-The Telegraph New Delhi: Biochemist Thuppil Venkatesh says he is not surprised by claims of food safety regulators in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi that they have detected lead, a potential toxin to humans, in Maggi noodles. For over a decade, Venkatesh, professor emeritus at St John's Medical College, Bangalore, has been trying to warn the country about what he says are dangerous levels of lead in the environment that may slip into...

-The Times of India A bunch of concerned doctors and members of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) have written a letter demanding an explanation from the IMA for its decision to 'validate' Kent water purifiers. The slew of advertisements released by Kent, in which it has prominently claimed that its products were 'validated', 'approved' or 'accepted' by IMA has led to a slug fest, especially in the online world, between groups...

-The Times of India PUNE: Family physician Dr Kumar Mandhare has been practising for 27 years in Koregaon Park in Pune, treating a wide variety of patients. Over the last few years, however, he has observed a new set of patients - on whom once-effective antibiotics drugs don't work. He pegs their number at 30 to 40% of the patients he gets, usually people who have found a quick fix solution to...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Indian government will study 100,000 infants to evaluate a home-grown vaccine against rotavirus gastroenteritis, released this month amid concerns raised by a paediatrician about the risk of an intestinal side-effect. Doctors from Delhi, Pune and the Christian Medical College, Vellore, will measure -- through what could be India's largest study - any vaccine-associated risk of intussusception, a disorder in which the intestine telescopes into itself and may...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Health experts today criticised a government delay in implementing a proposed daily drug therapy for tuberculosis patients, meant to reduce the risk of relapse after completion of treatment. Although the health ministry had itself last year released TB treatment standards emphasising a move towards daily therapy, virtually all patients treated under the government TB control programme receive thrice-a-week therapy, which carries a higher risk of relapse. A consortium of...