Who will now be held responsible? Whose negligence is all this? And will the guilty face the music?

At least 350 girls in Tezpur and 45 in Mangaldoi fell ill after they were given folic acid tablets under a National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scheme in Sonitpur and Darrang district on Wednesday. The Mangaldoi DC has ordered a magistrate-level inquiry into the incident. Condemning the incident, the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) has demanded of the State government to find out the manufacturers of the tablets and punish them.

The magnitude of problem of malnutrition among children and anaemia amongst women in India, including Gujarat, is borne by the fact that 41 per cent of children are underweight and 55 per cent women are anaemic.

These grim realities were revealed by the Union Minister of State for Women and Child Development, Ms Krishna Tirath, in the Rajya Sabha in reply to a question raised by Mr Parimal Nathwani, Jharkhand MP and group President of Reliance Industries Ltd.

The Central team touring the State to assess the drought situation has concluded that the drought in Chitradurga district is severe.

A member of the team, D Rajashekar, Deputy Advisor, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, New Delhi, told mediapersons in Chitradurga on Tuesday that the water table had depleted and borewells have dried up. The team will recommend to the Centre in its report to roll out development schemes to alleviate the sufferings of the drought-affected, he said. He commended the officials for the drought-relief works taken up in the district.

About 80,000 children living in Raipur, Mahasamund and Durg districts between age group 3 to 15 years are suffering from sickle cell anemia a generic disorder that can be fatal. The shocking revelation was made by The Centre for Genetic Diseases and Molecular Biology Department, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College Raipur. The department has launched Chhattisgarh Sickle Cell Screening Project aided by the Central Government, to take blood samples and has been scanning various districts in Chhattisgarh since 2007.

43% Of Kids Under 5 Yrs Malnourished, Finds Unicef Study
New Delhi: Modern India continues to be plagued by social and health ills like child marriage, early motherhood and domestic violence. Latest data in the “State of the World’s Children report 2012” released by Unicef on Wednesday shows that almost 22% women in India now aged between 20 and 24 years
gave birth to a child before they turned 18.

Mumbai: Ever heard of a medical iron tablet actually containing free iron particles, that too in a huge quantity? State food and drug administration commissioner Mahesh Zagde initially did not believe it. However, when a Thanebased consumer presented him with the evidence, he was left both stunned and horrified. “The consumer walked into my office, and in the presence of officials showed how the iron tablet was attracted to a magnet,’’ Zagde told TOI.

MUMBAI: Ever heard of a medical iron tablet actually containing free iron particles, that too in a huge quantity? State food and drug administration (FDA) commissioner Mahesh Zagde initially did not believe it. However, when a Thane-based consumer presented him with the evidence, he was left both stunned and horrified. "The consumer walked into my office, and in the presence of officials showed how the iron tablet was attracted to a magnet,'' Zagde told TOI.

MUMBAI: A Thane-based consumer has alerted the food and drug administration about iron pieces being found in a medically-prescribed iron tablet. The content of elemental iron in the tablet, prescribed for anaemia or lack of red blood cells, was way above permissible limits. FDA commissioner Mahesh Zagde has directed the Himachal Pradesh-based Galpha Laboratories to withdraw the entire stock of the product from Maharashtra. Simultaneously, the FDA has told 76,000-odd medical stores, public health and medical education departments not to prescribe the product.

The draft report of Planning Commission’s Steering Committee on Health for the 12th Five-Year Plan advocates free medicines for all in public health facilities. This is in line with the recommendation of the High Level Expert Group (HLEG) on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) that submitted its report a couple of months ago. The draft also envisages rolling out of a cashless UHC facility in one district per state during the first year of the 12th plan before being extended to the entire country.