Vaccine-related deaths have shown an increase in the country since 2008, according to the information provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in response to an application filed under the Right to Information Act, 2005. The total number of deaths reported due to adverse effects from immunisation (AEFI) from 2001 to 2007 was only 136, whereas it went up to 355 in the following three years. The information has come...

Medicine heals, but this fact doesn`t hold true for every 300th patient admitted to hospital. Call it the law of averages or blame human error for it, but the World Health Organization believes that one in 10 hospital admissions leads to an adverse event and one in 300 admissions in death. An adverse event could range from the patient having to spend an extra day in hospital or missing a dose...

Acting on a letter of Bihar State AIDS Control Society, police today conducted raids on at least three illegal blood banks in the state capital and arrested their eight representatives. The police also detained six blood donors for questioning and verifying facts. The donors, all rickshaw-pullers and makeshift stall owners, were in dire need of money. The agents of the blood banks allegedly lured them to “donate” blood for Rs 300...

"The anti-vaccine lobby in India is strong. But it is outrageous. India hasn't added a single new vaccine since 1985," billionaire-philanthropist Bill Gates told TOI in an interview. "I am a great believer in the power of vaccines. Thankfully, there is progress taking place in India now. The Union health ministry is planning to introduce the hepatitis B vaccine, the second dose of measles vaccine and the pentavalent vaccine in two...

‘It will hinder access to quality, affordable generic medicines produced in India' People in Asia living with HIV and who depend on affordable generic AIDS medicines to stay alive have impressed upon the Indian government to stand strong against European Union demands on the sensitive Intellectual Property (IP) chapter in ongoing Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations. The EU is pushing for harmful IP provisions to be included in the trade agreement...