-Economic and Political Weekly Health and nutrition indicators have improved, but remain unacceptably low. After a hiatus of a decade, we now have up-to-date information on the health and nutrition status of the population. Preliminary results for 13 states and two union territories of the much awaited National Family Health Survey–4 (NFHS–4) which was conducted in 2015–16—the first after NFHS–3 of 2005–06—have just been released. In a welcome development, NFHS–4, for the...
More »SEARCH RESULT
More than half of country's women, kids still anaemic: Survey
-PTI Anaemia remains widespread in the country as more than half of the children in 10 out of 15 states are still anaemic, the latest national health survey released by the Union Health Ministry today said. The first phase of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) for 2015-16 which covered 13 states and two UTs also revealed that more than half of women were also found to be anaemic in eleven states and...
More »Maternal and Child Health: Inching Ahead, Miles to Go -Dipa Sinha
-Economic and Political Weekly The data from the Rapid Survey on Children conducted in 2013-14, released after an inexplicable delay and still in a summary fashion, show some but patchy progress between 2005-06 and 2013-14 in maternal and child health indicators. A preliminary analysis indicates that in those areas where special efforts were made, such as in increasing institutional delivery and expanding Immunisation Coverage, some results are seen. This calls for...
More »Is India actually free of polio? -Vidya Krishnan
-The Hindu Why New Delhi must not bask in the WHO’s polio-free certification and, instead, have an ambitious plan to eradicate polio-like flaccid paralysis. On November 30, the day India introduced an Injectable Polio Vaccine (IPV) in its routine immunisation programme, stating that it “will be an important step in the Polio Endgame Strategy”, a case of Vaccine Derived Polio Virus (VDPV) was reported from New Delhi. This was the second such...
More »A vaccine boost to India’s polio fight -R Prasad
-The Hindu The launch of the inactivated polio vaccine injection marks a shift in addressing vaccine derived poliovirus cases. After nearly five polio-free years, and with the launch of the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) injection in the national immunisation programme tomorrow (November 30), India will be pushing for “endgame polio”. The injectable vaccine, which uses killed polio viruses, will be used alongside the oral polio vaccine (OPV). For now, immunisation using IPV will be...
More »