The 2017 budget set out by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has established a number of diseases set to be eliminated. Among these is kala-azar. However, previous governments have often said before that India was on the verge of elimination and all have been proved wrong. Of the disease targeted in the budget such as TB […]
Budget 2017: eliminate kala-azar Read More »
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has set out in the 2017 budget speech an aim to eradicate leprosy from India by 2018. Through the increased health budget, drives are taking place in order to “not just eliminate [the disease], but eradicate it as well” says the Times of India. This is by no means a new
Budget 2017: Leprosy eradication Read More »
At the rate of decline of tuberculosis (TB) prevalence in India over the past 24 years (0.91% per year), it would take India 183 years for the disease to be considered eradicated. The recently released government budget set 2025 as a target for TB elimination from India. Critics have responded by saying that this is
Budget 2017: Tuberculosis elimination Read More »
India’s kidney villages may be living on borrowed time. These desperately poor villages are preyed upon by organ traffickers who seek to buy kidneys from healthy but impoverished rural people. A nationwide awareness campaign aims to increase the number of legitimate organ donations in response to shortages in the country and to stop the booming
New organ donation campaign to crack down on thriving black market Read More »
Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionise the world at large. Maybe no area will feel the impact more than healthcare. In India, access to healthcare is limited and there is an enormous shortage of medical professionals. This is especially true of rural areas. AI could compensate for these deficiencies, capitalising on ground already
The AI revolution and India: can it be done? Read More »
Iron-fortified nutrition bars could help treat anaemia, a severe problem in Indian women. Though iron supplements are a commonly used treatment for anaemia, this study – published on January 18th in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition – adds further potential for food supplementation on a more widespread scale. The study was conducted over a
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“India cannot get a salutation right now” because of its poor performance on healthcare, says world-renowned economist Amartya Sen. “At the bottom of the world league” India’s dismal track record on public healthcare puts it “at the bottom” of the world league, Sen remarked at an international conference in Mumbai in January. “It is disconcerting
Amartya Sen, PFI blast India’s low spend on health Read More »
The Modi government’s Union Budget for the fiscal year 2017-18 was presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on February 1. Jaitley announced a number of steps to address the plentiful problems facing India’s healthcare system. However, critics said that there were only paltry increases in funding following a year of severe cuts – a “nominal”
Health budget: Making progress or playing it safe? Read More »
Progress is being made with India’s Mission Indradhanush (MI), a free vaccination campaign started on the 25th December 2014 by union health minister J P Nadda. The aim of the programme is to expand routine immunisation to include new vaccines, with the programme primarily aimed at children. DNAIndia reports that since the founding of the
Positive results from immunisation campaign Mission Indradhanush Read More »
The Indian government has declared that within 10-15 days (as of the 18th January) the price of cardiac stents is to be capped. This announcement follows a host of condemnation over the high cost of stents along with the corresponding cardiac operations. Criticism had also been aimed at the fact that Indian-produced stents were costing
Price cap in sight for cardiac stents Read More »