WHO uncovers big national variations in antibiotics consumption

GENEVA: Antibiotics are used far more in some countries than in others, a survey by the World Health Organization (WHO) showed on Monday, suggesting that urgent action was needed to slash unnecessary consumption of the medicines.

The “WHO Report on Surveillance of Antibiotic Consumption” looked at antibiotic use in 65 countries and found the Netherlands used 9.78 defined daily doses (DDD) per 1,000 people, while Britain used twice as much and Turkey almost twice as much again, at 38.18 DDD per 1,000 inhabitants.

Iran’s consumption was similar to Turkey’s, while Mongolia’s was the highest of all among the countries surveyed, at 64.41 DDD per 1,000 people.

Collecting the data is vital for tackling antimicrobial resistance, the extremely worrying trend of bacterial infections becoming immune to antibiotics, the report said.

“Findings from this report confirm the need to take urgent action, such as enforcing prescription-only policies, to reduce unnecessary use of antibiotics,” Suzanne Hill, director of the Department of Essential Medicines and Health Products at the WHO, said in a statement.

The lowest score was for Burundi, with just 4.44 DDD/1,000 people, which the WHO said reflected limited data. A low score could also suggest that consumption is too low, leaving the population at risk of infectious diseases.

The survey also looked at which types of antibiotics were being used, and showed some countries – Italy, Spain and Japan – were relatively heavy users of the most precious drugs that the WHO says need to be kept in reserve.

The WHO introduced a classification system last year, saying penicillin-type drugs were recommended as the first line of defense, and that other drugs, on the “reserve” list, were a last resort and only for use when absolutely necessary.

In Italy, 2.0 percent of daily antibiotics consumption was in the “reserve” category, four times the rate in Germany and more than six times that of Britain, where only 0.3 percent of drugs were those earmarked for use in the last resort.

Japan’s overall consumption of antibiotics, at 14.19 DDD per 1,000 inhabitants, was about half that of South Korea, but 1.1 percent of Japanese consumption was in the “reserve” category, far more than 0.2 percent in South Korea, the report showed.

The United States, China and India, were not among the countries in the survey.

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Eleventh child dies from viral outbreak at New Jersey facility

NEW JERSEY: An 11th child has died in less than four weeks at a New Jersey rehabilitation center, one of 34 young patients with compromised immune systems to have been infected by a viral outbreak, state health officials said on Friday.

The child, who died late Thursday, and the others at the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in the town of Haskell, became ill with adenovirus between Sept. 26 and Nov. 12, the state’s Department of Health said in a statement.

The deaths of the first six children at the facility’s pediatric center were announced by health officials on Oct. 23.

Adenoviruses frequently cause mild to severe illness with cold-like symptoms, particularly in young children. The infection can cause other illnesses, including pneumonia, diarrhea and bronchitis.

The strain of adenovirus affecting the facility is associated with communal living arrangements, the health department said.

State health officials, after prohibiting new admissions to the facility, said they put out a call for volunteer medical professionals on Thursday to help separate ill children at the facility from those without symptoms by Nov. 21.

In previous inspections since the outbreak, officials found some hand-washing deficiencies at the Wanaque Center, and were working with the facility on infection-control issues, the health department said.

New Jersey Health Commissioner Dr. Shereef Elnahal said last month that a team of infection control experts and epidemiologists would visit several long-term pediatric healthcare facilities to assess their infection-control procedures and train the Wanaque staff.

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Meditation helps conflict veterans with PTSD: study

They found that 60 percent of veterans who did 20 minutes of quiet meditation every day showed significant improvement in their symptoms, and more completed the study than those given exposure therapy. 

“Over the past 50 years, PTSD has expanded to become a significant public health problem,” Sanford Nidich, of the Maharishi University of Management Research Institute, told AFP.

“Due to the increasing need to address the PTSD public health care problem in the US, UK and worldwide, there is a compelling need to implement governmental policy to include alternative therapies such as transcendental meditation as an option for treating veterans with PTSD.”

Transcendental meditation involves effortlessly thinking of an idea or mantra to produce a settled, calmer state of mind — scientists call it “restful alertness”.

Unlike exposure therapy, meditation can be practised at home, takes up relatively little time, and researchers say it would be significantly cheaper than current treatment techniques.

It also avoids forcing combat veterans to relive their trauma in a bid to get better.

“Transcendental meditation is self-empowering, and can be practised just about anywhere at any time, without the need for specialised equipment or ongoing personnel support,” said Nidich, who was the lead author of the study published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal.

– ‘Gave me my life back’ –

The main problem with existing PTSD treatment, according to Nidich, is that forcing veterans to relive their trauma means many never finish the courses.

Exposure therapy, although officially approved as a treatment by the US Veterans’ Association, is ineffective in up to 50 percent of patients and drop-out rates range from 30-45 percent.

“New treatments, including options not involving exposure to the traumatic experience, are needed for veterans who do not respond to treatment or drop-out due to discomfort,” said Nidich.

One study participant, a 32-year-old navy veteran whom authors identified only as Ms. K, said learning the meditation technique had “given me my life back.”

After being diagnosed as having suffered sexual trauma while on military service, her symptoms worsened until she drank to excess every night and sought to avoid human interaction.

After the transcendental meditation course, “I began to come out of my nightmares and face the battle I had ahead,” she said.

She added she had since applied for a job in a hospital.

Researchers said further studies were needed to see if meditation could be a long-term aid for PTSD sufferers.

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VIDEO: Ayub Khosa has the right cure for cellphone addiction

Renowned actor and director Ayub Khosa has got the right solution for turning e-social gathering into a real life assembly, ARY News reported.

In a video doing rounds on social media, the Operation 021 actor, who is known for lightheartedness and jolly personality, can be seen sitting with his friends and peers at a restaurant.

All are still busy with their mobile phones while sitting in a gathering at a public place, which prompts Khosa to do this. “Bro give me your mobile, you too please and brother give me your phone as well and this is mine,” he says while snatching the phones from their hands and puts all including his own in a plastic bag.

“Bro be present in the meeting and eat food… you all are engaged with mobile phones,” he says before snatching mobile phone of the last man who is filming all this.

It is a common sight in company of families, friends or office colleagues that every individual gets absorbed in social media, on screens of their handsets. Khosa’s act would serve as guidance for such assemblies next time.

Apart from several Pakistani flicks and dramas, Khosa has also worked in Bollywood’s ‘Welcome to Karachi’.

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Final season of ‘Game of Thrones’ to premiere in April

LOS ANGELES: HBO’s hit Emmy-winning drama “Game of Thrones” will debut its eighth and final season starting in April, the network announced in a trailer released online on Tuesday.

The video featured footage from previous seasons to recap the costly battles that preceded the coming showdown for control of the fictional kingdom of Westeros. The network did not reveal a specific date for the final season’s premiere.

“Game of Thrones,” which has won multiple Emmy awards, is HBO’s biggest hit ever with some 30 million viewers in the United States and an army of devoted fans worldwide.

Several spinoffs of the series are in the works. HBO, owned by AT&T Inc (T.N), said in June that it had given a pilot order to a prequel that will take place thousands of years before the events of the current series.

Read More: ‘Mrs. Maisel,’ ‘Game of Thrones’ win on night of Emmy upsets

“Game of Thrones” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” had won the top prizes at the Emmy awards, on September 18, a night of upsets for the highest honours in television and a triumph for streaming services.

Dystopian female show “The Handmaid’s Tale” and FX’s surreal hip-hop comedy “Atlanta” were the biggest losers, taking none of the most prestigious awards and making a disappointing night for stars Elisabeth Moss and Donald Glover.

HBO’s medieval fantasy “Game of Thrones” won a total of nine Emmys, including technical awards for special effects and stunts, and was named best drama series for a third time, beating last year’s champion “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

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Ranveer, Deepika finally tie the knot in Italy

Bollywood’s latest couple to tie the knot, Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh’s grand Italy wedding is one close affair. The couple has tied the knot in a Konkani-South Indian style marriage ceremony on Wednesday and would observe Sindhi rituals in the wedding ceremony on Thursday.

This should be noted that Ranveer belongs to a Sindhi family who migrated from Karachi to Mumbai following the partition of the sub-continent.

The venue for DeepVeer couple’s wedlock is Villa del Balbianello. Officially no picture of their wedding has been released though, but few pictures doing rounds on social media suggest that the two-day festivities are taking place on the coast of Lake Como. The theme of the wedding was white and golden on the first day.

The Ram-Leela hero got down to his knees and delivered an emotional speech for his co-protagonist of the movie, during the sangeet ceremony.

According to local Indian media reports, the Bajirao Mastani actress would be wearing a bright red lehenga for the Sindhi ceremony.

India Today reported, “The bridal lehenga will be a vibrant red with intricate threadwork; it will bear the designer’s signature touch. Ranveer, on the other hand, will be seen in a kanjeevaram sherwani with equally delicate threadwork.”

All eyes are glued on different social media platforms for just a glimpse of the astonishing duo of Ranveer and Deepika, as the absolutely highly anticipated wedding of the entire year, if not the decade, is underway.

Congratulations and best wishes are pouring in for the reel and now real life couple.

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