Category Archives: Science & Technology

Women Of Udupi And Kodagu Prone To Anaemia

Records, All, Science & Technology

Mysore/Mysuru:

Dr. M.R. Udaykumar, Divisional Joint Director, Department of Health and Family Welfare, has said that the anaemic level is little high in Udupi and Kodagu districts in Mysuru Division whereas it was normal in other districts.

He was speaking after inaugurating two-day Divisional-level ‘Anaemia Free India’ programme  for officials of Child Development and Health organised by the Department of Health and Family Welfare here on Tuesday.

Udaykumar said around 1.9 billion people all over the world are anaemic. This would impact on physical strength of people as well as cause slow learning and other health issues. Anaemia hits mainly pregnant and lactating mothers as well as hinders child’s physical growth. There was a need to protect children from anaemia, he added.

Prasad, Divisional Deputy Director, Department of Health and Family Welfare, said that the Government of India, in a bid to protect children from anaemia, distribute de-worming capsules twice a year and also give them iron and folic acid tablets to protect them from malnutrition. Health staff had to watch the haemoglobin level in pregnant women especially during 7th month to 9th month and injection is given if the level was less than eight. 

K. Padma, Deputy Director, Department of Women and Child Development, regretted that ladies have failed to understand the seriousness of anaemia. They will go to doctor only if they are ill. However, women would not take doctor’s suggestion on haemoglobin deficiency. Around 3 percent to 4 percent of pregnant and lactating women suffer from anaemia mainly due to not eating nutritious food and lack of knowledge. Need of the hour was to educate women in this regard in order to save them from anaemia, she added.

Dr. T. Amarnath, DHO, Dr. H.K. Ramachandra, Divisional Joint Deputy Director, Dr. Mahendra from Regional Health and Family Welfare Training Centre, Advisors Dr. Shankarappa and Abid Ahmed, Resource Persons K. Vishwanath and Manoj Sebastian, were present.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> News / January 07th, 2021

Covid vaccination dry run held in six centres in Kodagu

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Deputy Commissioner Annies Kanmani Joy inspects the dry run for the vaccination in the district hospital in Madikeri, on Friday.

Covid warriors were administered with mock vaccination as a part of the Covid-19 vaccination dry run held in the district hospital in Madikeri and across various health centres in Kushalnagar and Virajpet, on Friday.

Deputy Commissioner Annies Kanmani Joy inspected the vaccination and enrollment centres and monitored the preparations towards software registration process, storage of vaccines, transportation, de-freezing processes and other mock exercises as a part of the dry run.

She said that the dry run was held in six centres in the district, namely, district hospital in Madikeri, taluk hospital in Somwarpet, Community Health Centre in Kushalnagar, Primary Health Centre in Kakotuparambu village, Institute of Dental Sciences in Virajpet and Urban Health Centre in Madikeri.

Kodagu Institute of Medical Sciences (KoIMS) Director Dr Cariappa, District Health and Family Welfare Officer Dr K Mohan and others were present.

During the dry run held at PHC, Kakotuparambu, medical officer Dr Shrishaini said that 25 health workers were selected for administering the mock Covid-19 vaccination. Those who received vaccination were required to enrol their names by providing Aadhaar card number. Before obtaining vaccination, they were made to wait in a room. 

Later, the documents were scrutinised online and the vaccination was administered. The details of the persons getting the vaccination were uploaded online. After vaccination, the person has to take rest in the observation unit for 30 minutes, she said.

If the person experienced any side effects, he/she will be provided with treatment as per the necessary precautionary measures. If there are no side effects, the person will be sent home, she added.

Taluk Medical Officer Dr Yatiraju said that the actual Covid-19 vaccination programme is likely to begin from next week.

The health centres were completely sanitised for the mock vaccination programme.

District Health and Family Welfare Officer Dr Mohan inspected the dry run held at the Community Health Centre in Kushalnagar. 

Speaking on the occasion, he said that health workers, Asha and anganwadi workers will be administered with Covid-19 vaccination in the first phase.

District Surveillance Officer Dr S Gopinath was present.

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> State> Mangaluru / by DHNS, Madikeri / January 09th, 2021

Administer pulse polio drops to children on Jan 17: DC

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Deputy Commissioner Annies Kanmani Joy speaks at a preliminary meeting on pulse polio programme at her office in Madikeri on Wednesday.

All children within five years of age will be administered with pulse polio drops in the district on January 17, said Deputy Commissioner Annies Kanmani Joy.

She directed the departments of Panchayat Raj, Public Instructions, Women and Child Welfare and Regional Transport to provide necessary cooperation to the Health and Family Welfare Department in making the pulse polio drive a successful one.

The booths will be opened at schools, bus stands and other public places. Vehicle arrangements will be made by the regions transport department, for the staff.

Annies also insisted that the departments concerned should ensure uninterrupted power supply on the day of the pulse polio drive.

District Health Officer Dr K Mohan said that all necessary precautionary measures will be taken by the department while conducting the pulse polio drive, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

He further said, “There are 39,820 children within five years of age in the district. As many as 4,400 children are from urban areas and 35,420 are from rural areas. There are 10,463 children from migrating families, who will also be included in the in the programme.”

As many as 464 booths will be set up for the drive and 48 transit teams and six mobile teams have been formed towards the same, while 1,964 staff members and 86 supervisors have been deployed.

As many as 928 staff members will carry out door-to-door visits to administer pulse polio drops to children.

The DHO requested the public to get their children to the pulse polio booths.

The health workers will wear face masks and hand gloves while administering drops, apart from taking other precautionary measures towards checking the spread of Covid-19, he added.

District RCH officer Dr Gopinath said that the pulse polio drive will be held on January 17 at booth level. On January 18, 19 and 20, the health department staff will visit houses in urban areas and on January 18 and 19 in rural areas to administer pulse polio drops to children who are left out during the drive on January 17.

Family Welfare Officer Dr Anand, World Health Organisation representatives Sudhir Nayak, DDPI P S Machado, Women and Child Welfare Department Deputy Director Ningaraju and Madikeri City Municipal Council Commissioner S V Ramdas were present during the meeting.

‘Dry run prior to Covid-19 vaccination’

A dry run will be conducted in the district on January 8, as preparation for the Covid-19 vaccination drive, said Deputy Commissioner Annies Kanmani Joy.

She has issued necessary directions to the DHO and officials of the medical education department in this matter. The officials were told to disseminate necessary information to the health workers in this regard.

The district officials should coordinate with the tahsildars to conduct the practice sessions of Covid-19 vaccination. “There should be no room for any ambiguity,” said the deputy commissioner.

DHO Dr K Mohan said that the dry run will be conducted at the District Government Hospital, Community Health Centres in Kushalnagar and Virajpet and at the Primary Health Centre in Kakotuparambu in Virajpet taluk.

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> State> Mangaluru / by DHNS, Madikeri / January 07th, 2021

COVID-19 vaccine dry run in Kodagu on Friday

Records, All, Science & Technology

Even as the country’s vaccination programme is gearing up for the roll out, a COVID-19 vaccine dry run has been arranged in Kodagu on January 8. This is akin to the dry run conducted in Mysuru and other select cities recently in the first phase. The mock drill for vaccination preparedness at three centres in Mysuru district was successful.

In this connection, Deputy Commissioner Annies Kanmani Joy held a meeting with the officials from the Department of Health and Family Welfare and other key departments on making the dry run in Kodagu a success. She gave necessary directions on the preparations to be made assessing the preparedness of the district in carrying out the immunisation.

The health professionals and workers had been sensitised on the dry run and the guidelines on preparedness had to be followed, with coordination. The tahsildar in each taluk had been told to coordinate and support the initiative.

District Health Officer K. Mohan said the dry run would be held at the district hospital in Madikeri, community health centre in Kushalnagar and at the primary health center at Katooru in Virajpet taluk.

As many as 34,000 healthcare workers, including doctors, nursing staff, Group D employees from government and private hospitals, ASHA workers and others from the healthcare sector in Mysuru district had been registered for the vaccination. The healthcare professionals and workers had been trained for vaccination ahead of the dry run as per the Health Ministry’s guidelines.

Chamarajanagar

In Chamarajnagar too, the COVID-19 vaccine dry run has been arranged on January 8. The district hospital and JSS Hospital in Chamarajnagar town; Taluk Hospital in Gundlupet; and Primary Health Centre in Hanur are the centres identified for carrying out the dry run.

A total of 25 healthcare professionals, including doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff will participate in the work in each centre. As many as 6,350 healthcare professionals had been registered for receiving the vaccine in the first phase.

“All arrangements are in place for vaccine delivery and vaccination in hospitals and PHCs,” said Deputy Commissioner M.R. Ravi.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> State> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / January 07th, 2021

‘Coorg Person of the Year 2020’

Amazing Feats, Famous Personalities of Kodagu / Coorg, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Leaders, Nri's / Pio's, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Sanjana Kattera, a corona warrior who was part of the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine trial team, is ‘Coorg Person of the Year, 2020’, according to a release.

Kodagu-born Dr. Sanjana was involved in treating COVID-affected children. A paediatrician, she was part of the vaccine trial team at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the United Kingdom. The release said Dr. Sanjana served patients selflessly by risking her life, especially when PPE suits were in short supply initially.

Dr. Sanjana was selected ‘Coorg Person of the Year’ in a poll conducted by www.coorgtourisminfo.com, Kodagu’s first news portal, promoted by senior journalist P.T. Bopanna.

She worked with phase I/II of the trial with the age group 18-55 years by initially screening and recruiting patients as part of the eligibility criteria.

Dr. Sanjana, daughter of Suresh Kattera and Smitha Suresh, did her schooling in the United World College South East Asia (UWCSEA) in Singapore.

She studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh in the U.K. After completing her medicine, she specialised in paediatrics in a hospital in the U.K, and is currently training in NHS, Liverpool. She will be completing her Membership of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (MRCPCH) early next year.

The corona warrior had a tough competition for the ‘Coorg Person of the Year’ title from M.A. Ganapathy, IPS, director-general of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), the release added.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Mysuru – December 21st, 2020

Madikeri: Student invents robot that can treat COVID patients

Amazing Feats, Education, Records, All, Science & Technology

Madikeri :

Coronavirus infection has created so much scare among the people that initially even the doctors were wary of treating these patients. Many doctors and nurses who treated such patients have lost their lives.

Observing these things, an engineering student from Virajpet here has invented a robot to solve the problem. Manikantha from Hubballi, is the son of Amaresh, working in the court at Ponnampet in the district. Amaresh has been living in Virajpet since the last 15 years. Manikantha is a fifth semester student of electronics engineering department at the engineering college at Mandya.

IEEE India Council had invited students to send in their plans about projects relating to COVID treatment. The council which observed the report sent by Manikantha, asked him to prepare the project and paid Rs 12,000 as expenses. Manikantha by using C programming, created this robot.

This robot can be controlled with the help of a mobile phone. It can go near the COVID patients and dispense medicines and tablets. It can give instructions to patients, and check the heartbeat and body temperature. It also greets the patients. When returning, it scans its entire body and protects itself. IJWMT too has got a research article authored by the student and published. It also issued him a citation.

Manikantha’s parents are happy. He happens to be the first to invent a medical robot for the treatment of COVID patients.

source: http://www.daijiworld.com / Daijiworld.com / Home> Top Stories / by Daijiworld Media Network, Madikeri (SP) / December 12th, 2020

Appointed As Additional Director Of Factories And Boilers

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Mysore/Mysuru: 

Karthamada Ganapathy Nanjappa has been appointed as the Additional Director of Factories and Boilers, Department of Factories, Boilers, Industrial Safety and Health, Government of Karnataka. 

Profile: After studying in Government Primary School, Napoklu, St. Michael’s Higher Primary School, Madikeri, Government Junior College, Madikeri, Nanjappa completed his PU at MGM College, Udupi. He took up B.E. in Mechanical Engineering at PES College of Engineering, Mandya under Mysore University. 

On completion of under-graduate studies in Engineering, Nanjappa worked for sometime as a Quality Engineer at Krishna Fabrications, Peenya, Bengaluru and Design Engineer at Promac Engineering, Bengaluru. He joined the Government of Karnataka State Civil Service as Gazetted Probationer during the year 1995 as Inspector of Factories and served at Bengaluru. 

He was promoted as Senior Inspector of Factories in 2001. He was later posted as Deputy Special Officer in the Child Labour Cell of the Government of Karnataka and then served as Senior Inspector of Factories at Mysuru and Bengaluru.

Nanjappa was promoted to the cadre of Deputy Director of Factories in the year 2012 and posted at Mangaluru and Bengaluru. In the year 2019, he was promoted to the post of the Joint Director of Factories. Now he has been posted as Additional Director of Factories and Boilers in the year 2020 on promotion and is working at Bengaluru. 

Nanjappa has had special training in the field of Industrial Safety and Health at: Director-General Factory Advice Service and Labour Institute, Mumbai; Regional Labour Institute, Chennai; Regional Labour Institute, Kolkata; Incident Response System (IRS) in the management of disasters from the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), Bhopal.

 He is the son of Karthamada Nanjappa Ganapathy and Ponnamma (Kanathanda), both of whom were teachers at Napoklu and Madikeri and presently residents of Birunani in South Kodagu. He is married to Kalengada Bojamma  and blessed with a son Adith studying in 10th std

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> News / by November 23rd, 2020

Reversing breast cancer with right food

Nature, Science & Technology

Karan Kakkad, a disease reversal expert, & oncoplastic breast surgeon Poovamma C U jointly conduct a session on breast cancer awareness, below are the excerpts from the session.

On Friday October 30th, Reverse Factor, a company in India helping people reverse lifestyle diseases through the right kind of food, held a breast cancer seminar on Zoom. Founder of Reverse Factor, Karan Kakkad, along with oncologist and breast cancer surgeon, Dr. Poovamma C U, jointly held the session speaking to participants about being aware of any signs of malignancy.

Dr. Poovamma started the seminar saying it was important to detect cancers early, referring to the need for a routine mammogram once in a year or once in two years, after 40 years. “People land up reporting an abnormality late, perhaps when they don’t want to bother the family over something, they think is not important. If there is a lump in the breast, it may not always be cancer, however it needs to be examined. Doing self breast tests are important too. It’s also important that one doesn’t procrastinate addressing such concerns,” underlined Dr. Poovamma.

Dr. Poovamma also mentioned to attendees at the session when the best time for self tests are. She said the 7th day, counting the first day of one’s period as day one, should be the time to check your breasts. “One can start examining the breast from one point, using the surface of one’s fingers. What’s normal and what’s abnormal can be picked up at that time.”

The conversation thereafter moved towards discussing our lives and how they could breed disease. Dr. Poovamma spoke about obesity, lack of physical activity, an early menarche, being in a state of stress all the time, as well as “toxins from the environment” as being some causes for breast cancer. She also added that it was a complex set of circumstances that led to such cancers and it was also difficult to pin point the exact cause for their onset and growth. However, she revealed that “almost 95 % of breast cancers are curable…”

The next person to enter the conversation was Reverse Factor’s Founder Karan Kakkad. He spoke about diabetes and obesity being linked to the menace of breast cancer. However, he said the good news was that right nutrition can prevent these linked diseases. Kakkad referred specifically to fibre in one’s diet as that marvellous element in diet that could help fight cancers.

“Eat foods with fibre. Drumsticks have excellent immunity building properties. Eat green, leafy vegetables, and eat nuts and seeds such as walnuts, chia and pumpkin seeds.” Kakkad also spoke about onion and garlic as having stunning medicinal properties – they go a long way in beating lung and kidney related cancers he said.

Kakkad also added avoiding foods that give you a rush of sugar and for many are immediate go-to options when one wants to quench thirst or receive a boost of energy at the gym for example. “Avoid aerated drinks, colas, and energy drinks. They feed cancer cells.”

source: http://www.freepressjournal.in / The Free Press Journal / Home> Health / by Maithili Chakravarthy / November 01st, 2020

COVID-19 vaccine: task force set up in Kodagu

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In Kodagu, a COVID-19 vaccine task force has come into force in connection with the preparations to be made in the district in anticipation of vaccine availability next year.

The first meeting of the task force was held to discuss about the arrangements to be made and the steps to be taken as per the State government’s directives in view of various reports and the claims on the possibilities of vaccine coming to the market early next year.

Deputy Commissioner Annies Kanmani Joy, who chaired the meeting in Madikeri on Wednesday, asked the officials to prepare the list of those who are likely to be vaccinated on a priority as announced by the government. They include COVID-19 warriors and all the frontline workers.

Gopinath, District Officer in charge of immunisation, gave a PowerPoint presentation on the status of COVID-19 vaccine research, citing the recent reports and also those who are likely to get the vaccine in the first phase. They include doctors and all healthcare workers and staff from the Departments of Health and Medical Education, doctors and staff of all the private hospitals, and ASHA and anganwadi workers.

Mr. Joy told the officials to prepare the list of all staff and sought coordination among all the key departments as the data being prepared now would be used to distribute the vaccine.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Mysuru – October 29th, 2020

Appointed As Mysore University Syndicate Member

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Mysore/Mysuru:

Dr. Chaitra Narayan, an entrepreneur, has been appointed as the Syndicate Member of University of Mysore. 

As per the notification issued from the Office of the Governor, the term of office shall be for a period of three years with effect from Sept. 22, 2020. 

Dr. Chaitra, Founder of Codagu Agritech and Shivam Distillations, holds a Ph.D and MSc in Microbiology from the University of Mysore. 

She was selected by Rashtrapathi Bhavan, New Delhi, for the Festival of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in 2018 to present her ideas before President Ram Nath Kovind. She also presented the Biocapsule technology, which is a ‘Make in India’ initiative before Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

Currently working for the farmers of Kodagu, Hunsur and Periyapatna regions since 2016 towards alternative farming which involves cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants, it has successfully led to an increase in revenue generation of farmers along with an assured buy-back market. 

Codagu Agritech is a Biocapsule Manufacturing Company which helps farmers go for safe and sustainable farming while Shivam Distillations focuses on providing farmers of Hunsur and Periyapatna regions to cultivate aromatic crops as an alternative to tobacco cultivation.

An aromatic plant processing and distillation unit has been set up in the region to provide the farmers with the market at their doorstep.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> News / September 29th, 2020