Pharma Veterans

End of the Year – Note 5 – Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #582 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #582. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Today is the last day of the Year 2021. 31 December. I pray and wish the year is closing with good memories for you. I also pray and wish that the new year brings loads of blessings and happiness for you, your family, and your loved ones. Aameen. People are the most important asset on this planet. And unfortunately, people are most ill-treated on this earth.  Climate change is a tangible issue which cannot be brushed under the carpet. It has been created by the humans because of misuse of natural resources over centuries, which did not stop even after the fact was recognized, studied, and

End of the Year – Note 4 – Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #581 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #581. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Let us talk about ‘War Zones’. We shall not be able to talk about all of them, but we can talk about few. There are two kinds: one between two countries or rival groups; the other between a usurper government and its people. I had been to Sudan several times between 2003 and 2009. Khartoum was a peaceful place with lively people. It is a Muslim majority country, but the effect of African tradition is pronounced. Women in urban areas do not cover themselves with abayas or any such thing; hijab is common. Unmarried girls wore full length skirts with fitting shirts; married women wore the sa

End of the Year – Note 3 – Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #580 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #580. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. 2021 has been a year of turmoil. We may say it is not the first year of this kind, and it is not going to be the last one. Medecins Sans Frontieres – MSF, more commonly known as ‘Doctors Without Borders’ has been serving the people in turmoil for the last 50 years. It was started from France, hence the French name. Their volunteers are presently deployed in 100 countries and are serving people in war zones, drought and flooded areas, armed-conflict areas, illegal immigrants and more. At the end of 2021, it has posted ‘A Year in Pictures 2021’ which is worth sharing. I shall show some of t

Obituary – Dr. Tahir Shamsi – Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #579 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #579. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. On Tuesday, 21 December 2021, Dr. Tahir Shamsi passed away at Aga Khan Hospital. He had been admitted there after suffering from brain hemorrhage. The whole country is grieving his death. DR. Tahir Shamsi was born on 18 Feb 1962. He did MBBS from Dow Medical College, Karachi and later did fellowship from Pakistan and UK. He was a hematologist by specialty. Dr. Tahir Shamsi achieved much in a short life span of less than 60 years. His contributions are extraordinary. He is the pioneer of Bone Marrow Transplant – BMT in Pakistan. Prior to his work, the patients had to go to India for BMT

End of Year 2021 – Note 2 – Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #578 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #578. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. 16 December also reminds us of the gruesome tragedy that unfolded at the Army Public School, Peshawar. The terrorist attack was ruthless, callous, and inhuman. We know that men can go to any length in perpetrating torture, but every now and then a new, unfortunate standard is set. The worst tragedies are where innocent children and women are targeted and APS incident did both. So many lives lost, and so many scars created forever in hearts and minds.  The development of human beings is just a myth. Every now and then we see that the humans go back to being animals in character and deeds,

End of Year 2021 – Note 1 – Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #577 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #577. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Another year is closing on us. It is customary to look back and review the year closing by, I would like to do a bit of that and some more.  There are some recurring events which keep us connected to the past. Closest to today was 16 December which was linked to the secession of East Pakistan on this date in 1971, exactly 50 years ago. The other which happened seven years ago was the tragic event of Army Public School, Peshawar. Both required deep soul searching, but we did not go beyond grieving, making empty claims of rooting out terrorism and let the intensity of event wane off, natur

SARS-CoV-2 – Global Update and Impact – Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #576 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #576. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. World Health Organization is publishing an update every day. Following information is derived from their report of 14 December 2021. • The weekly incidence of new cases and deaths declined during second week of December by 5% and 10% respectively.  • Still, there were 4 million new confirmed cases and about 47,000 new deaths.  • African region reported 111% increase in new cases last week. • As of 12 December, nearly 269 million confirmed cases and about 5.3 million deaths attributed to COVID-19 have been reported worldwide. It may be safely assumed that the actual nu

SARS-CoV-2 Variants – Part 2 – Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #575 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #575. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. In addition to the variants described in the last post, ECDC reports following additional variants. • Mu, Lambda, and 1 undetermined each from Colombia, Peru, and UK respectively as VOI • Alpha from UK, Epsilon from USA, Eta from Nigeria, Theta from Philippines, Kappa from India, Iota from USA, Zeta from Brazil, and 18 undetermined variants were identified but later de-escalated due to less prevalence. Vaccines Efficacy against Sars-COV-2 Variants The efficacy of all major vaccines has been determined against all Variants of Concern. Here is the snapshot. All results are for two d

SARS-CoV-2 Variants – Part 1 – Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #574 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #574. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. COVID19 became COVID20 – COVID21, and now going into COVID22. The world is still struggling with the epidemic which has become endemic in certain areas. Along with the timeline, the virus has mutated, and several variants have so far been detected and reported. The most recent Omicron variant has renewed the discussion on COVID. The job of detecting and studying variants is mostly done in the US and Europe, and the information is shared with the rest of the world. Curiously, Japan has not commented much on these cases although their research capability is highly developed.  I shall de

Travel in Africa – Last Part – Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #573 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #573. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Photo Credit Teddy Tavan on Pexels Our trip ended in Dubai where we stayed for three days. There is much to write about Dubai, and there is nothing to write about Dubai. Dubai is a huge commercial place which has been built upon and serves the interests of the wealthiest of the world. I would therefore prefer to spare you from the details of Dubai Mall or Burj Khalifa and the likes.  In this last part, I would like to rest the case on the exploitation of Africa, the continent that I also love. Several weeks ago, someone sent me a clip of a TEDx talk. An African woman was making a forc

Travel in Africa – Part 7 – Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #572 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #572. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. We are out of Africa and Dubai is last leg of our tour. We went to Nigeria in West Africa and then got into Kenya in East Africa.  Africa is a great place. I have been to several countries in the African content. The weather is very pleasant in most places. People of Africa living in Africa are mostly gentle, patient and giving. It may be because of centuries of torture, discrimination, and exploitation over centuries. Rather than being vindictive, they are welcoming and generous. It is so unfortunate that entire Africa was captured and made into colonies. British and French were in comp

Travel in Africa – Part 6 – Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #571 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #571. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Spent a busy day at Nairobi. Met several prospects in different areas of city.  The Omicron factor kept cropping up. The travel advisories were changing every hour.  Omicron apparently started from South Africa, but cases were soon detected in diverse geographies. South America, North America, Europe, Australia, UAE were reporting cases though these were still isolated, not widely spread. However, the pattern was worrying. We were in East Africa and did not want to get stuck there due to ever changing travel restrictions. We decided to cut our stay short and get to Dubai, the last leg of

Travel in Africa – Part 4 – Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #570 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #570. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. We traveled to Nairobi on Tuesday 30th November. Moi International Airport, Mombasa is small and though Mombasa is a hotter place by Kenya standard, the airport was designed as an open-air place. High ceiling with plenty of open ventilating spaces had ceiling fans whose air did not reach the ground. It was still bearable. Two things about Kenya weather. One, their summer and winter months are opposite to us: November to March is their summer; April to October will be winter. Two, the temperature remains in a narrow range in both weathers. It was 26-31 in Mombasa, and it was 20-25 in Nair