Pakistan elections: health on agenda

Pakistan is conducting its 14th parliamentary elections this Saturday. In a country fraught with tremendous political and social instability and terrorism, healthcare has so far been a low priority. Pakistan spent just 0.27 per cent of its GDP on healthcare for its 180 million people in 2011-12. The country ranks fifth among high burden tuberculosis countries. About 1.6 million cases of malaria occur annually.

Attack on critics

Authorities in Nigeria’s northern state of Kano have pressed criminal charges against two radio journalists in connection with their criticism of local officials’ handling of a polio vaccination campaign.

Pentavalent takes its toll

Warned over vaccine advice

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) of the UK ordered a website offering parents advice on vaccines to withdraw information about MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) jab after a post claimed it could be linked to autism.

'South Asia, Africa show poor progress towards MDGs'

Maternal deaths have halved and child deaths have decreased significantly between 1990 and 2010. But countries in South Asia and Africa have shown poor progress in saving their mothers and new born children, says a report put together by WHO, UNICEF and academics. 

Letters - April 30, 2012

Give coffee a chance

Endgame begins

It was a day of celebration for the Union health ministry. On February 25, it received a message from WHO saying India’s name has been taken off the list of polio endemic countries as not a single new case of wild polio was reported in the past one year. A two-year-old girl from Howrah in West Bengal on January 13 was the last detected case of wild polio.

What ails Bundi?

Perched atop the Aravalli hill range, the fort of Bundi overlooks a large expanse of houses painted white and blue. Scattered among them are a few havelis that remind the visitor of the region's rich heritage. At a stone’s throw, there’s a lake. Its view from Kipling’s Palace—the house where the famous British poet and novelist once stayed—will put even the most restless minds at ease. But travel further into the hinterland and realisation dawns that Bundi suffers a curse.

Fatal resistance

Tears well up in Naseem Haider’s eyes as he watches his 25-day-old son twitch inside the incubator. Born premature after 29 weeks, this palm-sized infant, weighing no more than a kilogram has a feeding tube piercing through one nostril and an oxygen tube through the other. His vital organs are constantly monitored via wires attached to his body.

Get your own vaccine

Shuvam Kumar lay on an iron cot in the tetanus ward of the Nalanda Medical College and Hospital in Patna, Bihar. After four days in the hospital, with stiff jaws and high fever, the two-yearold was too weak to cry when the nurse gave him an injection. There is little hope left of his survival, the family had been informed. His father, a labourer in Galurghat village in Gaya, regrets not getting Shuvam to Patna for the tetanus vaccine immediately after he stepped on a nail in the village. Shuvam was not administered the vaccine after birth either. The vaccine is not available in the village.