The government is planning to make cancer a “notifiable disease”, which will mean every case will have to be reported. Till now infectious diseases like polio, plague, H1N1, H5N1 (bird flu) figure in the list of notifiable diseases. Recently, tuberculosis was made a notifiable disease. Cancer would become the first non-communicable disease to be included in the same category.

Officials in the Union health ministry disclosed that government is seriously considering to make cancer a notifiable disease and the decision in this regard will be taken very soon.

LUCKNOW: National Rural Health Mission's Project Approval Board has given UP more than what it asked for. The board not only sanctioned funds for projects worth Rs 3,187.57 crore, it also allowed the state to add unspent balance of about Rs 700 crore. Therefore, NRHM fund allocation for 2012-13 would be around Rs 4,500 crore - highest in the country for any state and highest ever for UP in the last seven years.

LUCKNOW: The state government will make a presentation on the National Rural Health Mission before the Union health ministry's project approval board on Thursday. The presentation will decide the allocations for UP for the financial year 2012-13. The proposal was finalized in the NRHM general body meeting held in mid-April. Headed by chief secretary Jawed Usmani, the apex body of NRHM approved the project implementation plan (PIP) worth Rs 3787.57 crore for the new fiscal. In 2011-12, UP's plan size for NRHM was about Rs 3,127 crore.

Under attack over the functioning of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare today claimed to have “already taken several steps” to plug the loopholes in the system.

Reacting to a standing committee report on the functioning of CDSCO, tabled in Parliament yesterday, the ministry said it was examining the observations. “After receipt of inputs from CDSCO on the report and thorough its scrutiny, appropriate action would be taken by the ministry wherever required,” the statement said.

With cases of MDR and XDR tuberculosis being reported from various parts of the country, the Union Health Ministry has decided to make TB a notifiable disease. This means any institution, government or private, which sees a new tuberculosis patient, will have to mandatorily inform designated health authorities about the case and its treatment.

The proposal was approved by Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad last week and sources say the order will be issued any day now.

Even as some States have reported outbreak of A(H1N1) influenza, the Centre has said that since the virus is circulating in the community, border control measures, such as entry screening at airports, ports and railway and bus stations, is not essential.

The influenza has been reported from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, and some of these and their neighbouring States are resorting to screening at entry points.

Restrains Centre from giving effect to nearly 25 provisions of the Legislation

The Madras High Court Bench here has restrained the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry and the Commissioner of Food Safety in Chennai from giving effect to certain provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, and the regulations framed under it with respect to members of Madurai Managar Anaiththu Vanigargal Nala Sangam (MMAVNS), Tamil Nadu Foodgrains Merchants Association (TNFMA), and Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TNCCI).

Bhubaneswar: Health and family welfare minister Prasanna Acharya on Saturday said that the state government has decided to strengthen the infrastructure of the drugs control administration to ensure availability of quality drugs to the patients. Addressing a two-day conference of Drug Inspectors here, Acharya said as part of upgradation of the drugs control administration, the minister said that as decided, the state government has decided to appoint another 21 Drug Inspectors, taking the cadre to 65 during the current financial year.