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The Indian government and the World Bank have signed a $40 million project to improve the quality of health services in Meghalaya and strengthen the state’s capacity to handle future health emergencies, including the covid-19 pandemic. The Meghalaya Health Systems Strengthening Project will enhance the management and governance capabilities of the state and its health facilities; expand the design and coverage of the state’s health insurance program; improve the quality of health services through certification and better human resource systems; and enable efficient access to medicines and diagnostics. The finance ministry in a statement said, “All 11 districts of the state will benefit from the project. It will also benefit health sector staff at the primary and secondary levels by strengthening their planning and management capabilities and building their clinical skills. The project will enable women to better utilize healthcare services at the community level,” The finance ministry further said strengthening and expanding health care systems is a priority for the government and the project will enhance the management and quality of health services in the state. “It will also help expand the coverage of health services and make it accessible and affordable to the poor and vulnerable in the state,” it added. The agreement was signed by Rajat Kumar Mishra, additional secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs on behalf of the government of India, Ramkumar S, Joint Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare on behalf of the Government of Meghalaya; and Junaid Ahmad, Country Director, India on behalf of the World Bank. The project will help strengthen the effectiveness of Meghalaya’s health insurance program known as the Megha Health Insurance Scheme (MHIS) – which currently covers 56% of the households. With its merger into the national Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (PMJAY), MHIS now plans to offer a more comprehensive package and cover 100% of the households. “This will reduce barriers to accessing hospital services and preventing catastrophic out-of-pocket costs for poor families,” the finance ministry said. Improved health services may also lead to an incremental increase in bio-medical waste. Any improper management of wastes including bio-medical waste and other hazardous wastes such as plastic waste and e-waste poses environmental risks. The project will invest in improving the overall ecosystem for bio-medical waste management (both solid and liquid waste). It will include segregation, disinfection, and collection while safeguarding the environment and improving the quality of health service and patient safety. Source: Mint

Uttar Pradesh: PM Modi reached his parliamentary constituency Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh (UP) on Monday to launch the Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission – one of the largest pan-India schemes for strengthening the existing healthcare infrastructure. Along with initiating the start of the healthcare scheme, he also inaugurated multiple developmental projects worth Rs 5,200 for his constituency. The Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission has been launched with the aim to redefine, automate and strengthen existing healthcare policies in the country. It falls under the umbrella of the National Health Mission. After the pandemic, the country and its governments realised the shortcomings of the healthcare system and processes. Hence, to fill the gaps in the public healthcare infrastructure, with the main focus on primary and critical care facilities in both – rural and urban areas, the policy has been devised and launched pan-India. According to the current plan, the policy aims to provide support for 17,788 rural health and wellness centres in 10 high focus states. In addition, 11,024 urban health and wellness centres will be established in all the states. During his stay in UP, he also inaugurated nine medical colleges to boost the city’s healthcare scenario. The inauguration took place in a virtual ceremony from Siddharthnagar. The medical colleges built for Rs 2,329 crores are located in Siddharthnagar, Etah, Hardoi, Pratapgarh, Fatehpur, Deoria, Ghazipur, Mirzapur and Jaunpur districts. Out of all the nine colleges, eight are sanctioned under a centrally sponsored scheme, while one has entirely been made functional through the state government’s resources. Source: India TV

BATM is a leading provider of real-time-based technologies to provide networking solutions and medical laboratory systems. It has recently been announced that it has developed a new method for rapid and comprehensive diagnosis of tuberculosis. This new technology’s testing and validation phase will be commenced in the second half of this year. The process will be funded under a program of Stop TB Partnership, an international alliance comprising various government and non-government organizations. The new method consists of one step PCR test developed by the group Adaltis subsidiary, with testing on the NATlab instrument by using the new isothermal RCA process developed by the Group Ador Diagnostics Associate company. This PCR test will diagnose if someone is infected with TB and if the test is positive. This NATlab system will be used to identify the strain of TB and its resistance to antibiotics. The process is expected to give results within two hours by testing the samples in both phases. This new process is far less than several days required in the current and commonly used test, which usually depends on incubation to check the antibody resistance once a patient is infected with TB. This new method which is being developed, is presented with the cooperation of leading universities in Italy. The testing and validation of the solution will take place at the University of Heidelberg. Source: healthtechdigital.com

WHO called the world’s twenty wealthiest nations, holding a summit next week, to come ahead and make donations of COVID-19 vaccines doses to the global south, which is going through a vaccine lag in terms of the required number of vaccines. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a news briefing that the G20 countries must fulfill their dose-sharing commitments immediately. For global health financing, Gordon Brown said, “If the world’s wealthiest nations cannot mobilize for the vaccine to the impoverished countries. An epidemiological and economic dereliction of duty will shame us all”. WHO’s 40% vaccination target in all countries by mid-2022 is still short of 500 million vaccine doses, whereas almost 240 million vaccines are unused in the west. Source:Healthworld.com

Hackensack Meridian Health announced this week that it would do a complete transition towards Google Workspace and Chrome OS devices, one of the first health systems taking this path. It will also be expanding its collaboration with Google Cloud to enable deployment of more Artificial Intelligence Tools clinical decision support and enhanced care delivery. This expansion in terms of workspace and Chrome OS, Chromebook, and Chromeboxes aims to better the quality of cyber security and boost provider’s productivity and users experience, said Hackensack Meridian Leaders. While Hackensack meridian health will work with Google Cloud to apply the AI-enabled lookout for specific clinical use cases, such as screening and detection. Hackensack Meridian Health recently hired its new chief information and digital engagement officer, Kash Patel. The company has been using chrome enterprise over the past year, with 3,000 Citrix-approved chrome books deployed to give its remote workforce secure access towards its core application. Source: HealthcareITNews.com

Till date, the country accounted 98.55 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines given to the public. On Monday, 83.30 lakh doses were accounted till 7.15 PM. With this speed of vaccination in such a short period, the country is set to reach the 100-crore vaccination mark in the next few days. Among these doses, the maximum contribution of vaccines has come from the serum Institute of India (SII), which is nearly 88 % of the total vaccine doses given so far. Apart from that, almost 6.7 crore vaccines have been exported by the Serum Institute of India to other countries. Vaccination has been the most powerful tool to handle the pandemic so far. Till now, nearly 75 % of the population has got its first dose, whereas 30% of the population is now fully vaccinated. Along with that, more than 10.72 crore doses are still available with states and union territories. Serum Institute of India delivered more than it had committed and was a significant player in helping the government to run vaccination drives so effectively. Source: finacialexpress.com

COVID -19 was made responsible for millions of deaths worldwide, but that’s not the only loss the pandemic has done to humanity. The Lancet Regional Health-Americas published a study report on how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected people’s mental health. The study has highlighted, the pandemic not just increased the rate of depression but the rise in number of cases is worse compared to other traumatic events like; weather, terror attack, or earlier pandemics. During this study, the author of the investigation by the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) used the data collected on depression before and after the pandemic to compare the study. Participants filled a survey form to determine if they were suffering from any depression or not. In 2021, the survey showed that 32.8% of respondents had depression symptoms in 2021, which was 27.8% in 2020. Source: medicalnewstoday.com

As per new research findings, people with diabetes and stroke may maintain an ideal sugar level to avoid the risk of different vascular diseases like a stroke or a heart attack later on. Findings of this research were published in the medical journey ‘Neurology.’ The study author Moon-Ku Han, MD, Ph.D., of Seoul National University College of Medicine in Korea, said, “Suffering from diabetes may lead to a higher risk of a heart attack. But as per our studies, optimum blood sugar level maylower the risk of getting another stroke, a heart attack or other vascular problems. This study involved 18,567 diabetic patients with an average age of 70. All the participants were admitted to the hospitals for an ischemic stroke caused by a blood clot. After admission, the researcher used a test called hemoglobin A1C to determine people’s blood sugar levels for the past two or three months. Participants had an average A1C of 7.5 percent. After observation of one year, it was found that there is an association between A1C level with risk of having another stroke, a heart attack or dying from these vascular causes. Source: Healthworld.com