Acute bilateral central serous chorioretinopathy in a young male after the first dose of Oxford/AstraZeneca AZD1222 (Covishield) vaccine

We case of acute bilateral central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR) after receiving the first dose of Covishield vaccine in a young, otherwise healthy male with no associated risk factors.

Anticancer, antibacterial and antioxidant activities of Cordyceps militaris

Cordyceps militaris (L.) Link has become popular as a medicinal mushroom. Here, we explored the mushroom C. militaris for possible bioactive molecules by studying its biological activities. Antioxidant activity of the methanolic extracts was tested using DPPH. Antibacterial activity was evaluated against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Minimum inhibitory concentrations of the extracts were estimated using broth microdilution method. Observed IC50 value was 0.72 mg/mL compared with standard L-ascorbic acid (IC50= 0.062 mg/mL).The MIC’s of the extracts ranged from 1.25 to 10 mg/mL against S. aureus and 0.625 to 5 mg/mL against E. coli. Additionally, cytotoxicity was also investigated towards cancer cell line HEp-2 using MTT. C. militaris extracts reduced HEp-2 cells viability with IC50 value 20 µg/mL. Bioactive components (phenols, flavonoids, ascorbic acid, β-carotene, and lycopene) were estimated spectrophotometrically. Present study revealed that C. militaris has significant antimicrobial, antioxidant and anticancer effects which may be the scientific basis of its medicinal use by herbal practitioners.

Barriers to equitable access to quality health information with emphasis on developing countries

This 9-page document, prepared for the Making the eHealth Connection: Global Partnerships, Local Solutions conference of 2008 in Bellagio, Italy, describes barriers in developing countries to access to quality health information. It discusses 8 main barriers to equitable access: connectivity, medical writing skills, language, copyright, information technology (IT) skills, economic support, national/regional resources, cultural issues, and government policies. Internet connectivity is generally limited to urban centres, lacking rural penetration. A barrier to free distribution of health-related information is the copyright barrier, as well as the high cost of journals, linguistic and/or cultural barriers, the limited availability of regional and national information resources, restrictive government policies, and lack of medical writing and IT skill training. However, there is a trend toward internet growth. Advances in internet-enabled mobile devices are opening possibilities of remote patient monitoring applications and patient information retrieval. In India, medical consultation in remote areas is increasing through mobile consultation. Medical education programmes for doctors and tele-referrals are being provided also. The National Library of Medicine's (NLM's) Medical Subject Headings (an online resource from the United States National Institutes of Health) are being made available in languages other than English, and NLM has also made consumer health information available in more than 40 languages. Though the cost of medical journals is reported here to be spiralling, there is a trend towards open access technology for journal publishing and free access to health literature. As stated here, "[a]n open journal system is being used by several publishers that enable online publishing of journals free of copyright restraints."