New Delhi, July 7 (IANS) Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra has shared a video on the social media platform X, showing a new technology detecting veins using infrared light.

“Using infrared light to locate veins. Saving the pain from repeated attempts to find a vein when drawing blood,” he wrote.

Praising the technology, the Mahindra Group Chairman said that it’s often the smallest, least glamorous inventions which “significantly improve our medical experience and hence, the quality of our lives”.

Since being shared, the video has been viewed over 680K times. A lot of users also shared their thoughts in the comment section.

“This is brilliant and could prevent a lot of phobias. From personal experience, the practicality of this would have saved a number of traumas. Helps the professional and the patient,” a user wrote.

“We need this Tech at local blood test centres; last year, my yearly check-up nurse did four punctures in my hands,” another user said.

One more user mentioned, “This will be really helpful. My mom faces this challenge when we do blood tests for her and it requires an experienced person to identify the vein. This technology can enable a lot of people in the medical industry.”

–IANS

shs/uk

Seoul, July 7 (IANS) The South Korean government is expected to announce measures to deal with trainee doctors who refuse to return to hospitals in protest of medical reform as early as this week, officials said on Sunday.

The government is set to announce its measures on the junior doctors, who have left their worksites since late February, as early as Monday, according to government officials.

Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong earlier pledged to introduce such measures in early July, as hospitals need to prepare for the recruitment of new junior doctors who will begin training in September, reports Yonhap News Agency.

The government has currently decided to halt the suspension of medical licences of those who return to work.

As of Thursday, 1,104 junior doctors, or 8 per cent of 13,756 trainee doctors, were on duty at the country’s 211 training hospitals, according to government data.

Trainee doctors have been on strike for nearly five months in protest against a hike in medical student admissions, the first such increase in 27 years, which was finalised in May.

The government initially instructed hospitals to not accept trainee doctors’ resignations to prevent them from seeking other jobs but reversed this order in late June to normalise operations.

As the protracted walkout by trainee doctors has shown little signs of ending, medical professors, who also serve as senior doctors at general hospitals, began staging walkouts and other forms of protest.

–IANS

shs/kvd

Kolkata, July 6 (IANS) Early trend is hinting at the possibility of the spread of dengue during the monsoon season in West Bengal with the total number of affected people having already crossed the 2,000 mark at the end of the first week of July.

Sources in the Health Department said the number of affected people till July 4 has already touched 2,095, adding that the figures could be more since not all the cases have been reported, with Malda and Murshidabad districts leading the tally.

The number of cases in Durgapur, the industrial township in West Burdwan district, is also substantially high.

The sources added that Health Department officials are in constant touch with the different civic authorities to ensure that the situation does not get out of control.

The dengue menace took an alarming shape in 2023 when the state reported over 76,000 cases till November last year, which was around 10,000 more than the 2022 figures.

With the full-fledged monsoon yet to arrive in the state, the medical fraternity is not ruling out the probability of Bengal reporting a large number of dengue cases this year as well.

The medical fraternity is also emphasising that the Health Department should report all dengue cases to the National Centre for Vector Borne Diseases Control (NCVBDC).

Last year, West Bengal was the only state that did not share any data on this count with the central monitoring agency.

–IANS

src/arm

Jaipur, July 6 (IANS) In a tragic incident, a tenth-standard student died due to heart failure at a school in Bandikui in Rajasthan’s Dausa district on Saturday.

The deceased identified as Yatendra (16) reached the school at 7.30 a.m. on Saturday but collapsed on the corridor just before entering the classroom.

The school administration immediately rushed Yatendra to a nearby hospital where he died during treatment.

Circle Inspector Premchand said, “Yatendra, the son of Bhupendra Upadhyay studying in a private school on Panditpura Road, suddenly fell unconscious on Saturday morning. The school staff took him to the Bandikui Government Hospital the doctors declared him dead after 10 minutes of treatment. According to the doctors, Yatendra died due to heart failure.”

As per reports, Yatendra had a hole in his heart since childhood for which he was undergoing treatment.

“The deceased’s family refused to conduct a post-mortem. Going by the doctor’s statement and Yatendra’s medical history, the police have not filed any case in the matter. The family has left for their ancestral village at Narwas in Alwar to perform the last rites.”

Bhupendra Upadhyay, the deceased’s father, said: “Yatendra turned 16 only on Friday. He even distributed toffees among his schoolmates and cut a cake at home. He also got photographs taken with the family members. But yesterday’s happiness has turned into sorrow today.”

–IANS

arc/arm

New Delhi, July 6 (IANS) In a historic move, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has approved a proposal to make a bolder and bigger display of nutritional information regarding total sugar, salt and saturated fat on packaged food items, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) said on Saturday.

The proposal calls for packaged food items to carry the amount of total sugar, salt and saturated fat “in bold letters and relatively increased font size.”

The Ministry noted that “the information regarding per serve percentage contribution to Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) would be given in bold letters for total sugar, total saturated fat and sodium content.”

The decision which will amend the Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020 was taken in the 44th meeting of the Food Authority.

Regulation 2 (v) and 5(3) specify requirements to mention serving size and nutritional information on the food product label, respectively.

“The amendment aims to empower consumers to better understand the nutritional value of the product they are consuming and make healthier decisions,” the MoHFW said.

Healthcare and nutritional experts have been calling out the need to curb the intake of packaged food items, rich in sugar, salt and saturated fats — a major reason for the rising incidences of non-communicable Diseases (NCDs).

The proposal will enable “people to make healthier choices as well as contribute towards efforts to combat NCDs and promote public health and well-being.”

The FSSAI is also expected to share the draft notification for the said amendment in the public domain for inviting suggestions and objections.

Further, FSSAI has been issuing advisories from time to time to prevent false and misleading claims such as ‘Health Drink’, ‘100% fruit juices’, the use of the term wheat flour/ refined wheat flour, the advertisement and marketing of ORS along with prefix or suffix, nutrient function claim for multi-source edible vegetable oils etc.

These advisories and directives are issued to prevent misleading claims by FBOs, MoHFW said.

–IANS

rvt/dan