Calicut, May 9: IHMA Calicut chapter hosted a seminar on psychiatry. Dr. C. Geetha, Asst. Professor of Psychiatry Calicut Medical College spoke on Common Psychiatric Disorders. She explained various aspects on Anxiety, Depression and Schizophrenia. The afternoon session started with Dr.K.R. Mansoor Ali, the publisher of similima.com. His presentation was on “ Psychiatry - A Homoeopathic perspective “ He stressed the importance of mental symptoms in case taking, and repertorisation. His interpretation on mental symptoms and synonyms, construction of rubrics, elimination of common mental symptoms had benefited the delegates.

      Chapter president Dr. T.K. Hareendranath and secretary Dr. Arun Prasad K.P gave a warm welcome to the new national office bearers. The National President of the IHMA, Dr. M.G. Oommen, inaugurated the function, insisted the national integrity of associations in a single head. Dr. Thomas A Kuruvillai, DMO, Kozhikode and Dr. P.K Muhsin, Dean, Faculty of Homoeopathy, Calicut University, hounoured the occasion.

- Reported by Dr. Arun Prasad K.P.

     Delhi, April 5: The Ministry of Railways has increased per capita allocation to the Staff Benefit Fund by Rs. 4 per annum from April 1, 2004. With this, the per capita contribution to the Staff Benefit Fund will go up from Rs. 26 to Rs. 30 per annum.

     Accordingly, the corpus of the Fund will go up from Rs. 3.90 crores to Rs. 4.50 crores annually.

     The contribution of Rs. 30 per capita per annum is based on 15 lakh non-gazetted railway employees. The Fund is utilized for relief of distress, sickness, education, recreation, amusement, cultural, indigenous system of medicine including homeopathy, women empowerment and miscellaneous items.

     A new head titled ‘Women Empowerment Activities’ has been introduced within the Staff Benefit Fund with a per capita per annum allocation of 50 paise by the Government, which will raise a sum of Rs. 7.50 lakhs annually to take care of welfare of women employees in distress. This amount is to be utilized exclusively for the welfare and empowerment of women employees only.

     Pune, May 3: The Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) is planning to prepare a syllabus to train ayurvedic and homeopathic doctors in allopathy, said MUHS vice-chancellor Dr.Ravindra Bapat.

     Speaking to the press on the sidelines of the convocation ceremony of the Symbiosis Institute for Health Sciences (SIHS) here on Sunday, Bapat said this was being done to train these doctors in modern allopathic medicine.

     Bapat added that the primary health sector, the first contact of the people with the doctors, was dominated by practitioners of homeopathy and ayurveda, especially in the rural areas.   He said that many of these practitioners were dispensing allopathic medicines to the people without “an iota of knowledge about side-effects”.  

     Bapat said, instead of making these medical practitioners stop dispensing the medicines, the solution lay in empowering them with knowledge of allopathy to help them effectively treat the masses.  

     He said the planned syllabus would consist of “preventive and curative medicine, medical diagnosis and standard treatment guidelines (STG),” and would also aim at equipping the medical practitioners with the essential drug list (EDL) prepared by the World Health Organisation.  

     Approval was being sought for the syllabus, which would be jointly prepared by the MUHS and the Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU), Bapat said. Bapat said despite the state having 160 medical colleges, the urban-rural divide existed as far as access to primary healthcare was concerned.  

     He said among allopathic medicine graduates, around 84 per cent went in for specialisation and many opted to go abroad in search of greener pastures. The result was the take-over of the primary healthcare system, especially in the rural areas by the other branches of medicine.  

     Quoting the results of a survey conducted in five talukas of the Nasik district, Bapat said 84 per cent doctors belonged to non-allopathic streams.

-TIMES NEWS NETWORK

     Parbhani. May 1: Similia foundation, a organization formed by the Homoeopathy students of Maharashtra state had launched a website www.homoeonet.com Durgesh Nagorao Anokar, third year B.H.M.S student of P. D. Jain Homoeopathic medical college. Parbhani is the editor and publisher. The co-ordinators of this consignment are Ms. Sujata Pawar, Mahesh Pralhad Bhagwat and Sharad D. Shelke.

     “We work and publish the materials required for the student community. We had published interviews with eminent Homoeopaths and Articles. We also publish notifications issued by the authorities and news items “ The team said.

     Nilgiris. May 9: Colleges of Medical, Dental, Pharmacy, paramedical, Ayurvedic, Homeopathy, Siddha, Naturopathy and Yogic sciences affiliated to Tamilnadu Dr. MGR Medical University have formed a new consortium - Tamilnadu Professional Colleges Association (Health Sciences) (TANCOHS) to conduct the Common Entrance Examination for management quota seats.

     A meeting of the association was held under the chairmanship of C R Swaminathan, chief executive, PSG Group of Institutions, at Coimbatore recently.

     The new association will fulfill objectives laid down by the Supreme Court direction on admissions to management quota seats in the private professional colleges.

     The association will be headquartered in Chennai. Dr C Ramachandran has been appointed as its special officer. TANCOHS will conduct entrance examination in consultation with the Government of Tamilnadu.

     Admission, fees fixation committee appointed by the Government of Tamilnadu for admission to the management quota seats of the Health Sciences Institutions Common Entrance Examination will be held tentatively in 12 Centres of Chennai, Madurai, Trichy, Salem, Coimbatore, Vellore, Nagercoil, Bangalore, Cochin, Hyderabad, Pondicherry and New Delhi.

     Students from outside Tamilnadu are also eligible to appear for the Common Entrance Examination and will become eligible for admission in Tamilnadu Health Sciences Colleges.

     The association will conduct the Common Entrance Examination and issue mark sheets to individual candidates. Candidates can seek admission to the courses of their choice by applying to the respective institutions.

     Hyderabad, May 6: Symptoms like sneezing, running or blocked nose, itchy throat and watery eyes don’t always mean you have caught a cold. They are often tell tale signs of allergic rhinitis.

     Allergic rhinitis is an inflammation of the mucous membranes of the nose due to an allergic reaction, typically from pollen, dust or other allergens. It is said that 10 per cent of the adult population is affected by it. Its symptoms can hamper ones concentration and lead to decreased productivity among adults and children.

     Allergic rhinitis (seasonal and perennial) is the reaction of an immune system working overtime to protect the body from unfamiliar agents, even though they may be harmless. Pollen is a major irritant which is found in abundance this season.

     “The recent vagaries of the weather such as intermittent showers provide an ideal environment for allergens to spread. Incidence of allergic rhinitis has also gone up as we are now exposed to polluted environments, which the human body is unable to deal with. The consumption of processed food and food colouring agents also aggravate the problem,” said Venugopal Gouri.

     Pillows and mattresses which are a source of dust have to be changed every five years, air-conditioners and coolers which have been idle for months should be cleaned thoroughly before use. Curtains, carpets, and blinds are also dust magnets, and must be cleaned carefully. Pet dander, perfumes, cigarette smoke, could all trigger such symptoms.

     If left untreated, secondary bacterial infections arising out of rhinitis could lead to sinusitis, laryngitis, and even asthma. Even with treatment, in five to ten years some cases can develop into these more serious ailments. Treatment is via nasal sprays and antihistamines.

     However, many individuals are now turning to homeopathy. Allopathic treatments typically suppress the body’s reaction whereas homeopathy facilitates conditioning to these foreign agents.

-Times Network

     Khanna, April 9: Dr.Hahnemann birthday celebrations and induction of new office bearers held at Hotel Daawat. The general body nominated Dr.Sukhwinder Singh Birdi as president, Dr.Sanjeev Sharma sworn as secretary. Dr.Mrs.Rupinder Kaur was inducted as finance secretary. Families’ get together and a cultural program also arranged by the unit.

- Reported by Dr. Vithal

     Kozhikode, March 31: The former Health Minister, A.C. Shanmughadas, MLA, has deplored the prevailing tendency to commercialise the health sector.

     He said with this in view, the Government and doctors’ associations should popularise homoeopathy which was a cheaper system of therapy.

     Mr. Shanmughadas was speaking at a programme organised by the Kerala Homoeo Sastra Vedi on the occasion of its seventh anniversary, and to present the Dr. Samuel Hahnemann Award to IHK State General secretary, K.C. Prashob Kumar.

- The Hindu