-The Hindu India raises objections to methodology used by WHO to compute excess deaths “Inaccurate,” is how a scientist, part of a World Health Organisation (WHO) team computing the global death toll of the COVID-19 pandemic, described India’s objections to the method used. A forthcoming WHO analysis reportedly computes India’s true toll to be much higher than official estimates. The Union Health Ministry on Saturday, in response to article, “India is Stalling the...

-The Hindu Health Ministry responds to reports of India stalling the world health body’s efforts India has been in regular and in-depth technical exchange with the World Health Organization (WHO) on the issue of collecting and making public the COVID-19 death toll in the country, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday in response to The New York Times article titled India Is Stalling the WHO’s Efforts to Make Global Covid Death...

-The Hindu ‘Healthcare as an optional public service’ would ensure the legal right to receive free, quality care in a public institution The lingering COVID-19 crisis is a good time to revive an issue that is, oddly, slow to come to life in India — universal health care (UHC). Meanwhile, UHC has become a well-accepted objective of public policy around the world. It has even been largely realised in many countries, not...

On Janaushadhi Diwas this year (i.e., March 7th, 2022), Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi stated that the poor and the middle-class benefited from the 'Jan Aushadhi Kendras' that were set up to provide generic drugs at affordable prices. He said that the poor and the middle class saved around Rs.13,000 crore through these stores during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the wake of COVID 19 crisis, the 'Bureau of Pharma PSUs of India'...

-Down to Earth People in low-, middle-income countries often have to pay out of their pocket and seek care elsewhere Funding in primary healthcare systems in low- and middle-income countries is insufficient and access to it inequitable, a new study has reiterated. Patients often have to pay for the services out of their pocket, the report published in the journal The Lancet Global Health April 4, 2022 noted, adding that these systems have...