-Press Information Bureau/ Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Health Minister, has said that the government is confident of reducing the newborn (birth to 28 days) mortality rate to single digit long before the 2030 target date. The present death rate is 29 per 1,000 live births. For this are required simple, cost-effective interventions before and immediately after delivery. Inaugurating the Indian Newborn Action Plan (INAP) here today,...

-Down to Earth Doctors will now have to prescribe only those medicines and procedures that have been listed under schemes Here is some good news for all the senior citizens in Delhi. From September 1, 2014, they can avail free consultation under 20 Central Government Health Schemes (CGHS). On Friday, the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Harsh Vardhan, unveiled a pilot project that can be extended further in future. "This is...

A recent study published in the prestigious science journal 'PLOS One' (August 2014) shows that Central programmes like National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), and state-level initiatives like Yeshasvini health insurance scheme (Karnataka), Vajpayee Aarogyasri health insurance scheme (Karnataka), Rajiv Aarogyasri scheme (Andhra Pradesh), Chief Minister's Insurance Scheme for Life Saving Treatment (Tamil Nadu) etc. did little to reduce the financial burden arising out of...

-The Hindu   Obesity among children due to rampant consumption of junk food has reached epidemic proportions. With India already in the grip of this dangerous global trend, the government needs to remove its blinkers on the processed food industry One of the first declarations of the newly elected government in June was a proposal to ban unhealthy or junk food (defined as food high on fat, sugar and salt) in school...

-The Hindu The Centre has launched a major war against Japanese encephalitis which claims hundreds of young lives and causes high morbidity among children in several States across the country during monsoon. Within weeks of taking over, Union Health and Family welfare Minister, Dr Harsh Vardhan said that his priority would be to ensure 100 per cent immunisation against the killer disease. Expressing extreme distress over the "runaway conquest of encephalitis," Dr Harsh...