Manpreet Singh Khurmi and Muhammed Shaffi: The deaths of children in hospital in India

In August this year, the deaths of over 300 children were reported from the Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College, a large tertiary care centre in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India—with 60 of these deaths occurring within the space of five days. As news of this story broke, it caused an outcry across the country, with […]

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Implementing best practice guidance for management of older people with hip fractures in India

Fragility hip fractures are likely to become a major public health challenge in the coming decades, as emerging economies with vast populations age. Half of the estimated 6.26 million hip fractures worldwide in 2050 are projected to be in Asia, predominantly in China and India. [1] Country-based incidence for hip fracture are unavailable, but data […]

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Banalata Sen and Manu Gupta: Responding to India’s climate paradox of drought or deluge

Nearly all Indian towns and cities exist in a paradox: they are water scarce in dry seasons, yet prone to severe flooding during monsoons. Earlier this summer, the entire area of south India was parched, putting pressure on already dwindling water resources. Yet come this monsoon season, as the city of Mumbai was submerged after being […]

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Richard Smith: Trying to make patient monitoring outside of intensive care widely used

Dinesh Seemakurty’s idea for a business came to him as he sat by his grandfather’s hospital bed in Kakinada, India. His grandfather had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and had been treated initially in the intensive care unit. He’d been discharged, which Seemakurty and his family interpreted as a good sign, but during the night his […]

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Manuj C Weerasinghe and Sinha De Silva: It’s time to review strategies for dengue in Sri Lanka

Dengue fever was first detected in Sri Lanka in 1962. Although cases were initially sporadic, dengue has reached epidemic proportions during the past 15 years. Dengue fever used to show a clear seasonal pattern, with two incidence peaks during the northeast and southwest monsoon periods. However, patients with dengue fever are now seen throughout the […]

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Richard Smith: Impressions of Devi Shetty’s hospital city—bringing surgery to the masses

I’m standing with Devi Shetty, a cardiac thoracic surgeon in his surgical gear, between two paediatric intensive care units with around 40 cots. All the cots are full apart from those ready for children who are undergoing surgery. The units are tremendously busy, full of activity, but at the same time calm. I remarked on […]

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Shivani Randev: The system needs to change to tackle violence against doctors in India

Reports of violence against doctors in India are no longer rare instances. They have become an everyday feature in the media. But finally doctors have started to fight back. Almost 4000 resident doctors in the state of Maharashtra went on strike to protest against incidents of assault, their only demand being better security in their workplace. These incidents […]

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