Health News update is a weekly news collation of health news which is shared on the Repro health list serve and archived on this website.

Health News

Free medicine distribution

Bijapur: 15th January 2012


The district administration will distribute free medicines to people affected by elephantiasis from January 23. In a press release, Deputy Commissioner Shivyogi Kalasad asked officials to set up task forces in each taluk to monitor the distribution of medicines. There were reports of people showing symptoms of the disease in Sindagi, Indi, Muddebihal and Basavanbagewadi taluks and medicines will have to be distributed to 13,70,095 persons in these districts, the release added. Mr. Kalasad said that these medicines should not be given to pregnant women and children aged less than two.

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Bengal hospital gets clean chit in patient denial case

Kolkata: 15th January 2012

The West Bengal government Sunday gave a clean chit to a state-run city hospital following allegations that a pregnant woman died allegedly after she was denied admission there. "As per initial probe reports, prima facie it appears that no pregnant woman seeking admission came to Chittaranjan Seva Sadan (CSS), as such there cannot be any patient refusal," Health Secretary Sanjay Mitra told media persons at the Writers' Buildings state secretariat here. `

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Drug-resistant TB patients set to be isolated in Maha

Mumbai: 15th January 2012

The state government has decided to shift patients with totally drug-resistant tuberculosis (TDR-TB) to a sanatorium in Jaysingpur near Maharashtra’s Sangli. A central team of TB experts will assess the patients on Monday before they leave the city. The move taints India’s glorious public health moment: a year without a single polio case. State doctors were busy on Saturday working out quarantine plans to contain one of the worst health disasters—the emergence of totally drug resistant tuberculosis (TDR-TB) in Mumbai.

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Out in cold at AIIMS, sick finally tuck in for night

New Delhi: 14th January 2012

There’s warm news for patients forced to stay out in the cold at AIIMS. A night shelter has been opened on the hospital campus. It’s no makeshift arrangement, but a concrete, well-ventilated structure that even has cellphone charging points. On Friday, within hours of the opening, over 50 patients and attendants retired for the night here.

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Out in cold at AIIMS, sick finally tuck in for night

New Delhi: 14th January 2012

There’s warm news for patients forced to stay out in the cold at AIIMS. A night shelter has been opened on the hospital campus. It’s no makeshift arrangement, but a concrete, well-ventilated structure that even has cellphone charging points. On Friday, within hours of the opening, over 50 patients and attendants retired for the night here.

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Kolkata hospitals slam doors on dying woman

Kolkata: 14th January 2012

A woman was allegedly turned away by two government hospitals and bled to death after giving birth to twins. Her family shuttled between Chittaranjan Sishu Sadan and Sambhunath Pandit Hospital in Kolkata — with her screaming in the back of a taxi — but couldn’t find a doctor willing to take her in. After two hours of frantic search, someone at the Sishu Sadan checked her pulse and said: “She is dead, take her out of here.”

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Rural India beats cities in sex tests

New Delhi:14th January 2012

Did you think sexselection was more prevalent in urban homes? Think again. An analysis of Census 2011 by the Union health ministry on the eve of the crucial meeting of the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act’s (PC & PNDT Act) Central Supervisory Board (CSB) has shown that the hideous crime against a girl child has become more prevalent among families in rural India.

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Eradicating polio a great feat by India, says WHO

New Delhi: 14th January 2012

India’s success in controlling polio — not reporting a single case of the crippling disease in 12 months — has been lauded by the World Health Organization (WHO). Calling it “India’s greatest public health achievement”, the WHO said the number of polio-endemic countries — those which have never stopped indigenous wild poliovirus transmission — could soon be reduced to a historical low of three: Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.

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Dengue outbreak alert in capital district

Thiruvananthapuram: January 13, 2012

The district health administration has sounded a high alert about the possibility of an outbreak of vector-borne infectious diseases in many parts of the district, especially the Corporation wards, where the vector density index has reached explosive proportions. The coastal areas of the district, including Vallakkadavu, Poonthura, Vizhinjam, Pulluvila, and pockets in Anayara, Kadakampally, Vattiyoorkavu, Beemapally were specifically at risk as clusters of dengue cases were being reported from these areas since December, officials said.

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Unorganised workforce under health insurance plan

New Delhi: 12th January 2012

The Union Cabinet on Thursday brought workers in the unorganised sector under the cover of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) through which they are entitled to smart card-based cashless health insurance cover of Rs 30,000 per family every year. The cabinet extended the benefits of the scheme to building and other construction workers, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) beneficiaries, street vendors, beedi workers and domestic workers, an official release said, reports IANS.

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