As both a doctor and a public health professional, I am transfixed by one compelling question: Why are public health issues and debates so often limited to just doctors and those with abbreviations like MBBS, MD, MS or MPH added to their names? Does the ambit of health not extend to other areas of specialization and expertise?

India has just won a landmark victory in the long-drawn-out war on polio. Fourteen months have gone since 13 January 2011 without a single case of polio caused by wild poliovirus (WPV). But how sure are we that in this vast country, with about 125 million under-five children and a poorly performing health management system, there is no case of wild virus polio? Rest assured, India’s polio eradication project is a shining example of how India can pull itself together, even without a robust infrastructure, and solve ad hoc, specific problems. India has really eliminated WPVs.

It has been 35 years since 1977, when the world observed the last recorded case of naturally occurring smallpox. We had finally defeated a disease that had devastated mankind for centuries. It was a critical victory for the many doctors, scientists and health workers who laboured tirelessly to eradicate this terrible disease. It clearly demonstrated what a resolute immunization campaign could accomplish with support from the global community and local governments. However, most of all, it was a validation of one of greatest advances in modern medicine – vaccines.

Noncommunicable diseases pose an increasingly high burden of disease that threatens economic and social development, yet cost-effective health interventions exist. World leaders recognized the compelling case for action with the declaration at the United Nations high level meeting on noncommunicable diseases in September 2011. Since that meeting, the World Health Organization

In recent years, there has been much work done due to increasing recognition that children need better medicines. The United States of America and the European Union have adopted regulations to encourage research and development of medicines for children; the World Health Organization (WHO) has been promoting “Make medicines child size”; and researchers and academics are starting to respond to the many unanswered questions about medicines for children, through research and international collaboration.

The objective of the study was to develop two practical methods for measuring the affordability of medicines in developing countries.

The objective of this study was to explore the policies for, and implementation of, the community case management (CCM) of childhood illnesses in the 68 countries that were prioritized by the “Countdown to 2015” initiative in 2008.

This vaccine policy is more about spending and coverage, than about protecting children. It is not designed to enhance national public capacities for public immunization programmes, but to justify spending public money on public private partnerships (PPPs) or privately produced vaccines in the name of protection from diseases, whose incidence figures and public health statistics are dubious and industry manufactured.

The World Health Organization is the only body that can promote health through the use of international law. It should make alcohol its next target, says Devi Sridhar.