Category: Health News

A national registry to capture all pharma/medical device industry payments and other benefits made to all clinicians, healthcare organizations and patient support groups should be set up as a matter of urgency in the UK, insists an editorial in the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin.

The UK government has been dragging its feet on the issue despite the recommendations of a key review published in July last year, and the support of most organizations that represent doctors for mandatory reporting, contends dtb Deputy Editor David Phizackerley.

One of the nine recommendations of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review (IMMDSR) into the avoidable harms caused by hormone pregnancy tests, sodium valproate, and pelvic mesh implants, focused on financial links between drugs and medical devices companies and clinicians, hospitals, and other organizations.

Evidence submitted to the review highlighted the lack of transparency surrounding industry payments/benefits in

Turkey on Sunday reported its highest daily number of COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to Health Ministry data.

The 318 deaths confirmed in 24 hours took the country’s total pandemic death toll to 35,926. The Health Ministry also reported 55,802 new confirmed cases, pushing Turkey’s total closer to 4.3 million.

Weekly data also released Sunday showed the northwest province of Canakkale with Turkey’s highest infection rate at 962.98 cases per 100,000 people.

Turkey has seen rising numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths since the government eased virus-control restrictions at the beginning start of March, when daily confirmed cases averaged below 10,000. The government has blamed the rising numbers on coronavirus variants.

A partial closure was re-introduced on April 13, including an extended evening curfew on weekdays, a return to online education and a ban on unnecessary intercity travel.

Earlier, President Recep Tayyip

New Delhi led major cities across India into a weekend lockdown Saturday as the country confronts a fierce new coronavirus wave, with more than 230,000 fresh daily cases and families clamouring for drugs and hospital beds.

Hopes that South Asia might have beaten the pandemic have been dashed with India seeing over two million new cases this month alone and Bangladesh and Pakistan also imposing shutdowns.

India added another record 234,000 cases Saturday to pass 14.5 million overall and 1,341 deaths took its pandemic total to 175,649 deaths.

The per-capita rates remain low by international comparison, but the speed at which cases are rising led the international Red Cross to call the South Asian surge “truly frightening”.

India now has three times the daily cases of the United States, the world’s worst-hit country.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday assured Canadians that the country’s turbulent COVID-19 vaccine rollout remains on track after Pfizer agreed to boost shipments just as Moderna deliveries hit a snag.

“We are well on track to reaching in the upper of 40 to 50 million doses by the end of June,” Trudeau told a news conference, adding that by that date “most Canadians will have been able to receive a first dose of the vaccination.”

He also renewed his government’s commitment that “all Canadians who want a vaccine will be able to be vaccinated by the end of September.”

Earlier, Procurement Minister Anita Anand announced that Moderna would cut almost in half its next shipment, expected by month’s end, to 650,000 doses.

However Trudeau said Canada has secured an additional eight million Pfizer-BioNTech doses to more than make up for the Moderna shortfall.

Canada will

Heavy energy drink consumption may be linked to heart failure, doctors have warned in the journal BMJ Case Reports after treating a 21 year old, who had regularly drunk 4 such cans every day for around 2 years.

This report adds to the growing body of published evidence on, and mounting concerns about, the potential heart harms of these drinks, say the authors.

The young man in question ended up in intensive care after experiencing 4 months of progressive shortness of breath on exertion, breathlessness while lying down (orthopnoea), and weight loss.

He habitually drank an average of four 500 ml cans of energy drink every day: each can contains 160 mg of caffeine plus taurine (a protein) and various other ingredients. He said he had been doing this for around 2 years.

He also recalled that he had had bouts of indigestion, tremor and palpitations

UK adults who are overweight or obese retain their weight over time, which is associated with an increased risk of health complications and death, according to a study published in the open access journal BMC Public Health.

Dr. Barbara Iyen, the lead author said: “We have found that despite widespread efforts to prevent and manage obesity, the majority of adults who are overweight or obese in the general population continue to remain so in the long-term. More effective policies and weight-management interventions are needed urgently to address this increasing burden and associated adverse health outcomes.”

Researchers at the University of Nottingham investigated the development of body mass index (BMI) over time. The researchers observed a stable increase in BMI scores across four groups of obese and overweight participants over an average of 10.9 years, with most retaining their degree of obesity long-term.

The authors also