Patient raped by ambulance driver in Kerala: Police

Sudharma Times

{31 august 2020 ~ 6 august 2020}

 

Health Related News

~by Nikhil

1Covid-19 patient raped by ambulance driver in Kerala: Police

A coronavirus disease (Covid-19) patient was allegedly sexually assaulted by an ambulance driver in Pathanamthitta district in central Kerala late on Saturday night.

Police said the ambulance driver was arrested within hours of the crime.

Police said two women from a family had tested Covid-19 positive on Saturday evening. As per the standard Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOP) in Kerala, patients are allowed to be ferried to a hospital only by an ambulance.

Police said the ambulance came around midnight and a patient was admitted to a local, dedicated Covid-19 hospital. Authorities at the healthcare facility advised the driver to take the other patient to another hospital.

Police said the driver stopped the ambulance at a desolate place and raped the patient, 22, inside the vehicle. She was also threatened with dire consequences if she revealed her ordeal to anyone. But the rape survivor told doctors about the incident upon being admitted to the hospital.

Later, a medical examination confirmed the sexual assault.

Police found that the accused (29) was involved in several criminal cases, including a murder attempt.

Health officials said he was recruited on a temporary basis and that they were investigating how he got the job.

Health authorities have given strict instructions that every ambulance should have more at least two employees and special care should be taken if occupants are only women patients. They also sought the help of Kerala Police to verify antecedents of all drivers.

The authorities at the state ministry for health and family welfare said it would order a probe into the incident.

“It is a shocking incident. The ministry has taken measures to avoid such incidents. More health workers will be deployed in ambulances from now on,” said Veena George, who represents Arnamula constituency in Kerala legislative assembly and is a leader of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist).

2.Covid-19 updates: Recoveries in India surpass 3.18 mn, recovery rate at 77.32%

06,sep,2020

The Covid-19 cases in India have crossed four million with the maximum number of cases coming from Maharashtra (636,574), followed by Tamil Nadu (398,366), Andhra Pradesh (382,104) and Karnataka (283,298).

As of Sunday, there were 4,113,811 confirmed cases in the country and of them 862,320 were active while the toll has gone up to 70,626. Recoveries from the coronavirus disease have surpassed 3.1 million as a total of 3,180,865 people have been discharged from the hospital, according to the ministry of health and family welfare’s dashboard.

Covid-19 cases across the world have topped 26 million with the United States reporting the highest number of cases at 6,243,849 followed by Brazil (4,092,832), according to Johns Hopkins University’s tally. The global toll from the infection has gone up to 877,438.

3.National Nutrition Week: What is junk food and how does it affect your body’s ageing process?

03,Sep,2020

Imagine a plate of potato fries, freshly fried and placed infront of you along with tomato ketchup and maybe a few mayonnaise-based dips. It may make your mouth water and maybe even make you want to order in from your nearest restaurant (if they’re back in business amid the Covid-19 pandemic) or if you so wish, even make that extra effort of cooking them at home. Then there might also be a wish to add a can of soda, and definitely a cheesy burger with double patties to go with this delicious combination. It’s all tasty and irresistible till you start counting the calories and give yourself a reality check about the food that you consume.

It is rightly said ‘you are what you eat’. So you might want to feel like a light lettuce, floating around, but actually have piled on all those unwanted kilos to look like your favourite burger instead, in other words, unhealthy and definitely not a friend to your body and mind.

But it’s not just those fries or burgers to blame, as we’re easily drawn to consuming junk or processed food because it might be effortless, probably tastier, and the type of food on which ingredient labels are a lost cause.

Did you know that eating a poor quality diet, which includes processed or ultra-processed food, is linked to a higher risk of obesity, lifestyle disorders, depression, digestive issues, heart ailments and in some cases, even an early death?

What are ultra-processed foods?

Ultra-processed foods consist of a mix of oils, fats, sugars, starch and proteins that cannot be considered whole or natural food varieties. They are often artificially-flavoured, coloured and contain emulsifiers, preservatives and other additives that increase the food product’s shelf-life and by that extension the manufacturer’s profit margins.

“These same properties, however, also mean that such foods are nutritionally poor compared to less processed alternatives”, the researchers told AFP

“Earlier studies have shown strong correlations between ultra-processed foods and hypertension, obesity, depression, type 2 diabetes and some forms of cancer. These conditions are often age-related in so far as they are linked to oxidative stress and inflammation known to influence telomere length.”

4. Covid-19: Airlines in Canada face hurdles to replace quarantines with coronavirus testing

02,Sep,2020

Transport Canada is holding early talks with airlines to introduce COVID-19 testing at airports, but the day when such tests could become an alternative to the quarantines decimating travel could still be far off, sources familiar with the discussions said.

The airline-led talks come as Air Canada and WestJet introduce their own testing plans for Toronto and Vancouver airports, respectively this fall.

The use of airport testing to reduce or eliminate Canada’s strict two-week self quarantine rule would be logistically challenging as it would require cooperation from airports, airlines, federal and provincial health authorities, the sources said.

And government-approved lab tests that largely take 24 to 48 hours to deliver results would need to be used, making them impractical for airport departures, they added.

Canada has faced pressure from airlines to change its travel restrictions, with the country’s borders now closed to all non-citizens except for essential workers.

“The airlines have a vested interest in seeing this happen,” one of the source said. “But there is no guarantee that Canada would choose to lift the 14-day quarantine even if testing were able to take place at airports.”

Globally, carriers and airports largely back testing to replace quarantines, with a U.N. aviation task force expected to weigh in on one industry proposal at a Sept. 15 meeting, airline group IATA said.

IATA and Airports Council International (ACI) support the use of PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests 48 hours ahead of departure from high-risk countries, since rapid tests are not seen as reliable or widely accepted by regulators.

Health Canada has changed its position on home tests and is now willing to consider approving rapid home COVID-19 tests.

Last week U.S. regulators approved a rapid test from Abbott Laboratories but it is currently approved only for people who have symptoms.

WestJet and Vancouver International Airport have not yet finalized joint plans announced last week to test some departing passengers.

Tamara Vrooman, chief executive of the Vancouver airport, said one possibility was for the facility to be certified as a lab, but “we’re still examining that.”

Air Canada declined comment. Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam said on Friday her agency was looking at “options going forward and reducing the more restrictive measures at the border.”

Health officials are also considering the timing of the test, since travelers coming to Canada might have a negative result if they were infected only one or two days prior.

Transport Canada said it is committed to “working with other federal partners to explore COVID testing at airports upon arrival.”

5. All child Covid-19 fatalities in the UK had ‘profound’ underlying conditions

28,Aug,2020

All the children who have died from Covid-19 in the U.K. had “profound” underlying medical conditions, according to a study suggesting that healthy school-age patients are at very limited risk of severe disease outcomes.

The report adds to previous indications that youthful patients suffer less from the disease than older people, but showed that Black or obese children are at a marginally higher risk. Of the 651 cases reviewed, 42% involved underlying health conditions, but only 18% overall required intensive care. There were six deaths, all involving serious pre-existing conditions.

“It is vanishingly rare to have severe disease in children,” said Calum Semple, professor of child health and outbreak medicine at the University of Liverpool. Even for Black or obese children, the risk remains “tiny,” he said.

“If you are a Black parent in Glasgow or London, your kids should still go back to school,” he added.

According to the study, published in the journal BMJ, 52 of the children suffered a “multisystem inflammatory syndrome” that has been linked to coronavirus patients. “Kids who get this sort of thing often end up with problems in their hearts,” Semple added.

6. Covid-19: Female health workers on India’s frontline push for fair pay

28,Aug,2020

Rushing from one home to another in a village in western India, health worker Ashwini Mhaske cannot afford to take a breather.

Working to keep Covid-19 at bay while caring for mothers and babies, Mhaske races between households to meet job targets and earn bonuses for a average monthly wage of 4,000 rupees ($54) that India’s army of rural health workers say is derisory.

Accredited Social Health Activists - or ASHA workers - are the government’s recognised health workers who are usually the first point of contact in rural India, where there is often limited or no direct access to healthcare facilities.

Many of India’s one million all-women ASHA workers - who have conducted door-to-door checks to trace coronavirus patients in addition to their usual duties - went on strike this month to demand job recognition, better pay and proper protective gear.

“Now we work all hours, with no days off,” said 33-year-old Mhaske, who used to do farm work shifts to supplement her ASHA income before the coronavirus pandemic struck India in March.

India’s coronavirus cases crossed the 3.2 million mark this week - it is behind the United States and Brazil - after a surge in rural areas where two-thirds of its 1.3 billion people live.

With infections spreading further to small towns and remote regions, experts say the epidemic in India is likely to be months away from its peak, putting more strain on an already overburdened healthcare system and struggling ASHA workers.

“All we (ASHA workers) are saying is that the government should think about us,” Mhaske told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Osmanabad in Maharashtra state.

Enlisted as part of a 2005 national programme to boost healthcare services across rural India - from maternal care to vaccination drives - ASHA workers are treated like volunteers and not covered by state governments’ minimum wage legislation.

Business News

                                            ~by JATIN

1.Volkswagen's labour chief rules out four-day week to save jobs amid Covid-19 outbreak

-6 September 2020

Volkswagen sees no need for a four-day week at its plants to secure jobs despite a growing shift to electric cars that are easier to build and require fewer workers, the company's head of labour relations was quoted saying on Sunday.

Germany's largest trade union IG Metall on Aug. 15 proposed negotiating for a transition to a four-day week across industry to help secure jobs, against the backdrop of economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis and structural shifts in the auto sector.

But VW labour chief Bernd Osterloh told Welt am Sonntag newspaper that VW's existing cost-cutting plan, that includes reducing the workforce by up to 7,000 through the early retirement of administrative staff at its Wolfsburg headquarters, was enough to help it overcome the coronavirus crisis and other issues.

"At the moment we are not talking about less work," Osterloh said. "With the Golf we had the (production) levels of last year in June and July and introduced extra shifts," he added, referring to one of the company's most popular models.

"The four-day week is not an issue for us."

Demands by IG Metall, which represents 2.3 million employees in the metal working and electrical sectors, are potentially significant in Germany because they often set benchmarks for wage negotiations in those industries and beyond.

VW in 2016 set out a cost-reduction programme dubbed Future Pact, but the company has ruled out compulsory layoffs until 2025. Osterloh was quoted as saying in July that VW had no need for deeper cost cuts to counter the effects of COVID-19, which dealt a severe blow to car sales.

 

2.Forget TikTok. China’s powerhouse app is WeChat, and its power is sweeping

-5 September 2020

Just after the 2016 presidential election in the United States, Joanne Li realized the app that connected her to fellow Chinese immigrants had disconnected her from reality.

Everything she saw on the Chinese app, WeChat, indicated Donald Trump was an admired leader and impressive businessman. She believed it was the unquestioned consensus on the newly elected U.S. president. “But then I started talking to some foreigners about him, non-Chinese,” she said. “I was totally confused.”

She began to read more widely, and Li, who lived in Toronto at the time, increasingly found WeChat filled with gossip, conspiracy theories and outright lies. One article claimed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada planned to legalize hard drugs. Another rumor purported that Canada had begun selling marijuana in grocery stores. A post from a news account in Shanghai warned Chinese people to take care lest they accidentally bring the drug back from Canada and get arrested.

She also questioned what was being said about China. When a top Huawei executive was arrested in Canada in 2018, articles from foreign news media were quickly censored on WeChat. Her Chinese friends both inside and outside China began to say that Canada had no justice, which contradicted her own experience. “All of a sudden I discovered talking to others about the issue didn’t make sense,” Li said. “It felt like if I only watched Chinese media, all of my thoughts would be different.”

Li had little choice but to take the bad with the good. Built to be everything for everyone, WeChat is indispensable.

For most Chinese people in China, WeChat is a sort of all-in-one app: a way to swap stories, talk to old classmates, pay bills, coordinate with co-workers, post envy-inducing vacation photos, buy stuff and get news. For the millions of members of China’s diaspora, it is the bridge that links them to the trappings of home, from family chatter to food photos.

Woven through it all is the ever more muscular surveillance and propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party. As WeChat has become ubiquitous, it has become a powerful tool of social control, a way for Chinese authorities to guide and police what people say, who they talk to and what they read.

It has even extended Beijing’s reach beyond its borders. When secret police issue threats abroad, they often do so on WeChat. When military researchers working undercover in the U.S. needed to talk to China’s embassies, they used WeChat, according to court documents. The party coordinates via WeChat with members studying overseas.

As a cornerstone of China’s surveillance state, WeChat is now considered a national security threat in the U.S. The Trump administration has proposed banning WeChat outright, along with the Chinese short video app TikTok. Overnight, two of China’s biggest internet innovations became a new front in the sprawling tech standoff between China and the U.S.

 

3.China planning building spree in Tibet as tensions with India rise, sources say

-4 September 2020

China is planning a more than 1 trillion-yuan ($146 billion) push to accelerate infrastructure investment in Tibet, including new and previously announced projects, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The renewed push to step-up development of the remote and impoverished southwestern region signals Beijing's intent to bolster frontier security amid heightened border tensions with India in recent months, two of the sources said.

Last week, during a senior Communist Party meeting on Tibet's future governance, President Xi Jinping lauded achievements and praised frontline officials but said more efforts were needed to enrich, rejuvenate and strengthen unity in the region.

He said a number of major infrastructure projects and public facilities would be completed, including the Sichuan-Tibet Railway, according to remarks published by the official Xinhua news agency.

The construction plans include completion of the challenging middle section of a high-elevation Sichuan-Tibet railway link, a railway line between Nepal and Tibet that has remained in the planning stages, and a newly planned dry port in the Tibet Autonomous Region, the sources said.

The sources declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak with media.

It was not immediately clear how much of the targeted spending is new, or over how many years it would be invested.

China's State Council Information Office and the Tibet regional government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Construction on the most difficult section of the Sichuan-Tibet railway - linking Chengdu with Lhasa - will begin in coming weeks, said two of the sources.

The 270-billion-yuan section of the railway has been known for construction challenges posed by rough terrain and complex geology, notably the segment linking Sichuan's Ya'an city with Nyingchi in southeastern Tibet near the border with India.

Beijing also wants to push ahead with the Tibet-Nepal Railway linking Kathmandu with Shigatse, the second-largest city in Tibet, which was among a number of bilateral deals signed in 2018 between Nepal and China, but has yet to gain much traction.

Nepal is a buffer between China and India and is considered by New Delhi as its natural ally, but China has made inroads by pouring aid and infrastructure investment into what is one of the world's poorest countries.

4.US: Budget deficit to hit record USD 3.3 trillion due to virus, recession

-3 September 2020

The federal budget deficit is projected to hit a record USD 3.3 trillion as huge government expenditures to fight the coronavirus and to prop up the economy have added more than USD 2 trillion to the federal ledger, the Congressional Budget Office said.

The spike in the deficit means that federal debt will exceed annual gross domestic product next year — a milestone that would put the US where it was in the aftermath of World War II, when accumulated debt exceeded the size of the economy.

The USD 3.3 trillion figure is more than triple the 2019 shortfall and more than double the levels experienced after the market meltdown and Great Recession of 2008-09.

Government spending, fuelled by four coronavirus response measures, would register at USD 6.6 trillion, USD 2 trillion-plus more than 2019.

The recession has caused a drop in tax revenues have fallen, but the changes are not as dramatic as seen on the spending side, with individual income tax collections running 11 per cent behind last year.

Corporate tax collections are down 34 per cent. The economy shut down in the spring so people could be in isolation, in a failed national attempt to defeat the pandemic.

That shutdown led lawmakers and President Donald Trump to pump money into business subsidies, larger unemployment benefits, USD 1,200 direct payments and other stimulus steps that have helped the economy in the short term.

Most economists are untroubled by such huge borrowing when the economy is in peril, and the debt was barely a concern when a cornerstone USD 2 trillion coronavirus relief bill passed almost unanimously in March.

But now that lawmakers and the White House are quarrelling over the size and scope of a fifth virus relief bill, Republicans are growing skittish at the enormous costs of battling the pandemic.

The Democratic-controlled House passed a USD 3.5 trillion measure in May, though House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, says she is willing to cut that figure to USD 2.2 trillion.

Caseloads remain unacceptably elevated, however, as the virus exacts a painful, lingering toll on the economy and sentiment remains high for a fifth virus rescue package that would include money to reopen schools, patch state budgets and continue enhanced jobless benefits that have kept families afloat.

Among Republicans, there seems to be less ardor for a deal — at least at what they see as unfavorable terms. GOP leaders had been pressing for a package in the USD 1 trillion range, but party talks during August have focused on a smaller package.

5.Ford to cut 1,400 US salaried jobs through buyouts by year end

-2 September 2020

Ford Motor Co said on Wednesday it is targeting the elimination of 1,400 U.S. salaried jobs by year end as part of a multiyear $11 billion restructuring.

The layoffs will be achieved through voluntary buyouts, the U.S. automaker said in an email sent to employees. The buyouts will be offered to employees who are eligible for retirement.

"We're in a multiyear process of making Ford more fit and effective around the world," Ford's Americas President Kumar Galhotra said in the email. "We have reprioritized certain products and services and are adjusting our staffing to better align with our new work statement."

Ford has said it was targeting a 10% operating margin in North America. Last year, before the coronavirus pandemic hit operations, Ford's North American operating margin was 6.7%.

The Dearborn, Michigan-based company previously said it expects a full-year loss because of the pandemic's impact. It expects a pre-tax profit of between $500 million and $1.5 billion in the third quarter, and a loss in the fourth quarter as it launches several new vehicles

Last year, Ford cut 7,000 salaried jobs globally, as well as targeting 12,000 additional layoffs and plant closures in Europe. It also restructured operations in China and South America. Ford is changing chief executives on Oct. 1 to Jim Farley from Jim Hackett.

6.Asia's factories shaking off COVID-19 gloom, China shines

-1 September 2020

Asian factories continued to shake off the coronavirus gloom in August as more bright signs in China raised hopes of a firmer recovery in global demand, reducing pressure on policymakers to take bolder steps to avert a deeper recession. Manufacturing activity in China expanded at the fastest clip in nearly a decade in August, as factories ramped up output to meet rebounding demand, a private survey showed. New export orders rose for the first time this year. The upbeat findings contrasted with an official survey on Monday, which showed China's factory activity grew at a slightly slower pace in August.

But fears of a resurgence in infections in some economies may discourage firms from boosting capital expenditure and delay a sustained rebound for the Asian region, some analysts say. "In most major economies, except for China, factories are still running well below pre-pandemic capacity levels," said Ryutaro Kono, chief Japan economist at BNP Paribas NSE -0.90 %. "The recent recovery is largely due to pent-up demand after lockdown measures were lifted, which will dwindle ahead."

China's Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to 53.1 in August from July's 52.8, marking the biggest rate of expansion since January 2011. Japan and South Korea both saw factory output contract at the slowest pace in six months in August, reinforcing expectations the region's export powerhouses have past their worst from a collapse in demand after COVID-19 struck. The spill-over to other parts of Asia, however, remains patchy. While manufacturing activity rose in Taiwan and Indonesia, they slid in the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia.

India's factory output grew in August for the first time in five months as the easing of lockdown restrictions spurred demand. But analysts do not expect a quick turnaround in the economy, which contracted at its steepest pace on record last quarter.

PANDEMIC, POLITICS DAMPEN SENTIMENT
The global economy is gradually emerging from the health-crisis-led downturn thanks in part to massive fiscal and monetary stimulus programmers. But many analysts expect any recovery to be feeble as renewed waves of infections dent business activity and prevent many nations from fully re-opening their economies. In Australia, the central bank on Tuesday unexpectedly expanded a programme to provide lenders with low-cost funding as the virus-hit economy braced for its worst contraction since the Great Depression.

7.Nestle to buy Aimmune, valuing allergy treatment maker at $2.6 billion

-31 August 2020

Nestle NSE -0.98 % said on Monday it was offering $34.50 per share for the remaining 74.4% in peanut allergy treatment maker Aimmune Therapeutics it does not already own as it adds what it hopes will be a lucrative treatment to its portfolio.

The offer values the California-based biopharmaceutical company at $2.6 billion, including the $473 million that Nestle had already invested in Aimmune, Nestle said in a statement.

The price represents a 174% premium to Aimmune's closing share price on August 28 of $12.60, said the food giant, which has been gearing its traditional portfolio towards health and wellness products.

Up to 240 million people worldwide suffer from food allergies, peanut allergy being the most common, Nestle said.

In January, Aimmune Therapeutics got approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Palforzia, making it the first medication approved for food allergies in children and teens.

Nestle said the acquisition was expected to add to organic growth in 2021 and to cash earnings by 2022/23.