Health issues in India
Here is another example of the crumbling state of India’s healthcare infrastructure and the reason behind lack of access to essential, life-saving drugs. India has a shortage of an estimated 600,000 doctors and two million nurses, claims a study conducted by the Centre for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP), titled “Access Barriers to Antibiotics.” […]
2019 had barely begun before reports of an American woman who died of rabies after returning from India hit headlines. She was infected in Rishikesh, when a puppy bit her outside her hotel. The incident served to remind us that rabies continues to be a public health scourge in India, which accounts for more than […]
“It was something that I had never expected, I was really shocked,” Nandita Venkatesan said as she recalled finding out she had become re-infected with tuberculosis (TB) in 2013. It was six years after she was first diagnosed with the disease in 2007, some months before her eighteenth birthday. In a candid conversation profiled in […]
Drug resistance is one of the most pressing public health challenges facing India, especially when it comes to tuberculosis (TB). As the country grapples with one of the largest TB burdens in the world, rising cases of drug resistance presents an alarming trend. TB cases which become resistant to the most effective front-line drugs are […]
The Centre’s flagship access to medicines scheme may be a boon for patients. However, it is also stoking fears among Indian pharma. Forecasts estimate that drugmakers could see twenty percent of their sales disrupted by the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Aushadhi Pari Yojana Kendra (PMBJPK), a health ministry campaign to make medicines more affordable for […]
One of the most significant achievements of the Narendra Modi’s government has been the mega healthcare reform ushered in with the launch of flagship healthcare scheme, Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana – better known as Ayushman Bharat, or ‘Modicare’. The ambitious scheme – often touted as the world’s biggest healthcare scheme – aims to provide […]
Jan Aushadhi Diwas celebrations heralded the Centre’s scheme to expand access to medicines – and included a high-profile speech from Prime Minister Modi, in which he extolled the benefits of the initiative. Beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP) include both the poor and middle-class, the Prime Minister claimed during a video conference […]
The Centre will add 2,500 Jan Aushadhi stores to its existing stock by 2020 – with the eventual aim of one store for every block. Jan Aushadhi stores are special kendras (centres) opened under the Centre’s Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Aushadhi Pari Yojana Kendra (PMBJPK) initiative, which seeks to expand access to medicines. These centres […]
In a bid to make generic medicines more eye-catching, the Central government is planning to introduce an innovative marketing strategy to increase their brand awareness among consumers. New Union Health Ministry plans would colour-code generic medicines to distinguish them from their more costly brand-name counterparts. This is in a bid to encourage consumers to make […]
Ayushman Bharat has reached ten lakh patients since its rollout last year in September, the Centre has announced in the 2019 Budget. The milestone was announced by Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal as he presented the 2019-20 Budget to Lok Sabha MPs on January 31st. He added that efforts are being made to expand access […]
