‘4 more medical colleges in State’

28/01/2020 , Special Correspondent, MYSURU

Four medical colleges will come up in Chickballapur, Chikkamagaluru, Yadgir and Haveri, and the Centre has promised all assistance on the matter, said Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa in Madikeri on Monday.

He added that in two or three years, infrastructure in all district hospitals would be improved by increasing bed strength, making way for medical colleges in every district. He was in Madikeri to lay the foundation stone for the expansion of the teaching hospital of Kodagu Institute of Medical Sciences.

Major gaps in our knowledge of coronovirus origin: report
‘2019-nCoV infection causes severe respiratory illness’
 
28/01/2020 , Bindu Shajan Perappadan, NEW DELHI

An image of a coronavirus.

“The 2019-nCoV infection caused clusters of severe respiratory illness similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus and was associated with ICU admission and high mortality. Major gaps in our knowledge of the origin, epidemiology, duration of human transmission and clinical spectrum of disease need fulfilment by future studies,” noted a study titled — “Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China”, published in The Lancet this past week.

The study was funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission.

The recent cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan was caused by a novel betacoronavirus, the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), notes the study.

The study found that by January 2, 2020, 41 admitted hospital patients had been identified as having laboratory-confirmed 2019-nCoV infection. Most of the infected patients were men, less than half had underlying diseases including diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular ailments.

Also 27 (66%) of the 41 patients had been exposed to Huanan seafood market. One family cluster was found.

Common symptoms at onset of illness were fever, cough and fatigue with less common ones being sputum production, headache and diarrhoea.

All 41 patients had pneumonia with abnormal findings on chest CT.

For the study, researchers collected data on patients with laboratory-confirmed 2019-nCoV infection by real-time RT-PCR (Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction).

“Data were obtained with standardised data collection forms shared by the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium from electronic medical records. Researchers also directly communicated with patients or their families to ascertain epidemiological and symptom data,” said the study.

Despite court ruling, officials refuse to register transwoman’s marriage 

Coimbatore couple have made repeated pleas to no avail
 
28/01/2020 , R. Akileish, Coimbatore

Despite a 2019 court ruling that validated marriages between a transwoman and a heterosexual man, the Sub-Registrar’s Office at Vadavalli in Coimbatore has rejected the marriage registration of a couple from Narasimhanaickenpalayam, forcing them to approach the District Registrar’s Office.

S. Sureka, a 24-year-old transwoman and R. Manikandan, a 25-year-old auto rickshaw driver had applied online to register their marriage on January 22. However, the Vadavalli Sub-Registrar’s Office rejected the application, citing the Hindu Marriage Act. “The word Bride as found in Section 5(iii) [of the Hindu Marriage Act] literally means as woman who has just married or is going to be married. The word Transgender finds no place in the Act [sic],” the reply from the Vadavalli Sub-Registrar’s Office said.

Ms. Sureka claimed the couple had attached all the required documents with the application. Mr. Manikandan said the marriage has taken place on February 14, 2018, at a temple in Kavundampalayam and added that the couple have been attempting to register their marriage ever since.

“There was no response [from District Registrar Office] so far,” he said.

Software hitch

P.P. Sivkumar, the couple’s lawyer, who accompanied them on Monday to submit the petition, pointed out that despite the court order, the computer software used for registration at Sub-Registrar Offices recognises only ‘male’ and ‘female’ categories and not ‘transgender’. The solution to this issue would be the State government issuing a government order (G.O.) legalising marriages of transwomen to men, he said.

Mr. Sivkumar noted the verdict of the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court in April 2019, which said that a marriage between a transwoman and a male is valid under the Hindu Marriages Act.

An official from the Vadavalli Sub-Registrar Office told The Hindu that they have “clearly stated” the reasons for rejecting the marriage registration in their reply to the couple. “If they have any doubts regarding this order, they can only file an appeal at the District Registar Office,” the official said.

Transgender activist Kalki Subramaniam described this incident as “very contemptible” and said it displays the “ignorance” of officials. “For trans-people, creating a family is a big challenge,” she said. S. Delfina of NGO Nirangal Charitable Trust that works for the welfare of sexual minorities, said any transperson “who self-identifies as a woman” has the right to marry a male and the marriage will be valid, according to the 2019 verdict.

Officials at the District Registrar Office said suitable action will be taken on the petition, refusing to comment further.

Mass of hair removed from teenage girl’s stomach

28/01/2020 , STAFF REPORTER , COIMBATORE

Medical team of a private hospital in Coimbatore recently removed a mass of hair and foreign particles of about half kg from a 13-year-old girl’s stomach.

The mass, known as trichobezoar in medical parlance, developed after the girl plucked her own hair and ingested it over a period of around six months, reportedly in a state of depression following the death of her relative.

After removing the mass in a laparoscopic procedure that lasted for about one-and-a-half hours, the girl was given psychiatric counselling.

V.G. Mohan Prasad, gastroenterologist and chairman of VGM Gastro Centre, said that the girl from Coimbatore had come to the hospital with complaints of severe stomach pain.

“The mass in the stomach was identified through an endoscopy and we decided to remove it through a laparoscopic surgery. Surgical gastroenterologist Gokul Kruba Shankar and team removed the mass using an ‘endobag’ so that not even a single strand of hair was left after the procedure,” he said.

Dr. Prasad said that it was the first case of a huge trichobezoar that doctors came across in his facility. The mass also contained remains of a shampoo sachet.

Rumours disrupt routine death audit video conference
Senior doctor has not resigned, says Health Secretary
 
28/01/2020 , Special Correspondent, CHENNAI

Rumours about a government doctor from Tiruchi threatening to step down marred a regular maternal death audit video conference held in the State on Monday. While the resignation itself could not be confirmed, Health Secretary Beela Rajesh, who conducted the meeting, denied that the doctor, an obstetrician, had resigned.

The audit was being done at the K.A.P.V. Government Medical College and Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital, Tiruchi. As per sources the doctor was a senior staffer and was upset at the meeting, where upon she proceeded to say she would step down from service.

The case being discussed was the death of a patient, who had a caesarean, and was a chronic hypertensive. Dr. Beela Rajesh and Mission Director of National Health Mission, Tamil Nadu K. Senthil Raj, chaired the meeting. The doctor apparently believed that the officials were about to issue a show cause notice to her, and this caused the outburst, sources said. This created a flutter among doctors, and several doctor-groups on WhatsApp began circulating messages. A senior doctor of the K.A.P.V. Government Medical College, said senior government officials intervened and convinced the doctor not to resign.

Ms. Rajesh said all maternal deaths are reviewed every week. “During this, we review all gaps and causes of maternal deaths. The aim of the exercise is course correction. This doctor is one of the best performers and we have not issued any charges against her. She has not resigned,” she said. The doctor was unavailable for comment despite repeated attempts to reach her.

SC to hear Nirbhaya convict’s plea today 

Mukesh Singh has challenged President’s rejection of his mercy petition on January 17
 
28/01/2020 , Krishnadas Rajagopal , NEW DELHI 

Mukesh Singh and Vinay Sharma, two of the four convicts in the gang rape case, in New Delhi in 2013. S. SubramaniumS. Subramanium

A three-judge Bench led by Justice R. Banumathi is scheduled to hear on Tuesday a plea by Nirbhaya case convict Mukesh Singh challenging the President’s rejection of his mercy petition on January 17.

Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde on Monday asked Mukesh’s counsel to approach the apex court registry for urgent listing of the condemned man’s plea.

Chief Justice Bobde orally observed that the plea of a man, whose execution is scheduled for February 1, ought to be given top priority.

The Bench, also comprising Justices Ashol Bhushan and A.S. Bopanna would hear the plea at 12.30 p.m. on Tuesday.

The petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution has sought a stay of the execution of the death warrant. The Sessions Court had ordered that the death sentence be carried out on February 1.

Mukesh has asked the court to call for his medical records, dating back to the time of his arrest and incarceration, which were placed before the President for a decision on his mercy plea.

Mukesh has also sought for the jail records of his solitary confinement. Death row convicts are placed in solitary confinement.

Juvenility plea

This development comes shortly after the Supreme Court rejected a juvenility plea made by another Nirbhaya convict Pawan Kumar Gupta. He had claimed he was a juvenile at the time of the crime.

The Supreme Court also recently dismissed a review petition filed by another one of the four condemned men, Akshay Singh, to review its May 5, 2017 judgment confirming the death penalty.

Akshay, Mukesh, Pawan and Vinay had brutally gang-raped a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 and she died of her injuries a few days later. An accused, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar jail. A juvenile, who was among the accused, was convicted by a juvenile justice board. He was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term.

The Centre recently moved an application for fixing strict guidelines for carrying out death sentences.

Judge concerned over ‘purchase’ of law degrees, sanctity of profession
 
28/01/2020 , Legal Correspondent, CHENNAI

Justice N. Kirubakaran of the Madras High Court on Monday said courts were crowded by way of too many “lawyers” only because of activities of people like a law college principal who was arrested recently for having created fake attendance records and issuing bona fide certificates to students in a fraudulent manner to get them enrolled as lawyers in the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

Presiding over a Division Bench along with Justice V. Parthiban, the senior judge said those who “purchase” law degrees without attending college, end up conducting kangaroo courts. The infusion of such individuals affected genuine lawyers who had undergone three-year and five-year full-time law courses with the fond hope of making it big in the profession, and end up spoiling the sanctity of the profession, he said.

The judge made the observations during the hearing of a batch of cases related to those who had reportedly obtained degrees from Andhra Pradesh from where the law college principal Himavantha Kumar was arrested, and were serving as guest lecturers in law colleges here. The judges ordered that all relevant details regarding such people should be submitted in the court by the next date of hearing so that necessary action could be taken.

Later, taking up another case related to alleged lack of infrastructure facilities at the government law college campuses, the judges directed AAG to file a detailed report by next month.