Tuberculosis re-emerges as a major threat as new drug-resistant strains develop because of mismanagement of the disease. At the beginning of the year, doctors at Mumbai’s P.D. Hinduja National Hospital and Medical Research Centre reported that they had 12 patients infected with TDR-TB, or totally drug-resistant tuberculosis, a condition in which the TB bacilli is resistant to all first- and second-line drugs used in the conventional treatment of the disease. Panic...

-The Economic Times It's not just the drug regulator, where a parliamentary panel has alleged corruption, failing in its job. Drug regulation across entities that dot this broad landscape is in poor health and ineffective. In May, when a Parliamentary panel, during a routine examination of healthcare regulatory bodies, alleged corruption in the approval of new drugs, it was merely pointing out one symptom. Such symptoms pervade the entire drug regulation landscape,...

-Down to Earth   Punjab has been in the grip of cancer for over a decade but the government has ignored the threat.  It all started with a knot in her left breast. Within no time it grew to the size of a tennis ball. In pain, 40-year-old Raj Rani went to the doctor in her village in Punjab’s Ferozepur district. Finding no relief, she started doing the rounds of government hospitals in...

-The Economic Times If Dr Devi Prasad Shetty's vision comes true, most Indians will have access to quality healthcare. Dr Shetty says the cost of healthcare in India can come down by 50% in the next 5-10 years, and this will be forced on the hospitals by the government if service providers do not get their act together. "If you are going to say the cost of a heart surgery is...

-The Telegraph Dispur has decided to provide free treatment to children below 12 years who are suffering from blood cancer or leukaemia. Health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma today said Dispur was working on the project and hoped to launch it on Independence Day. He told this correspondent that considering the huge cost of treatment for leukaemia, the government was also considering free treatment for adults below poverty line and subsidised rates for those...