India’s population will touch 1.4 billion in 2025

India will become the most populous country in the world by 2028, surpassing China, while Nigeria will have more people than the United States by 2050, a latest report has said.

Ultrasonography is not done only for sex selection

Contrary to the general belief that a majority of pregnant women undergo ultrasonography (USG) only for sex selection, a study shows that 80 per cent of them have given live birth and the remaining had either undergone a pregnancy loss or both live births and abortion.

Uttarakhand continues to perform well and Uttar Pradesh poorly on key health indicators as per the findings of the Annual Health Survey (AHS) conducted in 284 districts of nine States.

The nine States for which health indicators were released on Friday constitute 50 per cent of the country’s population. While Shravasti district of Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) – the number of deaths of children less than one year of age per 1000 live births – of 100, three districts of Almora, Pithoragarh and Rudraprayag in Uttarakhand recorded a comparatively low IMR of 20.

Entering third polio-free year, India must destroy all wild poliovirus lab samples by December

Having successfully completed two polio-free years, India is preparing to receive the crucial polio eradication certificate from the World Health Organisation (WHO). The certificate is issued on completion of incident-free three years. This primarily involves the destruction or safe storage of all laboratory sources of wild poliovirus. The storage should be in laboratories that meet international standards of biosafety.

“The court has recognised the right of patients to access affordable medicines over profits for big pharma companies”

It was celebration time for health activists and civil society groups after the Supreme Court delivered its judgment dismissing Swiss multinational company Novartis’ appeal for patent for its anti-cancer medicine imatinib mesylate or Gleevec. “We are happy that the apex court has recognised the right of patients to access affordable medicines over profits for big pharmaceutical companies through patents.

M. Konyak, a farmer from Shanghah village of Mon — a remote district in Nagaland — is currently undergoing treatment for drug-resistant TB at the Civil Hospital in Mon town.

His village is a long way from the clinic and so each month, he has to take a bus early in the morning to reach the hospital to collect his monthly medication. The journey to the hospital takes him three to four hours over bumpy roads and sometimes just a dirt track. If he misses the bus back home at midday, which is the case more often than not, then he has to find somewhere to stay overnight as there is only one bus service back home.

Long-term measures needed as livelihood of farmers being seriously affected, says Sushma

Pilloried by Parliamentarians in both Houses over the state of the Ganga and the Yamuna, Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan promised that the government would ensure no domestic effluents pour into the two rivers. “We are making efforts to make that happen. We should have a commission to ensure that there is no atrocity against rivers,” she said after members, first in the Lok Sabha and then in the Rajya Sabha, expressed anguish over thousands of crores of rupees that have spent in trying to clean up the two major arteries in north India but to no avail.

Indians are living longer than before, but illness and disability of a very high order and relatively early death remain severe health care challenges.

Delhi reported 3 deaths this week, 132 persons died from January 1 to February 6

Even as H1N1 cases are on the rise, the Union Health Ministry has said the situation is well under control and is being monitored. Delhi has reported three deaths this past week, while 132 deaths took place from January 1 to February 6, besides over 700 cases of confirmed influenza across the country.
Rajasthan reported 65 deaths and over 300 confirmed cases of influenza during this period, while 23 deaths were reported from Haryana, 17 from Gujarat and 16 from Punjab. Some deaths have also been reported from Maharashtra, Chandigarh, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

Active against drug-resistant forms, the FDA-approved drug is a game changer

While there is a lot of hope and enthusiasm over the new tuberculosis drug, first in close to 50 years, health activists say the challenge for countries like India and treatment providers is devising new treatment regimens for drug-resistant TB that are shorter, and more tolerable for patients and effective. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration approved the new TB drug bedaquiline, the first since 1963. The fact that the drug is active against drug-resistant forms of the disease makes it a potential game changer.