Health issues in India
In Gujarat last month, voters turned to the polls to protest water scarcity in the state – by sitting them out entirely. The 17th Lok Sabha polls in Ahmedabad was the scene of fanfare on April 23rd, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi cast his vote in this year’s elections. However, elsewhere in the state, many […]
The first group of ayurvedic doctors have joined government-run health centres in Maharashtra to help bridge the doctor-patient gap. 1,000 such providers have joined 508 health and wellness centres (HWCs) across the state as mid-level health providers, after clearing a so-called ‘bridge course’. This refers to a six-month training course, which would allow doctors practising […]
India is already baking under the weight of summer heat, which the country’s Meteorological Department expects only to get worse in the coming months. And, in extreme cases of extreme heat, recent days have seen India become home to the fifteen hottest cities in the world. On Friday, April 26th, the fifteen hottest cities in […]
Dust storms and heavy rains have again swept across northwestern India, leaving death and destruction in their wake. Numerous lives have been lost in the disaster, which came almost a year after similar high-velocity storms killed more than 127 people in northern parts of India. Almost fifty fatalities have been reported from four states according […]
It is not even summer season and great swathes of India’s land are suffering from drought, recently published data reveals. This is according to an IndiaSpend analysis of figures from the Drought Early Warning System (DEWS), which contains dire implications for an enormous number of Indians and a sizeable proportion of the country’s land. At […]
The first quarter of 2019 saw an increased burden of dengue fever in Mumbai compared to last year, official figures show. Yet there may be other causes for concern when it comes to infectious diseases in the metro. India’s largest city and the state capital of Maharashtra reported 44 cases of dengue in the January-March […]
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 fraught relationship between policymakers and India’s vaping community will not become any less contentious for the foreseeable future. On Tuesday, the Delhi High Court stayed a Union Health Ministry directive to state governments issued last year, encouraging them to ban electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) – commonly known as e-cigarettes or ‘vapes’. The Centre […]
A British high court has upheld a decision made last year to bar an Indian doctor from practising in the UK for alleged medical malpractice while he was working in Mumbai. Dr Pantula Sastry was held to account by the London High Court for his role in the death of a lymphoma sufferer in July […]
Mental health is one of India’s most significant public health challenges. 13.7 percent of Indians suffering from some form of mental health disorder. In Mumbai, the scourge of poor mental health is particularly felt among those aged between twenty and thirty according to recent data. Depression affects forty percent of people in this age bracket, a survey […]
