* Kidwai Memorial Institute gets bone marrow transplant facility

Health and Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar on Tuesday launched a bone marrow transplant (BMT) centre at the Bengaluru-centred Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology (KMIO) to facilitate free treatment for children from economically weaker sections. He also announced plans to set up Kidwai regional centres in each district to make cancer treatment easily accessible to people across the state.

The bone marrow transplant centre has been opened to ensure that no child is deprived of such treatment in the fight against cancer, he noted.

* Mindtree co-founders donate Rs 425 crore to IISc to help build an 800-bed multi-specialty hospital

This is the single largest private donation IISc has received to build the postgraduate medical school and multi-specialty hospital, officials of the Institute said.

Philanthropist couples Susmita and Subroto Bagchi and Radha and NS Parthasarathy collectively donated Rs 425 crore to the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to set up a postgraduate medical school along with an 800-bed multi-speciality hospital in its Bengaluru campus.

* Karnataka’s first multi-organ transplant centre opens at Bengaluru’s Sparsh Hospital

The Sparsh Group of Hospitals launched Karnataka’s first multi-organ transplant centre in Bengaluru on Friday. It brings together a team of 50 transplant specialists to provide integrated care during the transplant process. 

* Bengaluru doctor writes crucial chapter in Comprehensive Textbook of Clinical Radiology

A doctor from a government medical college in the city has written an important chapter on ‘Imaging of Spleen’ in ‘Comprehensive Textbook of Clinical Radiology’, a first-of-its-kind reference book in the country, brought out by the National Indian Radiological and Imaging Association (IRIA).

Dr KR Vijaykumar, Professor and Head of the Department of Radiology, Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, told The New Indian Express that it is a lifelong reference book for radiologists and was published recently by the prestigious Elsevier Publications in six volumes.

* Bengaluru virologist’s test kit ‘Omisure’ for Omicron variant cuts delays

“Globally, all other test kits for Omicron are either made for gene dropout or mutation specific detection. Omisure is the first test kit combining both.”

In a major and global breakthrough towards cutting down procedural delays in genome sequencing to ascertain the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV2, Dr V Ravi, former head of the Department of Neurovirology at National Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences and Head, Research & Development, Tata Medical & Diagnostic Centre, Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, and his team have developed the world’s first test kit, Omisure, that can detect the Omicron variant by combining S-gene target failure (SGTF) and S-gene mutation amplification (SGMA).

* Karnataka’s Covid war room wins national award

We are the support network for the Covid warriors in the forefront. We make their lives easy by giving the details they want to act upon.

The Karnataka State Covid-19 war room on Friday received the national award under the category of using Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in management of the Covid-19 at the 24th national conference on e- governance in Hyderabad. War room head Munish Moudgil, who received the award, told TNIE that the facility is an e-governance solution for effective management, integrated response and approach. 

*City Fighters Excel In Kickboxing

Students of IKA Karate Academy and Martial Arts, Mysuru, participated in Wako India National Kickboxing Championship which was organised by Wako India Kickboxing Federation between Dec. 21 to 25 in Pune.

Four (2 female and 2 male) of them have bagged, 2 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze medals respectively.

* Udupi: UAE businessman B M Zaffer Thonse gets Indian Achievers Award-2021

B M Zaffer Thonse Chairman Thonse Health Centre (Nature cure and Ayurveda hospital) has been selected for the prestigious Indian Achievers Award-2021 by the Indian Achievers’ Forum for his outstanding professional achievements and contributions in national building.

Zaffer is a known businessman from UAE and the award is given for recognizing his excellence in business, health sector and social activities

* Bengaluru firm Strides Pharma Science to launch oral drug to fight Covid

n a statement, Strides said it will “immediately launch” its generic Molnupiravir, indicated for high-risk adult patients with Covid under the brand Stripiravir.

Bengaluru pharma company Strides Pharma Science Limited said that it has received Emergency Use Authorisation from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to launch Molnupiravir, an oral medication for Covid-19 in India.

In a statement, Strides said it will “immediately launch” its generic Molnupiravir, indicated for high-risk adult patients with Covid under the brand Stripiravir. The company is commercialising the product with a group-integrated supply chain for active pharmaceutical ingredients and solid oral dosage from its large-scale WHO pre-qualified manufacturing capacities, the company stated.

* Azim Premji Foundation, Salesforce to launch app to accelerate Covid-19 vaccination

‘To cover 110 million people in 25 States by June 2022’

Salesforce, a customer relationship management player, and Azim Premji Foundation have entered into a collaboration to introduce VaxIT, an app to help accelerate Covid-19 vaccination in India.

The programme would use VaxIT across 25 States to cover a population of 110 million (11 crore) across over 3,500 Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) by June 2022.

The VaxIT app, developed on the Salesforce platform for Azim Premji Foundation and its partners, would capture the status of vaccination to help individuals plan and stay updated on their progress in the healthcare programme. VaxIT is available on the Android app store and offers multi-lingual, and offline capabilities.