Asbestus Litigation

2010-12-06 10:00:01 (Beijing Time)   
China Daily

BEIJING - Foreign businesses will get the chance to break into the Chinese medical market in a big way, thanks to the latest series of measures aimed at encouraging the development of private hospitals.
The changes that allow fully foreign-owned hospitals to be established on the mainland are among initiatives forwarded by the State Council, China's Cabinet, on Friday in a document about encouraging the development of private medical institutions.
The document was sent to departments including the National Development and Reform Commission and the ministries of health and finance.
Currently, foreign investment in a medical institution is limited to a maximum of 70 percent of total investment. At the moment, institutions can be run as joint or cooperative ventures.
With pilot projects to be introduced first, the medical care market will be gradually opened further to overseas ventures and the authorities will streamline procedures required for applications, the document said.
Chen Pei, a former executive at a top United States healthcare institution in Beijing, said the policy is encouraging and will trigger significant change in the industry.
"Previously, the foreign-funded or private capital-funded hospitals experienced unequal treatment, if compared with public hospitals," Chen said, explaining that foreign-funded hospitals made investments and shouldered investment risk on their own.
"The attitude of the government will inspire them to do business in China and it will result in a competitive market," he said.
But he was worried whether the central government policy will be carried out by governments at all levels.
"I have seen many good policies fail to realize their original goals and I hope this one can bring tangible benefit for society."
Unlike before, health and commerce administrations at the provincial level, under the new policy, will be responsible for handling registration applications by joint venture hospitals. The health and commerce ministries will be in charge of registering the solely-foreign-owned hospitals, the document said.
"The influx of foreign-funded hospitals into China will help better meet the rising demands of the public for high-end quality medical services," said an unnamed leading official from the Medical Reform Office of the State Council.
Also, the diversification of investment in the healthcare industry is high on the government's agenda for ongoing medical reform, he said.
The document said public hospitals in China are also being encouraged to seek investment or even privatization, particularly those run by State-owned enterprises.
By 2009, private hospitals accounted for 36 percent of the total number of medical institutions in the country, official statistics showed.
However, due largely to policy restraints, few of them were large-scale hospitals.
Because private hospitals are so small, they currently only offer about 5 percent of the country's total inventory of sickbeds.
"With sound guidance and management, the private hospital, which is indispensable to China's medical sector, will play a more important role in satisfying people's medical needs," said Zhang Mao, vice-minister of health.
Matching policies will be issued by the ministry to grant medical workers at private hospitals equal opportunities in training and promotion, he noted.
"That, however, takes time," Zhang added.
The new round of medical reforms that started in 2009 aim to bring affordable medical care to everyone by 2015.
To meet the objective, the State Council has vowed to invest 85 billion yuan ($13 billion) in the health and medical sectors by 2012.

One-third of those killed are children, often exposed to smoke at home, the World Health Organization (WHO) found.
The study, in 192 countries, found that passive smoking is particularly dangerous for children, said to be at higher risk of sudden infant death syndrome, pneumonia and asthma.
Passive smoking causes heart disease, respiratory illness and lung cancer.
"This helps us understand the real toll of tobacco," said Armando Peruga, of the WHO's Tobacco-Free Initiative, who led the study.
'Deadly combination'
The global health body said it was particularly concerned about the 165,000 children who die of smoke-related respiratory infections, mostly in South East Asia and in Africa.
It said that this group was more exposed to passive smoking than any other group, principally in their own homes.
"The mix of infectious diseases and second-hand smoke is a deadly combination," Mr Peruga said.
As well as being at increased risk of a series of respiratory conditions, the lungs of children who breathe in passive smoke may also develop more slowly than children who grow up in smoke-free homes.
Worldwide, 40% of children, 33% of non-smoking men and 35% non-smoking women were exposed to second-hand smoke in 2004, researchers found.
This exposure was estimated to have caused 379,000 deaths from heart disease, 165,000 from lower respiratory infections, 36,900 from asthma and 21,400 from lung cancer.
According to the study, the highest numbers of people exposed to second-hand smoke are in Europe and Asia and the lowest rates of exposure were in the Americas, the Eastern Mediterranean and Africa.
The research also revealed that passive smoking had a large impact on women, killing about 281,000 worldwide. This is due to the fact that in many parts of the world, the study suggests, women are at least 50% more likely to be exposed to second-hand smoke than men.

Washington, Mar 20: Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA, have developed an injection that protects against two severe diseases transmitted by tick bites: Lyme disease and Anaplasmosis.
In 2006, the US saw nearly 20,000 cases of Lyme disease and there are up to 2,000 cases a year in the UK, a figure that is increasing steadily. However, now researchers have said that it might get cured with a single injection.
“Along the North-eastern seaboard of the US, ticks are often co-infected with the bacteria that cause Lyme disease and Anaplasmosis,” said Dr Nordin Zeidner.
“Currently there is no vaccine to protect against either organism. We have shown that a single injection of sustained-release antibiotics can prevent both diseases in mice,” Zeidner added.
During the study, the researchers found that a single dose of doxycycline given orally is only 20-30 percent effective at preventing these diseases in mice.
However, a new formulation of doxycycline hyclate that is programmed to release the drug over a 20-day period is 100 percent effective.
“The underlying copolymer formulation has been in use for over 20 years. It has no adverse effect on humans and it can be programmed to release a drug over several weeks to several months,” Zeidner said.
“We plan to test the doxycycline formulation to develop different release kinetics and delivery methods. For example, a slow release patch could be used in conjunction with current recommended protection against ticks, such as repellents and personal tick checks,” Zeidner added.
The study is published in the Journal of Medical Microbiology. (ANI) source: www.topnews.in

Your health is one of those things you don't think about too much unless something's wrong. People who are sick think about their health a lot. People who have sick loved ones think about health a lot, too. And for the past several years, some people whose loved ones have autism have thought about vaccines a lot.

Vaccines aren't exactly a modern invention. After realizing that people who survived smallpox never got it again, people started inoculating themselves around 200 B.C., hoping that a little bit of exposure in the present would save them from a devastating illness in the future [source: National Museum of American History]. Unfortunately, primitive methods, which used a live virus from infected material, could result in the patient getting a full-blown case of the disease.

The big idea behind modern vaccines is this: You introduce a weakened (attenuated) or dead form of a disease into your body so that your immune system learns how to make the antibodies that fight it. That way, if you ever run into the real thing, your body is prepared to clobber it.

And vaccines work. They may be the single greatest medical discovery in history. Your body can take care of some sicknesses, but other diseases race through your system like wildfire and destroy your body. Smallpox, the Great Influenza, the Black Death -- these epidemics devastated the world's populations, sickening and killing millions of people.Most people start getting vaccinated as infants against a veritable "lions, tigers and bears, oh my" list of diseases: Hepatitis B, rotavirus, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, Hib, polio, measles, mumps. If someone asked you to describe the symptoms of all of those diseases, you probably wouldn't be able to unless you're in the medical profession. That's because we rarely see these diseases anymore, because we're protected by vaccines.

­But there's another disorder we're seeing more and more of: autism. Or rather, we're seeing more of a group of conditions, known as autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Like any disorder, autism is tough. It's especially tough on caretakers. Some kids with ASDs like Asperger's are able to function in society, although with difficulty acting socially. And some kids are barely able to function at all.

There is a group of people who believe that vaccines are causing ASDs. In this article, we're going to investigate whether or not this hypothesis is valid.
Source: http://health.howstuffworks.com

With modern technology, special care baby units are better equipped than ever to care for your premature baby. Read our guide for the new mum.

It is a shock to give birth to your baby prematurely, particularly if she is many weeks early. But you can be confident that she will be getting the best care possible in hospital.

What is a Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU)?
Most premature babies need to spend time in a Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU). The SCBU will give them the specialist care they need and the best chance of survival with as few problems as possible. The majority of hospitals have their own SCBUs, although some babies may need to be transferred.
Your baby will be placed in an incubator for warmth and observation and she may need artificial ventilation to assist her breathing and be artificially fed.
Most units are divided into three sections: a section for babies needing high-level intensive care and life-support; a high-dependency section, where a degree of monitoring, and maybe back-up oxygen, is needed; and a special care room where minimal monitoring is needed and where babies are prepared for home.
Depending on her condition, your baby may need to spend days, weeks or even months in the SCBU.

What your baby will look like
You are probably feeling stunned at going into labour early and you may be quite shocked by your premature baby's appearance. As well as being tiny - possibly less than 1kg (2lb 3oz) - she is likely to have a large head, almost transparent skin with the veins clearly showing through, no fat under her skin, and a covering of downy hair, called lanugo.
The internal organs of premature babies are often immature, particularly the lungs and liver, so she may have tubes inserted to help her with her breathing and feeding. If she is on life-support, she will also be covered in wires (which are mostly stuck onto the skin rather than inserted into it) and surrounded by high-tech equipment to monitor her progress.
She may be a yellow colour if she has jaundice and may be given drugs to help fight off infection as her immune system will not be fully developed.
If your baby is under 32 weeks and therefore cannot suck, swallow or digest, she will be fed directly into her blood via a fine tube or needle placed into her arm, leg or even scalp. Once milk can be digested, it may be given through a tube passed up her nose, which runs down the throat and into her stomach.

What you can do to help your baby in hospital
This is going to be a stressful time for you, but hopefully you will be able to spend as much time as possible with your baby - getting to know her and helping in her care.
Many parents are at first worried about helping to care for a tiny baby and may not want to touch them because they seem so fragile or because they are afraid of becoming emotionally attached in case their baby dies.
But parents are encouraged to be with their babies as much as they want and to take part in their care and there is much you can do to be physically and emotionally close to your little one:
* You may not be able to cuddle your baby straightaway if she is on life-support, but you will be shown how to soothe and stimulate her by touching her head or through gentle massage.
* You can change her nappy and 'top and tail' (wash) her.
* You can make a tape of your voice which can be played to her when you are not there.
* You may be able to give 'kangaroo care' if she is well enough - holding her naked, except for her nappy, inside your clothes, against your bare chest. The warmth and closeness prompts babies to relax and breathe more easily and enables her to smell, feel and watch you.
* Express your breastmilk, if possible, as it is particularly beneficial for premature babies as it helps to protect against infection. At around 34-36 weeks, your baby may be able to feed from your breast.

Source: Askamum

 
PARIS - Gene detectives said on Sunday they had netted a clutch of tipoffs to help identify women with a higher inherited risk of ovarian and breast cancer, dubbed "silent killers" for the stealthy way they claim lives.

The work gathered experts from the United States, Europe, Canada and Australia, who trawled through the genetic code of tens of thousands of women, looking for single-letter changes found among women with cancer but absent among women who were otherwise healthy.

Their work was published online in the journal Nature Genetics.

One study found telltale DNA on chromosomes 2, 3, 8, 17 and 19 that strongly indicated risk from serious ovarian cancer, the term for the commonest and most aggressive form of this disease.

Another paper found that a variation of DNA on Chromosome 19 amplified the risk of breast cancer associated with a well-known culprit, a faulty copy of the BRCA1 gene, which is located on Chromosome 17.

What role these variants perform in the biology of cancer is unclear, and finding out will probably take many more years of investigation.

Even so, the researchers believe that the clues add powerfully to the basket of genetic telltales for cancer, which thus opens the way to diagnostic tools for women at risk.

"These latest findings raise the possibility that in the future, women in the general population who are at the greatest risk of developing ovarian cancer because they carry these newly discovered DNA variants can be identified and given closer surveillance," said Andrew Berchuck, a professor at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, who headed one of the investigations.

"It also suggests that preventive approaches could be targeted towards these women," he added.

Ovarian cancer is the fifth commonest cancer in developed countries and is often detected too late, when the chances of a cure are remote. Each year, about 130,000 women around the world die from the disease. Source Channel News Asia