Who does the health system help really? It has victims in both poor and rich countries the elaborate system of public health care, with all its medicines, interventions and doctors, has been developed on a simple premise: to help people. But more often than not it ends up doing the opposite. Examples abound. One of the latest is that of 13-year-old Hannah Jones of Britain, who decided to
The Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978 on Primary Health Care together with the slogan of Health for All by 2000 AD is considered one of the most significant public health initiatives of the 20th century. The 30th anniversary of the declaration provides an opportune time to revisit its history and arrive at some fresh perspectives.
Companiese that advertise prescription drugs directly to consumers may not get as much bang for their buck as they - or their critics - assume. Direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of drugs is only permitted in the US and New Zealand and has long been controversial. Both proponents and opponents assume the ads increase prescriptions, with the former arguing they benefit society by raising awareness of diseases and available treatments and the latter that they pump up demand for drugs unnecessarily.
The Infant Milk Substitutes, Feeding Bottles and Infant Foods (Regulation of Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 1992 attempted to curb the efforts of baby food manufacturers to undermine breastfeeding and was further amended in 2003 to plug loopholes. However, public-private health partnerships are now found to be advocating nutrition policies aimed at helping food multinationals increase their markets. A stronger legislation is thus needed to fight this practice.
Melody Petersen covered the pharmaceutical beat for The New York Times for four years. In 1997, her investigative reporting won a Gerald Loeb Award, one of the highest honors in business journalism. She is the author of Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs (2008).(An interview with Melody Petersen)
recently, the Indian Medical Association (ima) earned the dubious distinction of being the first association of medical professionals in the world to endorse a food brand. And that too of a company best known for its brands of non-nutritive and unsafe carbonated beverages. Going by the law of the land, this "endorsement' is illegal. The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 clearly makes it illegal to label foods as wothy of being recommended by the medical profession.
