Health

While the number of cases has declined by 60 per cent over 2001, there are concerns that malaria is still being under reported. Other issues include the systemic resistance to drugs which were previously used to limit vector growth. Around 35 countries have been certified to be free of malaria and another 21 on their way to reach their target of zero transmission by the year 2020. In our neighbourhood, Sri Lanka and Maldives have also achieved the malaria-free status and Bhutan will be there soon.

The recent incidents of medical negligence and over pricing have spurred strong criticism of private players with Delhi government cancelling the licence of one hospital. What escapes the eye, however, is the constant support since 1990s that has led to growth of private sector at the cost of affordable government or public healthcare. The only solution is roping in private resources for public health system with regulations.

Clinical trials in India have for long been inviting controversy due to lack of transparency and regulatory mechanism. While replying to a question in Rajya Sabha in March 2013, the then Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said 438 deaths took place during clinical trials in 2011 while 668 people died during 2010. While hearing the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Swasthya Adhikar Manch in 2012, the Supreme Court asked the Central government to come up with more stringent regulatory and monitoring set up to stop exploitation

Are you free to be healthy? Can you cut back on junk food, jog around and reduce booze and cigarettes of your own will? "Yes," you might say, "we live in a democracy and can choose how to live." You are right but only partially. In the present times, junk food pervade not just the food courts but also what's cooked in our home kitchens, most of the open spaces for walking and jogging have been turned into parking lots and it's quite easy to relapse into smoking with surrogate tobacco promotions all around us. In fact, when it comes to choosing between various options, we don't have an absolute say. The State has already got that covered.

India’s health care system is one of the most privatised in the world. Thanks to policy of the government to encourage the growth of the private sector, especially since the 1990s, the share of private sector in various components of health care in India today is very high. Due to insufficient expansion of the public health system and overall private sector friendly policies of the state, the vast majority of doctors passing out from medical colleges have joined the private sector. This trend has accelerated with production of higher proportion of postgraduate doctors since the 1970s.

Tripti Tandon of Lawyers Collective talks to GOI Monitor about a recent case which brought the issue of immunity for drug users  under treatment into limelight

Q: Please tell us about the case of Aatish Suraj in which Supreme Court allowed Indian Harm Reduction Network to intervene?

The  movie ‘Extraordinary Measures’ released last year features a family conjuring all means possible to get treatment for their children who suffer from a hitherto unknown disease and are believed to be dying. The family’s struggle as it approaches politicians and pharma companies to seek help in finding cure for the disease depicts the never-say-die spirit of human beings. The disease they fight in the movie is called Pompe, one of the 8,000 rare diseases which are inflicting several children across the world.

Stem cell industry is playing on the emotions of naïve patients and families promising a future which may not really exist

In January this year, doctors at a corporate hospital in Delhi claimed to have treated an Iraqi patient of paraplegia using stem cells. The patient, who had lost sensation in his lower limb, was said to be able to stand now.