Lex reporter
Welcome to the 38th edition of the Lexicon magazine.
As the sun rays pour through your window, it’s time to rise and shine. The day has dawned crisp and clear. Now grab a cup of tea, mind you it should be piping hot, just like our news!
Lex reporter brings to you the exclusive (not really) medical news highlights that you can enjoy with your morning tea or lunch or even your midnight snack (let’s be real, are you actually reading this early morning?)
NFHS-5 finds more women than men in India:
Indicating a demographic shift, the number of women surpassed men for the first time in India with a sex ratio 1020:1000
Is antimicrobial resistance becoming an unfixable problem?
According to the WHO, antimicrobial resistance is an emerging global problem.
For the most part, antibiotics have proved to be a crucial ally in the fight for health, but over the past few years, these drugs have begun to lose their footing in their confrontation with bacteria.
This is because more and more bacterial strains are developing antibiotic resistance — they are no longer affected by the drugs that once suppressed their growth and activity.
This means that many bacteria have become more threatening because we have fewer means of offsetting them. In the face of this growing threat, policymakers have been pushing for a more careful use of antibiotics in general, while researchers have been searching for treatments that could effectively fight antibiotic resistant bacteria.
What can we do?
- Discuss the needs of antibiotics with your healthcare provider
- Get appropriate vaccination
- Clean your hands and maintain hygiene
Long covid syndrome: Risk factors and effects
Long COVID, also known as post-acute sequelae SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC) in medicine, can be characterised as an amalgamation of lingering symptoms long after the acute infection has cleared. These symptoms are often respiratory or musculoskeletal, but there are increasing reports of gastrointestinal and neurological symptoms.
The symptoms include:
- respiratory viral symptoms – cough, fatigue, shortness of breath, fever or chills, muscle/body aches, nausea.
- gastrointestinal – diarrhoea, abdominal pain.
- neurologic – anxiety, blurred vision, depression, memory problems, difficulty concentrating, difficulty sleeping, dizziness, headache.
- anosmia/dysgeusia – loss of taste, loss of smell
The factors that heighten long covid risk include:
- The level of coronavirus RNA in the patient’s blood.
- The presence of certain autoantibodies.
- Having type 2 diabetes.
NEET PG 2022 which had been originally scheduled for March 12 has now been postponed by six to eight weeks. Due to the delay in both the NEET PG exam and the NEET PG counselling, medical students couldn’t start off their college courses. This resulted in a one-third short-fall of doctors across India leading to country-wide protests.The delay in PG counselling has resulted in a shortage of 42,000 resident doctors in the country at a time when the healthcare system is under severe pressure as they brace themselves for the third wave of the Corona pandemic.This means that within three months of each other two batches of PG students i.e around 90,000 students will be in the system. This is going to add tremendous pressure on the teaching faculty who are already dealing with a 1:3 instead of a 1:2 ratio.
Fees Of 50% Seats In Private Medical Colleges To Be At Par With Government College: NMC1
It has been decided that the fee of the 50 per cent seats in the private medical college and deemed universities should be at par with the fee in the Government Medical College of that particular state and Union Territory. The benefit of this fee structure would be first made available to those candidates who have availed government quota seats, but limited to the extent of 50 per cent of total sanctioned strength of the respective medical college/ deemed university.
“However, if the government quota seats are less than 50 per cent of the total sanctioned seats, the remaining candidates would avail benefit of fee equivalent to the government medical college fees, based purely on the merit,” the NMC statement added.
Phew! You finally made it so far, I’m glad you survived (just kidding). I hope this news enlightened your mood (I hardly doubt this) and to make up for that, let’s end this section with a little bit of positivity.
Glenmark launches FabiSpray in India:
Drug maker Glenmark pharmaceuticals along with Canadian pharmaceutical company saNOtize research and development corporation have launched their Nitric Oxide nasal spray under the name FabiSpray in India; for the treatment of adult patients with Covid-19 who have risk of progression of the disease. When sprayed over the nasal mucosa it acts as a physical and chemical barrier against the virus, preventing it from incubating and spreading to the lungs. Not only this, it has been observed that this has a 2-point improvement in most patients without any severe serious adverse effects.
Your tea might be cold now, but remember that we (lex reporter) will always be there for you in such unprecedented times. I hope you have a great day!
References:
1.https://medicaldialogues.in/news/industry/pharma/covid-19-glenmark-launches-fabispray-in-india-88289
6.https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/study-identifies-those-most-at-risk-of-long-covid
Hitaishi Thakkar
Just a sincere medical student wanting to learn and serve the society. I am an artist too!
Rudrakshi Shetty
I’m a 4th year medical student and other than learning about medicine, I really enjoy playing sudoku and listening to crime podcasts. Oh! I also love cats!
