A daylong conference on 20th January

eMedinewS and Heart Care Foundation of India will be organizing a daylong conference on 20^th January, 2013 at Maulana Azad Medical College and will be attended by over 1000 doctors. The conference will revisit the happenings of the year 2012.

Addressing a press conference here Padma Shri & Dr. BC Roy National Awardee, Dr. KK Aggarwal, Group Editor-in-Chief eMedinewS and President Heart Care Foundation of India, and Dr Ganesh Mani, Dr Ashish Jain, Dr. Vivek Bhatia, Dr. Praveen Bhatia, Dr Jugal Mishra, Dr. N.K.Bhatia, Dr. Neeraj Jain, Dr Kailash Singla and Dr. Praveen Chandra, in a joint statement said that a lot has changed in the last one year. Following were a few of the new advancements:

1. The new mantra for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR10) – Over 25000 people in the city of Delhi alone have been trained in CPR10 to revive people out of sudden death. The mantra created by Dr. KK Aggarwal simplifies the course of action to be taken by people – “within 10 minutes of death (earlier the better), at least for the next 10 minutes (longer the better – upto 25 minutes), compress the centre of the chest of the victim effectively and continuously with a speed of 10x10 i.e. 100 per minutes”.

2. For patients whose blood pressure is not getting under control, new treatment is denervation of the nerves connected to the kidney.

3. For suspected rheumatic heart diseases, echo screening and not clinical screening is the answer.

4. Bypass surgery is better than drug quoted stents in patients with diabetes.

5. Pre-exposure prophylaxes with tenofvir and emtricitadine is now an established way of preventing HIV in high risk individuals.

6. New guidelines suggest that all patients of HIV+ should be treated regardless of CD4 T cells count.

7. Bacterial nasal sinusitis needs to be treated by anti-biotic and should be differentiated from viral nasal sinusitis.

8. In patients over the age of 70 years being treated with enema for constipation, one should use warm water enema rather than sodium phosphate enema.

9. In women of 65 years of age and older with a normal or slightly low bone mass at baseline measurement and with no risk factors of accelerated bone loss, follow-up bone densitometry should be done between 10-15 years.

10. Patients with high cholesterol on statin no more require monitoring of liver functions. They should be done only at baseline and not thereafter

11. Patients of depression on citalopriam should not be given a dose more than 40 mg and in 60+, it should not be more than 20mg.

12. Bio-absorbable polymers stent are now available in India.

13. Without surgery aortic valve replacement via catheter has now started in India.

14. Small intestinal transplant has been added to the list of transplant in the country.

15. Recently, a patient from Delhi who was brain dead donated his organs to 37 people.

16. A circular from Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has clarified that under the PNDT Act, medical practitioners with post graduation in gynecology and obstetrics are qualified to do obstetric ultrasound.

17. Suspect bacterial infection if:

a. Persistent symptoms or signs lasting more than 10 days with no improvement.

b. Onset with fever of more than 102 degree and purulent nasal discharge lasting three consecutive days.

c. Onset with worsening symptoms following a viral URI lasting 5-6 days which was initially improving.

Mr Gursharan Singh former Indian Cricketer was the special guest of the day.

The conference will be followed by ‘Doctor of the year’ awards and cultural evening.

Illegal abortion: Two–year jail for doctors

Recently, a court in Faridkot, Punjab sentenced two doctors to 2–year imprisonment for indulging in illegal abortion. In this case, both the doctors helped in the termination of a three–month fetus deeming it to be female fetus but after abortion, the fetus was found to be male. The wrong sex determination and its termination led to a lot of protest and uproar by the same family which went for abortion thinking the fetus was a female. The case happened in January 2007 when one of the doctors concluded from an ultrasound examination that the fetus was female and on the request of the family members, it was terminated by another doctor. The case opens a lot of questions:
1. Sex determination is still taking place in Punjab?
2. Termination of pregnancy is still being done if the fetus is female.
3. Ultrasound can often misdiagnose a male fetus as female; not seeing a male organ in the fetus does not mean that the fetus is female.
4. In such cases, the family which also consents for abortion invariably comes out free of blame and it is the doctor who faces the punishment.
5. Action should have been taken not only against the doctors but also against the parents who consented for the abortion.

Dr KK Aggarwal
Editor in Chief

Padmashri and Dr B C Roy National Awardee

PNDT Update

1. Soon, sex selection may cost a doctor his licence to practice. As per new directions, Union Health Ministry through Medical Council of India is likely to direct all State Medical Councils to identify the doctors convicted till date under the PNDT Act and ensure that their licence to practice is cancelled permanently. So far about 800 court cases against doctors in 17 states have resulted in 55 convictions.
2. A city court of Gurgaon in March convicted five Gurgaon doctors under PNDT Act and ordered rigorous imprisonment of three years with a fine of Rs. 1000 each. The doctors were Dr. J.L.M, Dr. M.S.T, Dr. D.B.L, Dr. P.B.L, and Dr. KSS. They have all been convicted for committing offence under section 23 of PNDT Act. The doctors were caught red-handed on the spot by a decoy team.
3. A high level meeting convened by the Prime Minister’s Office looked into the possibility of making abortion a subject to checks like mandatory counseling and medical advice.

eMedinewS comments: When parents do not want a child, they have options of emergency contraception in the first 72 hours, medical pill abortion upto 8 weeks and surgical abortion upto 12 weeks. In all probabilities, if a decision to terminate the pregnancy is taken after 12 weeks, the parents somehow know the sex of the fetus. Will the Government consider banning an abortion after 12 weeks or making abortion after 12 week more stringent and more monitored? Will the law also consider taking action against the parents. Till now, many doctors have been convicted but not even a single parent has been punished for getting an abortion done.