Co-Written by Iffat Jahan Azhar Prof. Mohammad Akram According to World Health Organisation (WHO), healthcare services, all over the world, aim to ensure that necessary services are accessible to people at affordable prices. But it seems different in low and middle income countries including India, where government’s spending on healthcare is very little and healthcare financing is heavily relying upon[Read More…]
To Drugs Controller General of India Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), Directorate General of Health Services Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India FDA Bhavan, ITO, Kotla Road, New Delhi -110002 Sir, This is to draw your immediate attention of CDSCO towards the announcement dated May 19, 2020 by Johnson & Johnson, a multinational company[Read More…]
The COVID 19 has proved us how much public health system is important. They are emerging as the life-saver in most of the states. Shamelessly, the private health institutions have started projecting themselves, as ‘reserved army’ in this corona war may be to save their face. But they were the institutions who had closed their doors for patients of[Read More…]
Co-Written by Akhter Hussain Bhat & Dr. Mohammad Akram The novel COVID-19 has caused widespread concern, fear, anxiety and stress among millions of people worldwide. The virus has affected more than 5 million people causing more than 3.3 lakh deaths while many are battling for recovery around the globe. Owing to the stern and infectious nature of the virus, the[Read More…]
A lot had already been written about the high morbidity conscious Kerala society and especially what was being called in the early eighties as the ‘Kerala Paradox’. This essentially is a conceptual complex which meant that the morbidity rate was very high in Kerala compared to the low mortality and it also meant that the state could achieve better health[Read More…]
Dr Sandeep Pandey, Shobha Shukla and Bobby Ramakant Mahatma Gandhi’s talisman is perhaps the best guiding light to reform the public health system in the wake of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic: “I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test- “Recall the face of the[Read More…]
What causes much more death and tragedy throughout the world, for several decades than Covid-19, but does not cause panic and hysteria, and, is not considered an emergency? It’s TB Folks! Tuberculosis Tuberculosis – or TB, as it’s commonly called — is a contagious infection that usually attacks your lungs. It can spread to other parts of your body, like your brain and spine.[Read More…]
The recently released Asia and the Pacific SDG Progress Report 2020 shows that Asia and the Pacific region is not on track to achieve any of the 169 targets of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), including those around ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health services. Despite commitments made by governments, inequality in the region is growing and[Read More…]
Living with something like this requires a great amount of motivation, positive mindset and a healthy living. Struggling with diabetes or any disease in fact is not easy and it breaks you at many points of your life because you loose hope and the desire to live. It is important to not give up and accept your body with the[Read More…]
The human body is a compound, well-developed machine consisting of many parts, each for a specific vital function. Among these parts, the Kidney constitutes a ‘life-sustaining organ’. Kidneys, two in number are bean-shaped organs located against back muscles in the upper abdominal area. Kidneys have an important role in our physiology. In addition to cleaning blood, kidneys maintain salt and[Read More…]
International Women’s Day special I was born and brought in a happy family in New Delhi. I had a twin sister and a younger brother. Both my parents were working. I graduated from Hindu College, Delhi University in 1977 and went to Peoples’ Friendship University in Moscow (erstwhile USSR) for an integrated course in Geology. Finally, back home again, I[Read More…]
A few nights ago, I watched a poignant and slightly heart wrenching Bengali drama on YouTube that shines a light on disorders like autism. It was the first time that I saw a drama script was written to raise awareness about autism in a developing country like Bangladesh. The 2014 drama showcases what parenting a child with special needs is[Read More…]
It has been brought to our notice that the official website of LGBT Studies, Yale University states that the Brudner prize 2019-20 is being awarded posthumously to Siddhartha Gautam(SG) for his invaluable contribution to the LGBT struggle in India. SG joined AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan (ABVA) briefly for about two years and worked with six other co-authors of Less than[Read More…]
Prevention of TB was the focus of many a sessions at the 50th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Hyderabad, India, on the theme of ‘Ending the Emergency: Science, Leadership, Action.’ This conference comes one year after the first ever United Nations High-Level Meeting (UNHLM) on TB. One of the commitments made in the political declaration of the UNHLM[Read More…]
It was indeed a humbling experience for me to interact with a few frontline healthcare workers who are courageously fighting the #endTB battle on the ground in Hyderabad, India (the venue for the 50th Union World Conference on Lung Health). My day began with meeting G Swamy Reddy, project officer at Lepra Society in Hyderabad. He has been involved with[Read More…]
Without infection there is no disease: Nip the TB infection Prevention of new infections of TB bacteria (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) and their progression to active TB disease is critical to reduce the burden of TB disease and to achieve the goal of ending TB by 2030. Around 587 million (35%) of the total estimated 1.7 billion people infected with latent TB[Read More…]
Global fight against tuberculosis (TB) is making modest gains, although largely not yet on track to end TB. 2019 Global TB Report of the World Health Organization (WHO) launched on 17 October 2019 gives hope, not despair, because sustained efforts have yielded some significant results. Only European region is on track to meet 2020 targets of 20% reduction in[Read More…]
TB is preventable, treatable and curable. Science shows how can we effectively prevent, accurately diagnose, treat with effective regimen, and eventually cure TB. But are not we failing to translate scientific wisdom in public health gains? How can we explain over 10 million new cases of TB and 1.6 million TB deaths (including 300,000 TB deaths among people living with[Read More…]
With quarter of world’s population infected with latent TB (not active TB disease), and in the light of scientific fact that every new case of active TB disease comes from this pool of population infected with latent TB, the writing on the wall is clear: we cannot put TB prevention on the blindspot anymore if we are to eliminate TB[Read More…]
Today, the world over, a number of issues confronting the societies are discussed day in and day out and intellectual analysis and outpourings start to emanate once the issue at stake draws the attention of masses in the society, Healthcare is one such issue which holds a tremendous significance in[Read More…]
At the United Nations General Assembly in September 2019, a special United Nations High Level Meeting (UNHLM) will be held on Universal Health Coverage (UHC). 193 countries have promised to deliver on UHC by 2030 by committing to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But will push on UHC alone deliver on the promise of health for all where ‘no one is[Read More…]
A study commissioned by the National Health Authority (NHA) of India has recently (Economic Times Report dated July 22, 2019) red-flagged claims made for hysterectomies conducted in private hospitals in at least six states, under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) scheme. It has sought more caution and tighter scrutiny of such claims under the Modi government’s flagship programme[Read More…]
I met the two of them at the Clinica Condesa Iztapalapa, in Mexico City, where I had gone to attend the 10th IAS Conference on HIV Science (IAS 2019). Was it a mere coincidence that they had many things in common – they share the same surname; they speak fluent English; they neither drink nor smoke nor are on drugs;[Read More…]
TB and HIV both are preventable, but cutting the chain of transmission of HIV and TB is proving to be a daunting task. Treatment exists for both TB and HIV but disease-burden and deaths every year are indeed alarming. With countdown on towards TB and AIDS elimination targets for 2030, the writing on the wall is clear: business as usual[Read More…]
It has been 38 years and 1 month since the first case of HIV infection was detected in 1981, reminded Dr Anthony Fauci, Director of US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the 10th IAS Conference on HIV Science (#IAS2019) taking place in Mexico City. Dr Fauci is a recipient of Robert Koch Award and US Presidential[Read More…]
Every case of active tuberculosis (TB) disease comes from an individual with latent TB infection. And every new case of latent TB infection is a sign of failing infection control, as someone with active TB disease transmitted the bacteria to an uninfected person. Quarter of world’s population has latent TB. TB continues to be the most common opportunistic infection among[Read More…]
“Medicine is a social science and politics is nothing else but medicine on a large scale”. Rudolf Virchow, 1821-1902 In recent days India’s health system – never the world’s best – has been getting really bad press. First it was negative publicity was over a week of agitation by thousands of doctors in Bengal after violence against them by families[Read More…]
Although 193 governments adopted UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which warrant an integrated and multisectoral response to deliver on those promises, the progress has been lackadaisical in the past four years. A recent UN report has set an alarm on uneven progress on some SDGs and slipping on a few of the Global Goals in Asia Pacific region. Coordinated multisectoral[Read More…]
By Richard Gale and Gary Null About a decade ago, my late colleague Dr. Martin Feldman and I were invited to be keynote speakers at a conference on anti-aging and alternative medicine in Chicago. The hall was packed with several thousand clinicians, physicians, medical professors, scientific researchers and doctors of non-conventional medical disciplines who were interested in the latest anti-aging[Read More…]
(CNS): More and more children around the world are now benefitting from fixed dose combination (FDC) of child-friendly medicines to treat drug-sensitive TB, thanks to the untiring efforts of TB Alliance (Global Alliance for TB Drug Development) and its partners including World Health Organization (WHO), for making these drugs go from development to delivery stage. TB Alliance proudly announced at[Read More…]
This year’s World Malaria Day theme, “Zero Malaria Starts With Me” re-energizes the fight to eliminate malaria which, despite being preventable and treatable, still kills over half a million people every year. While incredible progress has been made in the past 15 years (with over 7 million malaria deaths averted and about 40% reduction in malaria globally), the fight against[Read More…]
Public health experts have been warning for decades that overuse of antibiotics reduces the effectiveness of drugs that cure bacterial infections. At least 2,000,000 Americans get antibiotic-resistant infections per year. Notably, gluttonous overuse of antimicrobial drugs to combat bacteria and fungi via hospitals, clinics, and farms is backfiring and producing superbugs or “Nightmare Bacteria,” which is especially lethal for people[Read More…]
Among the many challenges India faces, the most underappreciated is the ongoing mental health crisis. Mental illness is actually India’s ticking bomb. An estimated 56 million Indians suffer from depression, and 38 million from anxiety disorders. For those who suffer from mental illness, life can seem like a terrible prison from which there is no hope of escape; they are left forlorn and abandoned,[Read More…]
Co-Written by Shobha Shukla and Bobby Ramakant Although governments of 193 countries had promised way back in 2015 to end tuberculosis (TB) by 2030, the global annual rate of TB decline since then has been much less than what is required. The rate of TB decline which is currently hovering around 1.5%, should catapult to over 10% by 2025 globally,[Read More…]
Health system in India has seen several incongruities since its independence. Public health expenditure, inspite of repeated promises in election manifestos as well as in policy documents towards raising it to 2.5 to 3 % of GDP, remains around 1 to 2 %. The the existing health care infrastructure is flawed and inadequate; the hospitals are under-staffed, under-financed compelling the[Read More…]
193 governments including those of India, committed to reducing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancers by 25% by 2025 and one-third by 2030 (UN Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs), but many cancer rates are rising, not declining, especially in several high burden countries. Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally (cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the top[Read More…]
Alongside boosting research and development of new tools to prevent, diagnose and treat TB, there is an acute need to optimally deploy and maximally utilize existing tools for preventing, diagnosing and treating TB, says Dr Nguyen Viet Nhung, head of national TB programme in Vietnam and Director of National Lung Hospital, Hanoi. Dr Nhung was conferred upon the ‘Honorary Associate[Read More…]
A large number of people in all 157 villages of 33 Gram Panchayat of Narasingpurblock in Cuttack district are continuously suffering from Chronic Kidney Diseases (CKD). The patients are also continuously dying because of lack of proper treatment.The government of Odisha has closed its eyes from this epidemic like situation. On 17t – 18th November, 2017 a seven-members’team of Ganatantrik[Read More…]
Although you wouldn’t know it from the rhetoric and actions of the Trump Administration, the U.S. is part of the global society. And while most of the U.S. was focused on a Supreme Court nomination that shook our democratic institutions, a watershed moment for democracy quietly took place half a world away. For those in the U.S. seeking evidence that[Read More…]
World Mental Health Day-10 October 2018 Among the many challenges India faces, the most underappreciated is the ongoing mental health crisis. Mental illness is actually India’s ticking bomb .The National Mental Health Survey of India (2016), the largest exercise to count the numbers of those affected by mental disorders, reported that one of every ten adults experiences a clinically significant[Read More…]
(CNS): The world’s eyes and ears are expectantly focussed on the forthcoming first-ever UN High Level Meeting (UNHLM) to #endTB: “United to End TB: An Urgent Global Response to a Global Epidemic.” The global TB community is hailing this as a landmark opportunity to marshal political will and resources to end TB by 2030. Will this meeting actually turn[Read More…]
Mohalla Clinics are primary health centres in the state of New Delhi in India, that offer a basic package of essential health services including medicines, diagnostics, and consultation free of cost.Mohalla in Hindi means neighborhood or community. These clinics serve as the first point of contact for the population, offer timely services, and reduce the load of referrals to secondary[Read More…]
Women are not dying because of diseases we cannot treat…They are dying because societies have yet to make the decision that their lives are worth saving – Mahmoud Fathalla, Chair of the WHO Advisory Committee on Health Research Inclusive growth is now perhaps the strongest buzzword in development discourse. We have all been talking about growth without understanding that development[Read More…]
“ A Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) used dignified language to explain the criminality of an American company and support to it by corrupt Indian officials. “They are murders. But we call ‘deaths’ before enquiry and ‘killings’ in conclusion. Most surprising is we do not even give exact number of children killed, we simply say some deaths. This is trivialisation of[Read More…]
In a few weeks time, school will resume in many countries, and quite a few parents now worry about the dangers of vaccination. Are they real or false? What are the facts? First, a word on what we can believe to be real. Some might remember Ripley’s Believe It or Not? We are all fascinated by the odd, the unusual,[Read More…]
(CNS): Since the beginning of the HIV epidemic, nurses have been at the forefront of the response to this once fatal infection. The nurse is involved at every stage of the trajectory of a person living with HIV—from usually being the first to counsel the newly diagnosed person, to one of the last to be with him/her at the point[Read More…]
( “ If a heart patient knows the actual cost of the cardiac stent, he will realise how much the hospital looted him. He should be strong enough to withstand the shock. We don’t know how many suffered heart attack after knowing this exploitation. One small lawyer has to fight against this injustice. Where are the great doctors? Don’t they[Read More…]
As discontent increases with overly expensive and totally inadequate US health care, it is time to look closely at the beginnings of the modern Cuban medical system. Like the US, Cuba had unintegrated, overlapping medical institutions that failed the poor, especially black, population of the island. Though several European countries have developed health care systems about 40% cheaper than the[Read More…]
“Things are going in the wrong direction and have to get back on track before something terrible happens,” said Gregory Hartl, a W.H.O. spokesman. “So we’re saying to the Pakistanis, the Syrians and the Cameroonians, ‘You’ve really got to get your acts together.’ ” — from a 2014 article in the New York Times Things have gotten infinitely worse since[Read More…]
The Finance minister , Shri Arun Jaitley underwent a kidney transplant operation successfully recently, following in the footsteps of Mrs. Sushma Swaraj, the External Affairs Minister in 2016. Even as he recovers from the surgery, the transplant has brought into focus, the lives of lakhs of people living in the shadows – those who are waiting, often for years for[Read More…]
Mohammad Gulzar (48), a resident of Nai Basti, Jamia Nagar, was a small time horse cart rider, until a few months ago. He earned enough to feed his family. But a rare disease to his horse Glanders affected his livelihood badly. After wandering for days in search of work, he now works as a laborer, hardly managing to garner two[Read More…]
Primary health care is an important strategy which is the backbone of health service delivery. Primary health care is the day-to-day care needed to protect, maintain, or restore our health. For those who use it, it is both their first point of contact with the government healthcare system and their most frequently used health service. In last 6 decades of[Read More…]
–A Review By FMRRC, Karnataka Over 10 crore people in the country are getting water contaminated with excess fluoride : Most stunning admission by government. But it is not on the agenda of political parties. Karnataka Assembly elections are slated for May 12, and the major parties issued their manifestos, a formality completed very late. They promise many things[Read More…]
Indian economy has made rapid strides in recent year but its abysmal health system remains an Achilles heel has impeded millions of people from sharing the gains of India’s new prosperity India has a laggardly record in its healthcare coverage. In per capita terms, adjusted for purchasing power, the public expenditure on health is $43 a year, compared to[Read More…]
The term dialectic as it is used here is a way of looking at the world that corresponds to the actual structure of the world itself without regard to whether that word is holographic or material. Put in more philosophical terms, it is an epistemological assumption about the ontological structure of being. Hegel will write a book about it called[Read More…]
The CDC (Center for Disease Control) web page falsely states that “genetic factors…have a role in causing”… obesity. https://www.cdc.gov/genomics/resources/diseases/obes Obesity which is responsible for the diabetes epidemic kills thousands every year. Other established medical authorities such as the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic state on their web pages that the causes of obesity include genetics. The CDC also says[Read More…]
“You can’t deal with obesity without dealing with poverty and nutrition, and too few educators and parents are getting those connections. It’s not enough to put food on the table and exercise.” — One of the author’s home schooled teens First thing I’d like the reader to do is to calculate her or his BMI, using the National Institute[Read More…]
“ We do not put new-born babies to sleep on their tummies,” said the lady in the day care centre we had visited in the US. “We rule out the possibility of obstruction of the upper airways and suffocation due to a roll up of the sheet in the crib. Plus today it’s a mandatory rule enforced by the government.”[Read More…]
India’s economy is soaring but its healthcare system remains an Achilles’ heel. For millions of people, the high cost of treating illness continues to undermine economic progress. This is largely on account of the abysmal and chaotic healthcare system owing to the declining budgetary healthcare support by the government. India now ranks close to the bottom of the pile[Read More…]
Heard so much about the heart, but so less about kidneys, right? Our kidneys don’t get a lot of love, and definitely don’t get the attention or concern associated with other major organs like our heart, liver, and lungs. Kidneys are the unsung organs of public health campaigns. We know how to care for our hearts (exercise and eating well)[Read More…]
The number of people sitting outside AIIMS, waiting to be treated, reflects the grim reality of health sector in states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, etc. “I am counting the last days of my life, along with waiting to get operated; whichever comes soon will end my ordeal,” said attendance Mishra from West Champaran district of Bihar. He visited countless[Read More…]
Co-Written by Jitamanyu Sahoo & Monis Ahmad The repetition of the ghastly episode were 49 children died in Farrukhabad at Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital this September is nothing but a reflection of our health inequities that is deep rooted in our public healthcare system. In all 19 children died during delivery and 30 children at the hospital’s unit for newborns,[Read More…]
(World Mental Health Day -10th October 2017) According to an India Spend report, the number of Indians suffering from mental illness exceeds that of the population of South Africa. At present, the mentally ill account for nearly 6.5 percent of the country’s population and it is estimated that by 2020 this number will increase to a staggering 20 percent. Further, the[Read More…]
What can be more ironic and catastrophic when a renowned linguist loses her language altogether,as the deadly Alzheimer’s disease (AD) fiercely ravages her brain? That is what did happen to Alice Howland, a professor and a linguistics expert at Columbia University, New York. Initially, it started with her inability to remember the word ‘lexicon’ while giving a lecture. From[Read More…]
The American Medical Association (A.M.A.) has an electronic news bulletin, “AMA Morning Rounds”– It reads, “The AMA promotes the art and science of medicine and the betterment of Public Health.” The AMA has regular reports on the opioid epidemic such as the Sept 2, 2017 report: “The First Count of “Fentanyl Deaths in 2016: Up 540% in Three Years.”[Read More…]
Affordable health care is now becoming increasingly inaccessible to the poor and lower middle classes in India, given the drive to privatization in all parts of the social sector. Sally Ogun, a patient’s rights activist from America says, “The provision of health care … is part of a social contract, one that assures citizens access to the tools they need[Read More…]
A report published by Forbes on 11 September 2014 still stands true as not much has changed in the access to healthcare in India. According to World Health Organization’s 2000 World Health Report ranking India’s healthcare system at 112 out of 190 countries. The below paragraph is based on a friend’s recent experience when he was spending time and energy for the treatment of his[Read More…]
As ‘mental health’ issues gain more attention, sympathetic and otherwise, in a wide variety of contexts and countries around the world, the opportunity for inaccurate perceptions of what causes these issues, and how to treat them, are likewise expanded. So if you or someone you know is supposed to have a ‘mental illness’ such as anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive[Read More…]
Although governments have promised sustainable development by 2030 by adopting UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but tobacco triggered pandemics threaten to stall or even reverse the progress made. Tobacco is a major risk factor of killer non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardio-vascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases, among others. In addition to devastating health, tobacco is also linked to poverty,[Read More…]
(CNS): When major weak-spots go beyond the purview of health ministry, inter-sectoral programming becomes critical to progress towards ending tuberculosis (TB) by 2030, globally. Indian government has committed to end TB by 2025 – a welcome political commitment indeed – but warrants urgent and unprecedented actions to muscle up the required pace to keep this promise. As our governments[Read More…]
(CNS): My first personal brush with the severity of asthma was several years ago, when one of my students suddenly started gasping for breath in the middle of her Physics Practical final examination of Class 12. We were clueless about the cause of her sudden affliction. Other than making her sit in the open air and force her to drink[Read More…]
A Presentation made at XL Indian Social Science Congress, Dec 19-23, 2016, University of Mysore, Mysuru , focused on PEOPLES HEALTH AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN INDIA. It was widely appreciated as one focussing on a key problem faced by vast masses of India, neglected by all the (un-)concerned agencies
(CNS): Growing political commitment of governments globally to #endTB is indeed welcoming but governments need to walk the talk too to #endTB and deliver on promises of integrated sustainable development by 2030. Reality check on any specific indicator to show progress made towards ending TB will raise serious concerns regarding meeting these commitments in a timely manner. For example, TB[Read More…]
Text of a Speech circulated on Dec24, 2016, at XL Indian Social Science Congress Organized by Indian Social Sciences Academy(ISSA) , held from 19th Dec. 2016 and 24th Dec. 2016, in collaboration with University of Mysore, Mysuru, Karnataka
I first learned I had Parkinson’s Disease (PD) in 2007. It is a disorder that kills off brain cells that make dopamine — a substance the body needs to control movement, speaking, swallowing and a multitude of other functions. PD afflicts over 1 million people in the U.S. and millions more worldwide. At present, there is no cure and a[Read More…]
(CNS): Lung cancer is the most common cancer worldwide. In 2012, there were an estimated 1.8 million new lung cancer cases (13% of all cancers diagnosed), and 1.59 million deaths (19.4% of the total cancer deaths). According to the latest cancer registry data released by the Indian Council of Medical Research, 0.114 million new lung cancer cases (83,000 in males[Read More…]
Cat Johnson: What would it take to move from planetary imbalance into a state of sustained health and healing? In a recent report, Jamie Harvie, Executive Director of the Institute for a Sustainable Future and founder of the Commons Health Network, argues that we need a new health system, one based on a “profound appreciation of the complexity and interconnectedness of life across[Read More…]
London: The journey from Tooting to the British Library tends to be a crowded affair at the best of times. Humans mash in ungainly fashion on the London Underground, though not mosh, as they tend to in Tokyo under almost brutal supervision. In the course of the walk, a breakfast of muffins and takeaway coffee is flavoured by furious fume blasts[Read More…]
Many of us are aware that the leading cause of death in the US during the first half of the 20th Century was due to infectious diseases. On the other hand there is a general lack of understanding that these diseases were eliminated for the most part, by Public Health disease prevention strategies, such as clean water, sewage treatment[Read More…]
For over 10 years now Eritrea, a small country in East Africa, has been winning the Malaria War without vaccines, though much work remains to be done. Since 2005 I have been monitoring the reduction in Malaria mortality here in Eritrea and have seen a consistant reduction of between 70-80%, something almost unknown in Africa and the rest of the[Read More…]
Ratna Devi and her nine year old daughter Seema (names changed) came to AIIMS, New Delhi with a large tumor over Seema’s knee. The tumor was not a new discovery and had been thriving on the little girl like a blood sucking leech for the last one year. An enquiry revealed that the family was from Rajasthan, around four hundred[Read More…]
Over half the population of the European Union (EU) is overweight or obese. Without effective action, this number will grow substantially in the next decade warns an important new report. ‘A Spoonful of Sugar: How the Food Lobby Fights Sugar Regulation in the EU’, by the research and campaign group Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), notes that obesity rates are rising fastest[Read More…]
(CNS): At the 2015 United Nations General Assembly, governments committed to achieve SDGs by 2030, one of which is to end AIDS and TB by 2030. If people living with HIV continue to die of TB, we will not only fail to achieve SDGs but also lose gains made in the fights against HIV and TB. Keeping in mind the[Read More…]
Senior HIV activists who have not only helped shape HIV responses on the ground over the years, but also have been living with the virus for several years, shared their personal battle against self-stigma at a press conference session hosted by The Work For Change (www.theworkforchange.org) and partners at the 21st International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2016) held in Durban, South[Read More…]
(Based on an exclusive interview given by Nqobile Zungu, and her doctor Dr Samele Madela to CNS – Citizen News Service) I met 37 years old Nqobile Zungu, at the 21st International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2016) that is being held in Durban. And yes, her looks were deceptive in the sense that one could never guess that her outwardly healthy[Read More…]
AIDS 2016, the XXI International AIDS Conference – (with the theme of ‘Access Equity Rights Now’) which will be held in Durban, South Africa, from 18 to 22 July 2016, marks a dramatic change in the country’s AIDS response in the 16 years since XIII International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2000), which was also held in Durban “When Nelson Mandela[Read More…]
WHO recently announced new recommendations to speed up diagnosis and improve treatment outcomes for multi drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) through the use of a novel rapid diagnostic test called MTBDRsl, and a shorter, cheaper 9-12 month treatment regimen. The new treatment regimen can be completed in 9-12 months— less than half the time required by the current 24-month[Read More…]
“When people cheat in any arena, they diminish themselves-they threaten their own self-esteem and their relationships with others by undermining the trust they have in their ability to succeed and in their ability to be true.” – Cheryl Hughes I have been wondering about this normal blood pressure for the last sixty years ever since I joined the MBBS class[Read More…]
(CNS): India carries the highest global burden of TB – a curable disease that kills one Indian every 90 seconds. There are 2.2 million new cases of TB in the country every year, out of which an estimated 71,000 cases are of multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB). This curable disease kills 110,000 HIV-associated TB cases also emerging annually in India,[Read More…]
Vaccine development and immunity for COVID-19: Some thoughts and doubts 
I’m the Pied Piper 
Self-reliance and the Continuous Cycle of Exploitation 
Digital Divide: Obvious and Clear Between Haves and Havenots 
India-Nepal Border Dispute : The International Ramifications 
SpaceX Astronaut Launch: Curiosity, science and the Red Planet 
Palestinian Genocide Poem: “And Then They Stole The Falafel” 
Floyd’s final words – A poem from Hell 
Christian Pastor Brutally Attacked In Uttar Pradesh, Admitted In ICU 
Beating Swords to Plowshares 
One Life, One Love, 300 Children 
If Not Now, When? 
Israel-China Relations: Staring Into the Abyss of US-Chinese Decoupling Democracies can’t breathe without responding to Race and Caste discrimination 
Tablighi Jamaat and mainstream media: What makes news and what doesn’t! 
Lives In Education 
Sinister Flatulence: Trump versus Twitter 
Intellectuals cant be threat to public order or to humanity 
Jacinda Ardern: A Prime Minister with Difference 
Do we Really Honor Bhagat Singh? 
“Nepal map runs into Parliament wall” : Who built this wall? India! 
Out-Of-Pocket Healthcare Expenditure, Covid-19 and Impoverishment in India 
“Do Not Resuscitate”: My Experience with Hospice, Inc. 
Towards the forward march of workers led alternative globalisation The Empire’s Executioners? 
Revisiting Multilateral Institutions in the time of COVID-19 
Minneapolis police station set on fire on the 3rd day of Floyd murder demonstration in U.S. 
Photos of mass graves in Brazil show the stark toll of the coronavirus 
Three months later, Florence restarts. But not quite 
Supreme Court Issues Interim Orders on Migrant Workers Return 
Who Are the Secret Puppet-Masters Behind Trump’s War on Iran? 
COVID-19: Zafrullah Chowdhury, Women, and the Dot Blot Kit 
Labour in the Time of Corona 
Crisis for the People, Opportunity for the Corporate-Government Nexus 
Passing Behind Our Backs 
What You Kill When You Kill Someone 
Challenges faced by visually disabled women 
The Immediacy of Touchlessness 
Johnson & Johnson’s Double Standard Regarding Their Talcum Powder 
The Great Depression, Coronavirus Style 