Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has touted India’s progress in reducing deaths due to tuberculosis (TB), with a nineteen percent reduction in TB mortality since the beginning of the decade. Affirming the Government’s commitment to eradicating TB by 2025 – five years ahead of global targets to reduce TB incidence by eighty percent and […]
Tuberculosis
Intensified immunisation drive in Maharashtra to benefit almost 80,000 kids
Almost 80,000 children and more than 13,000 pregnant women will benefit from an intensified immunisation drive in Maharashtra. The news comes from the state on the heels of an announcement earlier this year that the Government of India was stepping up its immunisation efforts through Indradhanush 2: an enhanced version of the Government’s vaccination drive […]
Screening campaign yields results in Mumbai
Both infectious diseases and noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) take a significant toll throughout India. In Maharashtra, a screening campaign has led to diagnoses of numerous conditions throughout the state capital Mumbai and detection of multiple symptoms of a range of ailments. The survey, conducted by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), covered approximately 25 lakh people over […]
Indradhanush 2: Government ramps up vaccination efforts
The Centre will expand its efforts to improve vaccination coverage throughout the country with “Indradhanush 2”, building on existing efforts to achieve ninety percent immunisation coverage against a plethora of infectious diseases. Launched in December 2014, Mission Indradhanush aimed to cover all children up to two years of age and pregnant women with vaccination coverage, […]
Antimicrobial resistance: Vardhan calls for action
Antimicrobial resistance is on the rise in India, with even resistance to the commonly used antibiotic clarithromycin on the rise. “The resistance to clarithromycin is rising among the Indian patients and that too at quite a fast pace,” said Sunil Sofat, additional director of the Department of Interventional Cardiology at Jaypee Hospital in Noida. “There […]
TB in India: Fewer cases but still the most in the world
Tuberculosis (TB) in India continues to be a major public health burden, even as cases have decreased. This is according to the latest World Health Organization (WHO) report on TB, launched earlier this week, which provides an overview of how the world is tackling one of its dominant infectious disease challenges. The news is not […]
TB cases spiked in India last year
Tuberculosis (TB) cases spiked in India last year, according to the latest government figures. This is according to the latest government figures, which indicated that 27 lakh cases were recorded in the country in 2018. This included 21.5 lakh cases notified to the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) compared to eighteen lakh cases notified […]
Leprosy and TB added to child screening programme
Leprosy and tuberculosis (TB) are the latest diseases to be added to a screening programme aimed at detecting disease and underlying risks of disease within children. The Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK), or “Child Health Screening and Early Intervention Services”, already screens for thirty health conditions prevalent in children under eighteen. Among these are defects […]
Global Fund: India strengthens commitment
India will step up its efforts to fight infectious diseases including tuberculosis (TB), malaria, and HIV/AIDS by distributing more funds to the Global Fund. Established in 2002, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria claims it “mobilizes and invests more than US$4 billion a year to support programs run by local experts in […]
Colistin ban in food sector over drug resistance concerns
India’s food production sector has been banned from using the antibiotic colistin, over concerns about its misuse potentially fuelling drug resistance. According to a 2009 study, “colistin is…being used increasingly as a ‘last-line’ therapy to treat infections caused by [multi-drug-resistant] Gram-negative bacteria, when essentially no other options are available.” Yet concerns are growing that, in […]