Science and Technology - Briefs

ENVIRONMENT Super socks to check pollution runoff

Do-gooders and doubting thomases

GOVERNMENT circles seem to abound with good intentions these days. Especially with respect to the environment.

Ideas to save government money

There is something about India’s government machinery that makes it impervious to simple, low-cost solutions. It spends hundreds of crores of rupees to make available drinking water. The money, it is widely known, does not trickle down to villages that need potable water. The government knows it cannot achieve its goal with a centralized mindset.

Half a cervical cancer vaccine

on april 7, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) stopped its cervical cancer vaccination drive in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, which it started in August last year. Several girls—10-14-year olds who were part of the vaccination drive—suffered side effects, and six died. The link between the vaccines and deaths has not been established. But health groups have alleged that ICMR’s vaccination project did not conform to the guidelines for clinical trials in India. In response, the ICMR  has commissioned an enquiry.    

Vaccine units need booster shots

About two years ago, the Union health ministry suspended the licences of three state-owned vaccine-making facilities saying they were not complying with the who’s good manufacturing practices (gmp). The vaccine units have now been asked to resume work and get gmp compliance later.

Vaccine shortage to continue

UNION health ministrys data shows procurement of vaccines for the current fiscal year is lower than required under the national immunization programme. But at a meeting of the parliamentary committee on health on October 26, ministry officials denied any shortage. The committee has asked it to submit documents in support of its claim.

South Asia

Sri lanka reacts to Vaccine: Sri Lanka has decided to blacklist three Indian pharma companies for two years following the death of two school girls, aged 12 and 13, who were vaccinated for rubella (German measles). Though WHO gave a clean chit to the vaccines, Sri Lanka decided to ban the pharma companies as they were found supplying contaminated saline bottles and vaccine vials containing glass particles. The Sri Lankan health minister said it was a serious breach of medical ethics.

News 360 - Briefs

indigenous peoples rights Lima offers soil, denies subsoil

South Asia

Polio drive in SWAT: Children living in Pakistans swat valley were given polio drops after a gap of one year. An emergency polio drive was launched recently after the conflict-ridden valley reported 13 cases of the viral disease in the past four months. Health officials were denied access to the valley in the North-West Frontier Province by Taliban militants who consider polio vaccines un-Islamic and a conspiracy to make Muslim children infertile. Pakistan has confirmed 62 polio cases this year. The country is one of the four along with India, Afghanistan and Nigeria

Business in typhoid

A clinical trial okays an expensive vaccine for India