Health Bulletin 13/September/2023

Here are the top health stories for the day:

MBBS students and professors respond to altered passing marks: Pass rate drops, competition rises

The National Medical Council (NMC) has recently introduced new passing mark criteria for MBBS students, in accordance with the Competency-Based Medical Education Regulation 2023 (CBME 2023). Under these updated guidelines, MBBS subjects with two papers now require a minimum of 50 percent aggregate marks to pass, but the qualifying marks to be declared a pass have been lowered to 40 percent.

CDSCO raises alert on fake batch of Defitelio

Concerning the significant threat to public health posed by the falsified DEFITELIO (defibrotide sodium) 80 mg/ml concentrate for solution for infusion, Batch. No. 20G20A, Exp date 08/2024, manufactured by: Gentium Sri, identified in India, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization has issued an advisory urging doctors and healthcare professionals to prescribe carefully and educate their patients to report any adverse drug reaction (ADR).

For more details, check out the link given below:

CDSCO Raises Alert On Fake Batch Of DEFITELIO

Successful removal of iron rod from 60-year-old's thigh

Surgeons at Stanley Government Medical College and Hospital have successfully extracted an iron rod that had penetrated the thigh of a 60-year-old construction worker. The worker, who resides near Chennai in Pazhaverkadu and has partial vision impairment in one eye, fell from a height of eight feet onto a beam with a protruding iron rod. His coworkers managed to cut the rod with a hacksaw blade before he was brought to the hospital.

Tata Memorial Centre-led project aims to slash cancer drug costs by up to 99 percent

A groundbreaking pilot initiative in India, led by the prestigious Tata Memorial Centre, a leading cancer hospital, has shown remarkable cost savings (averaging 82 percent) through the "pooled purchasing" of essential oncology and supportive-care medications. A study detailing the feasibility of this pooled procurement method, which involves group negotiations and agreement on pricing, was published in a World Health Organization (WHO) bulletin in June. The authors of the study include doctors from Tata Memorial Centre, including Director C.S. Pramesh, as well as professionals from the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research in Puducherry and the Zulekha Yenepoya Institute of Oncology in Yenepoya, among others.

Rainbow Children's Hospital removes 50 magnets from 7-year-old's intestine

In a recent statement, Rainbow Children's Hospital in Vijayawada announced that their medical experts successfully saved the life of a 7-year-old child brought to the emergency room by his parents.