Latest news with #HSCs
The Hindu
10-07-2025
- Health
- The Hindu
Village Health Nurses urge government not to engage contract nurses for immunisation work
Village Health Nurses (VHN) have demanded that the move to engage Mid-Level Health Providers (MLHP), nurses recruited on a contract basis, in carrying out immunisation services at Health Sub-Centres (HSC) should be dropped. They alleged that the Health department was trying to take away the immunisation works from VHNs and rope in contract nurses due to pressure from the Central government. The Tamil Nadu Public Health Nurses Federation met Health Secretary P. Senthil Kumar and Mission Director of National Health Mission, Tamil Nadu, Arun Thamburaj, and put forward their demands. P. Nirmala, State president of the federation handed over a memorandum. The association demanded that the decision to appoint MLHPs at HSCs should be scrapped. They also demanded the Health Minister Ma. Subramanian to take back a statement 'falsely accusing' VHNs of refusing to take up COVID-19 vaccination and routine immunisation services. VHNs and Sector Health Nurses had taken up field work during the COVID-19 pandemic induced lockdown and carried out vaccination and other pandemic-related work. They alleged that the Minister told reporters that MLHPs were roped in as VHNs refused to do such work. This has humiliated VHNs, the association said. Posing a question to the Health Minister, the association asked how was it possible for 4,888 contract MLHPs to carry out the final phase of COVID-19 vaccination works when 8,713 HSCs functioned as vaccination centres and that too without training. COVID-19 vaccination started in January 2021, and the majority were covered during 2022. When this was the case, how can MLHPs who were recruited from the end of December 2021 to January 2022 carry out the COVID-19 vaccination, they asked. While registering their condemnation for the Minister's statement, the association demanded that the move to appoint MLHPs at HSCs following pressure from the Union government as a part of its national health policy should be dropped. The Minister should stop falsely accusing VHNs of covering up this truth, they said. The association has decided to intensify protests if the Health Minister does not take back the statement. They demanded that the vacant posts of VHNs should be filled, and data entry operators should be involved to upload immunisation details on the U-WIN portal.
Time of India
01-07-2025
- Time of India
'7 days with no money': Indian-origin Sydney teenager Aanisha Sathik found week after mysterious disappearance
Indian-origin teenager Aanisha Saathik, an 18-year-old university student, went missing in Western Sydney a week ago. Amid police investigation and her parents' plea for help, Aanisha was spotted on CCTV footage, wandering aimlessly about 3km away in the neighboring suburb. She was rushed to the hospital to be assessed as she had no money on her and probably went without eating anything for seven days. It is not yet known where she has been for the last seven days. According to police, she was last seen leaving her home about 1 pm on June 23. She did not take her mobile and did not return home for the last seven days. Her parents, Fatima and Sadiq Sathik, joined the search and issued a public appeal to the community to look for their missing daughter. Police said she had been struggling with anxiety and depression for several months and declined to take medication. Aanisha's father made a public appeal Monday asking for help from anyone who might have seen his daughter on the road. Her father said she does not have many friends and only goes to school and comes back home. 'We don't know what happened to our daughter. We just want her home safe. Seven days, no money, no food. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Free P2,000 GCash eGift UnionBank Credit Card Apply Now Undo We are worrying a lot. Please help," he said revealing that his daughter is very bright but is too shy to ask for help. Aanisha is the eldest of their three children and scored highly in her HSCs last year. She is studying a double degree in economics but was hospitalised a year ago. Aanisha is of Indian/Sub-Continental appearance, about 180 cm tall, slim, with long black hair tied in a bun and brown eyes, as per the description in the missing person notice. She was wearing a black hooded jumper, black pants with cream pinstripes, white shoes and gold earrings, the notice said.
The Hindu
25-06-2025
- Health
- The Hindu
New Health Sub Centres to come up in T.N. with no new staff posts, basic infrastructure
Tamil Nadu is set to see the creation of 642 new Health Sub Centres (HSC) in rural and urban areas. However, there is a catch. The new facilities have been approved, but without new staff posts and basic infrastructure support. Instead, Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANM), who are working in Primary Health Centres (PHC), will be redeployed to the new HSCs. This decision has raised some serious questions on how the Health department has been handling acute shortages of manpower, including some 3,000-odd vacancies of Village Health Nurses (VHN)/ANMs for the past four years, while adding on new health infrastructure. The State currently has 8,713 HSCs, with the norms prescribing one HSC for every 5,000-6,000 population. Establishing 642 urban and rural HSCs on the basis of population was one of the announcements made by the Health Minister in the Assembly earlier this year. In line with this, a Government Order issued on June 13 stated that the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine submitted a proposal and the list of 642 HSCs were identified for new creation on rationalisation as per population norms in rural and urban areas 'with no additional fund'. Each HSC has one post of VHN. Based on the proposal, the State government, while giving administrative nod for establishing the HSCs (617 in rural and 25 in urban), stated that creation of new posts will not be sanctioned and ANMs have to be redeployed to the HSCs as the posts of VHNs and ANMs carries identical scale of pay and are interchangeable. The available rent-free building or any government building should be utilised for the HSCs, and for the most basic infrastructure, such as fan and furniture, the existing infrastructure available in the PHC under which the HSC is located should be utilised. But this was not all. Electricity charges for the newly-created HSCs should be managed from the funds allocated towards electricity charges for the respective PHCs. As per official data, 2,013 posts of VHNs (of the 8,713 sanctioned) and 1,251 posts of ANMs (of the 2,057 sanctioned) are lying vacant, a source in the Health department pointed out. 'This shortage remains unresolved for the last four years citing court cases. For a government that has strong legal teams, it is unacceptable that legal issues relating to health manpower are not being resolved,' he said. Redeploying ANMs from PHCs to the new HSCs will give rise to additional vacancies in PHCs. 'As of now, 806 ANMs are in place. If nearly 600 of them are shifted, then additional vacancies will rise in PHCs. Not to forget that there is a huge vacancy of staff nurses in PHCs,' he added. 'Every time we ask, the court cases are cited for delay in filling up the VHN vacancies. As a result, maternal and child health services are getting affected. When the government has been successful in many cases, they should sort out this at the earliest. Instead of redeploying ANMs, the department should create new posts and fill up the vacant posts of VHNs at the earliest,' K.S. Manimegalai, State president, Tamil Nadu Government Health Women Union, said. A health official said they would fill up the vacancies immediately after the case was vacated in the Supreme Court. 'We have already filed the counter to vacate the stay and are waiting for the judgement,' he said, adding that ANM redeployment would be done as per procedure and need.
The Hindu
24-06-2025
- Health
- The Hindu
New Health Sub Centres to come up with no new staff posts, basic infrastructure
Tamil Nadu is set to see the creation of 642 new Health Sub Centres (HSC) in rural and urban areas. However, there is a catch. The new facilities have been approved, but without new staff posts and basic infrastructure support. Instead, Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANM), who are working in Primary Health Centres (PHC), will be redeployed to the new HSCs. This decision has raised some serious questions on how the Health department has been handling acute shortages of manpower, including some 3,000-odd vacancies of Village Health Nurses (VHN)/ANMs for the past four years, while adding on new health infrastructure. The State currently has 8,713 HSCs, with the norms prescribing one HSC for every 5,000-6,000 population. Establishing 642 urban and rural HSCs on the basis of population was one of the announcements made by the Health Minister in the Assembly earlier this year. In line with this, a Government Order issued on June 13 stated that the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine submitted a proposal and the list of 642 HSCs were identified for new creation on rationalisation as per population norms in rural and urban areas 'with no additional fund'. Each HSC has one post of VHN. Based on the proposal, the State government, while giving administrative nod for establishing the HSCs (617 in rural and 25 in urban), stated that creation of new posts will not be sanctioned and ANMs have to be redeployed to the HSCs as the posts of VHNs and ANMs carries identical scale of pay and are interchangeable. The available rent-free building or any government building should be utilised for the HSCs, and for the most basic infrastructure, such as fan and furniture, the existing infrastructure available in the PHC under which the HSC is located should be utilised. But this was not all. Electricity charges for the newly-created HSCs should be managed from the funds allocated towards electricity charges for the respective PHCs. As per official data, 2,013 posts of VHNs (of the 8,713 sanctioned) and 1,251 posts of ANMs (of the 2,057 sanctioned) are lying vacant, a source in the Health department pointed out. 'This shortage remains unresolved for the last four years citing court cases. For a government that has strong legal teams, it is unacceptable that legal issues relating to health manpower are not being resolved,' he said. Redeploying ANMs from PHCs to the new HSCs will give rise to additional vacancies in PHCs. 'As of now, 806 ANMs are in place. If nearly 600 of them are shifted, then additional vacancies will rise in PHCs. Not to forget that there is a huge vacancy of staff nurses in PHCs,' he added. 'Every time we ask, the court cases are cited for delay in filling up the VHN vacancies. As a result, maternal and child health services are getting affected. When the government has been successful in many cases, they should sort out this at the earliest. Instead of redeploying ANMs, the department should create new posts and fill up the vacant posts of VHNs at the earliest,' K.S. Manimegalai, State president, Tamil Nadu Government Health Women Union, said. A health official said they would fill up the vacancies immediately after the case was vacated in the Supreme Court. 'We have already filed the counter to vacate the stay and are waiting for the judgement,' he said, adding that ANM redeployment would be done as per procedure and need.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Editas Medicine Reports Proprietary Targeted Lipid Nanoparticle Delivery in Non-Human Primates Enables In Vivo HBG1/2 Promoter Editing for Sickle Cell Disease and Beta Thalassemia at the European Hematology Association 2025 Congress in June
Achieved 58% mean editing at five months after a single dose using high efficiency HSC delivery, demonstrating therapeutically relevant editing levels using a clinically validated strategy. Achievement supports development of a novel, in vivo approach to treating sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia. CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 12, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Editas Medicine, Inc. (Nasdaq: EDIT), a pioneering gene editing company, today shared new in vivo data demonstrating therapeutically relevant levels of HBG1/2 promoter editing in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) with a single dose of proprietary targeted lipid nanoparticle (tLNP) in non-human primates (NHPs). This clinically validated approach targeting HBG1/2 promoters to upregulate fetal hemoglobin (HbF) is in pre-clinical development as a potential transformative in vivo gene editing medicine for the treatment of sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia. The Company reported these data in a presentation available today and will detail the data in a poster session on Saturday, June 14th 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. CEST (12:30 – 1:30 p.m. EDT) at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2025 Congress in Milan, Italy. In this study, the Company's proprietary tLNP formulation delivered HBG1/2 promoter editing cargo to HSCs in NHPs. Latest data from this ongoing NHP study showed that at five months a single intravenous administration of Editas' tLNP resulted in mean on-target editing levels in the HBG1/2 promoter region of 58% in HSCs: well exceeding the predicted editing threshold of ≥25% required for therapeutic benefit. In addition to achieving therapeutically relevant editing levels, the biodistribution data in NHPs with Editas' tLNP continue to show significant de-targeting of the liver in contrast to standard LNPs. 'These data from our in vivo HSC program confirm our ability to achieve high efficiency delivery, therapeutically relevant editing levels and favorable biodistribution in NHPs. These data validate the further development of Editas' proprietary HSC-tLNP for editing of the HBG1/2 promoters for the treatment of sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia,' said Linda C. Burkly, Ph.D., Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Editas Medicine. Editas Medicine's in vivo HSC program targets HBG1/2 promoters to mimic naturally occurring mechanisms of hereditary persistence of fetal hemoglobin (HPFH) and utilizes proprietary AsCas12a to edit with high efficiency and minimize off-target editing. Editing the HBG1/2 promoters with AsCas12a with the investigational medicine reni-cel led to robust increases in HbF and total hemoglobin (Hb) in clinical trials. The presentation details are listed below. Abstracts can be accessed on the EHA website, and the presentation will be posted on the Editas Medicine website during the conference. Poster Presentation Details: Title: Targeted Lipid Nanoparticle Delivery in Non-Human Primates Enables In Vivo HBG1/2 Promoter Editing for β-hemoglobinopathies Date/Time: Saturday, June 14, 2025, 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. CEST/ 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. EDT Location: Allianz MiCo, Milano Convention Centre Session: Poster Session 2 About Editas Medicine As a pioneering gene editing company, Editas Medicine is focused on translating the power and potential of the CRISPR/Cas12a and CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing systems into a robust pipeline of in vivo medicines for people living with serious diseases around the world. Editas Medicine aims to discover, develop, manufacture, and commercialize transformative, durable, precision in vivo gene editing medicines for a broad class of diseases. Editas Medicine is the exclusive licensee of Broad Institute's Cas12a patent estate and Broad Institute and Harvard University's Cas9 patent estates for human medicines. For the latest information and scientific presentations, please visit CONTACT: Media and Investor Contacts: media@ ir@ in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
