WHO Named 2019-nCoV
The UN health agency on February 11 announced that "COVID-19" will be the official name of the deadly virus disease from China, saying the disease represented a "very grave threat" for the world but there was a "realistic chance" of stopping it.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/study-material/news-for-aspirants/22842-who-named-2019-ncov.html
#WHO #CoV #COVID #NCP #WHO #MERS #SARS
India is ineligible for GSP benefits: USTR
The United States Trade Representative’s (USTR) office has classified India as a developed economy, ineligible for benefits given by Washington DC to developing countries.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/study-material/news-for-aspirants/22841-india-is-ineligible-for-gsp-benefits-ustr.html
#India #GSP #USTR #GNI #America #PiyushGoyal
Andhra's proposal under PM-KISAN rejected
The Centre has rejected Andhra Pradesh government’s proposal to release the payment under PM-KISAN scheme as a lumpsum amount instead of installments, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar informed Parliament on 11 February 2020.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/study-material/news-for-aspirants/22840-andhra-s-proposal-under-pm-kisan-rejected.html
#Andhra #PMKISAN #NarendraSinghTomar #SMFs
Section 3 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act notified
To ensure that all medical devices meet certain standards of quality and efficacy, the Union Health Ministry on 11 February 2020 notified medical equipment used on humans or animals as "drugs" under Section 3 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, with effect from April 1, 2020.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/study-material/news-for-aspirants/22839-section-3-of-the-drugs-and-cosmetics-act-notified.html
#Section3 #CosmeticsAct #Drugs #CDSCO #DTAB #MaliniAisola
The UN health agency on February 11 announced that "COVID-19" will be the official name of the deadly virus disease from China, saying the disease represented a "very grave threat" for the world but there was a "realistic chance" of stopping it.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/study-material/news-for-aspirants/22842-who-named-2019-ncov.html
#WHO #CoV #COVID #NCP #WHO #MERS #SARS
India is ineligible for GSP benefits: USTR
The United States Trade Representative’s (USTR) office has classified India as a developed economy, ineligible for benefits given by Washington DC to developing countries.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/study-material/news-for-aspirants/22841-india-is-ineligible-for-gsp-benefits-ustr.html
#India #GSP #USTR #GNI #America #PiyushGoyal
Andhra's proposal under PM-KISAN rejected
The Centre has rejected Andhra Pradesh government’s proposal to release the payment under PM-KISAN scheme as a lumpsum amount instead of installments, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar informed Parliament on 11 February 2020.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/study-material/news-for-aspirants/22840-andhra-s-proposal-under-pm-kisan-rejected.html
#Andhra #PMKISAN #NarendraSinghTomar #SMFs
Section 3 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act notified
To ensure that all medical devices meet certain standards of quality and efficacy, the Union Health Ministry on 11 February 2020 notified medical equipment used on humans or animals as "drugs" under Section 3 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, with effect from April 1, 2020.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/study-material/news-for-aspirants/22839-section-3-of-the-drugs-and-cosmetics-act-notified.html
#Section3 #CosmeticsAct #Drugs #CDSCO #DTAB #MaliniAisola
Ksgindia
WHO Named 2019-nCoV | KSG India | Khan Study Group
The UN health agency on February 11 announced that 'COVID-19' will be the official name of the deadly virus disease from China, saying the disease represented a 'very grave threat' for the world but
What does the study show?
The new analysis focuses on the environmental dissemination of ARGs. With every 1% rise in PM2.5 pollution, antibiotic resistance increased between 0.5-1.9% depending on the pathogen — a link which has only intensified with time.
The researchers added that this airborne spread may have also caused premature deaths in India and China, among other countries in South Asia, North Africa and the Middle East which are population dense.
An average of 18.2 million years of life was lost in 2018 worldwide, resulting in an annual economic loss of $395 billion (more than Pakistan’s GDP) due to premature deaths.
The paper is unique in its scale and scope: global antibiotic resistance is driven by multiple factors, one being the “effect derived from the environment, which is poorly understood in relation to antibiotic resistance”.
The researchers collected data from 116 countries spanning almost two decades, to observe the link between rising PM2.5 and antibiotic resistance. The researchers also analysed other predictors, including sanitation services, antibiotic use, population, education, climate.
How is air linked to antibiotic resistance?
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria and genes travel through different pathways: food, soil, water, air, and even direct contact with sources such as animals.
The hypothesis is that ARGs, when emitted from, say, hospitals or livestock farming, could latch on to pollutant particles, which were found to contain “diverse antibiotic-resistant bacteria and antibiotic-resistance genes, which are transferred between environments and directly inhaled by humans, causing respiratory-tract injury and infection.”
When suspended in the environment or breathed into the lungs, the ARGs could enter the bacteria found in the human body and solidify its resistance to drugs. “PM 2.5 can facilitate the horizontal gene transfer of antibiotic-resistant genes between bacteria,” the research found.
PM2.5 contains a high concentration of antibiotic resistance-determinant genes, and these particles can travel far and wide due to wind speed, water evaporation, and dust transport.
ARGs are also more abundant in urban air particles than in sediment, soil or rivers, the analysis showed.
#upsc #news #headline #airpollution #antibiotic #health #diseases #drugs #bacteria #immune #news #globally #malaria #clinical #enviroment #ciprofloxacin #WHO #escherichiacoli #MDRTB #izoniazid #rifampin #nation #cholera #tuberculosis #antibiotics #china #GDP #hypothesis #sources #infection
The new analysis focuses on the environmental dissemination of ARGs. With every 1% rise in PM2.5 pollution, antibiotic resistance increased between 0.5-1.9% depending on the pathogen — a link which has only intensified with time.
The researchers added that this airborne spread may have also caused premature deaths in India and China, among other countries in South Asia, North Africa and the Middle East which are population dense.
An average of 18.2 million years of life was lost in 2018 worldwide, resulting in an annual economic loss of $395 billion (more than Pakistan’s GDP) due to premature deaths.
The paper is unique in its scale and scope: global antibiotic resistance is driven by multiple factors, one being the “effect derived from the environment, which is poorly understood in relation to antibiotic resistance”.
The researchers collected data from 116 countries spanning almost two decades, to observe the link between rising PM2.5 and antibiotic resistance. The researchers also analysed other predictors, including sanitation services, antibiotic use, population, education, climate.
How is air linked to antibiotic resistance?
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria and genes travel through different pathways: food, soil, water, air, and even direct contact with sources such as animals.
The hypothesis is that ARGs, when emitted from, say, hospitals or livestock farming, could latch on to pollutant particles, which were found to contain “diverse antibiotic-resistant bacteria and antibiotic-resistance genes, which are transferred between environments and directly inhaled by humans, causing respiratory-tract injury and infection.”
When suspended in the environment or breathed into the lungs, the ARGs could enter the bacteria found in the human body and solidify its resistance to drugs. “PM 2.5 can facilitate the horizontal gene transfer of antibiotic-resistant genes between bacteria,” the research found.
PM2.5 contains a high concentration of antibiotic resistance-determinant genes, and these particles can travel far and wide due to wind speed, water evaporation, and dust transport.
ARGs are also more abundant in urban air particles than in sediment, soil or rivers, the analysis showed.
#upsc #news #headline #airpollution #antibiotic #health #diseases #drugs #bacteria #immune #news #globally #malaria #clinical #enviroment #ciprofloxacin #WHO #escherichiacoli #MDRTB #izoniazid #rifampin #nation #cholera #tuberculosis #antibiotics #china #GDP #hypothesis #sources #infection
Today's Headlines - 16 August 2023
Rule to prescribe generic drugs
GS Paper - 3 (Health and Diseases)
After the National Medical Commission notified new guidelines on professional conduct recently, doctors have been protesting one of the stipulations — using generic names of medicines on the prescription instead of a particular brand name. The Indian Medical Association, the largest body of doctors in the country, said in a statement this was akin to “running trains without tracks.”
What do the guidelines say?
The guidelines say that doctors can only write the generic names of the medicine on the prescription.
For example, a doctor will have to prescribe paracetamol for fever, instead of Dolo or Calpol Every RMP should prescribe drugs using generic names written legibly, the guidelines say.
This practice can only be relaxed for medicines with narrow therapeutic index (drugs where a small difference in dosage may lead to adverse outcomes), biosimilars (a different version of biologic products that are manufactured in living systems), and “similar other exceptional cases.”
The guideline says that generic medicines, on average, are 30% to 80% cheaper than the branded versions, and are hence likely to bring down healthcare costs.
What does it mean for you?
The new guidelines do not allow doctors to write a specific brand, which means that you will get whichever medicine with the relevant active ingredient your pharmacist stocks.
If a pharmacy does not have a generic version of a medicine — which drug stores usually do not stock because of very low profit margins — the responsibility to substitute it with a branded medicine will shift to the pharmacist instead of the doctor. This will promote brands that have good profit margins, irrespective of how good they are.
Additionally, doctors say it will also take away their choice of prescribing the medicine they think is the best for a patient.
Taken in the context of the quality of generics varying across companies, this could result in ineffective treatment.
What are the issues with generic medicines?
Doctors, drug manufacturers, and the government all agree that there is much to be done when it comes to the quality of generic medicines in the country.
While the doctors in the IMA statement said that only 0.1% medicines are tested for quality checks, manufacturers said it is not possible for the government to test every batch, but following good manufacturing practices to the T can assure quality by design.
Many have also questioned the tests that a company needs to do to get approval. Until a few years ago, it was not mandatory for companies making generics to carry out bio-equivalence or stability studies.
Bioequivalence studies are done to show that the generic drug elicits the same response as a branded version.
Stability studies are done to see how the quality of the drug varies over a period under specific environmental conditions.
Experts from the pharmaceutical sector admit that there are drugs still in the market that never underwent these studies.
Data from the Union health ministry shows that around 3% of all medicines tested over the last three years — including generics, branded generics, and branded medicines — were found to be not of standard quality.
#upsc #news #headline #rule #prescribe #generic #drugs #health #diseases #national #medical #commission #medicines #indian #doctors #tracks #trains #indian #guidelines #paracetamol #RMP #Biosimilars #index #therapeutic #cases #healthcare #pharmacist #version
Rule to prescribe generic drugs
GS Paper - 3 (Health and Diseases)
After the National Medical Commission notified new guidelines on professional conduct recently, doctors have been protesting one of the stipulations — using generic names of medicines on the prescription instead of a particular brand name. The Indian Medical Association, the largest body of doctors in the country, said in a statement this was akin to “running trains without tracks.”
What do the guidelines say?
The guidelines say that doctors can only write the generic names of the medicine on the prescription.
For example, a doctor will have to prescribe paracetamol for fever, instead of Dolo or Calpol Every RMP should prescribe drugs using generic names written legibly, the guidelines say.
This practice can only be relaxed for medicines with narrow therapeutic index (drugs where a small difference in dosage may lead to adverse outcomes), biosimilars (a different version of biologic products that are manufactured in living systems), and “similar other exceptional cases.”
The guideline says that generic medicines, on average, are 30% to 80% cheaper than the branded versions, and are hence likely to bring down healthcare costs.
What does it mean for you?
The new guidelines do not allow doctors to write a specific brand, which means that you will get whichever medicine with the relevant active ingredient your pharmacist stocks.
If a pharmacy does not have a generic version of a medicine — which drug stores usually do not stock because of very low profit margins — the responsibility to substitute it with a branded medicine will shift to the pharmacist instead of the doctor. This will promote brands that have good profit margins, irrespective of how good they are.
Additionally, doctors say it will also take away their choice of prescribing the medicine they think is the best for a patient.
Taken in the context of the quality of generics varying across companies, this could result in ineffective treatment.
What are the issues with generic medicines?
Doctors, drug manufacturers, and the government all agree that there is much to be done when it comes to the quality of generic medicines in the country.
While the doctors in the IMA statement said that only 0.1% medicines are tested for quality checks, manufacturers said it is not possible for the government to test every batch, but following good manufacturing practices to the T can assure quality by design.
Many have also questioned the tests that a company needs to do to get approval. Until a few years ago, it was not mandatory for companies making generics to carry out bio-equivalence or stability studies.
Bioequivalence studies are done to show that the generic drug elicits the same response as a branded version.
Stability studies are done to see how the quality of the drug varies over a period under specific environmental conditions.
Experts from the pharmaceutical sector admit that there are drugs still in the market that never underwent these studies.
Data from the Union health ministry shows that around 3% of all medicines tested over the last three years — including generics, branded generics, and branded medicines — were found to be not of standard quality.
#upsc #news #headline #rule #prescribe #generic #drugs #health #diseases #national #medical #commission #medicines #indian #doctors #tracks #trains #indian #guidelines #paracetamol #RMP #Biosimilars #index #therapeutic #cases #healthcare #pharmacist #version