The change is accompanied by a significant geographical shift from the south and north-east to states in other parts of India such as Maharashtra, Bihar, Orissa and Rajasthan Marking a dramatic shift in the demographic profile of people with AIDS, migrant workers and their wives have emerged as a high-risk group (HRG) for contracting the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), with an infection rate surpassing that of injecting drug users, commercial sex...

-The Telegraph   The risk of dying from cancer is nearly the same in rural and urban areas and the highest among the least educated, according to a study described as the first to provide nationally representative estimates of cancer deaths across India. The study, by researchers at the University of Toronto, Canada, and collaborating Indian institutions, challenges a common perception that cancer in India is primarily a disease of urban and educated...

The risk of dying from cancer is highest in the Northeast and the lowest in Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa, according to a new study described as the first to provide direct nationally-representative estimates of cancer deaths across the country. The study by researchers at the Centre for Global Health Research at the University of Toronto, Canada, and Indian institutions has shown large variations in cancer risk across the states, but suggests...

India's HIV control programme could soon get merged with the country's flagship National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), if the Planning Commission has its way. The Commission's steering committee on health for the 12th five-year Plan has proposed "incorporating AIDS control, universal healthcare and universal access to essential medicines" into NRHM. Planning Commission member in-charge of health Syeda Hameed said, "It is a serious recommendation to incorporate NACO under an overall National Health...

The Centre on Friday informed the Supreme Court that appropriate steps would soon be taken to amend the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993 to eliminate manual scavenging. Additional Solicitor General Harin Raval told a Bench of Justices H.L. Dattu and C.K. Prasad that necessary amendments would be introduced in the monsoon session of Parliament. The ASG also assured the court that the government would...