Bhubaneswar, Aug 21 (IANS) Former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition in the Odisha Assembly, Naveen Patnaik, was discharged from the private hospital in Bhubaneswar and returned to his residence here.He was discharged late Wednesday evening and, while heading towards his residence, ‘Naveen Nivas’, he said, “I want to thank the people of Odisha for their prayers and good wishes for my health and, of course, to the hospital for having taken such good care of me.”Notably, LoP Patnaik was a…

New Delhi, Aug 21 (IANS) Rare diseases were included as a focus area under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for pharmaceuticals, which has considerably brought down the treatment cost, an official statement from Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers said on Thursday.Eight drugs for rare conditions have been supported under the PLI scheme, including Eliglustat for Gaucher’s Disease, where the cost of treatment has come down from Rs 1.8–3.6 crore annually to Rs 3–6 lakh, accordin…

Seoul, Aug 21 (IANS) SK bioscience Co., the biotech arm of South Korea’s SK Group, said on Thursday it will expand cooperation with the Gates Foundation on next-generation preventive medicines, with a focus on research and development (R&D) for pandemic preparedness.Officials from SK bioscience and the foundation held a meeting in Seoul on Wednesday to discuss collaboration on vaccine development and global public health projects, the company said in a press release. The meeting came amid Bi…

Bhopal, Aug 20 (IANS) Madhya Pradesh Governor Mangubhai Patel on Wednesday emphasised the need for genetic card matching before marriage to prevent sickle cell anaemia, a hereditary disease. Patel said that early identification and prompt treatment are the most effective ways to prevent sickle cell anaemia. “The earlier the disease is detected, the greater the chances of controlling it,” he added while addressing a workshop on Sickle Cell Anaemia at the Eklavya Adarsh Vidyalaya Auditorium in tri…

New Delhi, Aug 20 (IANS) Advanced therapies and technology are the key to tackling the rare disease burden in India, said government health officials on Wednesday.Officials from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), under the Ministry of Health, and NITI Aayog stressed this line of action while addressing the National Conference on Rare Diseases, organised by business chamber FICCI.There are roughly 7,000 known rare diseases that are estimated to collectively affect close to 9…

New Delhi, Aug 20 (IANS) Europe is experiencing longer and more intense transmission seasons for mosquito-borne diseases, including West Nile virus (WNV) infection and chikungunya virus disease, according to a report by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control on Wednesday.The report blamed climatic and environmental factors such as rising temperatures, longer summer seasons, milder winters, and changes in rainfall patterns for the shift.These conditions combine to create a favoura…

New Delhi, Aug 20 (IANS) Omega fatty acids could protect against Alzheimer’s disease in women, new research showed on Wednesday.Scientists from the UK’s King’s College London and Queen Mary University London conducted an analysis of lipids — fat molecules that perform many essential functions in the body — in the blood. They found a noticeable loss of unsaturated fats, such as those that contain omega fatty acids, in the blood of women with Alzheimer’s disease compared to healthy women…

New Delhi, Aug 20 (IANS) Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee have developed HyEco — a first-of-its-kind integrated flood-water quality modelling platform which shows how potential disease-causing microbes can travel in floodwaters and where people are most at risk of getting affected.This novel framework, which also predicts how urban flood waters will spread across a city, was tested during the 2023 Delhi floods.The results were alarming; over 60 per cent of flooded…

Kochi, Aug 20 (IANS) The Kerala government on Wednesday informed the High Court that it has constituted a Grievance Redressal Committee under the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2018.The submission was made before a division bench of Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Basant Balaji, as it heard a writ petition seeking enforcement of safety standards in public medical facilities.The plea was filed in the wake of the recent collapse of a bathroom building at the Kott…

New Delhi, Aug 20 (IANS) In a bid to revolutionise biomedical and clinical diagnostics research, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi on Wednesday inaugurated a Biosafety Level 3 (BSL3) facility.The new facility will facilitate research on diagnostic devices and therapeutics for class-3 pathogens, marking the first such initiative among leading educational institutions in India.The achievement represents a major stride in India’s biomedical research capabilities and reaffirms IIT Del…