the sound disappears completely. There is no repetition, only the watcher is left. This is the deepest form of meditation.