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Over 46,000 Mumbaikars have succumbed to TB in the last 6 years: Report

[email protected] (Mid Day)
July 16, 2014

Mumbaikars TBMumbai, Jul 16: As per RTI data compiled by an NGO, Praja Foundation, in the last one year itself 7,650 people across Mumbai succumbed to various diseases ranging from malaria, tuberculosis to typhoid. From this, the highest number of people (7075) succumbed to TB as per cause of death certificates issued by the BMC’s public health department. Furthermore, through this data, it was found that 46,606 people died due to TB in the last six years itself.

In Maharashtra, every month reports are received at the state office of the deputy chief registrar or birth and death at Pune where in the case of deaths that take place in various hospitals, the head of the institution is responsible for the submission of form no.4 to the local registrar. “Through this data that is being maintained since September 2004 under the Registration of Birth and Death (RBD) Act 1969, we have found major discrepancies in the reporting system of deaths caused by diseases like TB, malaria, dengue, among others,” said Milind Mhaske, project director at Praja Foundation.

The data was collected from civic-run hospitals/dispensaries, state-runs hospitals as well as privately-run ones across Mumbai. “According to data released by BMC in 2014, only 1393 people died due to TB and 30 due to malaria. While RTI data for the same period from cause of death certificates issued by the BMC themselves under RBD Act reveals that this year, 7127 already succumbed to TB and another 199 due to malaria. This is mainly because the BMC only compiles data from their own hospitals and not private or state-run hospitals,” he added.

Other than that, as per BMC records, only 30 patients succumbed to malaria while deaths due to the disease from death certificates stated that 199 citizens lost their lives because of it.

Diarrhoea was another cause of concern as a staggering 1,2 lakh residents were diagnosed with the water borne disease out of which 255 died between 2013-14. Other water borne diseases like cholera and typhoid resulted in seven and 10 deaths respectively. Dengue deaths have also risen from 52 to 74 in the last three years and in 2013, to 108.

The Other Side

When contacted, Dr Mangala Gomare, epidemiologist of the BMC said, “Basically the cause of death (COD) given in death certificates is based on the clinical impression of treating physician or general practitioner available at the time. At times, these doctors aren’t even qualified and the confirmation of the COD can be given only after a diagnostic test like ELISA for dengue. For malaria cases, the death review committee confirms whether the patient died due to the disease or not.”

“Other than that, many patients are shifted to Mumbai and aren’t residents here so their deaths aren’t included in our records,” she added.

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Agencies
August 2,2020

Washington, Aug 2: Children under the age of five have between 10 to 100 times greater levels of genetic material of the coronavirus in their noses compared to older children and adults, a study in JAMA Pediatrics said Thursday.

Its authors wrote this meant that young children might be important drivers of Covid-19 transmission within communities -- a suggestion at odds with the current prevailing narrative.

The paper comes as the administration of US President Donald Trump is pushing hard for schools and daycare to reopen in order to kickstart the economy.

Between March 23 and April 27, researchers carried out nasal swab tests on 145 Chicago patients with mild to moderate illness within one week of symptom onset.

The patients were divided into three groups: 46 children younger than five-years-old, 51 children aged five to 17 years, and 48 adults aged 18 to 65 years.

The team, led by Dr Taylor Heald-Sargent of the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital, observed, "a 10-fold to 100-fold greater amount of SARS-CoV-2 in the upper respiratory tract of young children."

15 countries with the highest number of cases, deaths due to the Covid-19 pandemic

The authors added that a recent lab study had demonstrated that the more viral genetic material was present, the more infectious virus could be grown.

It has also previously been shown that children with high viral loads of the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are more likely to spread the disease.

"Thus, young children can potentially be important drivers of SARS-CoV-2 spread in the general population," the authors wrote.

"Behavioral habits of young children and close quarters in school and daycare settings raise concern for SARS-CoV-2 amplification in this population as public health restrictions are eased," they concluded.

The new findings are at odds with the current view among health authorities that young children -- who, it has been well established, are far less likely to fall seriously ill from the virus -- don't spread it much to others either.

However, there has been fairly little research on the topic so far.

One recent study in South Korea found children aged 10 to 19 transmitted Covid-19 within households as much as adults, but children under nine transmitted the virus at lower rates.

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Agencies
March 27,2020

New Delhi, Mar 27: The Centre has restricted sale and distribution of "hydroxychloroquine" declaring it as an essential drug to treat the COVID-19 patients and meet the requirements of emergency arising due to the pandemic.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday made the announcement making it clear that the order "shall come into force on the date of its publication in the official Gazette".

In the order, the government declared that the Central government is "satisfied that the drug hydroxychloroquine is essential to meet the requirements of emergency arising due to pandemic COVID-19 and in the public interest, it is necessary and expedient to regulate and restrict the sale and distribution of the drug 'hydroxychloroquine' and preparation based thereon for preventing their misuse".

"Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 26B of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 (23 of 1940), the Central government hereby directs that sale by retail of any preparation containing the drug Hydroxychloroquine shall be in accordance with the conditions for sale of drugs specified in Schedule H1 to the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945."

The order came at a time when the novel coronavirus claimed 16 lives and infected over 600 people across India.

The announcement regarding ban of sale and distribution of the drug was made by the government earlier but it issued an official Gazette notification on Thursday signalling that hydroxychloroquine -- an anti-Malaria drug -- will work as a medicine for treating coronavirus infected patients as well.

Recently, the national task force for COVID-19 constituted by Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) has recommended hydroxy-chloroquine as a preventive medication.

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News Network
March 5,2020

Bergen, Mar 5: Divorce of parents may impact the academics of children negatively, suggests a new study.

According to the study, parental divorce is associated with a lower grade point average (GPA) among adolescents, with a stronger association seen in teens with more educated mothers.

The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Children and adolescents with divorced or separated parents are known to do less well in school than adolescents with nondivorced parents and to be less well-adjusted, on average, across a spectrum of physical and mental health outcomes.

In the new study, researchers used data from the youth@hordaland study, a population-based survey of adolescents aged 16-19 conducted in the spring of 2012 in Hordaland County, Norway.

19,439 adolescents were invited to participate and 10,257 agreed; of those, 9,166 are included in the current study.

Overall, adolescents with divorced parents had a 0.3 point lower GPA (standard error 0.022, p<0.01) than their peers.

Controlling for parental education reduced the effect by 0.06 points to 0.240 (SE 0.021, p<0.01). This heterogeneity was predominantly driven by maternal education levels, the researchers found.

After controlling for paternal education and income measures, divorce was associated with a 0.120 point decrease in GPA among adolescents whose mothers had a secondary school education level; a 0.175 point decrease when mothers had a Bachelor's level education; and a 0.209 point decrease when mothers had a Master's or PhD level education (all estimates relative to adolescents with a mother who had a basic level of education, such as ISCED 0-2).

Due to the cross-sectional structure of the study, researchers could not investigate specific changes between pre- and post-divorce family life, and future studies are needed to investigate potential mechanisms (such as reduced parental monitoring or school-involvement) which might drive this finding.

Nonetheless, this study provides new evidence that the negative association between divorce and teens' GPA is especially strong in families with more educated mothers.

"Among Norwegian adolescents, parental divorce was hardly associated with GPA among youth whose parents have low educational qualifications. In contrast, among adolescents with educated or highly educated mothers, divorce was significantly associated with lower GPA," said the authors.

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