The 14 December 2012 marked the end of a year long pentavalent vaccine study in Kerala, India. Kerala is a small state in the south with some of the best healthcare indicators in the country. The pentavalent vaccine is to replace the diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus (DPT) vaccine and combines H influenza B and Hepatitis B […]
Category: South Asia
Anita Jain: Delhi rape—how doctors can help heal a survivor
As a brutal rape attack in Delhi has outraged masses and spurred the demand for urgent action, my thoughts turn to to the thousands of cases every year that suffer in silence. I do hope this spirit of intolerance for violence sustains. While calls for the death penalty, chemical castration, faster court trials, and heightened […]
Jacob Puliyel: Advertising standards and vaccine promotion in India
Until last week few people in India had heard of the existence of the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). Suddenly in the newspapers on the 15 December 2012 the ASCI was prominently featured. The story was about an advertisement for rotavirus vaccine on TV channels in many parts of the country. Set up in […]
Radhika Arora et al: Challenges and opportunities for female health systems researchers
Juggling personal and professional lives in search of the perfect balance is an art that women and men across the world, in different spheres of work, are familiar with. How does this play out in the life of a female health researcher? At the Health Systems Research Symposium held in Beijing recently, a group of […]
Rakhal Gaitonde et al: The mortar that holds the BRICS together
We are young researchers from Brazil, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS). Given our collective experience as citizens and researchers in these countries, and deeper understanding gathered during our three weeks in Beijing as part of the “Emerging Voices” at the second Global Symposium on Health Systems Research, we would like to share our vision […]
Rej Bhumbra: Is it ethical to donate second hand implantable devices to the developing world?
Few would disagree that organ donation and transplant surgery is a remarkable achievement. It is a selfless gift that unlocks the potential to cure disease or allay symptoms. But if that “gift” was a bone fixation plate, or an implantable cardiac defibrillator, would the perception be the same? The initial “gift” production responsibility is not […]
Pat Hughes: Tobacco in pregnancy – an orphan subject
Introducing the topic of smoking in pregnancy as “an orphan subject in this area” seemed the right choice of words to the handful of people who turned up for the session out of the thousands participating in the congress of the International Federation of Gynecologists and Obstetricians (FIGO) in Rome earlier this month. WHO is […]
Anita Jain: Evidence based medicine and shared decision making in Delhi
A child with rickets who has received varied, sporadic treatment over two years presents with the inability to walk and a short stature. A 55 year old widow diagnosed with hypertension meticulously preserves prescriptions from follow-up visits to the clinic, fully aware that she will purchase these medicines only when she has a good harvest. […]
Tiago Villanueva: Can doctors become “transnational” professionals?
A recent BBC article about the globalisation of work and people, written by Lynda Gratton, professor of management practice, argues that there will be more professionals called “transnationals,” as the job and education market become increasingly globalised. Gratton defines a transnational as a “worldwide group of people who are able to relocate at any time, […]
Leena Menghaney: India’s patent law on trial
This month, two critical legal battles between multinational pharmaceutical companies and the Indian government are taking center stage in an ongoing struggle over India’s medicines patent law. The potential consequences could be dire for governments and people in developing countries that rely on affordable, quality generic medicines produced in India. For example, more than 80% […]