Cancer is often considered a disease of developed nations. In developing countries such as India, the focus has been on curbing communicable diseases. This has resulted in a dramatic improvement in life expectancy in India from 32 to 63 years in the past five decades. However, with the neglect of non-communicable diseases and a rapidly ageing population there has been an unhindered increase in cancer incidence and mortality.

New Delhi The government has made it mandatory for pharmaceutical companies sponsoring clinical trials in the country to pay financial compensation to volunteers in case a trial-related death or injury is proved. Moreover, the onus of proving that clinical trials did not cause death or injury will now lie with the drug company, according to a recent notification of the health ministry.

The International Advisory Panel (IAP) on National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) on Thursday attributed India’s better health indicators to work accomplished under various components of NRHM.

In a meeting held on Thursday, Jeffery D. Sachs, head of IAP along with his team of experts with Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. Prof. Sachs commended India for the incredible progress.

New Delhi: Goa and Kerala seem to be the best places in which to be born, while Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa are the worst. According to the latest Union health ministry data, Goa recorded the lowest infant mortality rate — 10 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, followed by Kerala at 13. MP recorded the highest IMR at 62, followed by UP (61) and Orissa (61).

The State has as many as 68,000 children living with HIV/AIDS, out of a total of 1.98 lakh people affected by the syndrome (by the end of December 2011), according to Medical Education Minister S A Ramdas.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, the minister said the government’s challenge was to tackle paediatric HIV cases which were on the rise.

India will soon ban blood tests to detect tuberculosis (TB) that are widely available across the country. An expert group set up by the Drug Controller General of India has found that blood tests are mostly inaccurate for TB detection. It has recommended to the Union health ministry to immediately ban them.

Following the questions raised by the Union Health Ministry’s Central TB division about the presence of a total drug resistant TB (TDR-TB) in the city, the BMC is now working on multiple projects in its attempt to take stock of the TB situation.

Apart from the anti-TB blueprint that the BMC announced, a plan to revamp the Sewree TB Hospital and to start a high-tech TB diagnosis centre similar to the one at JJ Hospital, are on the agenda.

Refuting the claims of Hinduja Hospital that claimed to have detected 12 cases of “total drug resistant” tuberculosis, the Union health ministry on Tuesday said that the isolates collected from Maharashtra have infact shown that there was not yet any case of extensive drug resistant (XDR) tuberculosis.

The detection of 12 cases of totally drug resistant (TDR) tuberculosis (TB) in Maharashtra has set the alarm bells ringing in the Union health ministry. Apart from rushing a three-member team of experts to Mumbai to look into these cases, the ministry has called for the detailed case histories of these patients. It is for the first time in the country that the cases of TDR have been officially reported in the country.

The United Nations and leading world organizations celebrated India’s first polio free year and termed it as a major milestone in their fight against this dreaded disease.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan, termed it as the “greatest public health achievement” of India, the Bill Gates, of Bill and Milinda Gates Foundation described it as a major milestone in the global fight against polio.