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New Delhi: Through a recent notice, the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) has announced the re-opening of the registration process thus further extending the schedule for mop-up round of NEET PG counselling.

Earlier, the MCC had extended the registration to 05.11.2022.

Now, the MCC has further reponed the mop up round registration, The concerned candidates can check out the extended schedule as follows.

"In light of the Court proceedings in W.P. No. 174 of 2022 along with I.A. before the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India and in continuation of the notice no. U12021/01/2022-MEC dated 04/11/2022 it is decided to extend the schedule for Mop-up Round of PG Counselling," stated the MCC notice.

Also it is been decided by the competent authority that the internal seats of Central Universities i.e. AMU, BHU & DU and I.P. Universities (VMMC & Safdarjung Hospital & ABVIMS & RML Hospital) shall be filled by All India Candidates after the exhaustion of Internal Candidates at the respective institutes in the stray vacancy Round, the notice added.

Hence the candidates who wish to apply at the above mentioned universities may exercise the option of choice filling by using the registration unlocking facility as per the schedule below:

S./ No

EVENTS

DATES

1

Fresh Registration/Payment

extended 

02:00 P.M of 8th November, 2022 upto 11:00 A.M of 10th Nov., 2022

Payment Facility will be available upto 03:00 P.M of 10th November, 2022

2

RESET Registration Option

Upto 09:00 A.M of 10th Nov., 2022

3

Choice Filling & Choice Locking

Upto 11:55 P.M of 10th November, 2022 as per Server Time

Choice Locking from 03:00 PM of 10th November, 2022 to 11:55 PM on 10thNovember, 2022 , as per Server Time

To view the official Notice, Click here : https://mcc.nic.in/reopeningregistrationmopupround

The MCC had earlier released the seat matrixes for the mop-up round of NEET PG and NEET MDS counselling.

According to the seat matrixes, a total of 9175 MD, MS, PG Diploma and DNB seats are up for grabs in the mop-up counselling; whereas for MDS specialities, 353 seats are available for candidates.

Also Read:9175 NEET PG, 353 MDS seats up for grabs in MCC mop up round counselling

Previous schedule:

S. NoSchedule for AdmissionCentral CounsellingState CounsellingAll India QuotaDeemed + Central Institute11st Round of Counselling15th September to 27th September 202215th September to 27th September 202225th September to 4th October 20222Last date of Joining4th October 2022

4th October 2022

48h October 2022

32nd Round of Counselling10th October to - 18th October, 2022

10th October to - 18th October, 2022

15th October to - 26th October, 2022

4Last date of Joining26th October 2022

26th October 2022

2nd November 20225Mop up Round31st October to 8th November 2022

31st October to 8th November 2022

9th November to 14th November 2022

6Last date of Joining14th November 2022

14th November 2022

17th November 2022

7Stray Vacancy

15th November 2022 to 17th November 2022

15th November 2022 to 17th November 2022

21st November 2022 to 23rd November 2022

Forwarding the list of students in order of merit equaling to Ten times the number of vacant seat to the Medical colleges by the Counselling Authority to the Deemed University for Stray Vacancy Round17th November 20228Last date of Joining25th November 2022

25th November 2022

25th November 2022

9Commencement of Academic Session for PG Courses20th October 2022

The
passing of a newly diagnosed HIV patient was too impactful to top any other touching experience for a Health Connect Jamaica (HCJ) case manager who was rooting for the client to do well during treatment.

The case manager, whose name is being withheld for confidentiality purposes, shared her heartbreaking and heart-warming stories during an exclusive interview with the Jamaica Observer last Thursday, ahead of AIDS Awareness Month which is recognised in December.

The case manager, who has been in the field for eight years, said the client was an elderly woman in her mid-60s and was newly diagnosed last year but was poorly managing the diagnosis.

She also said the client had a lot of socio-economic problems.

"She received plenty interventions from the contact investigator and I, who would have tried our best to assist her where we can — checking in with her to ensure that she has food, support, taking the medication, but I guess she wasn't motivated enough to push through and she ended up passing, and that was quite rough for me because I would have wanted her to get through it," said the case manager who has been working with HCJ for a year.

"We had moments when she was doing well — really doing well — but something would happen at home and throw her back from point A," she said as she smiled, seemingly reminiscing on the good relationship she shared with the woman.

According to the case manager, the woman's failure to take the prescribed medication caused her to develop health conditions which led to her death.

"That was a bit challenging, and speaking to her children and hearing how distraught they were and the sadness that came with her death has been a rough one for me," she said.

She mentioned that during treatment the client became more welcoming and friendly, even though she was a bit bad-tempered in the early stages. She also said the experience has taught her that, even though she might not be able to help everyone to go through treatment well, her efforts are enough.

"When we had our initial conversation she was very cantankerous, she wasn't in any talking. Her children would always say, 'Don't pay her any mind, this is how she is,' but when you go and visit her, she was a pleasure to speak to, very welcoming, kind, and though she didn't have much, she was always offering. I realised that roughness that we first encountered was centred on the fact that I was a new person. But she was a good person, very nice to talk to," she said.

"The feeling is usually the same, it doesn't get easier. At the end of it I usually question myself about whether I did enough or not. But speaking with my colleagues and assessing all I would have done, I came to the conclusion that as a case manager you're going to help a lot of people, but you won't help everybody, and if I'm helping the majority then that is comforting for me," she added.

For her heart-warming story, the case manager pointed to another newly diagnosed client who thought she had a mere skin issue.

"I had a client who came to us last year, newly diagnosed and completely distraught because, imagine going to your doctor for a skin issue and being referred to a dermatologist for the same skin issue and only to find out it was more than a skin issue. She was quite distraught about it because, as you can imagine, your skin is changing. People are seeing that and you're super conscious about that," she said.

She said after encouraging her to take her medication, the client who adhered, became virally suppressed after a year.

"Her skin is getting better and she is in a way better place. Just talking to her now and how positive she is and not so self-conscious puts a smile on my face," she said.

The HCJ is funded by the United States President Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief through the United States Agency for International Development. Established in October 2019, HCJ facilitates the linkage of private sector services and data to the public database, helping Jamaica account for people living with HIV who were never linked to care within the public system.

The hogwash started in The Wall Street Journal with a contrarian take on a recent KPMG technology report. But cloud operates in a fundamentally different paradigm from the IT infrastructure of the past, and embracing big change is rarely free or easy. But the rewards of evolving are obvious and far too great to ignore.

https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/scifri202211041.mp3

“No one walks into my office and says, ‘I plan on missing a pill,’” said obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Mitchell Creinin.

“There is no such thing as perfect use, we are all real-life users,” said Creinin, a professor at the University of California-Davis who wrote a widely used textbook that details contraceptive failure rates.

Even when the odds of contraception failure are small, the number of incidents can add up quickly. More than 47 million women of reproductive age in the United States use contraception and, depending on the birth control method, hundreds of thousands of unplanned pregnancies can occur each year. With most abortions outlawed in at least 13 states and legal battles underway in others, contraceptive failures now carry bigger stakes for tens of millions of Americans.

Researchers distinguish between the perfect use of birth control, when a method is used consistently and correctly every time, and typical use, when a method is used in real-life circumstances. No birth control, short of a complete female sterilization, has a 0.00% failure rate.

The failure rate for typical use of birth control pills is 7%. For every million women taking pills, 70,000 unplanned pregnancies could occur in a year. According to the most recent data available, more than 6.5 million women ages 15 to 49 use oral contraceptives, leading to about 460,000 unplanned pregnancies.

Even seemingly minuscule failure rates of IUDs and birth control implants can lead to surprises.

An intrauterine device releases a hormone that thickens the mucus on the cervix. Sperm hit the brick wall of mucus and are unable to pass through the barrier. Implants are matchstick-sized plastic rods placed under the skin, which send a steady, low dose of hormone into the body that also thickens the cervical mucus and prevents the ovaries from releasing an egg. But not always. The hormonal IUD and implants fail to prevent pregnancy 0.1% to 0.4% of the time.

Some 4.8 million women use IUDs or implants in the U.S., leading to as many as 5,000 to 20,000 unplanned pregnancies a year.

“We’ve had women come through here for abortions who had an IUD, and they were the one in a thousand,” said Gordon Low, a nurse practitioner at the Planned Parenthood in Little Rock.

Abortion has been outlawed in Arkansas since the Supreme Court’s ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in late June. The only exception is when a patient’s death is considered imminent.

Those stakes are the new backdrop for couples making decisions about which form of contraception to choose or calculating the chances of pregnancy.

Another complication is the belief among many that contraceptives should work all the time, every time.

“In medicine, there is never anything that is 100%,” said Dr. Régine Sitruk-Ware, a reproductive endocrinologist at the Population Council, a nonprofit research organization.

All sorts of factors interfere with contraceptive efficacy, said Sitruk-Ware. Certain medications for HIV and tuberculosis and the herbal supplement St. John’s wort can disrupt the liver’s processing of birth control pills. A medical provider might insert an IUD imprecisely into the uterus. Emergency contraception, including Plan B, is less effective in women weighing more than 165 pounds because the hormone in the medication is weight-dependent.

And life is hectic.

“You may have a delay in taking your next pill,” said Sitruk-Ware, or getting to the doctor to insert “your next vaginal ring.”

Using contraception consistently and correctly lessens the chance for a failure but Alina Salganicoff, KFF’s director of women’s health policy, said that for many people access to birth control is anything but dependable. Birth control pills are needed month after month, year after year, but “the vast majority of women can only get a one- to two-month supply,” she said.

Even vasectomies can fail.

During a vasectomy, the surgeon cuts the tube that carries sperm to the semen.

The procedure is one of the most effective methods of birth control — the failure rate is 0.15% — and avoids the side effects of hormonal birth control. But even after the vas deferens is cut, cells in the body can heal themselves, including after a vasectomy.

“If you get a cut on your finger, the skin covers it back up,” said Creinin. “Depending on how big the gap is and how the procedure is done, that tube may grow back together, and that’s one of the ways in which it fails.”

Researchers are testing reversible birth control methods for men, including a hormonal gel applied to the shoulders that suppresses sperm production. Among the 350 participants in the trial and their partners, so far zero pregnancies have occurred. It’s expected to take years for the new methods to reach the market and be available to consumers. Meanwhile, vasectomies and condoms remain the only contraception available for men, who remain fertile for much of their lives.

At 13%, the typical-use failure rate of condoms is among the highest of birth control methods. Condoms play a vital role in stopping the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, but they are often misused or tear. The typical-use failure rate means that for 1 million couples using condoms, 130,000 unplanned pregnancies could occur in one year.

Navigating the failure rates of birth control medicines and medical devices is just one aspect of preventing pregnancy. Ensuring a male sexual partner uses a condom can require negotiation or persuasion skills that can be difficult to navigate, said Jennifer Evans, an assistant teaching professor and health education specialist at Northeastern University.

Historically, women have had little to no say in whether to engage in sexual intercourse and limited autonomy over their bodies, complicating sexual-negotiation skills today, said Evans.

Part of Evans’ research focuses on men who coerce women into sex without a condom. One tactic known as “stealthing” is when a man puts on a condom but then removes it either before or during sexual intercourse without the other person’s knowledge or consent.

“In a lot of these stealthing cases women don’t necessarily know the condom has been used improperly,” said Evans. “It means they can’t engage in any kind of preventative behaviors like taking a Plan B or even going and getting an abortion in a timely manner.”

Evans has found that heterosexual men who engage in stealthing often have hostile attitudes toward women. They report that sex without a condom feels better or say they do it “for the thrill of engaging in a behavior they know is not OK,” she said. Evans cautions women who suspect a sexual partner will not use a condom correctly to not have sex with that person.

“The consequences were already severe before,” said Evans, “but now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, they’re even more right now.”

This story is a collaboration between KHN and Science Friday. Listen to the conversation between KHN senior correspondent Sarah Varney and Science Friday producer Shoshannah Buxbaum.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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This story can be republished for free (details).

Santo Domingo, DR
Due to the heavy rains that occurred last Friday, November 4, the General Directorate of Epidemiology (Digepi) presented a warning for the control and prevention of possible diseases that may arise.

Given the forecasts made by the National Meteorological Office (Onamet), on the follow-up of the rains, Digepi gave the warning about the diseases caused by the bad weather: wound and skin infections, leptospirosis, gastrointestinal problems (in case of consumption of contaminated water), mosquito bites, traumas, injuries, tetanus, acute respiratory infections, conjunctivitis, and even Covid-19.

At the same time, it gave recommendations for the general population and health authorities to take early measures to prevent the situation and strengthen response and control measures.

Digepi urged the population to stay away from contaminated water, avoid garbage accumulation, and continue applying hygiene measures at work and home.

It also urged Provincial Health Directorates and Health Area Directorates to organize rapid response teams in collaboration with municipalities and to intervene in possible outbreaks in emergency areas.

Other recommendations to the population
Public Health also recommends that the population use adequate means of protection when exposure is necessary (plastic boots, gloves).

Eliminate the presence of rats and mice in homes and common or recreational areas, wash canned food, protect drinking water, wash hands after using the toilet and before each meal, cook food and wash fruits and vegetables before eating them, and cover stored water.

I have seen many persons go blind, have heart attacks, develop kidney disease, have limbs amputated and die because of diabetes. In Jamaica, diabetes, often called 'sugar', is the leading cause of death for women and the third cause of death for men.

This is cause for concern.

Types of Diabetes

There are three major types of diabetes mellitus — type 1, type 2 and gestational.

Type 1 diabetes: This is also called insulin-dependent diabetes and occurs most frequently in children and young adults, but can appear at any age. This is the most serious type of diabetes as it signals that the body has lost its ability to produce insulin in sufficient quantities to process the sugar that enters the bloodstream. This causes high levels of sugar to be in the blood. Fortunately, type 1 diabetes affects only about 5-10 per cent of the population. Type 1 diabetes is caused by the body's immune system attacking the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. (Scientists are not exactly sure why the immune system acts in that manner, but they think that a virus may trigger the immune system to begin its attack.) When this happens, the body cannot produce insulin, and so is unable to process the sugar which enters it. Very simply put: Type 1 diabetics need insulin to survive.

Type 2 diabetes: If you have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes it means you are not able to maintain normal sugar levels, so sugar remains unprocessed because your body cannot use its own natural insulin properly. Type 2 is the most common form of diabetes; about 90-95 per cent of people with diabetes have type 2. With Type 2 diabetes, although the pancreas is still functioning, and producing some insulin, it is not being properly utilised by the body and so the sugar levels are higher than normal.

Gestational diabetes: This occurs in pregnant women who did not have the disease before becoming pregnant. It affects about four per cent of pregnant women. Most times it goes away after delivery. There is also a condition called pre-diabetes: Persons are said to be pre-diabetic when their blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough for a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, and the symptoms of the disease are not yet evident.

Causes of diabetes

Type 1 and type 2 diabetes have different causes, but they do share some things in common, namely, family history and environmental factors.

Let's take family history first. Some traits are passed on from one generation to another, from our grandparents to our parents, and we in turn pass them on to our children. If your family has a history of diabetes, it's likely that persons in your family will carry this trait in their genes and so are predisposed to having diabetes.

Environmental factors such as diet and lifestyle can trigger type 2 diabetes. Here are some other situations, commonly called risk factors that can lead to diabetes:

• Ageing

• Obesity

• Prior history of gestational diabetes

• Impaired glucose tolerance (pre-diabetes)

• Physical inactivity

• Race/ethnicity

• Stress

Now is a good time to explain why diabetes is so dangerous. Since the cells in the body cannot absorb the glucose, it means excess sugar is literally hanging out in the blood. As more food (especially carbohydrates) is eaten, more glucose enters the body and keeps being added to the blood, making it too sweet.

High levels of blood glucose can damage the tiny blood vessels in various organs including the kidneys, heart, eyes, and nervous system. That is why diabetes is so dangerous, and if it is not diagnosed and treated, can eventually lead to serious problems like heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, blindness, and damage to the nerves in the feet.

I need to stress again that part of what makes diabetes so dangerous is that someone can have it for years and not know (remember, it's also called the silent killer) and during that time the unusually high sugar levels may be causing damage to internal organs.

Excerpts taken from the book A patient's guide to the treatment of diabetes mellitus. ©Jacqueline Elaine Campbell

Dr Jacqueline E Campbell is a family physi
cian and radio show host. She is the author of the book
A Patient's Guide to the Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus
. E-mail her at
drjcampbell14@yahoo.com
or follow her on
IG
: dr.jcampbell

We know you sometimes have burning questions that can best be answered by a pharmacist. Our feature, Ask Your Pharmacist, seeks to address some of those issues. Send your questions to healthandwealth@jamaicaobserver.com.

Question: How does diabetes affect the eyes?

Answer: Over time, diabetes causes damage to organs in the body. The eyes are organs at great risk of damage from this disease condition. Long-standing diabetes can lead to an eye disease called diabetic retinopathy. Anyone with any kind of diabetes can get diabetic retinopathy — including people with type 1, type 2, and gestational (pregnancy related) diabetes. The longer a person has diabetes, the greater his/her risk of developing diabetic retinopathy. In fact, more than half of people with diabetes will develop diabetic retinopathy. Women with diabetes who become pregnant — or women who develop gestational diabetes — are at high risk for getting diabetic retinopathy.

Diabetes damages blood vessels all over the body. In the eyes, diabetes directly affects the retina — the light-sensitive layer at the back of the eyes. The retina has a network of tiny blood vessels that supply blood to the eye. When a person has diabetes, the sugar in the blood blocks the tiny blood vessels that go to your retina. This causes the blood vessels to swell, leak fluid or bleed. When the retina gets swollen, vision gets blurry. When the vessels leak blood into the eye, vision gets very murky. Also, blood supply to the retina is decreased. To compensate for these blocked blood vessels, the eyes then grow new blood vessels that don't work well. These new blood vessels can leak or bleed easily, perpetuating the cycle of the disease.

Diabetic retinopathy does not happen immediately. It happens after years of having the disease. The longer a person has diabetes, the higher their likelihood of developing diabetic retinopathy. The unfortunate thing is that there are no symptoms early in the disease, so diabetic eye disease can go undetected for a long time. That is why it is important to have a comprehensive eye examination once a year. Further on in the course of the disease, diabetics may experience blurred vision, floaters (tiny black dots or strings floating around in their eyes), or blocked vision from the bleeding.

The good news is that you can lower your risk of developing diabetic retinopathy by controlling your diabetes. Physical activity, a healthy diet, and sticking to your medication routine can also help you prevent or delay vision loss. Controlling your blood sugar is key to reducing the impact of diabetes on the eyes.

If you have diabetes, it's very important to get regular eye exams. If you do develop diabetic retinopathy, early treatment can stop the damage and prevent blindness, as without treatment, scars can form in the back of the eye. Eye doctors can check for diabetic retinopathy as part of a dilated eye exam. The exam is simple and painless — your doctor will give you some eye drops to dilate (widen) your pupil and then check your eyes for diabetic retinopathy and other eye problems. In the early stages of diabetic retinopathy, your eye doctor will probably just keep track of how your eyes are doing. Some people with diabetic retinopathy may need a comprehensive dilated eye exam as often as every two to four months. In later stages, it's important to start treatment right away, especially if you have changes in your vision. Treatment options for diabetic retinopathy include laser procedures, injections into the eyes and even surgery. While these treatment options won't undo any damage to your vision, treatment can stop your vision from getting worse. It's also important to take steps to control your diabetes, blood pressure, and cholesterol.

In conclusion, diabetes can have detrimental effects on your eyes. It is imperative that all diabetic patients try their very best to control their blood sugar levels, as treatment can be quite expensive and can prove mentally and emotionally draining.

Novia Jerry Stewart, MSc, RPh, is a pharmacist who specialises in diabetes care. She may be contacted for diabetes care coaching sessions at
diabetescarepharmacist@gmail.com
.

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