‘Malnutrition, quit India’ movement

"Man is guided by the stomach. He walks and the stomach goes first and the head afterwards. Have you seen that? It will take ages for the head to go first"-Swami Vivekananda

The dark age is almost over with the Ministry for Women and Child Development (MWDC), Government of India, having released a campaign against the spread of malnutrition in India.

The campaign, conceived by Prasoon Joshi of McCann Worldgroup, is titled 'Malnutrition Quit India'.
The campaign was launched on 19 November 2012 by president Pranab Mukherjee. It has been two years in the making now, and will roll out over 36 months across four stages by way of 40 AVs in 18 languages.

Mukherjee said, “Every second child in India suffers from malnutrition, and 42.5 per cent Indian children are its victims. These figures are a wakeup call and we must do our utmost at a time when Indian economy is on a strong growth trajectory. Creating public awareness on the different dimensions of malnutrition is a key requirement and I hope the campaign creates an enabling social environment to not only understand but also take informed collective action.”

On the campaign route, Prasoon Joshi, president, McCann Worldgroup, South Asia, said, "The biggest challenge was to present this very complex problem in as simple and idiomatic a language as possible. There was a lot of knowledge to be assimilated, simplified and then broken into easy action points that needed to not only be imbibed but also actioned. The campaign required tremendous bandwidth, and in that McCann formulated not a campaign but a movement: Malnutrition Quit India."

Aamir Khan has been made the face of this campaign for it to go beyond barriers of languages and cultures.(He is also brand ambassador for UNICEF malnutrition elimination cause) In stage one, the campaign would focus on generating awareness on the issue and raise alarm. The second stage would seek involvement of the masses; while stage three will attempt to popularise the message. And a stage four of the campaign will evoke the need to take necessary action.

Source:www.campaignindia.in/

           Applicable and ideal for libraries

OPEN DATA

Just like open access, now the term 'open data' is gaining momentum. It is about-- certain data that should be freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control. It is a data bank which is accessible to all and purpose being to strengthen the statistics of a country that is to enhance and utilize data for scientific research.

U.S site on open data:http://www.data.gov/opendatasites
UK site on open data: http://data.gov.uk/
Indian site ....;http://www.data.gov.in/

Another useful site that I came across is Open Government Platform - OGPL is to promote transparency and citizen engagement-a joint initiative taken up by India and United States to promote transparency and greater citizen engagement by making more government data, documents, tools and processes publicly available.

India develops affordable vaccine for rotavirus diarrhoea
 New Delhi: Indian scientists have developed an affordable vaccine that has shown strong efficacy in preventing rotavirus diarrhoea, the most severe and lethal cause of childhood diarrhoea that kills over 100,000 children annually.


The vaccine `Rotovac` is the outcome of public-private partnership between the Indian government`s Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and pharma company Bharat Biotech.

Once licensed by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), the vaccine will cost around Rs.54 per dose compared to the currently available vaccine which costs Rs.2,250 per dose. Each child needs to take three doses as part of vaccination.

"This is an important scientific breakthrough against rotavirus infections, the most severe and lethal cause of childhood diarrhoea, responsible for approximately 100,000 deaths of small children in India each year and rotavirus vaccine can save 60,000 deaths," said DBT Secretary K. Vijay Raghavan.

"The clinical results indicate that the vaccine, if licensed, could save the lives of thousands of Indian children who get rotavirus diarrhoea every year," he said.

As part of clinical trials, 7,000 infants from low income families in Delhi, Pune and Vellore were administered the vaccine.

"The clinical trials show that the vaccine is efficacious in reducing severe rotavirus diarrhoea by 56 percent during the first year of life, with protection continuing into the second year of life while it reduces the deaths by over 75 percent," said M.K. Bhan, former DBT secretary and currently advisor to the Indian Academy of Paediatrics.

The vaccine originated from an attenuated (weakened) strain of rotavirus that was isolated from an Indian child at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi in 1985-86.

"This is the first time that India has developed a vaccine and it is totally indigenous as strain was taken from an Indian infant, the vaccine was manufactures in India and clinical trials were also done in India," said Bhan.

"With its low price and strong efficacy, the vaccine has the potential to significantly reduce the incidence of severe diarrhoea due to rotavirus among children in India. It can also help in reducing infant deaths in other developing countries," he added.
The oral vaccine can be given alongside routine immunization vaccines like polio vaccine and others.

"It represents the successful research and development of a novel vaccine from the developing world with global standards," said Krishna M. Ella, chairman and managing director of Bharat Biotech.

Source-IANS

Information on web- Ophthalmology in India led me to the following important sites

All India Ophthalmological Society: It is the largest association of eye surgeons in India & second largest in the world with nearly 16,000 members. The AIOS was established in the year 1930.The objectives of the society are cultivation and promotion of the study and practice of ophthalmic sciences, research and man-power development with a view to render service to the community and to promote social contacts among ophthalmologists of the country. 
 The Indian Journal of Ophthalmology (ISSN 0301-4738) or IJO, is the official scientific journal of the All India Ophthalmological Society (AIOS),
 Ocular times is a bi-monthly magazine published by Axiom Communications for the ophthalmic community exclusively. Their mission is to serve you by sharing the latest clinical updates, practical interests like case conference, grand rounds or current treatment protocols, medico-legal aspects, latest research papers, cutting-edge technology  and many, many more.

Little on the  articles that I randomly found on Internet-
1.Sushruta: the father of Indian surgery and ophthalmology.
2. An evaluation of medical college departments of ophthalmology in India and change following provision of modern instrumentation and training
3.Ophthalmic research and publication in India: Where do we stand?

Concerns of Indian Mothers with Children Having Severe-to-Profound Hearing Impairment at Diagnosis and after 1–3 Years of Therapy

Thank you NLM, NDDTC, AIIMS, my mentors, my family, friends in US, UK, India.... who all are helping me stand in tough situations. Luv u all !

Better Hearing & Speech Month

May is Better Hearing & Speech Month (BHSM)! This annual event provides opportunities to raise awareness about communication disorders and to promote treatment that can improve the quality of life for those who experience problems with speaking, understanding or hearing. Here are resources to help you celebrate BHSM every day: http://www.asha.org/bhsm/, http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/Pages/default.aspx, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/speechandcommunicationdisorders.html and http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/hearingdisordersanddeafness.html.(NLM)

Hearing loss is the most common sensory deficit in humans today. As per
WHO estimates in India, there are approximately 63 million people, who are
suffering from significant auditory impairment; this places the estimated prevalence at
6.3% in Indian population. As per NSSO survey, currently there are 291 persons per
one lakh population who are suffering from severe to profound hearing loss (NSSO,
2001). Of these, a large percentage is children between the ages of 0 to 14 years.
With such a large number of hearing impaired young Indians, it amounts to a severe
loss of productivity, both physical and economic. An even larger percentage of our
population suffers from milder degrees of hearing loss and unilateral (one sided) hearing
loss.(NATIONAL PROGRAMME FOR PREVENTION & CONTROL OF DEAFNESS (NPPCD))
Find two papers relevant to this-

Prevalence of preventable ear disorders in over 15 000 schoolchildren in northern India

Identifying children at - risk for speech and hearing disorders: a preliminary survey report from Hyderabad,

Find Institutions/Association from my country- they promote better hearing and speech among those who are suffering or otherwise who wish to know more about this are:  

All India Institute of Speech and Hearing Library and Information Centre

High prevalence of hearing disorder in school kids

- See more at: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/high-prevalence-of-hearing-disorder-in-school-kids/1055522/#sthash.tww2zgzM.dpuf

All India Institute of Speech & Hearing (AIISH) Indian  Speech and Hearing Association (ISHA) The major objectives of this   institute are to impart professional training, render clinical services, conduct research and educate the public on issues related to communication disorders such as hearing impairment, mental retardation, voice, fluency and phonological and language disorders. The Indian Speech and Hearing Association is the professional and scientific association for more 1500 members who are speech-language pathologists, audiologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists in India and internationally and speech, language, and hearing scientists in India and internationally

Lupus Awareness Month

 U. S is celebrating May as Lupus Awareness Month. Many of their researches reported that  those suffering from lupus have a 20-50-fold higher rate of experiencing cardiac events than a person without lupus. (NLM fb posting)

To learn more about signs and symptoms of lupus, please visit NLM’s MedlinePlus at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/lupus.html/ or the Lupus Foundation of America at: www.lupus.org. 


Few of the research papers published from my institute that are available on PubMed are -Click the link Lupus

On searching Google Scholar found a highly cited paper on SLE by Dr. AN Malviya and others-

Excerpts : The first case of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) was reported from India in 1955 followed by two more case reports and further, a series of eight cases, till 1969. Since the establishment of a clinical immunology laboratory at a major teaching institution in New Delhi in 1968, SLE was extensively studied and reported from that centre. From mid-1980 onwards several other centres in different regions in India including Chennai (old name Madras), Mumbai (old name Bombay), Calcutta and Hydrabad, also published their regional experience on SLE. Based on these data, the present report describes the clinical and laboratory characteristics of 1366 SLE patients seen in different regions of India. Arthritis, rash, photosensitivity, seizures and psychosis were seen in comparable proportions to other racial groups.(Lupus November 1997 vol. 6 no. 9 690-700)


Indian sites on Lupus

http://www.rarediseasesindia.org/lupus
http://www.patient.org.in/group/lupus?xg_source=activity (support group)

Invest in the future. Defeat malaria (Tuberculosis, AIDS, Cancer.........)

Over the last decade, the world has made major progress in the fight against malaria.Since 2000, malaria mortality rates have fallen by more than 25%, and 50 of the 99 countries with ongoing transmission are now on track to meet the 2015 World Health Assembly target of reducing incidence rates by more than 75%.(source: WHO) (World Malaria Day, 25 April 2013)

In India, 70% population faces risk of malaria, reveals report 

Aurangabad: "According to the World Malaria Report 2011, over 70% of the country's population faces the risk of malaria infection, with an estimated 310 million people - one-third of the total - facing the 'highest risk'," said V S Bhatkar, the assistant director, malaria, (Aurangabad). "An estimated one million fresh cases are reported in India each year. About 95% of the country's population resides in malaria-endemic areas," he added.(Source: TOI)

Notes: Dirty drain remain open and malaria danger lurks