Tuberculosis continues to be a major health problem in India. But the unveiling of a new test to diagnose TB and drug resistance on World Tuberculosis Day (March 24) brings some hope into a bleak scenario. Last Thursday, on World Tuberculosis Day, for the first time since the 1880s there was probably some justifiable cause for jubilation. After centuries of grappling with sputum smear microscopy, developed way back in the 1880s,...

A Jharkhand High Court whip, issued to the CBI two months back, has put fodder scam cases against former Bihar chief ministers Lalu Prasad and Jagannath Mishra on the fast track. The CBI, which has been handling as many as 53 fodder scam cases for one and half decades, is now under pressure to complete investigations in the 15 pending cases, of which five involve the two former chief ministers and...

Dozens of countries are taking part in a United Nations-sponsored effort to protect potentially life-saving centuries-old traditional Medicines from bio-piracy by learning from India how to halt their misappropriation through international patents granted on non-original innovations. Representatives from more than 35 countries wrapped up a three-day meeting in New Delhi today that discussed emulating India’s Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), a database documenting traditional medicinal treatment, concluding that such a mechanism...

As of 2006, over 43% of Indian children under five were malnourished, a rate that has barely budged since the early 1990s. This gives India the dubious distinction of having the highest percentage of malnourished children in the world. There are at least 53 poorer countries with lower malnutrition rates, including Bangladesh, Nepal, Haiti and several African countries. At Independence, India was poor, so it wasn’t thought possible to guarantee...

As a new rapid diagnostic test, endorsed by the WHO, will finally help detect more people with DR-TB DR-TB Medicines are very expensive Need to improve access to DR-TB drugs As a new rapid diagnostic test, endorsed by the World Health Organisation (WHO), will finally help detect more people with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB), there was need to solve problems around the pricing and supply of DR-TB Medicines, according to a report by international...