Out of breath
After visiting hospitals and slums VIBHA VARSHNEY has found that asthma makes poor children suffer far more than their rich counterparts. And a …
Faulty formula
New drug pricing policy proposes bringing all essential medicines under price control, but makes them expensive
Short on paramedics
Hospitals employ untrained staff due to acute shortage of qualified paramedics in the country
India gets it first mental health policy
Timed to coincide with the World Mental Health Day, the policy aims to provide universal access to mental healthcare, especially to those living …
How effective is the global polio eradication drive?
An optimistic note, about wiping out polio from the six afflicted countries, was to be sounded at a conference organised by the World Health …
Battle against TB
Latest WHO report highlights the advances made by countries in controlling the spread of tuberculosis and recommends ways to achieve eradication
Get your own vaccine
Down To Earth filed an RTI application to find out the reason of vaccine shortage in India. The response revealed how a plan to promote private …
Don't ignore the deadly sign
Government buckles under pressure from tobacco industry and halts order on large pictorial warnings on tobacco products. Will profit prevail over …
Impatient to sterilise
In a hurry to bring down fertility rate, health officials are blatantly flouting government’s guidelines
Delivering safety
All safe motherhood programmes of the government are focused on institutional deliveries, but health centres are in disarray. Experts suggest …
Choking access to drugs
Drug prices are likely to increase as rich countries and their pharma companies squeeze Indian generics out of the market. How can India’s …
Any cheers for Doha pact?
The Doha Declaration on protecting public health is a decade old, but developing countries have not been able to make use of TRIPs flexibilities
Is UN giving in to industry?
UN adopts resolution to fight chronic lifestyle diseases, without targets or commitments
Elderly & lonely
India has more elderly people than ever before. Most of them have little social security and cannot afford healthcare. While the government seems …
Neo-addiction
Youngsters are getting hooked on flavoured e-cigarettes. Studies belie manufacturers’ claims
Checks on drug trials
Court intervention prompts guidelines for drug trials. Pharmaceutical companies lobby to dilute them
Ethics on trial
Five per cent of the clinical trials conducted across the world will be in India by 2012. They are vital for confirming the efficacy of a new drug,…
Not so young at heart
Young hearts are more stressed out than they used to be. They bear much more pressure these days just to beat. Heart disease is no more an …
Operation cover-up
Rat poison theory offered by the Chhattisgarh government to explain the sterilisation deaths is a facade, finds an investigation by Jyotsna Singh.…
Troubled minds
In spite of a National Mental Health Programme being in place, very few people suffering from mental illnesses in India get treatment, either …
Trimming fats
The US is determined to eliminate trans fatty acids from its food. Can India do the same?
Cradles of hope
A recent health survey throws up figures that defy logic. Some districts in India’s nine most backward states have curbed infant mortality …
Centre bans gutkha
Activists, health experts are sceptical; pin hope on Supreme Court’s verdict on smokeless tobacco
Medical education in India does not address larger social needs for health care
Medical education is in the news for all the wrong reasons. The government's decision to extend reservations in institutions of higher education …
Resurgent polio
Eradicating polio in India is proving to be a tough ask. The disease, which seemed to have been contained a few years ago, is rearing its head …