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. …
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 …
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 …
The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) has sought an additional $49.7 million to meet the needs of children and women displaced by floods in Sindh and Balochistan. In a report published on Saturday, Unicef emphasised that these resources were necessary in order to transition into early recovery. Since the launch …
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, which has been polio-free for over a year now, was on Saturday taken off the list of polio endemic countries by the World Health Organisation. This announcement was made by Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad at the polio summit 2012 here in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. …
With no polio case reported in the last one year, India has reasons to rejoice. But health officials have cautioned that the quest to wipe out the crippling disease faces serious threat from the unchecked “possible polio-carrier” arriving through international airports across the country. And what’s worrisome is that it …
India is inching closer to the goal of polio eradication and hopes to be free of the deadly viral infection by 2014. In fact, transmission is at an all-time low, making a strong case for WHO to consider taking India off the list of polio-endemic countries, which also include Pakistan, …
JAIPUR: The scientists of India and Slovenia are working together to study how dangerous is the Hepatitis E virus (HEV) and how to diagnose it as its symptoms are quite similar to other liver ailments. It is a three-year collaborative research which started this month in a laboratory in Kaladera …
Three men who spearheaded the movement to start mass vaccinationof children At the Polio Summit in New Delhi this weekend, Rotarians would be celebrating the country's first polio-free year. They form the backbone of a movement that has resulted in polio immunisation programme becoming a routine in every State. Though …
Before the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, polio crippled an estimated 200,000 children in India each year. As recently as 2009, India reported almost half the world’s cases – 741 out of a total 1604 cases worldwide. Many health experts predicted India would be the last country to …
The human adenovirus (HAdV-65) is now making its presence felt in the form of diarrhoea, gastroenteritis and respiratory tract infections. The virus has already been detected in Bangladesh and with the influx of immigrants from that country to Hyderabad, medical experts say that the ailment can be expected to surface …
As many as 73,839 children below the age of five years have been administered with polio vaccine as part of the Pulse Polio Immunisation Programme in Pathanamthitta district on Sunday, according to official sources. Of the 73,839 children who have been administered with the polio vaccine, 191 belonged to parents …
While the country celebrated a year free of polio, health officials are now racing against time to ensure that several distribution centres across states receive their stock of the vaccine before the first national immunisation round is held on February 19. With 17.5 crore children set to receive the dose …
Kerala, a role-model for the rest of the nation on many aspects of social development, has added one more feather to its cap. It’s set a record in reaching anti-rabies vaccine to the maximum number of people. As per the statistics received from Thiruvananthapuram Medical College (TMC), the state has …
To be organised in the district on February 19 and April 1 More than 2.14 lakh children aged below five years in Erode district will be administered polio drops during the Pulse Polio immunisation campaign scheduled to be held in two phases on February 19 and April 1. The administration …
Pakistan may be interested in importing the cholera vaccine which was tested and introduced in India in 2009 with the help of Seoul’s International Vaccine Institute. In the capital to attend the fourth meeting of the South Asian Forum for Health Research, a group of eight nations with common health …
Typhoid fever, caused by Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi), is a major health problem especially in developing countries. Vaccines against typhoid are commonly used by travelers but less so by residents of endemic areas. The researchers used single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) typing to investigate the population structure of 372 …
