Chandigarh: March 30, 2011

Rotary International expects India to be the first to be free of polio among the four countries where it runs a campaign and that should happen within three years, says its president Ray Klinginsmith. "As per our estimation, India will be the first of the four countries (the campaign is active in Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India) to be declared polio-free," Klinginsmith said. Rotary International will formally declare India a polio-free country within the next three years, he said. About the success of the 'Polio-free India' campaign, he pointed out: "There has been only a single case of polio reported in India over the last 11 months."

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Ranchi: March 30, 2011

If the State government would have its way, ailing lots in Jharkhand would soon have access to cheaper and equally efficacious drugs. In its bid to lessen the cost of treatment, the State government has decided to open medical stores—Jan Aushadhi Kendras—at all the sadar hospitals across Jharkhand to sell all kinds of generic medicines, which are available in market less than half the cost of branded drugs usually prescribed by doctors. As per the Centre’s policy, the State Health and Family Welfare Department has sent a proposal seeking financial help to operationalise the project. The Ministry of Health offers Rs 2.50 lakh as grant to the State for opening of each generic drug centre.

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New Delhi: March 30, 2011

Lack of proper infrastructure is the foremost barrier to healthcare access, a new study says. According to the study conducted by Pune-based DY Patil Medical College and voluntary group India Health Progress, nearly 58 percent of the respondents consider poor infrastructure to be the main barrier in accessing healthcare facilities in the country. "Inadequate buildings, equipment and instruments and irregular staff are some of the barriers that restrict people from getting basic healthcare," the study said. "Of the total respondents in the survey, only 31 percent expressed inability to seek treatment in the past six months due to financial constraints," it stated. Over 80 percent respondents did not have access to health insurance cover.

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New Delhi: March 25, 2011

Microsoft chairman and philanthropist Bill Gates said the large number of deaths in the world due to tuberculosis was unacceptable and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was all for supporting a low-cost affordable vaccine for the disease. “Whatever helps the poorest, we are committed to it,'' Mr. Gates said at an interaction with the media here on “Maximising India's Capacity: Creating an Ecosystem of Innovation and Research to Address Public Health Concerns,'' organised by the Ministry of Science and Technology. TB was preventable and treatable, but the most common TB test was more than 125 years old and it missed half the cases. By the time most TB patients were correctly diagnosed and treated, they may have unknowingly infected many others — creating an endless cycle.

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New Delhi: March 25, 2011

Severely criticising the Manmohan Singh Government's flagship programme, the National Rural Health Mission, the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament has said it is a “fiasco”. In its report tabled in Parliament, the Committee said it found that health centres were being used as “godowns for storage of foodgrains and cowdung”. “A large number of sub-centres, primary health centres and community health centres are located in sub-standard environment such as garbage dumps, cattle sheds and stagnant waterbodies, and functioning in unhygienic conditions,” it noted. Besides, these centres lack water supply and storage tanks, facilities for disposal of sewage and bio-medical waste and separate utilities for men and women.

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Bhubaneswar: March 25, 2011

Despite the State being prone to tuberculosis infection, the State government miserably failed to wake up to the situation, revealed a Citizen Report Card brought out by citizen forums on the occasion of of World TB Day. “The State government has been able to spend less than 50 per cent of the budget. Against budgetary availability of Rs.14.46 crore for 2010-11, only Rs. 4.72 crore has been spent, which is 33 per cent,” said the report. The progress report was prepared by Odisha Rajya Rogi Adhikar Manch (ORRAM) and Loka Samukhya, Odisha (LAO). TB was preventable and treatable, but the most common TB test was more than 125 years old and it missed half the cases. 

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New Delhi: March 24, 2011

As a new rapid diagnostic test, endorsed by the World Health Organisation (WHO), will finally help detect more people with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB), there was need to solve problems around the pricing and supply of DR-TB medicines, according to a report by international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The DR-TB is on the rise, but less than 7 per cent of 4,40,000 new cases each year receive treatment. It kills 150,000 people in the world annually, according to the WHO. India is one of the countries with the highest burden of DR-TB cases in the world, with more than 99,000 new cases each year.

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Mumbai: March 24, 2011

Maharashtra will augment medical facilities in non-metro cities and rural areas of the state, Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Ajit Pawar announced while presenting the Budget for 2011-12. Pawar said that the government planned to provide patients the facility of X-ray and ECG at the primary health centres and blood banks at other rural hospitals. He said that an amount of Rs 241 crore has been sanctioned for construction of urban and rural health institutions under the Public Health Department, which include several hospitals and medical colleges. The Finance Minister said that the centrally-sponsored National Rural Health Mission is being implemented effectively in the state and the government would provide Rs 160 billion as its share.

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New Delhi: March 24, 2011

Around 40% of India’s population is infected with the bacteria that causes tuberculosis. The majority however are dormant TB carriers. What’s most worrying is that almost 70% of TB patients are aged between 15 and 54 years. While two-thirds are male, TB takes a disproportionately larger toll among young females, with more than 50% of female cases occurring before 34 years of age, according to the Revised National TB Control Programme’s 2011 report. Director-general of health services Dr R K Srivastava says, “By the end of 2015, India will bring in universal access for quality diagnosis and treatment for all TB patients in the community. 

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New Delhi: March 23, 2011

“India has the resources to win the war against tuberculosis, but we need to eradicate the social stigma attached to the disease. Early detection and completion of treatment is the most effective method to ensure that the disease is controlled and eradicated from India,” Union Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Sachin Pilot said. She was speaking at the presentation of the REACH Lilly MDR-TB Partnership Media Awards. “Information technology can be used to tackle TB, and the local media is among the most effective tools of communication to reach out to the villages where a significant section of our population resides,” he said.

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