Despite progress on many fronts to improve global health, the world still faces persistent challenges, from insufficient funding and capacity to the resistance by many to make needed lifestyle changes, the head of the United Nations health agency warned today. “Persuading people to adopt healthy behaviours is one of the biggest challenges in public health,” UN World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan told the agency’s Executive Board at the...
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Costly healthcare pushes 39m into poverty by Rema Nagarajan
In India, private spending on health is 4.2% of GDP. More than 70% of all health expenditure in India is paid for by people from their own pockets and this expenditure has been rising, especially for the poorest with increasing privatization of healthcare. According to a Planning Commission paper of May 2009, several studies conducted in villages showed that healthcare expense was responsible for over half of all the cases...
More »'We don't want MNCs to patent Indian traditional knowledge'
Multinational companies will now find it very difficult to patent products made by using Indian traditional knowledge of science. The Indian government has digitized all traditional knowledge of Medicine available in India and has shared it with the US President and United States patents office so that nobody benefits unduly by using Indian knowledge and files for patents on such products. "We call it traditional knowledge in a digital library," said Minister...
More »Indian Medical Association opposes rural MBBS course by Bindu Shajan Perappadan
Programme aims to reduce shortage of doctors in rural areas Students to be encouraged to take up the course and then work in rural areas It is not possible to restrict doctors according to geographic area: IMA The Indian Medical Association, the largest non-government organisation of allopathic doctors in the country, has come out strongly against the Medical Council of India’s proposal to start a rural MBBS course called Bachelor of Rural...
More »Piracy of old Indian knowledge rising by Rashme Sehgal
Biopiracy in the field of Medicine is on the rise with Europe and the US being granted 2,000 patents every year for drugs based on Indian traditional systems of Medicine. These patents are being granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTP), the European Patent Office (EPO) and other overseas patent offices. This startling claim was made by forests and environment minister Jairam Ramesh on Monday. It is to reverse...
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