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.

Letters - April 30, 2012

Give coffee a chance

Developing countries outshine G7 nations in health aid

The BRICS countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—have substantially increased funding to the poor countries to improve health. Although the G7 donors (USA, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, UK and Japan) still provide far more assistance to poor countries, the foreign assistance by BRICS countries between 2005 and 2010 was 10 times higher than that of the G7, notes the report ‘Shifting Paradigm: How the BRICS are reshaping global health and development’ by Global Health Strategies Initiatives (GHSI), an international non-profit.

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.

‘Policies will infuse objectivity in health research’

What’s the status of the National Health Research Policy?  It has been in the draft stage for a while. When will it be implemented? How will it change the health research scenario in the country?   Interviewee:  V M Katoch

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.

Resurgent polio

 cripple EFFECT

News 360°

RARE EARTH MINERALS CHINA TIGHTENS GRIP

Left to quacks

Two-year-old Khushi Kumari loves racing with her siblings and at the end of each run she gives out a hearty laugh. The only time she breaks into fits of inconsolable crying is when approached by a stranger. “She fears she would get injections again,” said her mother Dinapati Yadav of Haldichapra village in Patna district.

A programme for the polio victim?

It is not easy to trust a doctor who comes calling, studies the patient’s sickness, and leaves without a prescription even. More so when the patient is a child in a poor family and has polio. Yet this is routine in parts of the country where polio is endemic. Each child with symptoms like fever, muscle aches and abdominal pain is visited by teams from the World Health Organisation, for stool samples. This is to check for the presence of the polio virus and identify the strain circulating in the area. That done, the child becomes a statistic.