The National Rural Health Mission provides a large canvas and platform for health action, but Shyam Ashtekar (EPW, 13 September 2008) misses many issues and does not make his critique from the right perspective.

The experience gained by the integration of the leprosy eradication programme with the general health services has many lessons to offer in the context of the National Rural Health Mission

A smoking law was passed by the Spanish Parliament in December 2005 and was enforced by 1 January 2006. The law bans smoking in all indoor workplaces but only in some hospitality venues, because owners are allowed to establish a smoking zone (venues > 100 m2) or to allow smoking without restrictions (venues

When it comes to linking cigarette smoke to heart attacks, one might assume that such a link would apply only as long as one is smoking or being exposed to secondhand smoke. That's not necessarily true, however, at least according to a follow-up study of people living in and around Pueblo, Colorado.

Increasingly, voices across the world are questioning the narrow approach to a single disease, especially the huge financing for AIDS over all else in basic healthcare. Though welcome and long overdue, this debate must now move further.

Last November in Beijing, government officials representing member states of the World Health Organisation adopted a declaration that provides a powerful endorsement of traditional medicine and may one day become the foundation for a legally binding resolution.