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Category: Lifestyle

  • 5.28% of blood donors in Sindh infected with HIV, hepatitis, and other diseases

    5.28% of blood donors in Sindh infected with HIV, hepatitis, and other diseases

    The Sindh Blood Transfusion Authority (SBTA) has revealed that a total of 1,357 people were diagnosed with HIV in Sindh during the first eight months of 2021 after their blood samples were tested at the blood banks in 24 districts of the province, Waqar Bhatti reported for Geo News.

    “During the first eight months of this year, around 455,742 donors donated their blood at 166 blood banks in the 24 districts of Sindh, of which 1,357 donors were found to be infected with HIV, which amounts to 0.29% of the samples,” Dr Durre Naz Jamal, the SBTA director, revealed in a meeting of the provincial health department.

    “Of the 455,742 blood samples tested in the province, around 24,088 were found reactive or infected with either of five different diseases,” Dr Durre Naz said as she explained that 5.28% (24,088) of the donors were diagnosed with one or more infectious diseases and could not donate blood.
    Blood samples in Pakistan are screened for five infectious diseases — HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, syphilis, and malaria — to prevent recipients from having these diseases through blood transfusion but sometimes, unscreened blood is transfused to people as most of the blood banks lack the facility of nucleic acid testing (NAT), a molecular technique for screening the donated blood.

    The SBTA data presented to the provincial health minister revealed that 8,155 or 1.79% of blood donors in Sindh were infected with hepatitis B while 7,995 or 1.75% were infected with hepatitis C.

    In addition to that, as many as 6,142 blood donors were found to be infected with syphilis, a sexually transmitted infection. The percentage of the donors infected with syphilis was 1.34, Dr Durre Naz said, adding that 448 blood donors had also been found to be infected with malaria.
    According to the data presented to the health department, the highest number of blood donors infected with HIV were found in Karachi’s District East where 653 persons were found to have HIV in their blood, followed by District South of Karachi, where 431 blood donors were found to be infected with HIV.

    Similarly, Karachi’s District South had the highest number of blood donors infected with hepatitis B and C, where 2,603 donors were found to be infected with HBV and 2,923 blood donors with HCV.

    Directing the SBTA to strictly implement the screening system for safe blood transfusion across the province, Dr Pechuho said a dashboard of blood screening results should be immediately established to prevent the spread of diseases caused by blood transfusions.

  • Bride sues wedding venue after she slips on dance floor

    A newly-wed bride has sued one of the top marriage venues in the United Kingdom (UK) for £150,000 (approximately Rs 34,935,942) after she slipped on a spilt drink on a dancefloor and broke her elbow.

    As per reports, bride Cara Donovan — who is a teacher by profession — has sued the company after she slipped on the ‘highly slippery’ laminated plastic floor, lit by underfloor LED lights.

    Donovan alleged that she slipped on spilled drinks after the staff failed to stop guests from taking their drinks onto the floor. She added that the tables were positioned by the edge of the floor, allowing guests to dance and drink. Even after people spilled drinks on the floor, no one came to mop it up.

    Read More: Photographer deletes all wedding pictures after being denied food

    The incident happened in September 2018 but left the bride with a badly broken elbow. Despite three operations, the woman says she has been suffering from permanent arm pain.

    Since then, she hasn’t been able to get back to work as a special-needs teacher. Blaming the company for what happened to her, she has now sued Country House Weddings Ltd, which was once voted the Best UK Wedding Venue by magazine readers.

  • Sales you can avail to upgrade your winter wardrobe

    Sales you can avail to upgrade your winter wardrobe

    Winter will be here anytime soon so The Current has tried to make your shopping drill for winter easier by compiling a list of brands that are offering discounts. Don’t miss out on these sales for a chance to grab some steals.

    Cougar

    Cougar is offering flat 50 per cent off on their entire stock. You can avail amazing deals on their winter collection too.

    Website: https://www.cougar.com.pk/collections/women-winter?fbclid=IwAR3XssDlvpYIIazpasnL4TfjB8Dm2q9esnWrAZNaUPMDxFfKm8YpemaN1tM

    Sana Safinaz

    Sana Safinaz is offering up to 60 per cent off on selected stock, which also includes their winter collection.

    Website: https://www.sanasafinaz.com/pk/sale.html

    Breakout

    Break out is offering flat 50 per cent off on its entire stock, which does not include its new collection. You can get your hands on some amazing deals on Breakout’s last year’s winter collection.

    Website : https://breakout.com.pk/collections/flat-50-exclusive

    Stylo Shoes:

    Stylo has up to 51 per cent sale on footwear and pret collection.

    Website: https://stylo.pk/

    So Kamal:

    So Kamal is offering flat 60 and 70 per cent off on their entire stock, which also includes bags and other accessories.

    Website: https://www.sokamal.com/?fbclid=IwAR13zYRdL3AyLFCDepDRTsyj7x3cZybENz01tVk1_3JAGgA4nw2GAdZrf84

    Gul Ahmed/ Ideas

    Gul Ahmed is offering upto 70 per cent discount on a wide range of products.

    Website: https://www.gulahmedshop.com/

    Furor

    Furor is offering flat 50 per cent off in stores and online.

    Website: https://furorjeans.com/sale

  • Police arrest man for harassing, asking phone number from girl

    A young man was arrested in Lahore for harassing a girl and asking for her phone number, Geo News reported.

    A man in Iqbal Town had been harassing a girl for a few days and was asking for her phone number.

    Read More: Student in US harrased for highlighting Palestinians, Uighurs in her graduation speech

    The victim later posted the pictures on social media. The police tracked the man from his motorcycle number plate. The police have registered a case against the suspect, who has been identified as Naveed Asif.

  • All educational institutions to start normal classes from Monday: Asad Umar

    All educational institutions to start normal classes from Monday: Asad Umar

    Educational activities across the country will resume from Monday (October 11) next week. Due to Covid, educational activities across the country were affected for over a year.

    Asad Umar announced that the decision has been taken in view of a drop in the Covid-19 cases and a stepped-up national vaccination campaign by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).

    “Based on the reduced level of disease spread and the launch of the school vaccination program, it has been decided in today’s NCOC meeting to allow all educational institutions to start normal classes from Monday the 11th of October” tweeted Umar.

    The country reported less than 1,000 daily coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours for the first time in over three months.

    The latest data from NCOC shows that Pakistan reported 912 cases after 45,619 tests. The country last recorded a daily case count below 1,000 on July 6 at 830 cases.

  • ‘Human rights activist’ yells at restaurant chef who asked for her vaccination certificate

    A woman at Okra Test Kitchen in Karachi yelled at a chef who reportedly asked her for her Covid vaccination certificate.

    The video shows the woman, who was not even wearing a mask, filming the chef and arguing with him. The woman can be heard saying, “Who are you to ask me about my medical record?” She also accused the chef of being in violation of the Constitution of Pakistan because he was asking for her medical records.

    The woman called herself a “human rights activist” while exiting the venue.

    Twitterati were quick enough to call out the woman for misbehaving with the chef.

    https://twitter.com/road_runner1234/status/1446009881404772356?s=20
    https://twitter.com/ajdvertise/status/1446006783252877314?s=20

  • WHO approves world’s first Malaria vaccine

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has endorsed the widespread rollout of the first malaria vaccine with the experts hoping that it could save tens of thousands of children’s lives each year across Africa.

    Hailing it as “an historic day”, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that after a successful pilot programme in three African countries, the RTS,S vaccine should be made available more widely.

    The WHO recommendation is for RTS,S – or Mosquirix – a vaccine developed by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline.

    “This is a vaccine developed in Africa by African scientists and we’re very proud,” said Ghebreyesus.

    According to European Medicines Agency, Mosquirix is a vaccine that can be administered to children aged 6 weeks to 17 months to help protect against malaria.

     It also helps protect against infection of the liver with the hepatitis B virus, but European Medicines Agency warns that the vaccine should not be used only for this purpose.

    The vaccine was developed by GlaxoSmithKline in 1987. However, it does face challenges: Mosquirix requires up to four doses, and its protection fades after several months.

    Still, scientists hope that the vaccine could have a major impact against malaria in Africa.

    Since 2019, 2.3 million doses of Mosquirix have been administered to infants in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi in a large-scale pilot programme coordinated by WHO.

  • Young doctors boycott hospital services across the country

    The Young Doctors’ Association (YDA) on Wednesday boycotted Out-Patient Department (OPD) services across the country, Daily Times reported.
    They are protesting against torture of their colleagues in Islamabad during a protest outside Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC).


    According to the YDA spokesperson, only emergency services are being provided at the hospital. The move comes a day after police manhandled their fellow doctors in the federal capital during a protest against National Licensing Examination (NLE).


    They criticised the government and the doctors said that this is the first time in the country’s history that the police brutally attacked doctors.


    The protests are causing severe difficulties to the patients coming to the hospitals.
    Services Hospital Lahore have suspended their services.


    In Faisalabad, the doctors from the YDA platform have suspended OPDs and also the operation theatre services at the Allied Hospital. They also staged a protest and strongly condemned the torture and arrest of their colleagues in Islamabad. They vowed not to accept NLE law at any cost.


    Hundreds of young doctors across the country have been protesting against the PMC. The doctors have demanded that the compulsion to sit the National Licensing Exam should be withdrawn.


    The Pakistan Medical Commission has announced that in order to practice in Pakistan, doctors will have to take a licensing exam after completing five years of education.

    Young doctors say the additional examination was unfair as they had already passed the same exam to obtain their MBBS degrees.


    On Tuesday, at least 20 doctors were arrested after they tried to enter the PMC building. The Islamabad police baton-charged the protesters.

  • IBA reinstates expelled student who spoke out against alleged harassment on campus

    IBA reinstates expelled student who spoke out against alleged harassment on campus

    The Insitute of Business Administration (IBA) reinstated Mohammad Gibrail, a student who was expelled by the university administration a week ago for speaking out against the alleged harassment incident on social media.

    The decision was taken by IBA’s Executive Director (ED) of the institution S Akbar Zaidi after hearing the appeal against the Disciplinary Committee’s decision, which took place on September 29. Zaidi reinstated Gibrail as a student with immediate effect, as per Geo News.

    Jibran Nasir, the lawyer for Gibrail, confirmed that the student had been reinstated. He tweeted, “Congratulations to all students! Gibrail’s admission on appeal to [IBA, ED] has been restored unconditionally,” adding that the ED had also “committed reforms to make IBA safer, give students representation in admin affairs and expeditious and transparent inquiry into the harassment case”.

    During the hearing, Gibrail reaffirmed his respect for the IBA and the Executive Director and reportedly withdrew those parts of his appeal which were unrelated to his expulsion.

    On August 25, Gibrail had reported the alleged sexual harassment incident on a public Facebook post. He stated, “This was actually the incident of workplace harassment that took place in front of my eyes in IBA’s Finance Department where I saw a person whom, I inquired his identity late, named Tanveer yelled at a female employee of IBA in that Finance Department and burst on her.”

    After this, students of IBA started protesting against the administration to take notice of this issue. Despite looking into the matter, IBA’s Disciplinary Committee expelled Gibrail a few days after the incident.

  • Delivering verdict in two months goes against rights of suspect: Zahir’s parents approach SC

    Delivering verdict in two months goes against rights of suspect: Zahir’s parents approach SC

    Zahir Jaffer’s parents have challenged Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) bail rejection by approaching the Supreme Court (SC), reported Geo News.

    Zahir is the prime suspect in Noor Mukadam’s murder case.

    Advocate Khawaja Harris filed a petition on behalf of his clients Zakir Jaffer and Asmat Adamjee, arguing that delivering a verdict in two months goes against the rights of the suspects and the principles of a transparent trial.

    According to the petition, a complete challan of the case has not yet been presented in the trial court, while the high court went beyond its jurisdiction by directing to complete the trial in two months.

    Furthermore, the petition argued that the police investigation was biased and not impartial. According to Zahir’s parents’ lawyers, the defendants will not be able to defend themselves properly in prison as it will be difficult for them to communicate with them being in prison.

    Last week, the IHC had rejected the bail pleas of both of Zahir’s parents and also ordered the court to complete the trial within eight weeks.

    However, in IHC’s detailed verdict, it was ruled that both Zakir and Asmat committed the crime of aiding Noor’s murder.