Advocacy groups for those suffering from rare diseases within India have voiced their disappointment regarding the National Policy for Rare Diseases 2020 Bill, arguing that – in many cases – the Bill offers no support to those affected by rare diseases at all. An estimated one in twenty Indians suffer from illnesses that full under […]
Exclusive Interviews
Exclusive interview with Dr. Madhukar Pai, MD, PhD
Every year, the world observes World TB Day on March 24 to raise awareness of the continued tuberculosis epidemic, especially in the developing world, and efforts to fight it. March 24 is the date in 1882 when mycobacterium tuberculosis – the pathogenic bacteria which causes the disease – was discovered the Nobel Prize winning scientist […]
Interviews with Sridhar Venkatapuram – Human Rights and Access to Medicines
Why access to medicines is a human rights issue. Interviews with Sridhar Venkatapuram. Sridhar Venkatapuram, is Director of the MSc in Global Health & Social Justice at King’s College London. He discusses the barriers preventing access to medicines and treatment in India, and the importance of India’s voice in the global debate on access to […]
Interview: Anjali Gopalan
Interview with health activist Anjali Gopalan May 2016 The lessons learnt in the 1990s from securing access to antiretroviral medicines to treat HIV and AIDS highlight the role of patients in demanding better access to life-saving medicines. As India, like many other growing economies, faces new, deadly diseases like diabetes, cancer and heart disease, Anjali […]
Interview: Leena Menghaney, South Asia Director of the Access Campaign of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) May 2016
Interview with Leena Menghaney South Asia Director of the Access Campaign of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) May 2016 As well as innovative new treatments, pricing and problems with healthcare delivery, she examines the issues against the changing environment and the emergence of antimicrobial resistance. She recognises the importance of India’s generic medicine industry for improving […]
Interview: Harmala Gupta
Interview with Harmala Gupta, cancer services and palliative care advocate A. On health in India 1.What should be the top three health priorities in India? We have to think in terms of preventive health. I feel that we have laid too much emphasis on treatment and yet so many of our illnesses, whether they are […]
From the beginning of suffering to the end: Dr M. R. Rajagopal on the importance of palliative care
At a time when noncommunicable diseases, often chronic in nature, are increasing and India’s population is ageing, there is an increased need for palliative care – but the field is often neglected in the country. Health Issues India spoke to Dr M. R. Ragagopal, founder and chairman of Pallium India, about the challenges facing access […]
The challenge of getting family planning “right”: Professor Amy O. Tsui on sexual and reproductive health in India
With India facing a plethora of issues related to sexual and reproductive health, ranging from sex-selective abortion to rising rates of infertility, Health Issues India interviewed Professor Amy O. Tsui, PhD of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, to discuss India’s family planning, female sterilisation, infertility, female foeticide, and other issues in the […]
If you step out, you can smell smoke in the air: Professor Aseem Prakash on Delhi’s pollution crisis
India is in the midst of a pollution crisis, with air quality plummeting to emergency levels in the national capital of Delhi. Against this backdrop, Health Issues India interviewed Professor Aseem Prakash – Professor of Political Science, the Walker Family Professor for the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Founding Director of the Center […]
Medical stigmatisation of LGBTIQ people: An interview with Dr Sameera Jahagirdar
Medical textbooks in India have been found to contain outdated principles citing homosexuality as a pathological disorder. Such information could be enshrining this way of thinking into a new generation of doctors, leading to poor health outcomes in the LGBTIQ community as a result of discrimination. Dr Sameera Mahamud Jahagirdar, Assistant Professor at the Department […]