Ayushman Bharat

More States urged to join scheme

Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Harsh Vardhan has written to the Chief Ministers of Delhi, Odisha, Telangana, and West Bengal urging them to join Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY). He has also spoken with Arvind Kejriwal, Naveen Patnaik and Mamata Banerjee, the respective Chief Ministers of Delhi, Odisha and West Bengal and is trying to speak with K Chandrashekar Rao, Chief Minister of Telangana, according to a press note.

Urging the remaining States to join the scheme, the Minister argued that the States would gain resources, national portability, state-of-the-art technological platforms, implementation systems, and world-class analytics systems at no additional cost. They will also benefit from a well-proven fraud monitoring and control system and exchange of key learnings and best practices of other States towards equitable healthcare.

The Minister said implementing AB-PMJAY would prove beneficial for not just the State but equally importantly to its people and all stakeholders. The ultimate beneficiary of this collaboration will be poor and vulnerable people. Due to the portability of services, the states will gain from the nationwide network of hospitals. The Minister assured full support and cooperation to States in aligning their own schemes with Ayushman Bharat.

Trauma injuries in Gaza

Detailed analysis by WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with over 20 agencies, conducted a detailed analysis of one year of trauma injuries in Gaza and its humanitarian impact. From March 30, 2018, to March 30, 2019, 277 Palestinians were killed and 28,014 injured. Although any health system in the world would be overwhelmed if it had to manage such a high influx of trauma casualties, the most pressing concern is the staggering number of gunshot wounds — 6,872 or 25 per cent of the total casualty caseload. Out of those, 87 per cent were to the limbs. 172 people became permanently disabled because of their injuries, of whom 36 are children. The biggest cause of permanent disability is amputation. In one year, 121 amputations took place. The WHO supported the Ministry of Health and Palestine Red Crescent Society in establishing trauma stabilisation points (TSPs) where wounded patients receive life-saving care close to the point of injury.

Cluster headaches

USFDA nod for injection

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved Emgality (galcanezumab-gnlm) solution for injection for the treatment of episodic cluster headache in adults. “Emgality provides patients with the first FDA-approved drug that reduces the frequency of attacks of episodic cluster headache, an extremely painful and often debilitating condition,” said Eric Bastings, deputy director of the Division of Neurology Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

Cluster headache is a form of headache that produces extreme pain and tends to occur in clusters, often at the same time(s) of the day, for several weeks to months. The headaches are accompanied by symptoms that may include: bloodshot eyes, excessive tearing of the eyes, drooping of the eyelids, runny nose and/or nasal congestion and facial sweating. Some people experience restlessness and agitation. Cluster headache attacks may strike several times a day, generally lasting between 15 minutes and three hours.

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