Kerala’s Pinarayi govt demands immediate ban on PFI; Modi govt yet to decide

Kottayam, Apr 6: "I will leave this room within a week after defeating you," the braveheart nurse had vowed after contracting the deadly coronavirus while attending to India's oldest COVID-19 survior, expressing unflinching faith in Kerala's health care system.

Last Friday, 32-year old Reshma Mohandas lived up to her promise and walked out holding her head high to her home, where she is now placed under 14-day quarantine, after she and the elderly man and his wife were discharged from the Medical College Hospital here on being cured of th e disease.

Soon after 93-year-old Thomas Abraham, whose recovery has been dubbed as a 'miracle cure' by the medical community, and 88-year old Mariyamma left the hospital, Reshma too headed home but with the resolve to come back and serve the patients after the mandatory two weeks quarantine.

"I will leave this room within a week after defeating you (coronavirus)", Reshma had posted in a WhatsApp group of her friends and colleagues while undergoing treatment in isolation at the hospital.

"I posted that message in the WhatsApp group because I have full faith in Kerala's health system. It is world class," Reshma told reporters from her home.

The nurse, who took care Thomas and Mariyamma since March 12, believes she contracted the disease as she was in close contact with and often talked to the couple, who did not wear masks as it made them uncomfortable.

She said she loved taking care of all their needs.

"I was not tensed at all. I love taking care of elderly people. We used to talk a lot (in the ICU)", she said.

Reshma, who was earlier working in the operating theatre of another section, said she used work for four hours in the ICU before she contracted the virus and was admitted to the same wing as a patient.

"I had close contact with them in the ICU because I paid attention to address their every needs," she said. The first warning sign came on March 23 morning when she had a throat infection.

Reshma immediately alerted the head nurse, who in turn informed the doctors.

She was asked to visit the fever clinic at the Medical College and was later referred to the isolation facility where she took care of elderly novel coronavirus patients.

Some 20 nurses who had come into contact with her were sent to home quarantine.

On March 24, she tested positive.

"I did not have any other complications, barring headache and body pain", she said.

Reshma said she was ready to serve in the isolation facility for COVID-19 patients after 14 days of mandatory home quarantine.

"I am ready to work again in the isolation facility when I return," the feisty nurse, whose husband is an engineer, said.

She was all the more happy that proper medical care at the hospital led to recovery of Abraham and Mariyamma.

Kerala Health minister K K Shailaja telephoned Reshma to express her happiness over her recovery.

The Minister said the news about a health professional contracting the coronavirus was a matter of concern for the state.

In a statement, she hailed Reshma's dedication as a professional and said she had treated elderly patients like her parents, attending to their every need.

The elderly couple, hailing from Ranni village in Pathanamthitta district had contracted the virus from their son, daughter-in-law and grandson who returned from Italy last month, all of whom have also recovered.

New Delhi, Jan 12: In a shocking revelation, one unemployed person committed suicide every hour during 2018 when a total of 1,34,516 suicides, including 92,114 male and 42,391 female, were reported in the country, NCRB's "Suicide in India 2018" says.

The latest data, issued by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), which comes under Ministry of Home Affairs, last week reveals that a total of 12,936 unemployed persons committed suicide in 2018, which accounted for 9.6 per cent of the total suicides, and were of aged below 18 years to above 60 years.

Those below 18 years include 31 males and nine females while those between 18 and 30 years comprise 1,240 male and 180 female. A total of 868 male and 95 female were aged between 30 and 45 years. A number of 237 males and 21 females were aged between 45 and 60 years while 2,431 males and 310 females were above 60 years.

Of the total suicides by unemployed persons, males are 10,687 while the females are 2,249.

The highest number of suicides - 12.3 per cent - committed by unemployed persons were in Kerala (1,585 out of 12,936 suicides), 12.2 per cent in Tamil Nadu (1,579), 9.7 per cent in Maharashtra (1,260 suicides), 8.5 per cent in Karnataka (1,094 suicides) and 7 per cent in Uttar Pradesh (902 suicides).

"Each suicide is a personal tragedy that prematurely takes the life of an individual and has a continuing ripple effect, dramatically affecting the lives of families, friends and communities. Every year, more than 1 lakh people commit suicide in our country. There are various causes of suicides like professional/career problems, sense of isolation, abuse, violence, family problems, mental disorders, addiction to alcohol, financial loss, chronic pain etc," says the NCRB adding it collects data on suicides from police recorded suicide cases.

As per the NCRB, rate of suicides has been calculated using projected population for the non-census years whereas for 2011, the population of the Population Census 2011 was used.

The NCRB data says that a total of 1,34,516 suicides were reported in the country during 2018 showing an increase of 3.6 per cent in comparison to 2017 and the rate of suicides has increased by 0.3 during 2018 over 2017.

Government servants accounted for 1.3 per cent (1,707 out of 1,34,516) of the total suicide victims as compared to 6.1 per cent (8,246 out of 1,34,516) of total victims from Private Sector Enterprises.

Employees from Public Sector Undertakings formed 1.5 per cent (2,022 out of 1,34,516) of the total suicide victims, whereas students and unemployed victims accounted for 7.6 per (10,159 victims) of total suicides. Self-employed category accounted for 9.8 per cent of total suicide victims (13,149 out of 1,34,516).

A total of 10,349 persons involved in farming sector (consisting of 5,763 farmers and cultivators and 4,586 agricultural labourers) have committed suicide during 2018, accounting for 7.7 per cent of total suicides victims (1,34,516) in the country.

A total of 11 transgenders have committed suicide in which three were daily wage earners, one each were 'professionals and salaried persons' and 'unemployed persons' while six falls under 'Other Persons'.

Udupi, Mar 25: A 34-year-old man who returned from Dubai tested positive for novel coronavirus in Udupi district. This is the first case in the district. 

He returned from Dubai on March 18 and got admitted to a government hospital in Udupi on March 23 for fever. The swab samples were sent to Shivamogga laboratory for testing.

The report which arrived on Wednesday confirmed that he was positive for COVID-19, said DHO Dr Sudhir Chandra Sooda.