With reports of Nimesulide causing liver toxicity red-flagged, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has asked the manufacturers to add “box warning” on its label, suggesting that its use to be restricted to 10 days and if longer clinical use is necessary then liver function test should be assessed periodically. The health ministry had earlier last year banned the paediatric use of the analgesic Nimesulide after the sub committee of the government’s chief advisory body-the Drug Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) recommended for the same.

Years after a malaria strain increasingly resistant to the most-effective drugs was confirmed from Cambodia in 2006, the artemisinin-resistant malaria has now been found to have spread along the Thailand-Burma border.

According to 10-year-long study published in the Lancet medical journal, the containment strategy will have to be reconsidered if the resistant parasites have spread to other parts as well.

The flu is back and with a scare again. More than a year after H1N1 virus was seen to be behaving mildly, it is expected to bounce back in 2012 with the experts warning that it may act differently this year and the cases are likely increase.

Experts say that the “unusual” timing of the virus in 2012 is enough for the prediction. “The number of cases this year are already more as compared to last year. On top of that, the onset of monsoon will only make the virus conducive to grow.

With the recent data suggesting a substantial drop in the Total Fertility Rate of India (TFR), the health ministry has decided to lay more emphasis on spacing rather than limiting the children. With this aim in mind, the Union ministry is all set to launch a new birth control intrauterine device (IUD) — Suraksha 5 — that gives infection free protection for 5 years.

Even though India appears to have done fairly well in combatting polio by administering oral drops, the World Health Organisation (WHO) in a meeting scheduled this week is likely to deliberate on injectable option, in a bid to ensure complete elimination of the polio virus.

Recommended by the India Expert Advisory Group (IEAG) on polio earlier in 2009, the crucial decision to switch over to injectable polio vaccine will have to be taken by India if the World Health Organisation (WHO) too endorses for the same, following the meeting of its Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on immunisation this week.

After having witnessed a year-long polio free period and being taken off the list of polio endemic countries, India is now looking at the endgame strategy to combat the deadly virus.

With an aim to decide the long-term strategy in fighting the virus, the India Expert Advisory group (IEAG) which consists of experts from both India and abroad will present its recommendation to the government on Friday.

While the world has met the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of safe drinking water well in advance of the MDG 2015 deadline, India is among the ten countries after China with the largest population without access to improved drinking water.

According to the report issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Unicef, India is home to 97 million people without an access to improved water supplies. Over all, there are still 780 million people without access to an improved drinking water source.

Days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described malnutrition as national shame, the Centre’s move to pump in massive resources into hunger-related schemes are pending the Planning Commission’s approval.

The project appraisal and management division (PAMD) of the Planning Commission has objected to women and child development (WCD) ministry’s demand of over `2 lakh crores for restructuring of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme Launched in 1975, the ICDS scheme aims at providing supplementary nutrition to children in the age group of 0-6 years.

After much dilly-dallying, the Centre has finally agreed to do away with Stavudine, having long-term irreversible side-effects, with a safer drug for HIV patients, even though the switchover will c

The government is putting in place safety standards for honey after it has been found that lots, even those sold by top brands, had traces of antibiotics and pesticides in them.