The Nanfang Home

The Nanfang / Blog

Health

Nurse Treats Man In Vegetative State With The Power Of The RMB

Posted: 01/8/2015 10:49 am

Xiao Lin is doing recovery training with doctors.

Money does talk, and in this case with a young man who has been in a vegetative state since August 2013, the power of the red RMB 100 bill did more than just talking. It managed to wake the man up after more than 200 days in a coma!

In mid 2014, doctors noticed that Xiao Li had mild reactions to needle pains in his limbs. Xiao Li suddenly fell unconscious following consecutive nights playing video games at an Internet bar in Shenzhen. In mid 2014, doctors noticed that Xiao had begun to have mild reactions to needle pains in his limbs. Then the other day, one nurse, as an experiment, pulled out a RMB 100 note and waved it in front of his eyes. Xiao responded when one medical staff in the room shouted, “The money is yours, if you grab it.”

To everyone’s surprise, the patient raised his hand, still wobbly, but managed to grab the bill after about five minutes, Nandu reported. Since then, his family has been luring him with cash to get him to train his arm muscles.

It’s not conclusive if the 100 yuan note was the sole cause of him waking up, but doctors are happy that finally something worked.

Photos: Nandu; China Mike 

Haohao
Tagged:

Shenzhen Toddler Contracts H7N9 Flu Virus

Posted: 01/6/2015 9:19 am

Another case of H7N9 has surfaced in Shenzhen. The patient, a 6 year-old girl surnamed Guan from Longhua New District, tested positive yesterday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases on the mainland to 456.

According to a report by Yancheng Evening News, the patient’s situation has stabilized, and the girl has not exhibited any fever or lung infection, symptoms typical of more severe cases. Nevertheless, the six year-old remains quarantined in a Shenzhen hospital.

Since November 2014, there have been three confirmed cases in Shenzhen, Dongguan and Meizhou. Additionally, live poultry in Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Meizhou, Zhongshan, JIangmen and Zhaoqing have tested positive for the H7 virus.

According to the latest update from the Health and Family Planning Commission of Guangdong, health experts are warning of higher infection rates come spring.

Photos: Xinhua

Haohao
Tagged:

STDs on the Rise in Guangdong with Seniors Particularly at Risk

Posted: 11/18/2014 9:21 am

Guangdong is known for its raunchy nightlife, KTV parlors and saunas, and now it looks like venues like these – some which provide sexual services – could be behind a sharp increase in the number of sexually transmitted diseases diagnosed in the province.

There are now 158,192 people in the province with an STD. The rates for syphilis and gonorrhea in Guangdong actually lead the country, according to figures released by the province’s Dermatosis Prevention and Curing Institute.

There were 10,000 cases of syphilis in Guangdong in 2013, outranking Zhejiang Province with the second highest infection rate. From 2002 to 2013 the province’s number of patients with syphilis and gonorrhea has continued to surpass national average, the report said. And many patients were in labor-intensive areas in the Pearl River Delta, it added, like Dongguan.

What is most interesting is who appears to be most at risk: senior citizens. While most cases are youngsters and middle-aged men, the sharpest increase is among the senior set, partly due to the fact that many lonely seniors tend to seek sexual services in low-end sexual venues often without protection, said Yang Bing, director of a medical institute.

From 2004 to 2013, the province reported more than 4,000 cases of third-phase syphilis with many being male senior citizens, according to Yang.

Photos: Economist 

 

Haohao
Tagged:

Pollution in Guangzhou So Bad the Mayor Will Take the Bus

Posted: 11/4/2014 9:15 am

At a time when smog has become one of the top social issues in China, one prominent public figure is vowing to do something about it. Chen Jianhua, the Mayor of Guangzhou, has pledged to refrain from driving, and will take the bus instead if the city’s Air Quality Index (AQI) exceeds the “unhealthy” range of 200, reports Nanfang Net.

According to Chen, about 77 percent of days this year have been relatively smog free, a 0.7 percent increase over 2013. The number of unhealthy days has also declined, he said. But the ultimate goal, says Chen, is to “make Guangzhou residents proud of Guangzhou’s air quality”.

Chen’s pledge to take the bus was met with scepticism, and even dismissed as a publicity stunt by official media outlets, considering the city has only exceeded the 200 benchmark once all year, wrote Red Net in a commentary. The piece was later republished by CCTV.com:

“Considering Guangzhou only has a moderate air pollution problem, Mayor Chen’s much-hyped 200-air-quality target seems a little too easy. If he could lower the target to 150 as the benchmark for taking the bus, his plan would probably garner more support, and the public would not question his remark as little more than a publicity stunt.”

The AQI reading is usually between 100 and 150 in Guangzhou. In China, air quality is categorised into five grades. Below 50 is considered healthy; 51-100 is moderate; 100-200 range is unhealthy; 200-300 range is very unhealthy; and a reading above 300 is considered hazardous.

Photos: 126.net

Haohao
Tagged:

Dengue Fever a Full-Blown Crisis in Guangzhou

Posted: 10/8/2014 9:00 am

A health workers sprays for mosquitos

Dengue fever has claimed another two lives in Guangzhou in the last two days according to Guangdong’s provincial health and family planning committee. That brings the total number of reported cases to 21,527, including six deaths, as Guangdong struggles to contain the worst outbreak the province has seen in almost two decades.

Five people have died in Guangzhou and one in Foshan, according to New Express Daily. The contagious disease, transmitted by mosquitos, continues to spread quickly. On October 5 alone, the province reported 1,431 new cases and one death, said China News.

Health experts still aren’t clear why this year’s infection rates have been so high, or why the disease struck so early in the year, wrote China Science Newspaper. “This is quite shocking; we expect cases of infection to increase in the near future,” said Qin Chengfeng, a researcher with the Academy of Military Medical Science. Qin said normally Dengue Fever strikes in October and November, but this year, there were cases as early as August.

Qin noted that China isn’t alone in struggling to contain Dengue. Other countries in Asia including Singapore and Japan have also had a number of cases. There are reports of a vaccination used in Central Africa that could lower the rate of infection by 60 percent, but the possibility of importing it to China is slim due to regulatory hurdles. “It will take a long time before the vaccination is allowed in China,” said Liu Fuqiang, an epidemiology expert and emergency department director at the Hunan Center of Disease Control.

Photos: AP

Haohao
Tagged:

Nearly 1,000 Dengue Fever Cases Reported In One Day

Posted: 09/28/2014 7:14 pm

mosquito bite

The Provincial health and family planning committee announced 899 new cases of Dengue fever in Guangdong Province last Thursday, reported the Zhujiang Times. This follows an announcement earlier in the week that 1,200 new cases of Dengue fever occurred over three days.

This brings the current number of reported cases in Guangdong to approximately 10,000.

Dengue fever, also known as breakbone fever, is transmitted by mosquito bites. Symptoms of the disease include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, and a skin rash similar in appearance to measles. While rare, the disease can become fatal in cases where it escalates to become dengue hemorrhagic fever, or dengue shock syndrome.

This year’s rate of infection is said to be the highest in ten years and is an almost 1500% increase from last year. Guangzhou has reported 7,747 cases with two deaths, followed by Foshan at 950 cases and one death, Zhongshan at 164 cases, and Jiangmen at 112.

Despite the alarming increase of those contracting Dengue, public health officials are predicting an end to the outbreak within a few weeks, reports the SCMP.Yang Zhicong, a representative for the Guangzhou Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said the public should remain calm: “We are confident we can contain the epidemic in two to three weeks. Authorities have prioritised anti-dengue measures.”

Related:

Photo: news.nen

Haohao
Tagged:

More Taiwanese Gutter Oil Found In Shanghai, Xiamen, Wenzhou

Posted: 09/17/2014 10:00 am

The Taiwanese gutter oil scandal just keeps escalating as mainland cities, including Shanghai, Xiamen and Wenzhou, discover more and more food products containing tainted lard supplied by Taiwanese oil manufacturer, Chang Guann Co.

According to the Shanghai Food and Drugs Supervision Bureau, approximately 8,700 bags of food suspected of using the substandard oil were seized in Shanghai. In Xiamen, about 4.9 tons of food was suspected of containing the contaminated oil, said officials from the City’s Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, Hong Kong newspaper Wen Wei Po reported on September 14.

Of the 4.9 tons of food seized in Xiamen, 3.2 tons consisted of pork products and 1.7 tons were made up of butter biscuits. The two food manufacturers, Wei Chuan Food (味全) and Triko Foods Co Ltd (盛香珍食品), were found to be using tainted oil from Chang Guann.

Cream cookies…found to have used the tainted oil.

Wenzhou, in eastern China, also uncovered approximately 60 kg of food allegedly containing the tainted oil, which included noodles, beef and sunflower seed oil, the China Daily reported.

Since the gutter oil scandal first exploded in Taiwan in early September (when Chang Guann was found to be mixing lard oil with gutter oil collected from food waste or slaughterhouses and selling it as cooking oil), about 250 food products involving roughly 1,200 food companies and processors were found to have used oil supplied from the company.

In Hong Kong, cakes made from the gutter oil supplied by the Taiwanese firm were sold by 7-Eleven, Starbucks, Maxim, Café Express and Arome Bakery, to name a few. A comprehensive map of the stores, shops and restaurants suspected of using the substandard oil in Hong Kong can be found here by SCMP.

Photos: Central Television 

Haohao
Tagged:

Thousands Take to the Streets to Protest Waste Incinerator Project in Huizhou

Posted: 09/15/2014 9:26 am

Huizhou residents in central Guangdong Province took to streets on September 13 to protest a government waste incinerator project, fearing the waste treatment plant could contaminate the air and drinking water of several PRD cities, reported i-Cable.

Local residents also worry that fumes discharged from the plant will be toxic and could cause cancer, RTHK said.

The exact number of protesters is not immediately known, but judging by photos uploaded by Weibo users that show protesters inundating the town of Bocheng where the plant is to be located, several thousand turned out.

Protesterss held red banners reading, “Firmly against the building of a waste incinerator, we swear an oath of death to defend our beautiful home”.

The proposed waste incinerator is expected to burn 2,600 tones of waste a day upon completion next year. The project attracted millions of yuan of investment from the government, the report said.

RTHK reported several protesters were hauled away by police, while netizens said the heavy police presence resulted in some injuries.

Below are more images uploaded to Weibo:

Photos: Weibo user 王小萍萍萍，–淺淺-

Haohao
Tagged:

China, Worried About Infectious Diseases, Issues Epidemic Outbreak Alert

Posted: 07/30/2014 10:38 am

China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine has issued an alert for several foreign contagious and potentially fatal diseases that include Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), Polio and Ebola virus, reported China News on July 28.

The state health watchdog urged every port in the country to carefully check for the three diseases with each visitor entry, as well as carefully inspect each inbound flight from Africa and Middle East.

Ebola is one of the deadliest contagious diseases in the world. Its death rate in infected patients is 50 to 90%. By the end of July 20, 660 patients suffering from the disease out of 1,093 total cases in Africa had died. Between September 2012 to July 23, 2014, the MERS disease was responsible for 291 fatalities and a total of 837 cases around the world. From the start of the year until July 1, there have been 112 new cases of polio worldwide, according to another report by China News.

In July 2011, China had an outbreak of polio in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous region after the disease was transmitted from Pakistan. Within three months, there were 21 cases of the disease in the region. The outbreak cost the country RMB 320 million ($51.8 million) that year, reported Global Hospital Net. 

Guangdong’s airport inspection bureau has tightened its inspection for visitors and flights. The provincial disease inspection bureau warned travelers to avoid coming into contact with wild animals, infected patients, uncooked food, or untreated drinking water when travelling to disease-affected countries in Africa or the Middle East.

If any visitors returning from Guinea, Libya or Sierra Leone and its neighboring regions are experiencing a fever, sore throat, cold, diarrhea or partial body numbness, they should immediately contact the disease inspection bureau.

Photos:Xinhua; msn

Haohao
Tagged:

Shaoguan Man Suffers Seizure After Spending Hours At Internet Café

Posted: 07/23/2014 2:37 pm

A man from Shaoguan, Guangdong Province, suffered a severe seizure spending hours gaming at an internet café on July 22, reported Nanfang Daily. Police said the 27 year-old man was sitting in front of a computer with a headset and started to have muscle spasms. He soon fell unconscious and foam started to come from his mouth .

The man was sent to hospital where a doctor said the seizure was a result of fatigue due to long hours of using the internet.

As the number of online users in China reaches more than 500 million, the number of youngsters using the web have also jumped, accounting for 60% of the total number, said China Youth News.

China is the first country in the world to identify internet addiction as a clinical disorder. Hundreds of quasi-internet addiction boot camps have sprung up across the country to “cure” what the government has called the “spiritual opium”, although one person has already died from the government’s controversial military-style treatment.

Related:

Photos: Nanfang Daily 

Haohao
Tagged:
Popular Stories
AROUND THE WEB
Keep in Touch

What's happening this week in Shenzhen, Dongguan and Guangzhou? Sign up to be notified when we launch the This Week @ Nanfang newsletter.

sign up for our newsletter

Nanfang TV