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Time for India to deliver on NCDs

The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a stark warning about the threat of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). India should take note. “NCDs and mental disorders currently pose one of the biggest threats to health and development globally,” a WHO high-level independent commission on NCDs said in their report released on Friday, June 1. It added, …

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The inequality of improvement: What the HAQ Index tells India

Access to healthcare has improved in India since 1990 – but not enough. Meanwhile, inequality persists. The country takes the 145th place out of 195 countries on the Healthcare Access and Quality (HAQ) Index. This measures the accessibility and quality of healthcare in countries by drawing on a plethora of data, including the 2016 Global …

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Suicide of former Maharashtra ATS chief highlight lack of mental healthcare

The former Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief and Additional Director General of Police in Maharashtra committed suicide on May 11. Himanshu Roy had been fighting cancer since 2000. Some have speculated that post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may have played a rolein his death. This high profile incident has spotlighted lacking mental healthcare within India, …

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The high death toll of gender discrimination

Gender discrimination and missing women The price of gender discrimination in India is the lives of almost 240,000 girls under five every year.  Much attention is given in India to the issue of female foeticide. Sex-selective abortions are considered the major driver of India’s skewed sex ratio at birth (SRB) and its resultant 63 million …

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Health care is an essential human right – and so is a proper diagnosis

This article has been republished under a Creative Commons license from The Conversation. The piece was authored by Madhukar Pai, McGill University. It can be accessed here. Full credit goes to the original author and publisher. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Health is a human right. And yet, the sad reality is that, 40 years after the Alma Ata …

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Indian biotech, vaccines and device industries get World Bank cash

Indian innovation will benefit from a US$125 million loan from the World Bank. This follows an agreement signed by the Indian government and the World Bank’s investment arm, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). The loan will target India’s biopharmaceutical and medical devices sectors through the ‘Innovate in India for Inclusiveness’ project, also …

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A suicide crisis among Indian students

On April 19, seventeen-year-old Kadali Shanmukha was found dead.  The previous day, Bheem Singh had also been found dead.  What links the two deaths is that both were suicides and that Shanmukha and Singh were both students. Shanmukha, aged just seventeen, was a senior intermediate student at the Bhashyam Junior College in Kakinada. Singh was …

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Why do just one percent of HBV-positive Indians receive treatment?

Just five countries account for 57 percent of the world’s cases of hepatitis B virus (HBV). India is one of them. Almost 292 million people worldwide have HBV. Of these, just five percent receive the treatment they need. Ninety percent are undiagnosed, according to a study published earlier this year in The Lancet. The study …

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US and India’s relationship souring over price capping?

Just a few months ago the relationship between India and the US was touted by President Donald Trump as having “never been stronger”. Will India’s policy of price capping medical devices sour this relationship? The US Trade Representative (USTR) is reportedly considering revoking the special tariff with India if it continues to implement price caps …

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Government doctors strike in Kerala

  Government doctors have gone on strike in Kerala, protesting changes to outpatient services at family health centres. The strike began on Friday, April 13th and will continue indefinitely. Doctors are protesting state government plans to extend the duration of outpatient services in the state. The original schedule was 9am to 12pm; it is now …

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