KT 3-4-2013_Layout 1 - Kuwait Times

Dar Al Shifa Hospital honors Professor Ahmed Noureddine
KUWAIT: Dar Al Shifa Hospital recently
held an honorary ceremony for Dr.
Ahmed Adel Noureddine - Consultant
Plastic Surgery, on his 50th visit to Dar
Al Shifa hospital, as part of the hospital’s
keenness on showing appreciation
to the skills and expertise of its
visiting doctors and strengthening
relationships between the doctors and
the hospital. This comes in line with
Dar Al Shifa Hospital’s main objective
of developing talents and expertise
from around the world while also providing
the latest medical technology
and modern equipment to deliver
best practice services to its patients.
On this occasion, Dr Yousef Al
Zafairy - Medical Advisor at Dar Al
Shifa Hospital said: “We are proud of
the collaboration we have with
Professor Ahmed Adel Noureddine,
given the depth of his medical expertise,
commitment to the hospital
through his 50 visits, and dedicating
his services to our patients.”
“Dr. Ahmed Adel Noureddine is
well-known in his respective field and
we extend our sincere appreciation to
his remarkable medical achievements
through the successful cosmetic and
reconstructive surgeries he has performed
at Dar Al Shifa Hospital,” added
Dr Al Zafairy.
The partnership between Dr Adel
and the hospital reflects the hospital’s
keenness to deliver the best optimum
healthcare solutions through Dr. Adel’s
skills and expertise in order to allow
patients achieve their desired results.
Dr. Ahmed Adel is the first Arab
doctor to become the Diplomat of the
American Board of Hair Restoration
PRAGUE: Picture taken on May 5, 2012 shows Czech youth shouting slogans
as they take part in a march calling for the legalization of marijuana, in
Prague. Cannabis for therapeutic use has been legalised in Czech Republic
from April 1, 2013. —AFP
Marijuana goes
on sale in Czech
PRAGUE: Medical marijuana legally went on
sale yesterday in pharmacies across the Czech
Republic for patients suffering from cancer,
Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis or psoriasis.
The new law does not foresee health
insurance coverage for marijuana, touted by
some as a medical miracle drug.
The prescription-only drug formally
became legal on Monday, but was virtually
unavailable as most pharmacies across the
ex-communist European Union state of 10.5
million were closed over to the Easter long
weekend.
Prague will first import the drug for about
a year, reportedly from Israel or the
Netherlands, until the State Institute for Drug
Control starts issuing licences to local grow-
NEWARK: New Jersey Governor Chris
Christie signed a bill into law on Monday banning
children under 17 from using commercial
tanning beds, a move stemming from the
case of a local woman accused of taking her
5-year-old daughter into a tanning booth.
Christie said that while he does not favor
government regulation of small business, the
new law was important for protecting the
safety of minors. “Governmental regulation of
the private sector should always be carefully
scrutinized, and sparingly adopted,” he said in
a statement. “The new restrictions imposed
by this bill followed a single but breathlessly
reported incident of a parent bringing a
minor child into a tanning facility.”
Patricia Krentcil of Nutley, New Jersey, was
arrested in April 2012 after her daughter
showed up at school with a sunburn and officials
accused her of taking the child into a
tanning booth.
Krentcil, who became known in tabloid
stories as the “Tan Mom,” testified that her
ers for a maximum of five years.
The institute will also determine the crop
area and organise tenders for marijuana purchases
from farmers. An EU member since in
2004, the Czech Republic provides some of
the most liberal access to soft drugs in
Europe.
People holding up to 15 grammes (0.53
ounces) of marijuana or growing up to five
plants of cannabis risk just a small fine-an
approach that often attracts smokers from
other countries such as neighbouring Poland,
where tougher laws apply.
A 2011 national report on narcotics said
16.1 percent of Czechs aged 15-34 admitted
to having used marijuana in that year, down
from 20.3 percent a year earlier. — AFP
Australia-led study in
epilepsy breakthrough
SYDNEY: An Australia-led study has identified a
gene associated with a common form of epilepsy
which could lead to earlier diagnosis, a
researcher said yesterday.
Melbourne University academic Ingrid
Scheffer said a number of genes linked to
epilepsy were known to scientists, but these
related to rare families in which a large number
of members had the condition.
“The reason that this discovery is very important
is that it’s not just for rare families, we think
it will be a gene that will be important for people
without a family history,” Scheffer told AFP.
“So it’s changing the game in terms of being
important for a much broader number of people
with focal epilepsy.”
Focal, or partial, seizures start in one part of
the brain and affect the part of the body controlled
by that part of the brain. Scheffer said a
clinical diagnosis could not be made for epilepsy
without seizures of some kind but the finding
could aid genetic counselling and diagnosis-particularly
in cases where everything else in the
brain is normal.
“When you have epilepsy people always say,
‘Why have I got this?’ And this is the next level,
which is the gene test,” she said. “So they will be
able to be tested for this gene, and that’s important
in terms of understanding the cause, in
terms of treatment, and hopefully this will one
day help outcomes.
“And it’s also important in terms of genetic
counselling for their own children,” she said,
meaning people would be able to assess the risk
for their own offspring if they were found to
have the gene.
The research comes after new gene detection
techniques allowed scientists to pinpoint
the abnormality, finding it in 12 percent of the
80 families studied, in which one or more members
had epilepsy. “That’s huge to find a gene
that picks up 12 percent, 12 percent of the common
cause of epilepsy,” Scheffer said.
“I think that it means that if you look at anybody
with focal epilepsy-without an abnormality
on their MRIs, what we call a structural abnormality-my
guess is that it will be 2-4 percent of
them will have this cause.”
The research, published in the April issue of
the journal Nature Genetics, also involved scientists
in Europe and Canada.
Most of the families studied were Australian,
but the group included some from Spain, Israel,
Italy and elsewhere, Scheffer said. — AFP
NJ bans children
from tanning beds
own chocolate-brown hue came from many
hours spent under the intense ultraviolet
light of a tanning bed or out in the sun soaking
up rays.
She denied exposing her daughter to a
tanning session, and a grand jury opted not
to indict her on charges of endangering the
welfare of a child.
New Jersey was already one of several
states that have regulations prohibiting anyone
age 14 or younger from tanning with
commercial ultraviolet devices because of the
risk of skin cancer. The new law extends that
ban to older teenagers.
Signing the bill into law, Christie noted the
skin cancer risk and also that tanning before
age 35 has been shown to increase the risk
for melanoma by 75 percent.
Under the new law, youth age 17 and older
must have a parent or guardian present for
an initial consultation with a tanning salon. It
also bans children under 14 from getting
spray tans in tanning salons. — Reuters
HEALTH & SCIENCE
Surgery (ABHRS), and a pioneer in Hair
transplantation surgeries across
Kuwait as well as the region. Dr. Adel
was also Deputy General Secretary of
IPRAS (International Confederation for
Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic
Surgery) and was elected President of
the Egyptian Society of Plastic and
Reconstructive Surgeons (ESPRS).
Dr Adel is also known for conducting
a wide range of comprehensive
medical based cosmetic procedures in
Kuwait that include body contouring
and facial rejuvenation. Body contouring
refers to any surgical procedure
that alters different areas of the body,
whether it is in a massive weight loss
patient or not. Dr. Adel has performed
body contouring through over 100
cases of abdominoplasty (tummy
tucks) in Kuwait, breast reductions and
M’HAMID: Omar Razzouki gazes intently at the
wooden box, marvelling at what might be the
solution to the perennial water woes that he
and other nomads like him across the Sahara
desert face daily. More than 330 million people
in sub-Saharan Africa, or around 40 percent of
the population, do not have access to clean
drinking water, according to a report published
to mark world water day by British NGO
WaterAid.
The World Health Organisation estimates
that this lack of drinking water is the reason for
nearly nine out of every 10 deaths linked to
diarrhoea.
In the Sahara, nomads are among those suffering
most from limited access to water, particularly
during the hotter periods when rising salt
levels in water drawn from wells make it
undrinkable.
The “nomadic festival” held earlier this month
in M’Hamid, in Morocco’s southern desert
region, was an opportunity for the pioneers of a
portable water purification device to showcase
their invention.
It uses a process as old as the sky. “It’s simple.
It emulates the natural cycle of cloud condensation,”
explained Alain Thibault, an ex-sailor who
had to confront the issue of fresh water shortages
at sea.
The experience gave him the idea several
years ago of reproducing the process using just
a “small machine that is easy to make and easy
to use.”
The “waterpod” allows desert-dwellers to
turn water extracted from wells into clean drinking
water through evaporation and condensation,
using the heat of the sun, a technology
that the Arabs were among the first to develop
as far back as the 16th century.
The device, which resembles a large letter
box, currently costs around 500 euros ($650).
But the inventors have already given courses at
a college in Tiznit, on Morocco’s Atlantic coast,
to teach students how to produce them more
cheaply.
“The waterpod is made of wood, cork, stainless
steel and glass,” said Thierry Mauboussin,
who is helping to promote the water project in
augmentations, lifts, and male breast
reduction (gynecosmastia). He has
also performed several successful
facial rejuvenations - a cosmetic or
medical procedure used to increase or
restore the appearance of a younger
age to human face - including ble-
Dr Ahmed Adel
Morocco. “It works with solar energy, so no fossil
fuel.” Noureddine Bourgab, the president of the
nomad festival at M’Hamid, also praised the
environmental value of the new device, which
he hoped could “put an end to the problem of
salty water for the desert nomads.”
“It’s a technique that embodies the real
meaning of sustainable development and protection
of the environment,” he said.
Razzouki, a nomad from the M’Hamid region,
was concentrating hard on figuring out how the
waterpod works. “This could resolve many of
our water problems,” he said, noting that the
box was light, and “we won’t have the problem
of salty water everywhere we go.”
M’Hamid El Ghizlane, Morocco’s gateway to
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2013
pharoplasty, rhinoplasty, neck rejuvenation,
face lifting, injection lipo,
peels, botox, fillers and modern cosmeceuticals
(cosmetic products with
biologically active ingredients implying
to have medical or drug-like benefits).
He has also performed several
hair transplantation surgeries in
Kuwait at Dar Al Shifa Hospital.
On this occasion, Dr. Ahmed Adel
said: “It gives me great pleasure to be
able to contribute with my skills to
help patients in Kuwait achieve their
desired results in the field of plastic
surgery. With the outstanding administration
and the hospital’s overall
ambition to provide the latest technologies
and plastic surgery services
available, it is always a promising success
to partner with Dar Al Shifa
Hospital by all means.”
Desert nomads marvel at
water purifying device
Uses a process as old as the sky
BEIJING: China reported yesterday
that four more people in one province
were seriously sickened by a bird flu
virus new to humans while cities
along the eastern seaboard stepped
up public health measures to guard
against a disease that has already
caused two deaths.
The health bureau of eastern
Jiangsu province said in a notice on
its website that three women, aged
45, 48 and 32, and an 83-year-old
retired man, from different cities in
the province, were all critically ill
with the H7N9 virus, a diagnosis confirmed
by the provincial disease prevention
center.
the Sahara, is an oasis on the edge of the Draa
valley surrounded by rolling sand dunes, 40
kilometres (25 miles) from the Algerian border.
The construction 40 years ago of a hydroelectric
dam further up the valley to provide for
the growing population and tourist trade at
Ouarzazate, along with the relentless desertification
of the region, has taken a heavy toll on
water supplies.
So there are high hopes for the waterpod,
one of which can produce six litres of pure
water daily from 12 litres of brackish water,
according to its creators.
They give it an estimated lifespan of 20 to 40
years, with just a daily clean needed to keep it in
good condition. — AFP
M’HAMID: Scientists show a nomad how to assemble a “waterpod” near the village of
M’hamid El Ghizlane, southeast of Zagora, on March 16, 2013. The “waterpod” allows
desert-dwellers to turn water extracted from wells into clean drinking water through
evaporation and condensation, using the heat of the sun, a technology that the
Arabs were among the first to develop as far back as the 16th century. — AFP
China: 4 new rare bird flu
cases, new steps taken
Based on the bureau’s statement,
only one of the patients appeared to
come into daily contact with birds -
the 45-year-old woman, who was
described as a poultry butcher. The
four cases did not appear to be connected,
and people who have had
close contact with the patients have
not reported having fevers or respiratory
problems, it said.
The provincial health bureau said it
was strengthening measures to monitor
suspicious cases and urged the
public to stay calm, joining Beijing and
China’s financial capital, Shanghai, in
rolling out new steps to respond to
the relatively unknown virus.
The four latest cases follow three
earlier ones reported Sunday, including
two men who died in Shanghai,
resulting in the city activating an
emergency plan that calls for heightened
monitoring of suspicious flu cases.
Under the contingency plan,
schools, hospitals and retirement facilities
are to be on the alert for fevers,
and administrators are to report to
health authorities if there are more
than five cases of flu in a week.
Cases of severe pneumonia with
unclear causes are to be reported daily
by hospitals to health bureaus, up
from the weekly norm. The plan also
called for stronger monitoring of peo-
AHMEDABAD: Improving autism patients, 27 year old Payal Kapoor (C-R) and 8 year old Prasam (C-L)
celebrate World Autism Day in Ahmedabad yesterday. Autism patients with their parents celebrated
World Autism Day with a team of doctors and Autism Awareness Campaign volunteers under
guidence of renowned Psychotherapist and Neuro-Psychiatrist Vinod Kumar Goyal at his Parth
Hospital in Ahmedabad. Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social
interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. — AFP
ple who work at poultry farms or are
exposed to birds.
The level-3 response plan, the second-lowest
in a four-stage scale,
reflects higher concern after the H7N9
bird flu virus led to the deaths of two
men in Shanghai and seriously sickened
a woman in the city of Chuzhou
360 kilometers (230 miles) west.
“The health bureau will take effective
and powerful measures to prevent
and control the disease, to make
sure the flu epidemic is effectively
guarded against and to safeguard the
health of the city’s residents,” said Xu
Jianguang, head of the Shanghai
Health Bureau.
The H7N9 strain, so named for the
combination of proteins on its surface,
has previously been considered not
easily transmitted to humans, unlike
the more virulent H5N1 strain, which
began ravaging poultry across Asia in
2003 and has since killed 360 people
worldwide.
Health officials said this week there
was no evidence that any of the three
earlier cases, who were infected over
the past two months, had contracted
the disease from each other, and no
sign of infection in the 88 people who
had closest contact with them.
Health authorities in Beijing also
upped the capital’s state of readiness,
ordering hospitals to monitor for cases
of bird flu and pneumonia without
clear causes, the official Xinhua News
Agency reported.
The announcements, as lacking in
details as they are, show that the government
is mildly more transparent in
handling health crises than it was a
decade ago during the SARS pneumonia
epidemic. Then, as rumors circulated
for weeks of an outbreak of an
unidentified disease in southern
Guangdong province, government
silence contributed to the spread of
the virus to many parts of China and
to two dozen other countries. — AP