-The Indian Express One of the obvious reasons why public healthcare has not been a priority for successive governments of India lies in the fact that India’s middle class did not need it. As epidemiologists tend to consider that the peak of the COVID-19 epidemic may not come before July, the question of the resilience of the Indian health system becomes more pressing, especially in cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad. The...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Size of the population susceptible to coronavirus infection is significant
Between 25th and 30th of March, 2020, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in India has more than doubled i.e. from 519 to 1,251, according to the data released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW). In a span of 6 days, the total number of deaths from COVID-19 has more than trebled i.e. from 9 to 32. In a health situation like this, when the coronavirus...
More »The country has miles to go in reducing maternal deaths
A high maternal mortality ratio (MMRatio) indicates low status of women in the society apart from poor functioning of the health services delivery system. Recently released data by the Sample Registration System (SRS) bulletin indicates that for the country as a whole the MMRatio has steadily declined from 398.0 in 1997-98 to 122.0 in 2015-17, which is a fall by -69.3 percent. Table-1 shows that India's MMRatio was 398.0 in 1997-98,...
More »Epidemic indifference
-The Hindu Business Line India’s over-dependence on private players for vaccines is promoting irrational use and restricting access that leads to unacceptable fatalities The death of an eight-year-old girl, Anju, this August after denial of anti-rabies vaccine at Agra’s Sarojini Naidu Medical College (SNMC) is followed by the admission by Health Ministry that fatality rate for rabies in India is 100 per cent. Although the circumstance of Anju’s death is particularly Kafkaesque...
More »Common cancer prevalence may be way higher than estimated -Sumi Sukanya Dutta
-The New Indian Express Government data has revealed that the number of per lakh cancer incidence in India, at nearly 258 per lakh population, is way higher than what was recorded earlier in 2016. NEW DELHI: The prevalence rate of common cancer in India could be much higher than estimated by national registry for the disease, maintained by the Indian Council for Medical Research. The recently released National Health Profile 2019 has...
More »