New Delhi The laxness in branding medicines, a common practice for long but with serious implications for public health besides being an unhealthy business practice, might soon end.

A recent health ministry move to bar state drug regulators from granting manufacturing licences on brand names may force companies to queue up before the registrar of trademarks. In the process, several brands resembling popular brands and at times even misrepresenting their contents may get weeded out, too.

Amid efforts to attain WHO’s polio-free certification, India has identified around four lakh settlements that are at high risk of polio virus transmission.

Latest addition will be insertion of the word “warning” in red font on the tobacco packs

In an effort to curb tobacco abuse in India, the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has notified a new set of warnings to be depicted on tobacco product packs with effect from April next year. The latest addition will be the insertion of the word “warning” in red font on the tobacco packs. Also, a provision has been added to ensure a ratio is maintained between the vertical and horizontal length of the health warning to avoid distortion with the change in the size of packs.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has notified new set of warnings to be depicted on tobacco product packs with effect from April next year.

New Delhi: Manipur has burst into the scene to become the best place to be born in India along with Goa.

New Delhi Over 1.7 lakh farmers from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, who grow the lucrative Flue Cure Virginia (FCV), have asked for representation in the upcoming WHO framework convention on tobacco control (FCTC) in South Korea during November 12-17.

FCV is the finest quality of tobacco used in cigarettes. Only health ministry officials have been invited to the FCTC meeting that seeks to reduce tobacco crop size across the globe. India, being signatory to the WHO FCTC, has committed to reduce the crop size so that a large chunk of agricultural land used for tobacco production could be used for grain production.

The Centre on Thursday approved a Rs 4,000-crore joint action plan for tackling Japanese Encephalitis in the country, particularly in worst affected states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Union Cabinet okays comprehensive strategy for prevention, control of disease

In good news for millions of children vulnerable to Japanese Encephalities and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome in 15 States, the Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a comprehensive strategy for prevention and control of the disease. The Rs.4,038-crore proposal of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare for intervention/activities recommended by the Group of Ministers will be implemented in 60 priority districts for five years from 2012-13 to 2016-17.

There have been a total of 5,376 cases of dengue in Tamil Nadu, the highest in the country this year.

Provisional figures listed on the website of the National Vector-Borne Diseases Control Programme under the Union health ministry revealed that the State recorded 39 deaths from dengue this year — the highest, again. The state with the second highest number of cases is Kerala, but it is way behind at 2,995 cases (11 deaths). Karnataka records 2,403 cases but it has the second highest number of deaths at 21.

Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare officers broke into celebrations on Thursday evening when a phone call from the Enterovirus Research Centre, Mumbai, informed them that the suspected case of polio reported from Bihar had tested negative for wild poliovirus.

Earlier in the day, the Ministry went into a tizzy on being informed of the suspected case of polio from Darbhanga, Bihar. Soon, the government declared an immunisation drive in 28 districts of the State as a precaution, while carrying out detailed investigation into the case.