PG Times

There is no emergency in a pandemic This article is for the healthcare workers, doctors, surgeons, nurses, aides, EMS and all staff. This article should be read along with many news reports of doctors dying from COVID-19 throughout the world. Do not repeat the same mistakes that they made. If you do not have proper PPE, do not go in. No matter what. There is no emergency in a pandemic. You as a healthcare worker are a force multiplier. Your training and experience are invaluable moving into this crisis. So, you're going to be faced with some very difficult moments. You're going to have to put your needs first. I'm speaking specifically about PPE and your safety. If you're an ICU doctor or an ICU nurse, and you become infected, not only are you out of the game for potentially weeks (or killed), but your replacements could be people without your expertise. Your remaining co-workers are short-staffed now, more likely to make mistakes and become ill themselves

Social distancing of entire populations may be inevitable for countries wishing to suppress the novel coronavirus, scientists have said in a study that has also predicted tens of thousands of deaths even with the strongest measures. The study by Imperial College, London, has suggested that effective suppression of the epidemic would require a combination of four interventions — social distancing of entire populations, home isolation of positive cases and home quarantine of their family members and closure of educational institutions. The coronavirus, reported by China to the World Health Organisation on December 31, 2019, has since then spread to 164 countries, infected 212,000 and killed over 8,700 people. Epidemiologist Neil Ferguson and his colleagues who used mathematical models to predict coronavirus epidemic scenarios have shown that suppression — an effort to prevent an infected person from transmitting the virus to even one other person — is the “only viable s

The Medical Council of India’s board of governors has approved increasing postgraduate medical seats for MD and MS programmes by over 4,800 to 36,192 for the next academic session, an official said on Monday. BoG chairman and Niti Aayog member V.K. Paul said the increase is more than the total number of additional seats created in the past five years. “The Narendra Modi government in 2014 had promised to double PG and UG medical seats by 2024. So, in that direction the board of governors-vested with power of the Medical Council of India has given its approval to increase postgraduate medical seats (broad speciality) in 2020-21 session by 4,807. “So, as a result, in the new academic session counselling, 36,192 PG medical seats (MD/MS, broad speciality) will be available,” Paul said. Paul also said the capacity expansion would improve tertiary care in the country. “In 2020-21 academic session, approximately 44,000 postgraduate medical seats (36,192 MD/MS seats a

Indian Council of Medical Research’s warning that India has 30 days to halt the onset of Stage-III or community transmission of the novel coronavirus must kick off wider testing. ICMR has said that disease transmission is now limited to those with travel history to affected countries and those in contact with them. This is not as reassuring as it sounds. For every traveller reaching India and subsequently seeking medical help, there are too many loose ends in their whereabouts for public health authorities to tie up. Moreover, screening efforts at airports miss out many asymptomatic travellers. This is where wider testing and greater access to testing facilities can nip community transmission in the bud. The 60-odd labs notified by ICMR for testing swabs – and a similar number of sample collection centres – can conduct nearly 5,000 tests daily. But these get just 60-70 samples per day according to ICMR officials. Large, populous states like UP, Bihar and Rajasthan having just 2-

Online counselling likely to start from 12th March 2020.