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July 2013

“We are fighting a war against polio without a general,” says India’s leading expert

In an email interview with The Hindu today, Professor T Jacob John says he sees progress in India’s struggle to maintain its polio-free status. For years, he says, Government followed the advice of the WHO “blindly” using oral polio vaccines despite evidence that they were not very effective in India. Finally, he thinks, the country …

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Abandon hope for overhaul of India’s drug regulations

Today’s article in the Business Standard a good, albeit very harsh, summary of the debate over the regulation of clinical trials and drug manufacturing in India and gives a suggestion of the ways in which government wants to revise it. There are plans for a Drugs and Cosmetics Act 2013 to replace the colonial-era framework that …

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Shocking pocket of malnutrition in India’s healthiest state

The current edition of Outlook contains a series of articles about infant deaths among tribal people in Kerala. The state has the lowest infant mortality in India (with 16 deaths per 1,000 children born alive, its infant mortality rate is comparable to parts of Europe) and the highest literacy rate. The magazine says, though, that …

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220 million women short of money, education, security — and family planning

Pam Barnes wrote an excellent short piece in Forbes and centred it on her meeting with Amala, a young woman in Jharkhand whose future changed. Amala resisted pressure from her in-laws, finished school, got a job and is now confident that she will be better able to provide for her children when she is ready …

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Study on rural India’s access to healthcare

A study on “Understanding Healthcare Access in India: What is the Current State?”  by IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics on access to healthcare facilities has received a lot of coverage on Monday as it was reported in the Economic Times, Pharmabiz and  Silicon India and other online sites. The study presents data to support – …

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Royal birth imminent after drop in value of the rupee — it must be linked #pentavalent #vaccines

The Duchess of Cambridge is about to give birth in London. The felicitous news follows a sudden drop in the value of the Indian rupee against the US dollar. Are the two events related? Surely they must be, one followed the other. Can a connection be established? Not definitively but, who can say, maybe the …

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The National Food Security Ordinance: Opinion piece

According to an article published in the Hindu today, the National Food Security Ordinance, does not consider the various socio – economic roles of women and children in society. Signed into law last week by President Pranab Mukherjee, the document does not consider the need of women at different stages of development. To read more please …

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Indian clinical trials rules: the winners are spin doctors

Each side is using spin as India considers what to do about clinical trials in the long term. The LiveMint story that is getting picked up in trade media around the world quoted lots of people with an interest in less regulation (see for example this http://bit.ly/12xpwvv). There’s a surprisingly one-sided story in the same …

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