WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 H E A LT H & S C I E N C E For the 15th consecutive year, GCI kick starts Arab Health 2015 DUBAI: UAE’s leading source of medical education, Arab Health 2015 begins today. With medical as well as hospitality professionals congregating at the fair to check out on the latest devices and procedures that can revolutionize the world of healthcare, the fair provides an opportunity for exhibitors from around the world to showcase their technologically advanced products. A common ground for medical experts as well as business head honchos, this fair is one of the largest shows in the Middle East. This year’s congress is set to be bigger than ever and will host 40 country pavilions, taking everything from the range of hospital equipment, medical equipment, and medical devices to medical technology on display at Arab Health to the next level. The new pavilions for 2015 are Bahrain, Indonesia, Russia and Thailand. Gulf Care International (GCI) is the premiere provider of global patient services. It is also the Gulf region’s premier gateway to access the very best medical service providers in the US. GCI facilitates two-way benefits helping patients in the Gulf region receive world-class medical interventions in the US, while also helping institutions in Chicago gain access to the ever-growing global market of healthcare consumers. GCI’s success is built on its extensive collaborations with globally renowned partners. Gulf Care International pioneered a fully managed international patient program called Global Health Link. Using Global Health Link, GCI has assisted countless international patients seeking healthcare services in the United States. “GCI’s has constantly endeavoured to give its patients and clients the best of both worlds, by blending its in-depth understanding of the Gulf market with its unsurpassed partnerships in the US”, said Khalid Alagel, President and founder of GCI. “The 2015 edition of Arab Health is the largest medical congress in the Middle East and the second largest in the world. And we’re excited to represent our clients and GCI and exchanging best practices with the world’s finest at this prestigious event”, he added. GCI’s participation this year will represent many of their clients including the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC). Since 1953, RIC has been a pioneer in medical care for some of the most difficult patient conditions. Some of the finest minds in the fields of rehabilitation medicine, biomedical engineering, neuroscience, and outcomes research can be found at RIC today. Another client being represented at the meet is Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, formerly Children’s Memorial Hospital. The hospital provides superior paediatric care in a setting that offers the latest benefits and innovations in medical technology, research and family-friendly design. Lurie Children’s Hospital is also known to be the largest paediatric provider in the world with a 130 year legacy of excellence. Another partnering client being represented at Arab Health 2015 is Edward Hospital, a full-service, regional healthcare provider offering access to complex medical specialties and innovative programming. The hospital is the most preferred hospital in its region E-cigarettes would be banned in public places under California bill CALIFORNIA: California would ban the use of electronic cigarettes in public places and ramp up enforcement against selling them to minors under a bill introduced in the legislature on Monday. There is growing concern about the health risks from e-cigarettes, also known as vapor cigarettes or vapes, which are not lit or smoked like their old-fashioned counterparts, but do generally release nicotine in a heated liquid. “Whether you get people hooked on e-cigarettes or regular cigarettes, it’s nicotine addiction and it kills,” Democratic state Senator Mark Leno, who introduced the bill, said in a telephone interview. “We’re going to see hundreds of thousands of family members and friends die from e-cigarette use just like we did from traditional tobacco use.” The bill would add e-cigarettes to the list of tobacco products regulated in the state, which already forbids smoking in workplaces, restaurants, bars and other places. It would also ramp up penalties for selling e-cigarettes, which come in such flavors as bubble gum and chocolate, to minors. California would be the fourth US state to treat them like regular cigarettes, and the 23rd to regulate e-cigarettes in some way. In California, the most populous US state, 122 cities and counties have banned the use of e-cigarettes in certain public places. Second-hand e-cigarette emissions contain cancer-causing chemicals, and could put children and others at risk if they are in proximity to users, said Kimberly Amazeen, vice president of public policy and advocacy for the American Lung Association in California. The bill was criticized Plague cases rise in Madagascar Canada resident tests positive for H7N9 avian flu virus VANCOUVER: A Vancouver area resident has tested positive for the H7N9 avian flu virus in the first documented case of the infection in a human in North America, the Canadian government said on Monday. The woman, who is in her 50s, had returned to Canada from China and is recovering from the illness in self-isolation, the Public Health Agency of Canada said in a statement. “I want to emphasize that the risk to Canadians is very low because there is no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission of H7N9,” Gregory Taylor, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, said at a news conference in Ottawa. Taylor said the woman returned to Canada on Jan 12 after visiting numerous locations in China and began to feel ill two days later on Jan 14. “All evidence is indicating that it is likely the individual was infected following exposure in China,” he said. “We don’t know at this time how the individual contracted the virus.” The woman’s male travel partner, also in his 50s, has symptoms and was likely infected at the same time, although the second case has not been confirmed, health officials said. The H7N9 virus passes between birds, but experts say there is not enough evidence to prove it passes between humans. Most cases report contact with poultry, usually in live poultry markets, the Canadian health agency said. The virus first infected three people in China in March 2013. In 2014, it infected 453 people, killing 175 of them, according to the World Health Organization. Two people reportedly died of the H7N9 virus in China’s coastal Fujian province earlier this month, and recent human cases have been reported in the Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces, and Shanghai. The H7N9 virus has not been detected in birds in Canada. — Reuters GENEVA: Plague has killed 57 people out of 213 known cases in Madagascar and more deaths are feared after recent flooding forced tens of thousands of people from their homes and set rats on the run, the World Health Organization said yesterday. The UN agency’s first update since late November, when there were 119 cases including 40 deaths, was based on new figures from the Health Ministry. The outbreak began in August on the Indian Ocean island, one of the world’s poorest countries, where the disease is endemic. The bacterial disease is mainly spread from one rodent to another by fleas. Humans bitten by an infected flea usually develop a bubonic form of plague, which swells the lymph node and can be treated with antibiotics, according to the WHO. However, if the bacteria reach the lungs, the patient develops pneumonia (pneumonic plague), which is transmissible from person to person through infected droplets spread by coughing. It is one of the most deadly infectious diseases and can kill people within 24 hours. “Plague established a foothold in the capital city, affecting densely populated slums. This is alarming, as around 8 percent of cases progress to the lethal pneumonic form,” WHO director-general Margaret Chan said. She said flooding from a tropical storm and a cyclone last week displaced tens of thousands of people and untold numbers of rats, “raising the risk of more rodent-borne epidemics”. Adding to the danger, the fleas that transmit the disease from rats to humans have developed resistance to the first-line insecticide, Chan told the WHO Executive Board on Monday. Madagascar’s president announced the replacement of eight ministers late on Sunday, including a new finance minister, after the government was dissolved earlier this month amid mounting public frustration over power cuts and social woes. — Reuters Monday by a group calling itself the American Vaping Association, which said it would harm smokers who are trying to quit by switching to ecigarettes, which are marketed as a safer alternative to the combustible kind because they do not flood the lungs with smoke. “California smokers deserve truthful information about smoke-free alternatives, not hype and conjecture designed to scare them away from attempting to quit with these innovative technology products,” Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association, said in a press release. But Leno, whose bill is backed by the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association, said the vapor released by the e-cigarettes contains carcinogens, and the nicotine in them is addictive. — Reuters Mexico City swaps squats for subway rides MEXICO CITY: There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but the overweight in Mexico City will be glad to hear there is such a thing as a free subway ride. Concerned health officials in the Mexican capital hope to get residents in shape by offering free journeys in return for them burning a few extra calories. From Monday, dozens of stations in the city’s metro system have been equipped with special machines that, in exchange for 10 squats, will tell passengers how many calories they burned and give them a token for a free ride. The so-called “health stations” are a novel way for health chiefs to draw attention to Mexico’s dismal obesity levels. According to official figures, 70 percent of adults and nearly a third of children are overweight or obese, surpassing even the United States. “Levels of excess weight and obesity concern us greatly. For me, it’s the number one public health problem,” the capital’s health secretary Jose Armando Ahued Ortega said as he introduced the project, devised by leftist mayor Miguel Angel Mancera. Thirty squat-counting machines have been installed across the city, which will also hand out pedometers to the first 80,000 users to help them track their energy output. With more than five million daily users, the subway is a vital means of transport in the megalopolis. Metro tickets in December 2013 went up from three to five pesos ($0.20 to $0.34), generating fierce criticism from commuters in a country where the minimum wage is 70 pesos a day. —AFP
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