Medicine

A survey group has found a large cluster of wild Paederia scandens (Chinese fevervine) in north China’s Hebei Province during a field investigation for the fourth national survey on Chinese materia medica resources. The wild fevervine community, concentrating with a belt shape in Guxin Township of Shexian County, spans 1 km with a maximum width of 4 meters, according to ... Read More »

A total of 35 civil society organizations and eight concerned individuals of the world have urged the World Health Organisation (WHO) to update the guidelines for facilitating access to new biologic medicines. They have made the call in a joint letter addressed to Prof. Cichutek, Chairperson, Expert Committee on Biologic Standardization, World Health Organisation. Read More »

Geneva, Oct (Kanaga Raja) – The medical humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has launched a global campaign on 10 October that calls on pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J) to lower the price of its life-saving anti-tuberculosis (TB) drug bedaquiline to no more than US$1 per day for everyone who needs it. Read More »

Sacramento, Oct 8 (AP/UNB) — Dr. Anna Nguyen spoke with none of the five patients she treated on a recent weekday morning. She didn’t even leave her dining room. Read More »

Washington, Sept. 22 (Xinhua/UNB) — A drug-related overdose killed three people and hospitalized four others in Pittsburgh, U.S. state of Pennsylvania, police said on Sunday, citing an initial investigation. Read More »

New York , Aug 7(AP/UNB) — Prescriptions of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone are soaring, and experts say that could be a reason overdose deaths have stopped rising for the first time in nearly three decades. The number of naloxone prescriptions dispensed by U.S. retail pharmacies doubled from 2017 to last year, rising from 271,000 to 557,000, health officials reported Tuesday. ... Read More »

Washington, Jul 23 (AP/UNB) — Millions of people who take aspirin to prevent a heart attack may need to rethink the pill-popping, Harvard researchers reported Monday. A daily low-dose aspirin is recommended for people who have already had a heart attack or stroke and for those diagnosed with heart disease. But for the otherwise healthy, that advice has been overturned. ... Read More »

Geneva, 12 Jul (Kanaga Raja) – Access to medicines and vaccines is one of the fundamental elements for the full realization of the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and the correspondent objectives of universal health coverage and health for all without discrimination, with special attention to reaching those furthest ... Read More »

Washington, Jul 16 (AP/UNB) — Medicare says it’s moving toward potentially covering acupuncture for chronic low back pain as an alternative to opioid painkillers that can become addictive. The agency announced its initial decision Monday. For now, access will be limited to seniors signed up in government-approved clinical studies. Medicare says more evidence is needed before broad approval can be ... Read More »

Dhaka, Jul 8 (UNB) – A strain of the common cold virus can infect and kill bladder cancer cells, a small study suggests, reports the BBC. All signs of the disease disappeared in one patient, and in 14 others there was evidence that cancer cells had died. University of Surrey researchers said the virus could “help revolutionise treatment” for the ... Read More »

Dhaka, July 7 (UNB) – Antibiotics can leave the lung vulnerable to flu viruses, leading to significantly worse infections and symptoms, according to a study, reports The Indian Exress.  The research, published in the journal Cell Reports, discovered that signals from gut bacteria help to maintain a first line of defence in the lining of the lung. When mice with ... Read More »

The massive use of antibiotics, fungicides and herbicides in industrial farming is contributing to the undermining of live-saving human medicines. By GRAIN Over the past few months, we’ve been inundated with alarming new evidence on how our industrial society is wreaking havoc upon other species and the rest of the natural environment. Not a week goes by without the emergence ... Read More »

By Caley PigliucciReprint UN, Jun 21 2019 (IPS) – A recently-released report by the Washington-based Center for Global Development (CGD) shows that generic drugs, like omeprazole (used to treat heartburn), can cost 20-30 times more in low and middle-income countries than in high-income countries. Rachel Silverman, a researcher with CGD who worked on the report, told IPS that “There is ... Read More »

Dhaka, June 20 (UNB) – Director General of the Directorate of Drug Administration Major General Md Mahbubur Rahman on Thursday said 370 cases were filed and Tk 58.57 lakh was realised in fine for keeping expired medicines in pharmacies across the country. He said this at a press conference at the Secretariat ahead of Vitamin-A Plus campaign. Replying to a ... Read More »

Dhaka, June 18 (UNB) – The High Court on Tuesday asked the authorities concerned to take necessary steps to remove expired medicines from pharmacy shelves across the country and destroy those within 30 days. The HC bench of Justice FRM Nazmul Ahasan and Justice KM Kamrul Kader passed the order following a writ petition. The court also asked the relevant ... Read More »

TWN Series on Antimicrobial Resistance no. 1 The Global Threat of Antimicrobial Resistance and the Challenges and Needs of Developing Countries By Martin Khor Publisher: TWN ISBN: 978-967-0747-30-9 Year: 2019 No. of pages: 40 14 cm x 21 cm About the Book Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – in which a microorganism (such as a bacterium, virus, fungus or parasite) becomes resistant ... Read More »

Dhaka, May 20 – BNP on Monday alleged that it chairperson’s Khaleda Zia’s health condition has reached a dangerous stage as she been ‘subjected to the government’s politics of vengeance’. Speaking at a press conference at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office, party senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi also alleged that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is trying to kill Khaleda ... Read More »

Dhaka, April 24 – A writ petition was filed with the High Court Wednesday seeking its directive on the authorities concerned to make mandatory a doctor’s prescription for the purchase of antibiotics from pharmacies. Barrister Sayedul Haque Suman, a Supreme Court lawyer, filed the petition with the related as public interest litigation seeking its directive to restrict the sales of ... Read More »

A deadly new drug-resistant fungus is spreading worldwide. The fungus, called Candida auris, is quietly spreading across the globe and is resistant to major antifungal drugs. According to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), nearly half of the patients who contract C. auris die within 90 days. This serious and growing public health threat was reported in The New ... Read More »

Dhaka, Apr 10 (UNB)-Scientists at icddr,b in collaboration with Loughborough University, Durham University and the University of Bristol, UK have organised a dissemination seminar at icddr,b’s Sasakawa auditorium in Mohakhali  to share insights regarding pathways of antibiotic use in Bangladesh.  The scientists have also shared ways to address this growing problem by using social and behaviour change communication messages and ... Read More »

Dhaka, Mar 29 – It was impossible to see anything as there was a dark wall of smoke everywhere. Within 10 minutes the smoke spread throughout the building making it difficult for people to escape. Exhausted and terrified, Hasina Parvin, Credit Control Manager of Aamra Networks Limited, housed on the 17th floor of the 22-storey Faruk Rupayan (FR) Tower in ... Read More »

Islamabad, Mar 26 (AP/UNB) — Pakistan’s supreme court has granted six weeks’ bail to former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for medical treatment at a domestic hospital. In Tuesday’s ruling, the court said Sharif — who has heart-related issues — will not be allowed to leave the country. Disqualified from office by the Supreme Court in 2017 over corruption allegations, Sharif ... Read More »

WHO has issued new guidance to improve treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) which recommends shifting to fully oral regimens to treat people with MDR-TB. This new treatment course is more effective and is less likely to provoke adverse side-effects. The recommendations are part of a larger package of actions designed to help countries increase the pace of progress to end ... Read More »

Obaidul Quader, LGRD minister $ gs of AL, was admitted to the Coronary Care Unit of the BSMMU hospital on Sunday morning following breathing complications. Read More »

Dhaka, Feb 11 (UNB) – Though Bangladesh has already achieved the leprosy elimination target, WHO Goodwill Ambassador Yohei Sasakawa thinks the country needs a further push with an all-out comprehensive approach to totally eliminate the world’s oldest disease from here. He said WHO and Nippon Foundation, a Japan-based non-profit private foundation, are going to help Bangladesh take an effective action ... Read More »

Fort Worth, Feb 6 (AP/UNB) — A medical examiner says a North Texas man was killed when an e-cigarette exploded in his face. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office reports 24-year-old William Brown of Fort Worth died Jan. 29, two days after a vaporizer pen he was using at an e-cigarette shop in nearby Keller exploded. The medical examiner says ... Read More »

Dhaka, Feb 01 – The publication ceremony of ‘Satyer belshoot’ a new book by Sohel Mahmud Sagor was held at the Samaj Kalyan Sanity Bhaban in the Mohammadpur area of the capital on Friday. Another book titled Theosophy by the author was published in February last year. Sohel Mahmud Sagar’s book dwells on the usefulness of plants in the healthy ... Read More »

Dhaka, Feb 01 – At a time when cancer is spreading at a disturbingly fast pace across the globe, an Israeli biotech company has claimed that they will have the cure for this deadly disease by 2020. Although different types of treatments are available in the market, but nothing promises to cure this deadly disease 100percent. But Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies ... Read More »

Dhaka, Jan 14 – Jatiya Party Chairman and Leader of the Opposition in Parliament HM Ershad is again going to Singapore soon for receiving treatment for his various ailments, including knee pain and liver complications. Read More »

Thakurgaon, Jan 12 – The sweeping cold wave has claimed the lives of at least six children in the district over the last one week and affected many more, said acting civil surgeon Dr Shahjahan Newaz. Read More »