Healthy Me - At Home and Away: Health minister

Showing posts with label Health minister. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Toxic chemical in medicine

3D model of propylene glycol molecule. Prepare...

Another one of those 'accidents', and the damage is done, irreversible, irreparable…
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DHAKA - The Bangladeshi authorities yesterday said that they had found traces of a toxic chemical in paracetamol syrup believed to have killed two dozen children in the past six weeks.

Health Minister AFM Ruhul Haq said investigators had found diethyl glycol in the locally-produced syrup.

"We conducted two tests on the paracetamol syrup and each time we found diethyl glycol. It's a toxic chemical used in the textile and leather dyeing industries. It damages your kidneys if you consume it," the minister said.

Mr Haq said that, instead of mixing the paracetamol with propylene glycol, which is used as a solvent in paracetamol syrup, the drug-maker added the toxic chemical because it is 10 times cheaper.

The 24 children who died were aged between one and five and came from Comilla, where the drug company concerned has been shut down.

Police are hunting for the company's owners and pharmacists. AFP

From TODAY, World – Wednesday, 29-Jul-2009

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Singapore to change strategy if WHO declares H1N1 flu pandemic

By Pearl Forss, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 11 June 2009 1911 hrs

Health screening officers monitor passengers through a thermal scanner at the Changi International Airport

SINGAPORE: If the World Health Organisation (WHO) declares a global H1N1 flu pandemic, Singapore will gradually move from a strategy of containment to mitigation when it comes to dealing with the virus.

This means that instead of being treated at hospitals, patients will be eventually treated by general practitioners at clinics. Home quarantine orders will also be lifted when there is community spread.

But for now, Singapore will still try its best with the containment strategy to buy time to prepare for the pandemic.

Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan said general practitioners are still being trained and the lab capabilities for testing H1N1 need to be ramped up further.
"All of us know that while we will try our best to stop the spread, at some stage, we will be overwhelmed," he said.

"Community spread is a matter of time, but our efforts have been meaningful. It has been two months since WHO sounded the alarm and there is no community spread in Singapore."

The fatality rate for H1N1 may not be high, but it has caused deaths in pregnant mums and young people, making it different from seasonal flu.

Mr Khaw said the H1N1 vaccine will be ordered in batches, although no decisions have been made on who or when to vaccinate.

- CNA/so

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Alarm bells not ringing just yet

Health Minister says no need now for aggressive response

ESTHER NG, estherng@mediacorp.com.sg

EVEN though the risk of exposure to the H1N1 virus is now higher, with four confirmed cases in Singapore, Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan is adamant that there is currently no need for aggressive health measures.

Referring to the quarantine of a hotel and ship — measures taken by Hong Kong and Australia, respectively, he asked: "Is it necessary? Is it scientifically based?"
Instead, Mr Khaw, who was updating the media on Friday on H1N1 developments, called for a "rational and scientific approach to fighting this virus" rather than an "emotional, or worse — politicised approach to this problem — which will cause plenty of inconvenience (and) frighten everybody".

Given the high volume of travellers between Singapore and the United States, more cases are expected to surface in Singapore. Most of the H1N1 cases detected in the region so far have been travellers who had arrived from the US.

Indeed, Mr Khaw urged Singaporeans to be "mentally prepared" that the virus is already in the community. "It doesn't matter whether it's community spread, or imported cases. The key point is the nature of the virus. Is the virus lethal, or just like ordinary influenza virus?"

Unless the virus mutates into a deadly strain, there is no cause for alarm, he said.

"If it can be established scientifically that the virus remains mild here, not unlike seasonal flu, that'll give us confidence to reduce the control measures," he said.
Measures such as contact tracing and home quarantine may then be unnecessary.

Singapore's flu alert level remained at "Yellow" on Friday, but the status will change according to how the virus mutates.

"If you have sufficient scientific evidence to give us the confidence that this is just like seasonal flu, then it will be Green … But if instead, bad luck, the virus mutates in a strange way in Singapore and becomes lethal, then of course it becomes 'Orange'. So we will see," Mr Khaw said.

The Health Minister pointed out that there are Singaporeans with more serious illnesses than H1N1 and the ministry has to prioritise its resources.

"We're Ministry of Health (MOH) for all patients, not just Ministry of Health for H1N1 patients," he said.

General Practitioner Kevin Chua agreed with the Health Minister, saying: "Seasonal flu has killed more people that H1N1. I would encourage people to get their flu shots." He urged Singaporeans to be vigilant about personal hygiene.

Mr Khaw said the Health Ministry would be working with the Genome Institute of Singapore to map out the H1N1 virus from local samples. The study will serve three purposes.

"One, to ascertain that the virus here is identical to what is spreading outside, which I think will definitely be the case, since the cases are all imported," he said.

"The second purpose is to check whether the virus is mutating, which I think is normal for a virus to mutate and evolve. And the third objective is to see how the virus is mutating," he added.

On the four H1N1 cases in Singapore, Mr Khaw said the symptoms have been mild, like most of the cases outside Mexico. The four, who had arrived here on different flights from the US, are being treated in the Communicable Diseases Centre. They are in stable condition and their recovery should be "uneventful", he added.

Meanwhile, MOH is continuing with contact tracing. Of the 122 passengers on the three flights who are close contacts of the latest three confirmed cases, half or 61 passengers entered Singapore. MOH has contacted 18 of them and they have been served home quarantine orders.

Travellers coming to Singapore from affected areas should call 993 if they develop a fever, instead of making their own way to Tan Tock Seng Hospital by public or private transport, said an MOH spokesperson.

From TODAYOnline.com; see the source article here.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Lebanon confirms first 3 cases of swine flu in airport passengers

English: Main symptoms of swine influenza. (See Wikipedia:Swine influenza#Swine flu in Humans Deutsch: (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

05/30/2009 | 05:06 PM

BEIRUT — Lebanon's health minister has confirmed the country's first three cases of swine flu, found in passengers arriving at the airport.

Mohammed Jawad Khalife told reporters Saturday that a Lebanese man, a Canadian woman and her infant son were diagnosed with the virus a week ago and are now recovering.

The minister insisted that the virus does not exist locally in Lebanon.

Authorities have taken a series of measures recently to combat the flu, including screening suspect passengers, banning imports of pig livestock and products.

Swine flu has sickened more than 13,000 people in 48 countries and been linked to more than a 100 deaths. – AP

From GMANews.tv; see the source article here.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Greece confirms 3rd swine flu case

05/27/2009 | 04:24 PM

ATHENS, Greece – Greek health authorities have confirmed the country's third case of swine flu.

Health Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos said Wednesday the patient is a Greek student who recently returned from Edinburgh, Scotland, along with another student who was diagnosed Tuesday as suffering from swine flu.

One of the students is being treated in a hospital in Athens, and the other in the northern city of Thessaloniki.

Last week, a 19-year-old Greek student was confirmed as having the virus after flying home from the United States. He has since been released from the hospital.

Avramopoulos said neither of the two hospitalized students were in serious condition. - AP

From GMANews.tv; see the source article here.