Category: 8. Health

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Academy of Family Physicians (PAFP) has raised concerns over the growing global threat of chikungunya and has called on federal and provincial health authorities to take immediate preventive measures to avert a potential outbreak in Pakistan.

The concern follows recent alerts issued by the World Health Organization, which reported that the mosquito-borne viral disease has now spread to over 100 countries.

In a statement, Dr Rashid Mahmood, President of the Peshawar Chapter of PAFP, emphasized that the rising number of chikungunya cases globally poses a direct threat to Pakistan, where favorable climatic conditions and poor sanitation could facilitate the rapid spread of the virus.

He warned that without swift and coordinated action, the country could face serious public health consequences.

Dr Mahmood stressed the need for preparedness on multiple fronts. He urged health authorities to establish early detection systems, deploy rapid diagnostic tools, and develop a coordinated emergency response strategy to handle suspected cases.

He called for strengthening the primary healthcare infrastructure and training frontline doctors to properly diagnose and manage chikungunya cases.

In addition to medical preparedness, the PAFP urged the government to intensify anti-mosquito campaigns across both urban and rural areas.

It said these efforts should include fumigation drives, larvicide spraying, and mass awareness campaigns aimed at educating the public about mosquito breeding and prevention.

Public cooperation, the statement said, is essential in the fight against chikungunya.

Citizens were advised to eliminate stagnant water from their surroundings, use insect repellents, wear long-sleeved clothing, and sleep under mosquito nets, especially in high-risk areas.

They were also urged to seek immediate medical attention if symptoms such as fever, joint pain, or rash occur, and to avoid self-medication.

Vehari  –  To protect young girls from the risk of cervical cancer, a nationwide Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination campaign will be launched from September 15 to 27, 2025, targeting girls aged 9 to 14 years in both public and private schools. The Education Department has been directed to fully support the Health Department in ensuring that all eligible girls are registered in time and receive the vaccine, which is considered a crucial preventive measure for safeguarding their health and future. This was discussed in a special meeting held under the chairmanship of CEO Education Vehari, Nasir Aziz. The meeting was attended by DEO Elementary (Women Wing) Andaleeb Asghar, DDHO Health Dr Yousaf Shehzad, DEO (Men) M Javed, Deputy DEO Yasir Arafat, assistant education officers, DSC Dr Ajwad, EPI Focal Person Muhammad Afzal Din, DSV Zulfiqar Ali, ASVs Muneer and Shaukat Ali, Waseem Akram from the District Council, and other officials. CEO Education Nasir Aziz instructed all officers to provide complete cooperation to the Health Department and ensure that all required data of girls aged 9 to 14 is submitted by July 30, 2025. He stressed that the HPV vaccine is vital for preventing cervical cancer and that this campaign is an important step towards a healthier and safer future for young girls. He reaffirmed that the Education Department will continue to play its full role in the success of this national health initiative.

The most commonly taken analgesic worldwide – and one of the most consumed drugs in the US – could be doing a lot more than just pain relief.

Acetaminophen, also known as paracetamol and sold widely under the brand names Tylenol and Panadol, may also increase risk-taking, according to research from 2020 that measured changes in people’s behavior when under the influence of the medication.

“Acetaminophen seems to make people feel less negative emotion when they consider risky activities – they just don’t feel as scared,” explained neuroscientist Baldwin Way from The Ohio State University when the findings were published.

“With nearly 25 percent of the population in the US taking acetaminophen each week, reduced risk perceptions and increased risk-taking could have important effects on society.”

Related: The World’s Most Popular OTC Painkiller Is Increasingly Causing Poisonings

The findings add to a growing body of research suggesting that acetaminophen’s effects on pain reduction also extend to various psychological processes, lowering people’s receptivity to hurt feelings, experiencing reduced empathy, and even blunting cognitive functions.

In a similar way, the research suggests people’s affective ability to perceive and evaluate risks may potentially be altered or impaired when they take acetaminophen.

While the effects might be slight – and should be considered hypothetical for now – they’re worth noting, given acetaminophen is the most common drug ingredient in America, found in over 600 different kinds of over-the-counter and prescription medicines.

In a series of experiments involving over 500 university students as participants, Way and his team measured how a single 1,000 mg dose of acetaminophen (the recommended maximum adult single dosage) randomly assigned to participants affected their risk-taking behavior, compared against placebos randomly given to a control group.

In each of the experiments, participants had to pump up an un-inflated balloon on a computer screen, with each single pump earning imaginary money.

Their instructions were to earn as much imaginary money as possible by pumping the balloon as much as possible, but to make sure not to pop the balloon, in which case they would lose the money.

The results showed that the students who took acetaminophen engaged in significantly more risk-taking during the exercise, relative to the more cautious and conservative placebo group. On the whole, those on acetaminophen pumped (and burst) their balloons more than the controls.

“If you’re risk-averse, you may pump a few times and then decide to cash out because you don’t want the balloon to burst and lose your money,” Way said.

“But for those who are on acetaminophen, as the balloon gets bigger, we believe they have less anxiety and less negative emotion about how big the balloon is getting and the possibility of it bursting.”

In addition to the balloon simulation, participants also filled out surveys during two of the experiments, rating the level of risk they perceived in various hypothetical scenarios, such as betting a day’s income on a sporting event, bungee jumping off a tall bridge, or driving a car without a seatbelt.

In one of the surveys, acetaminophen consumption did appear to reduce perceived risk compared to the control group, although in another similar survey, the same effect wasn’t observed.

While an experiment like this doesn’t necessarily reflect how acetaminophen might affect people in real-life scenarios, based on an average of results across the various tests, the team concluded that there is a significant relationship between taking acetaminophen and choosing more risk, even if the observed effect appears slight.

That said, the researchers acknowledged the drug’s apparent effects on risk-taking behavior could also be interpreted via other kinds of psychological processes, such as reduced anxiety, perhaps.

“It may be that as the balloon increases in size, those on placebo feel increasing amounts of anxiety about a potential burst,” the researchers explained.

“When the anxiety becomes too much, they end the trial. Acetaminophen may reduce this anxiety, thus leading to greater risk taking.”

Exploring such psychological alternative explanations for this phenomenon – as well as investigating the biological mechanisms responsible for acetaminophen’s effects on people’s choices in situations like this – should be addressed in future research, the team said.

Despite the potential impact of acetaminophen’s effect on people’s risk perception, the drug nonetheless remains one of the most important and highly used medications in the world, considered an essential medicine by the World Health Organization, even if other questions linger.

“We really need more research on the effects of acetaminophen and other over-the-counter drugs on the choices and risks we take,” Way said.

The findings were reported in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.

An earlier version of this article was published in September 2020.

A subsequent commentary published in 2021 highlighted some criticisms of the original study and its interpretation in the media.

This article has been updated to better reflect the hypothetical nature of the study and its findings. For further information, see here.

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How it works

‘Limitations’

Demand for weight loss drugs is becoming so “unsustainable” that demand may soon outstrip supply, pharmacists have warned.

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) said supply problems could encourage people to turn to unregulated online sources, despite the risks involved.

The number of people in the UK using drugs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro has soared to well above a million, with most patients paying to get them privately.

During April, 1.6m packs of Mounjaro and Wegovy were bought in Britain, with the number thought to correlate closely with the number of people using them.

“Spiralling demand for weight loss medication risks going far beyond what is clinically deliverable”, the NPA said.

The drugs might need to be reserved for those in greatest need because they are so overweight instead of being given to the “worried well”, it added.

New polling has found that 21% of Britons have tried to get hold of the medications over the past year, a figure that rises to 35% among 18- to 34-year-olds.

The same survey found that 41% of all age groups would use them if they were free on the NHS. This figure rose to 64% among those aged 25-34.

Savanta interviewed a representative sample of 2,002 adults aged 18 or over online from 20-23 June for the NPA, which represents 6,000 independent pharmacies.

“Weight loss jabs are one of the biggest drug innovations this century but growing demand for weight loss treatment highlights the need to make sure this is appropriate for those who want it,” said Olivier Picard, the NPA’s chair.

“It’s clear from this polling that more people are interested in getting weight loss jabs than can benefit from weight loss medication.”

Supply of the medicines has been hit by shortages in some parts of the UK, including for higher doses of Mounjaro, the NPA said. Supply has been restricted to some pharmacies, which has stopped some new patients from going on to the drugs.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the UK’s drugs watchdog, has warned patients to obtain the drugs only with a doctor’s prescription, and not from beauty parlours or websites.

A Department of Health spokesperson said more people would be able to obtain “revolutionary” weight loss jabs over the next few years.

“Weight loss drugs are a powerful tool in tackling the obesity crisis head-on as part of our 10-year health plan”, they added.

“This government is committed to ensuring that more people have access to these revolutionary drugs when needed, and crucially that they are able to do so in a safe and controlled way. We will ensure that those most in need will receive treatment first.”

About 220,000 people in England are due to be offered tirzepatide, a diabetes drug that promotes weight loss, over the next three years.

Pharmacies already provide about 85% of all weight loss drugs and need to be closely involved in the expansion of access, Picard added.

“The government should use the massive untapped expertise and skills of pharmacists to help speed up the NHS’s weight loss medication programme to millions of the most in need patients,” he said.

Social-emotional competence is a broad construct capturing how effective we are in our interactions with others and in navigating our own feelings. More and more studies are showing that social-emotional competence among students is linked with positive short and longer-term outcomes (Jones et al., 2015), like wellbeing, school completion and better health. 

In a recently published study in the academic journal Social Psychology of Education (Collie & Ryan, 2025), we wanted to examine the role that teachers and parents play in relation to students’ social-emotional competence. With data collected among 373 Australian adolescent students aged 13-16, findings showed that both teachers and parents matter when it comes to supporting students’ social-emotional competence. As we explain in more detail below, teachers and parents can help to foster social-emotional functioning among students, which is important for their healthy development more broadly. 

Key elements of social-emotional competence

We investigated 2 interconnected elements of social-emotional competence in our study. The first was students’ confidence, and the second was their social-emotional skills. 

Social-emotional confidence is the belief students have in their ability to behave in socially and emotionally appropriate ways. This can include feeling self-assured when expressing their views in class, feeling capable to respond appropriately to others, or feeling confident that they can manage any frustration that occurs during a study session.

Social-emotional skills, in contrast, refer to students’ actual abilities to enact social-emotional strategies and behaviours, such as their ability to understand and manage emotions, make good choices, and interact effectively in social settings. 

Investigating social-emotional confidence and skills together makes sense because these factors are connected. 

If, for instance, students feel confident in their ability to manage their emotions, they’re more likely to use strategies to calm themselves when they feel frustrated or anxious. Or if students feel confident in their ability to adjust their behaviour in different settings, they’re more likely to stay focused during group work or avoid distracting others.

What did we examine in our study?

We asked students to report on 5 dimensions of social-emotional confidence to obtain a well-rounded picture: 

• Assertiveness – whether they feel confident to advocate for themselves and others. This is about being able to express needs, opinions, and boundaries respectfully, and to stand up for what’s right, both personally and on behalf of others.

• Tolerance – whether they feel confident to be open-minded towards others’ and different perspectives. This encompasses the confidence to accept and respect diversity, understand different viewpoints, and engage constructively with ideas that may differ from one’s own.
• Emotion regulation – whether they feel confident to reframe their emotions to experience fewer negative emotions and more positive ones. This is about managing emotional responses in a healthy way, using strategies to reduce the intensity or duration of negative feelings, and cultivating more positive emotional states.

• Social regulation – whether they feel confident to adapt their behaviours to meet expectations in different contexts. This is about understanding social cues, self-monitoring one’s actions, and adjusting behaviour to fit various social situations, such as avoiding distractions or respecting others during activities.
• Emotional awareness – whether they feel confident to recognise any emotions that arise for them. This reflects confidence to identify and understand one’s own feelings as they occur.

We also examined 5 social-emotional skills that were reported by parents:

• Leadership skill – students’ ability to share their ideas and speak up in group settings
• Cultural competence – students’ capacity to understand, appreciate, and respect people from different cultural backgrounds
• Teamwork skill – students’ ability to work with others to achieve shared goals, like collaborating on a group project or solving a problem together
• Cognitive reappraisal skill – students’ capacity to rethink a situation in a way that helps manage emotions (e.g., seeing a mistake as a learning opportunity instead of a failure).
• Emotional reflection skill – students’ ability to notice and think about their feelings (for example, being able to recognise when they are feeling frustrated).

What role do teachers and parents play?

In order to determine the role that adults play in relation to the 2 elements of social-emotional competence, we asked students to report on the autonomy support they receive from their teachers and parents.

Autonomy support involves adults taking students’ perspectives through actions such as explaining why tasks or chores are important, offering choices when possible, speaking in an encouraging way, and showing patience as students learn and grow.

Our findings showed that parental and teacher autonomy support were both linked with social-emotional confidence. Parental autonomy support appeared important for all aspects of social-emotional confidence, whereas teacher autonomy support was particularly important for assertiveness and social regulation.

These findings indicate that parental and teacher autonomy support may help students to feel more socially and emotionally confident.

In turn, our results showed that social-emotional confidence was associated with greater levels of all social-emotional skills. This finding was expected because of the interconnectedness between confidence and skills. That is, when students have confidence in their social-emotional abilities, they’re more likely to actually demonstrate social-emotional skills in real-life situations. 

What do the findings mean for teachers and parents?

Our findings suggest that teachers and parents both play a role in supporting students’ social-emotional competence. 

Teachers and parents can help build students’ social-emotional confidence—and in turn their social-emotional skills – by using autonomy-supportive practices. Here are a few simple ways to do that:

Explain the ‘why’ behind tasks

This involves explaining why a task or chore is necessary and important to do. For example: 

‘We’re practicing this skill because it helps you work better with others, which is something you’ll use in lots of situations—not just in school.’

Tune in to students’ needs
This involves being attuned to what students need. For example: 

‘I noticed you’ve been quiet today—do you want to talk about how it’s going or if there’s anything I can do to support you?’

Acknowledge their feelings
This involves acknowledging any negative feelings that students may have in relation to a request. For example:

‘It’s okay to feel nervous before presenting to the class—lots of people do. Let’s talk about a few things that might help you feel more prepared.’

References

Collie, R. J. & Ryan, R.M. (2025). Autonomy support and students’ perceived social-emotional competence: predicting parent-reported social-emotional skills. Social Psychology of Education, 28, 116. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-025-10079-9

Jones, D.E., Greenberg, M., Crowley, M. (2015). Early Social-Emotional Functioning and Public Health: The Relationship Between Kindergarten Social Competence and Future Wellness. American Journal of Public Health. http://dx.doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2015.302630

The data indicates that Americans, particularly younger adults, are drinking less alcohol, with the trend reflected in declining sales, reduced spending on alcohol, and shifts in attitudes towards drinking.

But there is still a segment of the population that continues to drink heavily, and the results of a recent study show that more are experiencing serious liver disease as a result.

According to a new study from Keck Medicine of USC, over the last two decades, the share of heavy drinkers who have advanced liver scarring jumped from 1.8% to 4.3%.

What is considered heavy drinking? For women, it’s more than 1.5 drinks per night, on average, and for men, it’s two drinks daily.

“The fact that the risk not only increased but that it more than doubled — almost tripled — is really astonishing,” Dr. Brian P. Lee, a liver transplant specialist at Keck Medicine of USC and lead author on the study, told the Los Angeles Times.

The study was published in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology on Wednesday.

Lee told the Times that he thinks patients might dramatically change their thinking and behavior once they see the results. The increase was most prevalent in women, older people and those with conditions such as obesity or diabetes.

Three USC researchers analyzed national health data from more than 44,000 adults surveyed between 1999 and 2020 in a well-known national health study known as NHANES, according to the Times. More than 5 percent were heavy drinkers, according to the definition of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Researchers found a more than twofold increase over the two decades in significant liver fibrosis, which can eventually lead to liver failure or cancer.

By comparison, non-heavy drinkers saw a much smaller increase, from 0.8% to 1.4% over the same period, the story said.

Lee said knowing these numbers illuminates the importance of being aware of the potential damage to an organ that often doesn’t show any symptoms until the disease is advanced.

“Liver disease is silent,” he said, noting these results illuminate the need to develop more effective screening methods for early detection. “Most people won’t, even if they have [advanced liver scarring], have any symptoms at all.”

LAHORE:

The city is witnessing a concerning rise in waterborne diseases, particularly diarrhoea and typhoid, since the onset of monsoon season, due to contaminated sources, stagnant pools of dirty water, and increased bacterial activity.

Health officials and medical experts have warned that the situation may aggravate without urgent public health intervention and individual precautions.

According to sources, over the past 24 hours, more than 1,200 cases of diarrhoea and typhoid have been reported from five major government hospitals in the city, signaling an alarming uptick in infections typically associated with poor sanitation and unhygienic food and water consumption during the monsoon period.

Medical experts emphasise that the spread of diarrhoea during monsoon is not unusual, as contaminated water and unhygienic food become key channels for bacterial and viral infections.

“The stagnant rainwater accumulated in open areas becomes a breeding ground for flies and mosquitoes, which act as carriers of germs, facilitating the spread of diseases like diarrhoea, typhoid, and even dengue,” said Dr Asma Tariq, an infectious diseases specialist at Mayo Hospital.

She added that improper drainage systems, overflowing sewage, and lack of clean drinking water amplify the public health risks during the season. “When clean and dirty water mix, it becomes a health hazard, especially in urban slums and low-income neighboorhoods,” she noted.

Health authorities are urging citizens to adhere to basic hygiene practices to curb the spread of gastrointestinal infections. Washing hands with soap before and after meals, and after using toilet is considered one of the simplest yet most effective ways to prevent diarrhoea.

“Many cases we are seeing are linked to people consuming food from unhygienic roadside stalls or drinking unfiltered water. It is crucial to ensure that food is cooked in clean environments and water is either boiled or filtered before consumption,” said Dr Farhan, a Medical Officer at Services Hospital.

He stressed that even handling food with unwashed hands or eating from unsanitary establishments could expose individuals to bacterial infections. “What we eat, how it’s cooked, and how we handle it in these months can determine whether we stay healthy or fall ill,” he added.

The city’s healthcare system is already feeling the strain with rising patient influx. Hospitals have reported a shortage of staff to manage the diarrhoea and typhoid cases, while laboratories are overburdened with diagnostic testing. The situation is further aggravated in peripheral areas where access to quality healthcare is limited.

“We are witnessing a seasonal surge, but what’s worrying is that public awareness about preventive measures is still very low,” commented Dr Rabia Noor, a public health officer. She called for urgent municipal action to address sewage overflow, ensure water quality checks, and initiate awareness campaigns targeting vulnerable communities.

Apart from water contamination, the monsoon also brings an increase in mosquito and fly populations, which act as vectors, carrying germs from sewage to food and water supplies. “It is vital to cover all food items, especially in markets, and ensure that waste is disposed of properly to reduce fly breeding,” said environmental health expert Dr Shahid Mehmood.

He warned that without proper waste management and fumigation drives, these insects could further spread diseases, not just diarrhoea but also typhoid, hepatitis and dengue.

The municipal authorities claim to be initiating emergency cleanliness drives in affected areas, along with water chlorination measures.