A recent study published in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics, reveals that a high level of screen time for toddlers, results in poorer development of the child. Language and sociability skills of the child get majorly affected with over exposure to screens like TV programmes, gaming and tablets. Screen time tends to interfere with activities like running and social interactions. According to the American Association of Paediatrics (AAP), children aged two to five years should be exposed to only an hour of 'high quality' programmes on screen.  The Canadian Paediatric Society states 'screen time for children younger than 2 years is not recommended'.

A recent study published in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics, reveals that a high level of screen time for toddlers, results in poorer development of the child. Language and sociability skills of the child get majorly affected with over exposure to screens like TV programmes, gaming and tablets. Screen time tends to interfere with activities like running and social interactions. According to the American Association of Paediatrics (AAP), children aged two to five years should be exposed to only an hour of 'high quality' programmes on screen. The Canadian Paediatric Society states 'screen time for children younger than 2 years is not recommended'.

May 31 marks World No Tobacco Day. In addition to raising awareness, the initiative&nbsp;recognizes the efforts of countries, individuals and organisations from around the world in tobacco control.&nbsp;Finland's Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has received this year's 'World No Tobacco Day Award' issued by the World Health Organization. In 2016, Finland updated its Tobacco Act&nbsp;with a new objective to end the use of tobacco and other nicotine products by 2030. To reduce the appeal of e-cigarettes, especially among young people, Finland strictly regulates them and has introduced a ban on the use of flavours in e-cigarettes &ndash; one of the few countries globally which has introduced such policy measures.

The issue of tobacco smoking and risk for acute respiratory infection has become a talking point amid the Covid-19 pandemic. According to a paper published in The Lancet journal, robust evidence suggests that several mechanisms may increase the risk of respiratory tract infections in smokers.&nbsp;Smoking impairs the immune system and the ability to contain infection. The risk of contracting pneumonia&nbsp;is about 3&ndash;5 times higher in smokers and they&nbsp;are also 5-times more likely to contract&nbsp;influenza, states the paper. There's not enough evidence to support that tobacco smoking increases the risk of being infected by Covid-19. However, available studies indicate that&nbsp;current smokers have increased gene expression of ACE2 - the main receptor used by the Covid-19 virus to gain entry to host cells and cause active infection.&nbsp;The challenge for Covid-19 studies is to have large enough sample sizes with all variables that might be associated with tobacco smoking and health.&nbsp;

The Indian Institute of Technology in Roorkee will be conducting research on identifying antivirals&nbsp;to treat the Covid-19 virus.&nbsp;The study is funded under the intensification of Research in High&nbsp;Priority areas under the Department of Science and Technology.&nbsp;Researchers will work on identifying small molecule inhibitors to target key enzymes that replicate the virus in the body.&nbsp;This will help expedite the process of identification of drugs that can be used to treat Covid-19.&nbsp;An IIT Roorkee professor Dr.&nbsp;Kamal Jain also&nbsp;recently created a new surveillance system for tracking suspected Covid-19 patients.&nbsp;
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Taking the fight against Covid-19 a step ahead, NHS&nbsp;England has rolled out a 'Trace and Test service' to move towards more localised and targeted efforts to tackle the virus. As part of the service, those who have contracted the infection in England and Scotland will be contacted by NHS&nbsp;teams and their interactions will be further traced. Those who are deemed to be at risk of infection, will be made to isolate for 14 days. Almost&nbsp;25,000 tracers are working for England's NHS Test and Trace team.&nbsp;

New York-based artist, Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada is nearing the completion of a 20,000-foot portrait of Dr. Ydelfonzo Decoo, who lost his life while fighting on the frontlines&nbsp;to battle the&nbsp;Covid-19 pandemic. The huge portrait is located on the pavement of a parking lot in Queens.&nbsp;Jorge&nbsp;calls it a 'terrestrial portrait', large-enough to be seen by the satellites! His mural is a tribute to all the&nbsp;healthcare workers, doctors and first responders&nbsp;who have lost their lives while helping others get through the pandemic.&nbsp;
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The US Food and Drug Administration has found high levels of a carcinogenic chemical in some pills of Metformin, a popular diabetes drug. According to a Bloomberg report, some extended-release version of the drug had unacceptable&nbsp;amounts of NDMA, a probable human carcinogen. The drug is taken by people with type 2 diabetes, to control high blood sugar. Some recalls may be witnessed this week, however, it is unclear which companies will be removing their products from&nbsp;the shelves. Patients must consult their doctors before deciding to stop to take the medication, the report cautioned.&nbsp;

Biotechnology major Biocon on Wednesday said it has received approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for a medical device to treat critical Covid-19 patients. The go-ahead is for an extracorporeal blood purification device called 'CytoSorb' to reduce pro-inflammatory cytokines levels in confirmed Covid-19 patients admitted to the ICU with confirmed or imminent respiratory failure. Studies have shown that Covid-19 patients who develop serious complications experience a 'cytokine storm', also known as Cytokine Release Syndrome, which leads to excessive inflammation, organ failure, and death. The licence granted to Biocon will be effective until control of the Covid-19 outbreak in the country. The device was introduced by Biocon in India in 2013 and since then, many patients undergoing organ transplant and sepsis treatment have benefited from it.

According to a survey by non-profit Plan International UK, 73 per cent said women were facing restricted access to menstrual products through shortages or disrupted supply chains. Speaking to 45 health professionals from 30 countries, the survey warned that sanitary product shortage and price hikes due to the pandemic have led to a rise in&nbsp;period poverty. A separate survey by the same group found that women are resorting to using toilet paper as an alternative due to lack of access to period products.&nbsp;

On the occasion&nbsp;of Menstrual Hygiene Day, UNICEF&nbsp;India Representative Yasmin Ali Haque said that the culture of silence around menstruation&nbsp;has grown even further during the pandemic.&nbsp;The is a major problem&nbsp;for women for&nbsp;economically disadvantaged backgrounds who are finding it tougher&nbsp;to manage their periods safely, hygienically and with dignity. To this end, the UN body launched a&nbsp;week-long campaign #RedDotChallenge&nbsp;to raise awareness, break the silence&nbsp;and change negative norms associated with menstruation. Celebrities including&nbsp;Dia Mirza,&nbsp;Aditi Rao Hydari,&nbsp;Diana Penty&nbsp;showed their support for the campaign.&nbsp;

Following WHO's&nbsp;decision to stop the trial for hydroxychloroquine, the French government&nbsp;has banned using the anti-malaria drug for the treatment of Covid-19 patients. The controversial drug has been proven to be harmful in several&nbsp;studies. The&nbsp;French High Council for Public Health has recommended&nbsp;that the drug not be used for clinical trials, following which the government decided to ban its use altogether.&nbsp;

In a first, a newborn baby born on March 11 at a British hospital will join a cannabis-derived treatment trial. The study aims to find if the medicine could reduce the level of brain injury for babies with neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. The baby was born with an unexpected poor condition had to be transferred to a care unit where he received 72 hours of cooling therapy. Another baby born in April is also a part of the same study. The first babies in the trial will get only a 30th of the usual dose to minimise any side-effects. Other&nbsp;neonatal intensive care units in UK and Europe are also involved in the trial which will take a year to complete.&nbsp;

Over 200 organisations representing at least 40 million health workers from around the world have signed an open letter to the G20 leaders to ensure a 'green recovery' from the Covid-19 pandemic. The letter indicates that 7 million premature deaths are caused globally due to air pollution. They urge leaders to strengthen public health systems and warn that environmental degradation could lead to future diseases. The letter states that better preparation could have reduced the impact of the pandemic. Several nations are considering a green recovery plan and taking steps like remote working and reducing greenhouse gases. Some of the signatories include include the World Medical Association, the International Council of Nurses and the Commonwealth Nurses and Midwives Federation.

According to a new study, published in the&nbsp;British Journal of Sports Medicine, movement-based yoga may help improve mental health amid a crisis like the Covid-19 pandemic.&nbsp;Researchers define it as a form of yoga 'where participants are physically active at least 50% of the time, including a sequence of poses with the focus on holding each asana'.&nbsp;Over 1,000 participants across six countries, including India, were analysed. The results showed that movement-based yoga could help in dealing with&nbsp;&nbsp;bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety. The longer you practise yoga, the more benefits you will receive, said researchers. The results were promising, but more data is needed to confirm the findings.
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After its stand-alone trial of Favipiravir&nbsp;entering phase-3, Mumbai-based Glenmark&nbsp;Pharmaceuticals will now test the combined efficacy of two antiviral drugs Favipiravir and Umifenovir&nbsp;together, as a potential Covid-19 treatment.&nbsp;Called the FAITH trial, the study will enroll 158 hospitalized patients with moderate Covid-19. The firm, which has received the approval from the drug regulator, hopes that the 'antivirals&nbsp;different mechanisms of action could complement and enhance efficacy against the new coronavirus.'

Two drugs that have been proposed as a potential treatment for the new coronavirus, hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, could be a lethal combination according to a new study. The combination could seriously impact the&nbsp;cardiovascular system as per researchers&nbsp;from Vanderbilt and Stanford University, who carried out an observational, retrospective meta-analysis of a WHO database of over 21 million case reports. The reports are dated November 1967-March 2020 across 130 countries. Reports&nbsp;of potentially lethal acute cardiac proarrhythmogenic effects have been described mainly with azithromycin but also with hydroxychloroquine. And together, the risk was even stronger, according to the report published in the journal&nbsp;Circulation.&nbsp;

A second case of transmission of Covid-19 from mink to humans has been reported in the Netherlands. A Dutch worker has tested positive for the infection. According to reports, the worker most likely caught the infection before it was known that the mink were carrying the virus. The worker did not take precautions like wearing masks or gloves, reports state. The risk of further contagion remains low, says&nbsp;the Dutch agricultural minister. The case follows a reported infection last week on a farm, where the disease was discovered in April among mink that are bred for their valuable fur. Keeping mink for fur is a controversial&nbsp;issue in the Netherlands. As per court orders,&nbsp;mink breeding must cease by 2024.

US biotech company&nbsp;Novavax&nbsp;has begun&nbsp;human trials for a Covid-19 vaccine in Australia. If the trials are successful, it hopes to release the vaccine later this year. In the first phase of the trial, 131 volunteers in Melbourne and Brisbane will test the safety of the vaccine and look for early signs of its effectiveness. Novavax&nbsp;is using a recombinant vaccine, which includes genetic engineering to grow harmless copies of the coronavirus spike protein in giant vats of insect cells in a laboratory.&nbsp;Scientists extracted and purified the protein, and packaged it into virus-sized nanoparticles.

As the&nbsp;Universal Orlando&nbsp;theme park gears up to open on the 5th of June, almost three months after it shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic, park authorities have warned of an 'inherent risk' of Covid-19 to those who visit. A disclaimer on their website states that while they would be taking all necessary precaution in sync with guidelines suggested by the CDC, they cannot guarantee that visitors will not be exposed to the virus. Some measures that the park will be taking to contain the spread of the virus include temperature checks, limiting capacity and necessary face covers.&nbsp;

Researchers from Bristol University believe that 'human challenge studies of Covid-19 vaccine' could help speed up the process of developing a&nbsp;vaccine as well as its efficacy. A human challenge study involves intentionally infecting volunteers with the virus to test treatment possibilities. Researchers shared that the levels of infection in the community are already low, and there may not be enough people secreting the virus to be in contact with volunteers in vaccine projects. Researchers from&nbsp;Warwick University Medical School added that only very healthy young people aged 25 years will take part in the trial and an effective therapy will be worked on. The World Health Organisation has also shared a set of guidelines for human challenge trials.

For the first time in decades, the US FDA has approved a new birth control gel as a non-hormonal contraceptive alternative to the ones available&nbsp;in the market. 'Phexxi' by Evofem Biosciences Inc. makes the pH levels in the vagina 'inhospitable' for the sperm, and acidic and unfit&nbsp;for fertilisation.&nbsp;The Evofem CEO&nbsp;shared that&nbsp;the product has no hormones and no systemic side effects, reports Bloomberg.&nbsp;During the trials,&nbsp;over 10% women did experience vaginal itching and burning but it decreased with each cycle. In a clinical study of 1,400 women, it was noted that the gel prevented pregnancy 86% of the times overall and 93.3% when it was used correctly. Expected to launch in September, the company also has plans to assess the potential of the gel in prevention of chlamydia and gonorrhea in women, later this year.

High levels of screen time for toddlers is harmful

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High levels of screen time for toddlers is harmful

Jan 30, 2019 12:17 IST

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