-The Hindu   The ‘New Delhi superbug' remains “a global concern” because of its resistance to all antibiotics available in the world, according to a senior WHO official. “The ‘New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase-1' bacteria carrying these mechanisms is a gene that includes the possibility of making anti-microbials not effective,” the official, Carmem Lucia Pessoa Da Silva, said. The NDM-1 had already been identified in several Patients and countries. The WHO launched the Global Infection...

Health authorities in Andhra Pradesh have asked government doctors in the State to prescribe only generic drugs and avoid the practice of writing brand names in the prescription. The move is aimed at helping Patients avail themselves of free drugs for a wide range of ailments in government hospitals. It is also expected to bring down, for the government, the cost of procuring the drugs.Prescribing branded drugs is a common practice...

The strict guidelines that every civil surgeon was supposed to follow to ensure zero diarrhoea deaths in the state issued on April 30 were ignored and a no-compliance report was sent to the state office of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). The instruction list that ended with a pledge let us all take this resolution that there will be no diarrhoea deaths in our state in the days to...

Pantoka is a beehive of activity. The spirit of protest in this small hamlet on the India-Nepal border is not a simple case of topical environmental awakening; it is a desperate struggle for life in which more than 1 lakh lives are at stake. Today, the first day of June, the citizens of Bihar's Raxaul sub-division in East Champaran district will stage a massive blockade on National Highway 28A, shutting off...

It would be sad if the potential of cash transfers was lost as a result of hasty posturing by those on various sides of the debate. The fact is that, in India today, poverty and economic insecurity remain endemic in spite of fantastic economic growth. The existing system has failed to arrest the growing number in poverty, despite substantial government spending ostensibly designed to reduce poverty. Could cash transfers help? A...