Malaria

• Malaria is transmitted by the bite of a female anopheles mosquito.
• The mosquito bite occurs mainly between dusk and dawn.
• Malaria can also be transmitted through blood transfusion, or via sharing of contaminated needles.
• Bed nets are good against malaria as the major malarial vectors bite during the night.
• The behavior of the mosquitoes may differ. Some may prefer to rest indoors and feed indoors in the night. Some may prefer to rest and feed outdoors earlier in the day.
• Preventive therapy of malaria can be instituted during pregnancy in high risk areas.
• The malarial mosquito feeds every third day compared to the dengue mosquito, which feeds three times in a day.
• Unlike the malarial mosquito, the dengue mosquito bites during the day.
• Malarial fever presents with chills, especially during afternoon.
• Spraying of the indoor residential walls and ceiling is effective against mosquitos.
• DDT is widely used as indoor residential spraying.
• DDT should not be applied more than once or twice in a year on the walls.
• Mosquito contact with DDT surface would generally save from lethal exposure outside the house.
• Public must know that spray may require rearrangement of the furniture. Walls may become streaked with chemical treatment and residual odor from DDT.
• The other alternative is malathion spray.

eMedinewS Revisitng 2012: Document your medical records carefully, punctually and timely

Inaugurating a daylong conference, eMedinewS Revisiting 2012, organized by eMedinewS, Heart Care Foundation of India and World Fellowship of Religions, Dr. A.K. Agarwal, President, Delhi Medical Council, said that all doctors should document their medical records, carefully, punctually and timely. He said that doctors are for patient’s safety and medical records are for doctors’ safety. He said as far as possible, doctors and medical establishments should go for electronic records so that chances of mistakes are lower.

The conference was attended by over 1000 doctors from NCR. Briefing about the conference, Padma Shri & Dr. BC Roy National Awardee, Dr. KK Aggarwal, President Heart Care Foundation of India & Vice President Elect IMA, said that eminent faculty participated in the conference and listed the happenings in the year 2012.

The faculty included: Dr Brig A K Dhar, Dr. AS Bath, Dr Ambrish Mithal,Dr Anil Goel, Dr Ashish Jain, Dr Deepak Khurana, Dr Ganesh Mani, Dr IM Chugh, Dr. JPS Sawhney, Dr Kaberi Banerjee, Dr Kailash Singla, Dr Manju Gupta, Dr NK Bhatia, Dr Neeraj Jain,  Dr Praveen Chandra, Dr PC Joshi, Dr Praveen Bhatia, Dr Rajnish Malhotra,Dr SK Parashar, Dr Sanjay Chaudhary, Dr Sukhendy Roy, (Maj.Gen) Dr. SK Mittal, Dr Vivek Bhatia and Dr Yugal Mishra.

Following were the highlights:
1. It is now possible to give a blood transfusion to a person without getting in any blood transfusion reaction.
2. Nobody should suffer from pain and it is possible to get rid of painkillers in 2-3 months’ time.
3. It is now possible to do an aortic valve replacement without surgery using a catheter.
4. It is now possible to save 40 lives from a brain dead donor.
5. Intestinal transplant is now possible in the country.
6. If you have one ova and one sperm, fertility is now possible.
7. Midline incision in the chest is no more required for bypass surgery and for valvular surgery.
8. It is now possible to combine the bypass surgery with stent angioplasty in one sitting and give better results to the patients.
9. It is now possible to do cataract surgery practically without stitches and with near normal vision without spectacles.
10. It is now possible to do surgery in very high obesity using a robot both in adult and in children successfully.
11. With capsule endoscopy it is now possible to examine small intestine of a patient.

Doctor of the year awards were also distributed and the recipients included:
Dr. Ramesh Kumar Bapna, Dr. Harish Gupta, Dr. Narender Saini, Dr. (Maj. Gen.) AS Bath, Dr. JPS Sawhney, Dr. SM Chugh, Dr. Naveen Tuli, Dr KS Bhagotia, Dr Sukrit Sharma, Dr SK Mittal and Dr AK Bansal

Dr KK Answers: Can a patient donate blood after suffering from viral Hepatitis?

Persons with a history of viral hepatitis after age 10 are permanently deferred. Persons currently or presently positive for Hepatitis B are also permanently deferred. Person with a history of close contact with someone who has viral hepatitis is deferred for one year. People who have received a blood transfusion are deferred for one year.