Public Health Headlines  15 -16th February, 2023

• Post-operative surgical site infections (SSIs) affect 11% of patients in low and middle-income countries.

• Development of antibiotic resistance due to biofilm formation on the incision site or in the soft tissue inside, is one of the major causes. 

• Researchers from ARCI, Hyderabad, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), have developed a nanocomposite coating (named as ATL) by combining water repellent (hydrophobic) and biocidal properties using a combinatorial approach. 

• The ATL-coated sutures have demonstrated Higher percentage of biofilm inhibition Non- cytotoxicity when compared to triclosan-coated antibacterial sutures, which have shown cytotoxic properties.

• The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India supports ‘Free Diagnostics Service Initiative’ (FDSI) programme under National Health Mission. 

• FDSI was launched with the aim to provide accessible and affordable pathological and radiological diagnostics services closer to the community which in turn reduces the Out-of-Pocket Expenditure (OOPE).  

• Number of essential medicines and essential diagnostics at AB-HWCs have been increased i.e. HWC-PHC - 171 essential medicines and 63 essential diagnostics, HWC- Subcentre - 105 essential medicines and 14 essential diagnostics. 

• To increase the outpatients in Ayushman Bharat Health & Wellness Centre (AB- HWCs), this measure was taken along with an expanded package of 12 services for patients.

• ICD-11 came into in effect in January 2022 for the national and international recording and reporting of causes of illness, death and more. Currently 64 Member States are in different stages of ICD-11 implementation. 

• The 2023 release is the result of extensive input from early adopters, translators, scientists, and partners with over 500 proposals processed since 2022. 

What is new in ICD-11 2023 release?

1. ICD-11 is multilingual. 

2. ICD-11 also has new and improved coding support and the maintenance platform has been upgraded. 

3. ICD-11 mapping tables have been updated for more accuracy. 

4. ICD-11 2023 release version includes content updates such as the list of current COVID-19 vaccines and SARS-COV-2 subtypes. 

5. ICD-11 has also been updated with a name change "mpox". 

6. ICD-11's reference guide has been updated with feedback from translators and users.

• The World Meteorological Organization (WMO’s) provisional state of the Global Climate report says, sea level has risen by nearly 10 mm since January 2020 to a new record high in 2022. 

• The past two and a half years alone accounted for 10% of the overall rise in sea level since the satellite measurements started nearly 30 years ago. 

• Sea level rise will affect some 900 million people living in coastal zones in Bangladesh, China, India and the Netherlands. The population potentially exposed to 100-year coastal floods is projected to increase about 20% if the global mean sea level rises by 0.15 meters relative to 2020 levels. 

• Saltwater intrusion can cause damage to agriculture, fisheries and tourism industries destroying vital infrastructures.