Category Archives: Health
HIV Prevalence Climbs Among FSWs In Mumbai: Study
HIV prevalence has gone up from 28.1% to 34.9% among female sex workers in Mumbai and a few other districts in the country, according to a study of six vulnerable Indian states
‘Malnutrition Kills 56,000 Children Annually In Urban Slums’
An interview with a field worker of the NGO Apnalaya on the frequent occurrences of malnutrition related deaths among children in the slums of Mumbai.
Painful Facts
Over 7 million people in India suffer avoidable pain simply because they have no access to morphine, says a Human Rights Watch report on India’s obligation to ensure palliative care.
National Health Policy – 2002
The complete text of the National Health Policy
47% Of Children In India Are Underweight: UNICEF
Over half the world’s underweight children live in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, says a new Unicef report on the global progress on children’s issues. About 5.6 million children worldwide die every year for lack of adequate nutrients. Approximately 47% of India’s under-five population is underweight, according to ‘Progress for Children: A Report Card on Nutrition’, based […]
Mumbai slum children facing acute malnutrition
Malnutrition, illness and abject poverty have taken a severe toll on children in Mumbai’s Rafiq Nagar slum. Situated in a vast dumping ground, swarming with flies, and packed with garbage heaps at every step, the destitute colony has seen a series of child deaths since April this year, even as authorities scramble to ascertain their […]
Birth control pangs: Injectable contraceptives raise alarm
THE Union health ministry is again considering introducing injectable contraceptives in the family planning programme. The ministry has asked its Drug Technical Advisory Body (DTAB) to allow use of Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate (DMPA) in the programme. An earlier attempt to introduce it was withdrawn in 1995 after Supreme Court’s intervention. The contraceptive has side-effects, which […]
SEX RATIO DROPS IN GOA
While the state boasts of many achievements on various fronts, it appeared to have been fighting a losing battle in maintaining a healthy male-female sex ratio, as the figures for the last three years indicate a big fall in the number of girl children born in the state.
India’s 2010 Health Report
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HIV-TB co-infection
In 2009, Mumbai had 1,623 HIV-TB co-infected patients; of these, 541 were initiated on anti-retroviral therapy (ART). It’s believed that better access to ART has improved the TB infection rates among such patients. Amid reports of the HIV epidemic slowing down worldwide, city administrators believe they are witnessing another healthy change: A grip on the deadly […]