India is a land of contrasts and its provision of healthcare is no different. While wealthier people living in urban areas have access to high quality healthcare services, a vast majority of people living in rural areas have very limited access to quality healthcare. India has been widely criticised for having one of the world’s […]
The international media attention that a booklet for pregnant women has attracted should encourage the Indian government to correct any inaccurate information […]
The most obvious solution to the challenges Indian surgeons face is to provide universal healthcare coverage […]
India has officially reported three cases of the mosquito-borne Zika virus. The World Health Organisation (WHO) announced that the cases, which included a 34-year-old new mother and a 22-year-old pregnant woman, had been detected in Ahmedabad in Gujarat. The cases have been confirmed by National Institute of Virology. Surprisingly, the first case was detected and confirmed […]
It’s been about four months since the Indian Ministry of Health proposed to mandate the NEXT (National Exit Test) for MBBS graduates before they become licensed and practising physicians or enter postgraduate courses. Although I have already published a rejoinder to the proposal, I left out there the one major aspect of it that irks me […]
Bangladeshis love to sing, dance, make music, recite poetry, talk, eat, and let off steam. So icddr,b day, the day of what may be the largest health research institution in a low income country, centres on performance—on a stage erected in the car park. And the two highlights of the day were performances of two […]
The adoption of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) in 2015 marked a shift in the global development agenda from the earlier Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) era. SDGs are particularly important for the health sector, since they reaffirm the premise of the Alma Ata declaration that health cannot exist in isolation. SDG’s intrinsically link health with actions […]
Avinash Supe discusses why there has been a spate of attacks against doctors in India and what can be done. […]
Kerala, a state in southern India, has made impressive improvements in its population’s conditions of living. Despite having a low per capita income, its indicators of social development—such as the human development index (0.84), infant mortality rate (12/1000 live births), sex ratio (1084 females to 1000 males), and female literacy rates (92.07%)—are comparable to those […]
Female circumcision, known around the world as female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM or FGC), is recognised as a human rights violation by the World Health Organisation. It involves cutting or altering parts of the female genitalia for non-medical reasons. It is not much talked about in India and is known so far to be […]