The number of lives lost due to viral hepatitis infections is increasing and already accounts for 3,500 deaths daily, according to this report by the World Health Organization (WHO). This is the first consolidated WHO report on viral hepatitis epidemiology, service coverage and product access, with improved data for action. …
Jaipur: The state government’s pregnancy, child-tracking and health service management system, which was launched in 2009, has now become a tool for the Centre to estimate the actual vaccine requirement for the year 2012-2013 in the country. The state’s medical, health and family welfare department had launched the system in …
New Delhi: India has reported its first case of vaccine derived polio virus (VDPV) infection of 2012. A five-monthold child from the Murshidabad district of West Bengal has got infected with the virus after taking the oral polio vaccine. This, however, does not threaten India’s recently World Health Organisation (WHO) …
The success of smallpox eradication in the mid-1970s drew attention to the immunization programme in India. The Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), developed for immunizing children during the first year of life was launched in 1978 mainly in the urban areas. Through the subsequent years, more vaccines were included in …
The 1993 World Development Report (WDR) was subtitled ‘Investing in Health’ and advanced the argument that better health outcomes facilitate economic development. Even if one contests the direction of causation, correlation between better health outcomes and higher levels of economic development is not in doubt. In achieving better health outcomes, …
In the summer of 2011, Seth Berkley moved from New York to Geneva as the new chief executive of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI). For over a decade previously, Berkley had run the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), an institution he had founded. This experience confirmed his …
It has been 35 years since 1977, when the world observed the last recorded case of naturally occurring smallpox. We had finally defeated a disease that had devastated mankind for centuries. It was a critical victory for the many doctors, scientists and health workers who laboured tirelessly to eradicate this …
India has just won a landmark victory in the long-drawn-out war on polio. Fourteen months have gone since 13 January 2011 without a single case of polio caused by wild poliovirus (WPV). But how sure are we that in this vast country, with about 125 million under-five children and a …
As both a doctor and a public health professional, I am transfixed by one compelling question: Why are public health issues and debates so often limited to just doctors and those with abbreviations like MBBS, MD, MS or MPH added to their names? Does the ambit of health not extend …
The success of smallpox eradication in the mid-1970s drew attention to the immunization programme in India. The Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), developed for immunizing children during the first year of life was launched in 1978 mainly in the urban areas. Through the subsequent years, more vaccines were included in …
THE 1993 World Development Report (WDR) was subtitled ‘Investing in Health’ and advanced the argument that better health outcomes facilitate economic development.1 Even if one contests the direction of causation, correlation between better health outcomes and higher levels of economic development is not in doubt.
The Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Administration has finalised all arrangements to administer polio drops to 102,000 children in the rural areas and 125,000 children in the urban areas of the federal capital during a four-day anti-polio drive starting from March 12. Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Amer Ali Ahmed, while presiding over …
While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and several other dignitaries lined up at the Polio Summit at Vigyan Bhawan to take credit for making India free of polio endemic, the Government did little to acknowledge the contribution of one man who visualised the pulse polio …
After registering a zero-polio period in the last one year, India will now be aiming at eradicating measles, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said here on Sunday. "India still accounts for two-thirds of measles deaths across the world. We have to address all concerns associated with the measles now," Azad …
Announcing his ministry’s intent of observing 2012 as the year of intensification of immunisation, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the lessons from the polio programme could be used to combat other dreaded diseases. At the conclusion of the two-day Polio Summit here Azad said: “Emboldened by our …
Buoyed by the success of door-to-door polio vaccination drive, the Union Health Ministry plans to soon start an ambitious Teeka Express, a mobile vaccine van, which will cover 50 districts in the first phase. The Teeka Express will deliver all vaccines that are part of the national immunisation programme and …
BHUBANESWAR: As the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared India polio-free, the Odisha Government on Sunday claimed that it has achieved zero-polio status for fours year on the trot. Marking the pulse polio immunisation drive, Health Minister Prasanna Acharya said although the State has achieved the zero-polio status for four consecutive …
New Delhi: In a first, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has given 12-digit Identification Number (ID) to 89,000 inhabitants of Ballabhgarh in Haryana to keep track of health care services being delivered to them. The unique ID keeps a record of immunization, births and deaths among the …
This vaccine policy is more about spending and coverage, than about protecting children. It is not designed to enhance national public capacities for public immunization programmes, but to justify spending public money on public private partnerships (PPPs) or privately produced vaccines in the name of protection from diseases, whose incidence …
India may have won the battle against polio but the war is far from over. Having achieved one full polio-free year, the key challenge now is to ensure that any residual or imported poliovirus in the country is rapidly detected and eliminated. The challenge is also to ensure that all …
