-Scroll.in Meanwhile, 55% of all Indians do not go to public hospitals to seek treatment. In 2017, India saw much uproar over the state of health facilities and medical services in the country. Rumours about vaccine safety dogged immunisation campaigns in some states, child deaths in government hospitals have raised questions about the state of public health facilities across the country, and large corporate hospitals have come under the scanner for...

-The Times of India Bijnor: In order to "speed up" the vaccination drive, UP health department officials in a minority-dominated block of Bijnor have told people that if they do not get their kids vaccinated, they will not get ration under the government scheme. According to a senior health official, the step was taken to "put pressure" on people opposing the vaccination programme. He also told TOI that the department has successfully...

-Scroll.in Administrations are not supposed to cut off rations but health officials seem to think that the threat will work. Experts denounce the measure. “Tikkakaran nahin toh khadyadhan nahin.” No vaccination, no ration. Rajwanti Devi Jaiswal, an Accredited Social Health Activist or ASHA in Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich district repeated the slogan so often that it sounded like a chant. The district has one of the lowest child immunisation rates in India –...

-The Times of India New Delhi: The health ministry will soon revamp its flagship immunisation programme 'Mission Indradhanush' to include four new vaccines. The mission, currently providing coverage against seven life-threatening diseases, will soon also include vaccines for rotavirus, measles rubella, inactivated polio vaccine biavalent and Japanese Encephalitis for adults, health minister Jagat Prakash Nadda said. Mission Indradhanush — depicting the seven colours of the rainbow — will also be rechristened...

-The Hindu India’s UIP will now be able to provide free vaccines against 13 life-threatening diseases to 27 million children annually India has made huge strides as far as public health achievements are concerned, made possible by the use of safe and effective vaccines delivered through quality programmes. For example, small pox was eliminated in 1975, polio in 2014 and maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT) in August 2015. While India has shown its...