The National Commission for Human Resources in Health Bill proposes some bold reforms in medical education but stops well short of a comprehensive cure.

The first part of a series of three features on antimicrobial resistance looks at the French campaign that has been held up as an example of how to change the way antibiotics are prescribed. But, as Gary Humphreys reports, 10 years after the campaign

Dr Robert D Newman tells the WHO Bulletin why malaria programmes don

India is a welfare state in which the government has a responsibility to ensure than citizens have access to healthcare. We are also a federal state, with multiple levels of government, each with its own responsibility. The sixth item in the Constitution of India vests responsibility for 'Public Health and sanitation, hospitals and dispensaries' on the state governments. (Editorial)

The National Health Policy (NIH), 2002 envisages that keeping in mind the availability and spread of allopathic graduates in their jurisdiction, state governments would consider the need for expanding the pool of medical practitioners to include a cadre of licentiates of medical practice, as also practitioners of Indian systems of medicine and homeopathy.

The lack of skilled service providers in rural areas of India has emerged as the most important constraint in achieving universal health care. India has about 1.4 million medical practitioners, 74% of whom live in urban areas where they serve only 28% of the population, while the rural population remains largely underserved.

The trend in mortality from the Sample Registration System data shows a slowdown in improvements, particularly since the mid-1990s. According to official life tables constructed by the Registrar General, there is a stagnating trend in infant mortality and an increasing trend in female child mortality for India.