Exposure to second-hand smoke down in India, but remains major concern – Here are survey details

Agencies
June 9, 2018

New Delhi, Jun 9: Exposure to second-hand smoke remains a major concern in India even though there has been a reduction in such exposure at home and public places since 2009-10, as per the Global Adult Tobacco Survey 2 (GATS 2), released here by the Health Ministry. However, exposure to second-hand smoke at healthcare facilities has increased in this period. The survey showed that little more than one-third (35 per cent) of the non-smokers were exposed to second hand smoke (SHS) at home in India. In urban areas 25 per cent of non-smokers and in rural areas 40.4 per cent of non-smokers were exposed to SHS at home, respectively.

Among all adults, 5.3 per cent were exposed to second hand smoke in government buildings, 3.6 per cent at private work places, 5.6 per cent in healthcare facilities, 7.4 per cent in restaurants, 13.3 per cent in public transport, 2.1 per cent in bar/night club and 2.2 per cent in cinema halls. In all 25.7 per cent of adults were exposed to second hand smoke in any of these seven public places.

Nationally, 37.7 per cent pregnant women were exposed to SHS at home during the one month preceding the survey while 21.0 per cent pregnant women were exposed to SHS at their workplace and 25.9 per cent were exposed to SHS at any of the seven in public places. “The proportion of households in which smoking is allowed has decreased significantly from 60.4 per cent in GATS 1 (2009-10) to 48.8 per cent in GATS 2 (2016-17).

The proportion of non-smokers exposed to SHS at home has decreased significantly from 48 per cent in GATS 1 to 35 per cent in GATS 2,” the report stated. Among all adults, exposure to SHS at government buildings/offices has decreased significantly from 6.6 per cent in GATS 1 to 5.3 per cent in GATS 2 while at restaurants it has decreased from 11.3 per cent to 7.4 per cent.

In public transports, exposure to SHS has decreased significantly from 17.5 per cent in GATS 1 to 13.3 per cent in GATS 2. However, exposure to SHS at healthcare facilities has increased from 5.4 per cent in GATS 1 to 5.6 per cent in GATS 2. The survey showed that 28.6 per cent of people, aged 15 and above, currently use tobacco in some form in India even though the prevalence of tobacco use has declined significantly over the last seven years.

It also showed that every third adult (32.5 per cent) from rural areas and every fifth adult (21.2 per cent) from urban area reported current use of tobacco with the prevalence among men being 42.4 per cent and among women it was 14.2 per cent.

From GATS 1 in 2009-10 to GATS 2 in 2016-17, the prevalence of any form of tobacco use has decreased significantly by six percentage points from 34.6 per cent to 28.6 per cent. The prevalence of daily tobacco use has decreased by 4.2 percentage points (relative decrease of 14.4 per cent) and the prevalence of occasional tobacco use has decreased by 1.7 percentage points (relative decrease of 31.5 per cent).

The decrease in both is statistically significant. ? There is a significant increase of one year in the mean age at initiation of tobacco use from 17.9 years in GATS 1 to 18.9 years in GATS 2, the report highlighted. According to the report, khaini, a tobacco, lime mixture, is the most commonly used with every ninth adult (11.2 per cent) in India using it followed by bidi, which is smoked by 7.7 per cent of adult Indians.

In urban areas, khaini (6.8 pc ) and gutka (6.3 pc ) are the two most commonly used tobacco products, whereas in rural areas khaini (13.5 pc) and bidi (9.3 pc ) are the most prevalent tobacco products. GATS 2 was carried out in 30 states of India and in the two union territories of Chandigarh and Puducherry from August 2016 to February 2017.

The analysis is based on 74,037 completed interviews, among which 33,772 were with men and 40,265 with women. Of these, 47,549 interviews were conducted in rural areas and 26,488 in urban areas.

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News Network
July 9,2020

Washington, Jul 9: Ayurvedic practitioners and researchers in India and the US are planning to initiate joint clinical trials for Ayurveda formulations against the novel coronavirus, the Indian envoy here has said.

In a virtual interaction with a group of eminent Indian-American scientists, academicians, and doctors on Wednesday, Indian Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu said the vast network of institutional engagements have brought scientific communities between the two countries together in the fight against Covid-19.

 “Our Institutions have also been collaborating to promote Ayurveda through joint research, teaching and training programs. Ayurvedic practitioners and researchers in both the countries are planning to initiate joint clinical trials of Ayurvedic formulations against Covid-19,” Sandhu said.

“Our scientists have been exchanging knowledge and research resources on this front,” he said.

The Indo-US Science Technology Forum (IUSSTF) has always been instrumental in promoting excellence in science, technology, and innovation through collaborative activities.

To address Covid-19-related challenges, the IUSSTF had given a call to support joint research and start-up engagements. A large number of proposals are being reviewed on fast track mode by the experts on both the sides, he said.

“Indian pharmaceutical companies are global leaders in producing affordable low-cost medicines and vaccines and will play an important role in the fight against this pandemic,” Sandhu said.

According to the ambassador, there are at least three ongoing collaborations between Indian vaccine companies with US-based institutions.

These collaborations would be beneficial not just to India and the US, but also for the billions who would need to be vaccinated against Covid-19 across the world, he noted.

Asserting that innovation will be the key driver in pandemic response and recovery, he said tech-companies and start-ups have already begun to take the lead in this direction.

"Telemedicine and telehealth will evolve as will other digital platforms across sectors," he said.

Noting that there has been a longstanding collaboration between India and the US in the health sector, he said scientists have been working together in several programs to understand important diseases at the basic and clinical level.

Many such programs have been focused on translational research to develop new therapeutics and diagnostics.

There are over 200 ongoing NIH funded projects in India involving 20 institutions from NIH network and several eminent institutions in India engaged in a wide spectrum of research areas to create health care solutions, the senior diplomat said.

The collaboration under Vaccine Action Program (VAP) resulted in the development of ROTAVAC vaccine against rotavirus which causes severe diarrhea in children.

The vaccine was developed by an Indian company (Bharat Biotech) at an affordable cost. It has been commercialised and introduced in the Expanded Program on Immunisation.

Development of many other vaccines such as TB, Influenza, Chikungunya are also in progress under the VAP, he said.

 “As I speak, the VAP meeting is in progress where experts from both countries are deeply engaged in technical discussions to expedite development of Covid-19 vaccine,” Sandhu said in his remarks.

During the interaction, the eminent experts appreciated India's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and offered their valuable suggestions and best practices in this regard.

They shared their ideas on deepening the knowledge partnership between India and the US.

The experts who took part in the interaction, were drawn from wide-ranging fields including artificial intelligence, quantum information science, biomedical engineering, robotics, mechanical engineering, earth and ocean science, virology, physics, astrophysics, and health sciences.

Prominent among those who attended the virtual interaction were Subhash Kak Regents Professor at Oklahoma State University, Dr Vijay Kuchroo, Samuel L Wasserstrom Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, Dr Ashish M Kamat, Professor of Urology at MD Anderson Cancer Center, Ashutosh Chilkoti, Alan L Kaganov Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University; and Prof Manu Prakash, a professor in Department of Bioengineering at Sandford University, among others.

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News Network
March 6,2020

Mar 6: The spread of the new coronavirus is shining the spotlight on a little-discussed gender split: men wash their hands after using the bathroom less than women, years of research and on-the-ground observations show.

Health officials around the world advise that deliberate, regular handwashing is one of the best weapons against the virus which causes a flu-like respiratory illness that can kill and has spread to around 80 countries.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's online fact sheet "Handwashing: A corporate activity," cites a 2009 study that finds "only 31% of men and 65% of women washed their hands" after using a public restroom.

Social media comments about men's handwashing lapses forced an august British institution to caution visitors about bathroom behaviour this week.

After author Sathnam Sanghera complained on Twitter about "grown," "educated" men in the British Library toilets not washing their hands, the library responded, putting up additional signs reminding patrons to wash their hands in men's and women's bathrooms.

Thanks to "visitor feedback," a spokesman told Reuters, "we have increased further the number of posters in public toilets so that visitors are reminded of the importance of good hygiene at exactly the point where they can wash their hands."

Men and women approach handwashing after using the restroom differently, according to multiple surveys and field studies.

"Women wash their hands significantly more often, use soap more often, and wash their hands somewhat longer than men," according to a 2013 Michigan State University field study conducted by research assistants who observed nearly 4,000 people in restrooms around East Lansing, Michigan.

The study found 14.6% of men did not wash their hands at all after using the bathroom and 35.1% wet their hands but did not use soap, compared to 7.1% and 15.1% of women, respectively.

"If you stand in the men's bathroom at work, and watch men leave, they mostly don't wash their hands if they used the urinal," said one New York City public relations executive, who did not want to be identified for fear of alienating his colleagues.

Since the virus's spread, he's seen an uptick in men's handwashing at work, he noted. "I, for the record, do wash my hands all the time," he added.

Female medical staff in critical care units "washed their hands significantly more often than did their male counterparts after patient contact," a 2001 study published in the American Journal of Infection Control found.

Middle-aged women with some college education had the highest level of knowledge about hand hygiene, a survey published in 2019 by BMC Public Health, an open access public health journal, found.

Early information about coronavirus infection in China shows that men may be more susceptible to the disease. Just over 58% of the more than 1,000 COVID-19 patients reported in China through Jan. 29, 2020, were male, research published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows.

Researchers have not linked the difference to hand hygiene.

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Agencies
June 23,2020

The record levels of new daily COVID-19 cases are due to the fact that the pandemic is peaking in a number of big countries at the same time and reflect a change in the virus' global activity, the World Health Organisation said.

At a media briefing on Monday, WHO's emergencies chief Dr Michael Ryan said that the numbers are increasing because the epidemic is developing in a number of populous countries at the same time.

Some countries have attributed their increased caseload to more testing, including India and the US But Ryan dismissed that explanation.

We do not believe this is a testing phenomenon, he said, noting that numerous countries have also noted marked increases in hospital admissions and deaths neither of which cannot be explained by increased testing.

There definitely is a shift in that the virus is now very well established, Ryan said. The epidemic is now peaking or moving towards a peak in a number of large countries.

He added the situation was definitely accelerating in a number of countries, including the US and others in South Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

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