The Hindu carries a Sunday Story piece by Dr. D. Thamma Rao of the Public Health Foundation of India on India’s crisis in healthcare staffing. The article is a bit confusing (maybe after editing) but it raises important questions, especially about the level of vacancies in government-provided health services
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Three lakh newborns last hardly a day
As reported by the Hindu today, India has the highest number of new born deaths in a year in the world. The article is based on the report released by Save the Children on May 7th. To read more please click here.
Wise to immunise
As reported in the Hindu today, the government has launched Special Immunisation Weeks to spread awareness on childhood vaccinations. During the course of these weeks, special immunisation sessions will be held in high risk areas of the country. The article then goes on to talk about the the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GEPI) , which now […]
Vaccines are the most effective, economical and equitable health intervention
According to Dr Vishwajeet Kumar in todays’s Hindustan Times, “there is a scientific consensus that vaccination is the most effective, equitable and economical health intervention that the world has ever seen. Their impact on preventive health is unambiguously transformational and they should be the cornerstone of any effective health strategy.”
Indian media ignore global commitment to eradicate polio
Thursday’s announcement of a global commitment to eradicate polio (this is from Reuters) within five years was largely ignored by the Indian media. This is in part because India has been polio free for two years (something that the media has celebrated). In part ,it reflects just how little notice most of the global media took of Thursday’s […]
No action from WTO on India’s compulsory licensing
According to the World Trade Organisation, no country has objected to India allowing compulsory licences on one cancer drug or to the decision by the country’s courts to invalidate the patent on another. It’s a case of big pharma having no friends, according to this article in The Hindu Business Line. (Compulsory licences allow a […]
Indian manufacturer cuts price of childhood vaccine by 30 percent
Every year an estimated 1.2 million children under the age of five are killed by pneumonia. It accounts for 18 per cent of all such deaths and is believed to be the single largest killer of infants. The second most common cause of bacterial pneumonia is haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) , which can be prevented […]
Did the NY Times write a critical part of India’s patent law?
There has been weeks of coverage of the Supreme Court’s decision on the evergreening of the Novartis patent (including this good wrap-up piece in the US magazine, the Atlantic). A provocative post by the excellent Prashant Reddy on the ever-thoughtful Spicy IP blog today says that the part of India’s patent law which tripped up […]
Novartis loses legal battle over Gilvec
The Swiss company, Novartis AG has been fighting since 2006 to win a patent for Glivec a cancer drug, the plea for which today was rejected by the Indian Supreme Court. According to the law, section Section 3(d) bars companies from making minor changes in existing patented drugs to keep extending the patent, a concept known as […]
How a health system fails in suburban Mumbai
This is the kind of in-depth, on-the-ground reporting that few newspapers can afford. The Hindu looks at how the public health system fails the poorest pregnant women in Thane, just next to Mumbai. Reporters actually question where some of the failures happen and why. For example, scans are so difficult to come by in part […]