-The New Indian Express A significant share, almost two-thirds of OOP expenses, are for purchasing outpatient care, especially medicines. NEW DELHI: Household Out-Of-Pocket (OOP) expenses on health services, especially medicines, continue to push over 55 million people in India into poverty, with over 18 per cent of households incurring catastrophic levels of health expenditures annually, says a WHO report. Despite India’s billing as the ‘pharmacy of the world,’ its population’s access to medicines...

-The New Indian Express These scheduled medicines constitute about 18 per cent of the total domestic pharma retail market, valued around Rs 1.5 trillion. NEW DELHI: Prices of over 800 drugs under the National List of Essential medicines (NLEM), including paracetamol, common antibiotics like azithromycin, doxycycline and medications for hypertension, diabetes and COVID-19 will increase by 10.7 per cent starting Friday. Activists slammed the move saying that it would hit the pockets of...

-Down to Earth Chinese medicine responsible for decline in donkey population; lack of grazing areas and mechanisation responsible for camel’s decline The population of donkeys and camels in Gujarat has declined 71 per cent and nine per cent respectively, the state’s livestock minister told the legislative assembly recently. Gujarat’s mules and donkeys had declined to 11,291 in the 2019 Livestock Census, from 38,993 in 2012, Raghavji Patel told the assembly in an answer...

-Down to Earth Tough new conditions emerge in the compromise deal to ease WTO intellectual property barriers to production of COVID-19 medical tools We are back to square one. Back to the beginning after 18 months of a wearying, tortuous series of negotiations that carried on while millions of lives hung in the balance — and still do. The waiver of intellectual property (IP) rights on medicines, vaccines and diagnostics to fight the...

-The New Indian Express Whole Genome Sequencing can detect cases; extra-pulmonary forms increasing in kids BENGALURU: Multi Drug Resistant (MDR) TB continues to be on the rise. In many cases, this is leading to tuberculosis of the brain and spine. Experts working in the control room of TB burden in the state, say this area is overlooked and undiagnosed.  “Extra-pulmonary manifestations of Tuberculosis are on the rise, with Tuberculosis of brain and spine...