Several voluntary organisations have started taking up cases of medical negligence, even as the debate over the liability of doctors continues.

National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission Janpath Bhawan, 5th floor, :' Wing New Delhi 110 001 Phone: 33117690 H D Shourie Common Cause A-31, West End New Delhi 110 021

A surgical technique developed by an ayurvedic team has drastically curtailed incidence of dracontiasis, a disease caused by guinea worms, in southern Rajasthan. So successful is the technique, the team's leaders were invited to Africa last year to teach

H Sudarshan is hailed by the Soligas as their messiah. A doctor who nearly became a monk, he told Down To Earth how he came to work with them. Excerpts from an interview:

The Supreme Court will decide whether medical practitioners can be held guilty of criminal negligence under the Consumer Protection Act.

Doctors and manufacturers seem unperturbed by the ever increasing price of Acetrome, a drug for heart valve transplant patients.

A doctor whose aim once was to treat poor patients, now helps Soliga tribals to assert their rights and choose their own way of development.

A programme implemented in central Kerala shows how an illness can be controlled if the community is involved.

A WHO study notes that While India has achieved impressive levels in food production, equitable distribution is still a distant dream. Chronic hunger still persists, but severe,nutrition related diseases have almost disappeared.

THE FIRST all-India household survey of medical care shows some interesting results. The survey, which was conducted in 1990 in 21 states and Union territories and covered 18,000 households, found

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