Medical cosmetic tourism in Taiwan lures high-end mainland Chinese travelers

Winnie checked into a cosy Taipei clinic one recent afternoon for a full facial rejuvenation – a few Botox injections to tackle wrinkles and then filler gels to plump up folds and lips.

It took the 39-year-old business woman, just arrived that morning from Shanghai, slightly more than three hours to complete the treatment before she headed back to a five-star hotel, feeling radiant.

Winnie, who declined to give her full name during a telephone interview with the South China Morning Post, is typical of the mid- and-high-end mainland tourists that Taiwanese tour providers are targeting to cushion the drastic impact that a new travel law implemented on the mainland has had on their business.

The law, the first introduced by the mainland to address such issues as tourist safety, unfair competition and “forced shopping”, has certainly taken a rapid and heavy toll on Taiwan’s tourism industry – the number of mainland group visitors has slumped since the regulation came into force on October 1.

Soon after Taiwan began to allow mainland tourists to visit the island in groups in 2008, cut-throat competition broke out among local travel agencies to lure their business, mainly by offering dirt-cheap tours and then recouping the costs through commissions paid by partner shops to which the tour groups were shepherded.

Since 2008, more than 6.2 million mainland tourists have visited Taiwan, a huge new revenue source worth US$15.68 billion for the island, according to the Beijing-based Association for Tourism Exchange Across the Taiwan Strait.

But along with the new influx has come a wave of complaints from the tourists. Their grumbles include being forced to get up before dawn, eat food that even farm animals would refuse, and sleep in accommodation not fit for pigs.

They also lash out at the number of forced shopping tours, which cut into sightseeing.

Now, with the introduction of the travel law, group tour prices have increased by 20 to 50 per cent – and the number of mainland group visitors has dropped, totaling just 54,705 in the first 20 days of October, a drop of 35.7 per cent compared with the same period last year, Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau said.

“To cope with the new situation, local operators are encouraged to find new revenue sources, and medical cosmetic tourism is seen as one of the sources with a promising outlook,” said Lai Cheng-yi, head of the Tourism and Hotel Business Association based in Taipei.

Walter Yeh, executive vice president of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council  , said that in addition to allowing mainland visitors to travel here in groups as well as individually, the island also eased regulations in January last year to permit them to visit Taiwan for medical treatment, including for cosmetic procedures.

“This is a good time for local operators to develop this field of tourism,” he said, adding that Taiwan’s medical care is noted for its good quality and relative cheapness.

Some 100,000 medical tourists visited the island last year, up 156 per cent from 39,000 in 2011, generating revenue of around NT$70 billion (HK$18.4 billion), of which at least 40 per cent came from mainland tourists, Yeh said.

The profitable business has prompted hospitals and medical cosmetic clinics to work with Taiwanese travel agencies to organize cosmetic tours.

Compared with South Korea, whose cosmetic surgery is rated among the best in the world, such procedures in Taiwan mainly involve gel injections and very limited invasive surgery, medical cosmetic operators said.

“But with mainland standards at least five years behind Taiwan, many mainland tourists are eager to have facial rejuvenation and skin tightening treatment here,” said Dr Chu Chih-kai, head of Taipei-based Beauty Plus, one of the island’s leading medical cosmetic clinics.

Dr Chu said Taiwan’s high efficiency, convenience, its adherence to international standards as well as transparency and safety were major reasons why mainlanders were keen to take advantage of the services available in Taiwan.

“Ten per cent of our clients come from the mainland,” Dr Chu said, adding they include men as well as women.

Several big travel agencies in Taiwan have worked with major hospitals and clinics to offer medical cosmetic services to mainlanders. Some agencies have offered packages ranging from NT$45,000 to NT$180,000 for trips that include stays at five-star hotels and sightseeing tours.

As part of marketing strategies to attract more mainlanders to take medical cosmetic tours, Kuan Chou Travel Service will hold a three-day seminar from December 8 in the southern city of Kaohsiung to discuss medical cosmetics and its trends on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

“Participants will include physicians, treatment operators and tour providers from Taiwan, the mainland, Hong Kong and Macau,” Silvia Hu, marketing and PR manager of Kuan Chou Travel Service.

To ensure quality and good service, the Health Ministry has approved 38 hospitals and clinics to treat mainland tourists, while the Taiwan Joint Commission on Hospital Accreditation, a non-profit hospital accreditation agency, has certified 19 medical cosmetic clinics for their quality of treatment.

Winnie, who came on a five-day tour, certainly has no complaints about the quality of service. On the contrary, she declared herself “highly satisfied” with what she described as an “afternoon tea” treatment. It made her look great.

Source: South China Morning post

 

Biocon & Mylan get approval for biosimilar of breast cancer drug

Mumbai: Biocon Ltd said on Tuesday that the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has given it permission to sell a biological copy of Herceptin, the world’s best-selling breast cancer drug.

The biosimilar trastuzumab, a biological copy of Herceptin, was developed jointly by Biocon and US generic drug maker Mylan Inc., and will be sold in India under the brand name Canmab, Biocon said in a statement on Tuesday.

It will be available in India by the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2014.

Trastuzumab, a medicine originally developed and patented by Swiss drug maker Roche Holding AG, is sold by Roche in world markets, including India, under the brand name Herceptin. DCGI’s approval comes three months after Roche relinquished its Indian patent on it.

A biosimilar is equivalent to a copycat version of a biological drug. But such versions are not called generics because they are not an identical copy. Trastuzumab is used for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer.

“The regulatory approval for biosimilar trastuzumab in India is an extremely important milestone for Biocon as it is the world’s first biosimilar version of Herceptin to be brought to the market,” Biocon said on Tuesday.

“This is a major milestone for both partners as it is the world’s first biosimilar Trastuzumab to be accorded regulatory approval,” said Biocon chairman and managing director Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw in a statement.

“The Indian approval is an encouraging milepost as we plan to leverage this data to support regulatory filings in several countries across the globe,” she added.

Roche said in August that its decision to let the Indian patent for trastuzumab lapse was part of a new strategy for the high-value biological drug in the local market. It has no plans to seek a restoration of the patent.

“Regular reviews of our patent portfolio are a routine business practice. In this connection, Roche has come to the conclusion not to pursue the Indian patent for trastuzumab,” Roche India’s director corporate affairs, market access and compliance officer G.K. Raman had said in August.

Mint reported on 14 August that if Roche does not restore the patent in six months through a separate process, generic firms can legally produce the medicine in India.

In July, Roche had also decided not to pursue two of its applications for patenting new variants of Herceptin in India. This followed Roche’s decision to partner with local drug maker Emcure Pharmaceuticals Ltd for producing this drug in India and making it available at a lower price.

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in India, with over 100,000 patients diagnosed with it every year. The cost of biologics in cancer treatment is extremely high, which makes access to drugs unaffordable to many patients. The biosimilar is expected to offer an affordable alternative in India and other countries.

The global sales for trastuzumab were $6.4 billion in 2012, while in India it recorded sales of $21 million, according to data available with the industry.

Since 2009, Biocon and Mylan have been co-developing a high value portfolio of biosimilar monoclonal antibodies and complex biologics, comprising five drugs, including trastuzumab.

The global market in biosimilars will be worth $22 billion by 2020, according to industry estimates.

Source: live mint

External artificial lung used to save woman from critical lung disease

Patient of ECMONew Delhi: A team of doctors, led by Dr Vivek Nangia, head and director – pulmonology, at Fortis Flt Lt Rajan Dhall Hospital here, have treated a critically ill patient suffering from interstitial pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and chest infection resulting in ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome) using extra-corporeal membrane oxygenator (ECMO). This makes her the first and the only IPF patient in India to survive after being mechanically ventilated and weaned off using ECMO, according to the doctors.

The fifty-five year old woman had been suffering from IPF, a chronic lung disease which results in worsening breathlessness due to progressive shrinkage of the lungs. She was on regular oxygen and BPAP (bilevel positive airway pressure) at home for more than two years. She arrived at Fortis, Vasant Kunj with severe chest infection resulting in a total white-out of both lungs. She also suffers from other illnesses like diabetes, hypertension, hypothyroidism and coronary heart disease. Despite extensive medication, her condition continued to deteriorate and she had to be put on invasive mechanical ventilator, according to a statement by Fortis Hospital.

“There is no definite treatment for this disease and such patients usually survive for only 2-3 years. Death usually occurs due to respiratory failure and it has always been a great ethical dilemma whether to put such patients on mechanical ventilator or not, as the chance of being liberated from the ventilator is hardly any,” said Dr Nangia.

This is when the team decided to use ECMO, a modality that has never been used in India in such a patient before. ECMO is a system which provides heart-lung bypass support outside of the patient’s body. It is a technique which uses a pump to circulate blood through an artificial lung and then back into the bloodstream after correcting the blood gas balance, the statement said.

“Within 3-4 days of initiating the treatment, the patient started showing dramatic improvement and could be taken off the ventilator. On the seventh day, she was weaned off the ECMO and discharged on the sixteenth day,” according to the statement.

ECMO not only protects the patient from complications associated with the ventilator but also provides the patient the freedom to speak, eat and perform all routine activities. From mechanical ventilation and a grim prognosis, the patient was able to walk out of the hospital with her family on the day of discharge, the statement said.

“We were prepared for the worst as her surviving the ventilator seemed almost unlikely. However, this treatment saved her life and my wife was back on her feet on the day of her discharge,” said the husband of the patient.

Source: India medical Times

White Tea Facts and health benefits

Many people who want to lose weight and improve their overall health in general have been turning to tea to help them be healthier and prevent many different types of diseases. The health benefits of tea have been proven time and time again, and people have used it for centuries to help them live longer and stay healthy.

There are many different types of tea, from white tea to black tea to green tea. One of the rarest types of tea is white tea, which is found only in China and is actually harvested from the same plants that green and black tea come from as well.

White tea is harvested from the leaves before the buds have completely blossomed; this makes it so the tea is as close to its natural state as possible and goes through less processing than other types of tea. Where black and green tea have both been cured and oxidized, white tea has not.

White tea provides the body and the mind with a number of benefits, many of which are more powerful than green or black teas. Some of the facts about white tea, especially in relation to green and black teas, are:

• Higher anti viral properties. White tea provides more antiviral properties than both green tea and black tea, as a result of its minimal processing.

• More amino acids. Because it is harvested from buds and leaves that are much younger than when black and green tea are harvested, it also has more amino acids.

• More antibacterial abilities. White tea also contains a stronger concentration of antibacterial qualities than do green or black tea. High levels of catechin and gallic acid are also beneficial to the body.

• Higher antioxidant capabilities. Most teas contain antioxidants that are good at cleansing the body of toxins that accumulate throughout the years as a result of pollutants in the air, undigested particles of food, and waste build up. The high levels of antioxidants found in white tea are better at flushing out these toxins, leaving you healthier and more energized.

• Greater cancer fighting abilities. Certain types of teas have been shown to help fight harmful cancer cells and build up cancer-fighting cells within the body. White tea contains the most properties of the various types of tea to help ward off certain types of cancer.

• Greater effect on stress levels. The higher levels of amino acids found in white tea have a better effect on stress levels than black and green teas as well. These acids contain more properties that enhance the mood and lower the stress levels.

Because it is rare, white tea is frequently more expensive than black, green, and other types of tea. However, the health benefits you will receive from drinking white tea are worth it!

One way to get enough white tea is to try White Tea with Acai, which combines the power of white tea with the super fruit Acai berry to give you even more powerful health benefits.

Source: Healthy lifestyle

Delhi dengue cases rise to 5,212

New Delhi: Dengue cases in the national capital have raised to 5,212, a municipal health official said Monday.

The number of dengue cases Nov 18 was 5,115.

This year, the vector-borne disease has killed six people in the capital.

In Delhi, most cases have occurred in the north corporation (2104) area, followed by the south (1,568), and the east (1,405) corporations.

An additional 67 cases have been reported from the National Capital Region, which includes parts of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh adjoining Delhi.

Source: sify

Number of adolescents with HIV jumps by one-third: UN

Geneva:  The number of adolescents infected by the HIV virus has jumped by one third over the past decade, the United Nation’s health agency said on Monday, blaming gaps in care programs.

“More than 2 million adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 years are living with HIV,” marking a 33 per cent rise since 2001, the World Health Organization said.

“Many do not receive the care and support that they need to stay in good health and prevent transmission. In addition, millions more adolescents are at risk of infection,” it warned.

In the world’s most AIDS-affected region, sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of adolescents with the virus are girls who have had unprotected sex, sometimes under duress.

In addition, many of those born with the virus or infected at birth in sub-Saharan Africa are becoming adolescents.

In Asia, meanwhile, young drug-users were the worst affected.

The WHO said that the failure to provide proper adolescent-focused programs had also resulted in a 50-per cent increase in reported AIDS-related deaths in the age group from 2005 to 2012.

In 2005, 70,000 adolescents died of AIDS. Seven years later, the figure was 104,000.

That contrasted starkly with the 30-per cent decline in the general population, the WHO underlined.

The year 2005 marked the high point of global AIDS deaths, which hit 2.3 million. Last year, the toll was 1.6 million.

“Adolescent girls, young men who have sex with men, those who inject drugs or are subject to sexual coercion and abuse are at highest risk,” said Craig McClure, head of HIV programs at UN children’s agency UNICEF.

“They face many barriers, including harsh laws, inequalities, stigma and discrimination which prevent them from accessing services that could test, prevent, and treat HIV,” McClure added.

“About one-seventh of all new HIV infections occur during adolescence. Unless the barriers are removed, the dream of an AIDS-free generation will never be realised,” he insisted.

The data was issued as the WHO released its first adolescent-specific care guidelines ahead of World AIDS Day on December 1.

“Adolescents face difficult and often confusing emotional and social pressures as they grow from children into adults,” said Gottfried Hirnschall, head of the WHO’s HIV/AIDS Department.

“Adolescents need health services and support, tailored to their needs. They are less likely than adults to be tested for HIV and often need more support than adults to help them maintain care and to stick to treatment,” he added.

Among the measures needed, the WHO said, is an end to the requirement for parental permission to have an HIV test.

In sub-Saharan Africa, it is estimated that in the 15-24 age bracket, only 10 percent of young men and 15 percent of young women know their HIV status.

In other regions, although data are scarce, access to HIV testing and counseling by vulnerable adolescents is consistently reported as being very low, the WHO said.

Source: NDTV

 

Malaria, jaundice claim 20 lives in Arunachal in a week

Diseases like malaria and jaundice have claimed 20 lives since last week in Longding district of Arunachal Pradesh, an official report said today.

“This is not the first time when such an epidemic has broken out in Wancho area. In the past, too many such epidemics have been reported.

The reason may be due to the unhygienic way of living and lack of proper health-care facilities,” the report said.

“Though medicines have been rushed they are hardly adequate,” it said. When contacted, Parliamentary Secretary for Information and Public Relation Department, Thangwang Wangham, said that the situation is alarming as every day new cases are being reported.

Wangham, who is the local MLA, said though health workers were in the field there was no tangible respite. The MLA, who is camping at Longding to monitor the situation, has appealed the state government to send relief and more medicines.
Source: one India News

Honey bees can be trained to detect cancer

Dezeen_Susana_Soares_Bees_Design_2

Portuguese designer Susana Soares has developed a device for detecting cancer and other serious diseases using trained bees

The bees are placed in a glass chamber into which the patient exhales; the bees fly into a smaller secondary chamber if they detect cancer.

“Trained bees only rush into the smaller chamber if they can detect the odour on the patient’s breath that they have been trained to target,” explained Soares, who presented her Bee’s project at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven last month.

Scientists have found that honey bees – Apis mellifera – have an extraordinary sense of smell that is more acute than that of a sniffer dog and can detect airborne molecules in the parts-per-trillion range.

Bees can be trained to detect specific chemical odours, including the biomarkers associated with diseases such as tuberculosis, lung, skin and pancreatic cancer.

Bees have also been trained to detect explosives and a company called Insectinl is training “sniffer bees” to work in counter-terrorist operations.

“The bees can be trained within 10 minutes,” explains Soares. “Training simply consists of exposing the bees to a specific odour and then feeding them with a solution of water and sugar, therefore they associate that odour with a food reward.”

Once trained, the bees will remember the odour for their entire lives, provided they are always rewarded with sugar. Bees live for six weeks on average.

“There’s plenty of interest in the project especially from charities and further applications as a cost effective early detection of illness, specifically in developing countries,” Soares said.

Bee’s explores how we might co-habit with natural biological systems and use their potential to increase our perceptive abilities.Dezeen_Susana_Soares_Bees_Design_3

The objects facilitate bees’ odour detection abilities in human breath. Bees can be trained within 10 minutes using Pavlov’s reflex to target a wide range of natural and man-made chemicals and odours, including the biomarkers associated with certain diseases.

The aim of the project is to develop upon current technological research by using design to translate the outcome into systems and objects that people can understand and use, engendering significant adjustments in their lives and mind set.

How it works

The glass objects have two enclosures: a smaller chamber that serves as the diagnosis space and a bigger chamber where previously trained bees are kept for the short period of time necessary for them to detect general health. People exhale into the smaller chamber and the bees rush into it if they detect on the breath the odour that they where trained to target.

What can bees detect?

Scientific research demonstrated that bees can diagnose accurately at an early stage a vast variety of diseases, such as: tuberculosis, lung and skin cancer, and diabetes.

Precise object

The outer curved tube helps bees avoid from flying accidentally into the interior diagnosis chamber, making for a more precise result. The tubes connected to the small chamber create condensation, so that exhalation is visible.

Detecting chemicals in the axilla

Apocrine glands are known to contain pheromones that retain information about a person’s health that bee’s antennae can identify.

The bee clinic

These diagnostic tools would be part of system that uses bees as a biosensor.

The systems implies:
– A bee centre: a structure that facilitates the technologic potential of bees. Within the centre is a bee farm, a training centre, a research lab and a health care centre.

– Training centre: courses can be taken on bee training where bees are collected and trained by bee trainers. These are specialists that learn bee training techniques to be used in a large scope of applications, including diagnosing diseases.

– BEE clinic: bees are used at the clinic for screening tests. These insects are very accurate in early medical diagnosis through detection on a person’s breath. Bees are a sustainable and valuable resource. After performing the  diagnose in the clinic they are released, returning to their beehive.

Bee training

Bees can be easily trained using Pavlov’s reflex to target a wide range of natural and man-made chemicals odours including the biomarkers associated with certain diseases. The training consists in baffling the bees with a specific odour and feeding them with a solution of water and sugar, therefore they associate that odour with a food reward

Source: de zeen magazine

 

South India’s first IVF baby in Kerala government hospital

State-owned S.A.T. Hospital here created a record of sorts when it became the first government sector hospital in south India to have test tube babies.

S.A.T. Hospital is the women’s and children’s wing of the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital.

Head of the fertility clinic Sheela Balakrishnan told reporters the couple who underwent IVF treatment became proud parents of twins, a boy and a girl, at 5.30 a.m. Friday.

“We thus became the fifth government hospital in the country and the first one in south India to be successful. We are expecting another test tube baby next week and then there are five more in various stages,” said Balakrishnan.

In vitro fertilization (IVF) is a process by which an egg is fertilized by sperm outside the body.

IVF is a major treatment for infertility when other methods of assisted reproductive technology have failed.

The process involves monitoring and stimulating a woman’s ovulatory process, removing ovum or ova (egg or eggs) from the woman’s ovaries and letting sperm fertilize them in a fluid medium in a laboratory.

The fertilized egg (zygote) cultured for two-six days in a growth medium and is then transferred to the patient’s uterus with the intention of establishing a successful pregnancy.

Balakrishnan went on to add that since this form of medical procedure is an expensive one, “we operate on a no-profit no-loss basis and the entire cost for couples comes to around Rs.1 lakh”.

In the private sector, the total expense for IVF treatment can touch up to Rs.10 lakh.

The IVF third stage clinic has been in operation for nearly two years.

Source: the Indian Express

Children’s cardiovascular fitness declining worldwide

Many kids don’t run as far or fast as their parents did, according to research presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2013.

The decline in running fitness may indicate worse health in adulthood, the researchers said.

“If a young person is generally unfit now, then they are more likely to develop conditions like heart disease later in life,” said Grant Tomkinson, Ph.D., lead author of the study and senior lecturer in the University of South Australia’s School of Health Sciences.

“Young people can be fit in different ways. They can be strong like a weightlifter, or flexible like a gymnast, or skillful like a tennis player. But not all of these types of fitness relate well to health. The most important type of fitness for good health is cardiovascular fitness, which is the ability to exercise vigorously for a long time, like running multiple laps around an oval track.”

Researchers analyzed 50 studies on running fitness between 1964 and 2010 that involved more than 25 million kids, ages 9 to 17, in 28 countries. They gauged cardiovascular endurance by how far kids could run in a set time or how long it took to run a set distance. Tests typically lasted five to 15 minutes or covered a half-mile to two miles.

Cardiovascular endurance declined significantly within the 46 years, the researchers found. Average changes were similar between boys and girls, younger and older kids, and across different regions, although they varied country to country.

The study is the first to show that kids’ cardiovascular fitness has declined around the globe since about 1975:

In the United States, kids’ cardiovascular endurance fell an average 6 percent per decade between 1970 and 2000.

Across nations, endurance has declined consistently by about 5 percent every decade.

Kids today are roughly 15 percent less fit from a cardiovascular standpoint than their parents were as youngsters.

In a mile run, kids today are about a minute and a half slower than their peers 30 years ago.

Declines in cardiovascular endurance performance are probably caused by social, behavioral, physical, psychosocial and physiological factors, Tomkinson said.

Country-by-country fitness findings are mirrored in measurements of overweight/obesity and body fat, suggesting one factor may cause the other. “In fact, about 30 percent to 60 percent of the declines in endurance running performance can be explained by increases in fat mass,” Tomkinson said.

Kids should engage in at least 60 minutes of daily activities that use the body’s big muscles, such as running, swimming or cycling, he said.

“We need to help to inspire children and youth to develop fitness habits that will keep them healthy now and into the future,” Tomkinson said. “They need to choose a range of physical activities they like or think they might like to try, and they need to get moving.”

Source: American Heart Association