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Tobacco control - mixing health and advocacy |
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The implementation of FCTC seems to be difficult for many reasons. For the first time, a regulatory device has been created to deal with a legal but deadly set of products. FCTC provisions emphasise reduction of both demand and supply. To fulfil their obligations under the treaty, countries must develop national tobacco-control policies, laws required to implement them, and mechanisms to monitor progress. The first stage in this process is the availability of data for different aspects of tobacco control.However, many countries have no data for tobacco control.
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WHO groups cancer together with chronic diseases |
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The organisation saysit is advocating an integrated approach to prevention, treatment, and care for chronic diseases, including cancer, because they share common risk factors. This is being done through plans such as the Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity, and Health. , () |
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India opens up to clinical trials of papillomavirus vaccines |
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Between 5% and 10% of healthy women in India are infected with high-risk strains of HPV—ie, strains 16 and 18. A large number of these women develop cervical cancer. There is a need for vaccination against high-risk HPV strains, particularly HPV16, the prevalence of which is exclusively high in India. If successful it can take care of at least 60–70% of those infected annually., () |
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Boost to cancer care in India |
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Historically, treatment plans in India have been based on patterns and risk factors from developed countries, mainly because locally generated protocols and data are not available. But this situation is now changing. Indian oncologists are realising that tailor-made treatment protocols can not only improve survival, but also slash treatment costs. , () |
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Paragonimiasis causing diagnostic confusion with tuberculosis |
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Paragonimiasis, a foodborne lung infection, is causing concern in northeast India because of its similarity with pulmonary tuberculosis in clinical and radiological symptoms. Microbiologists have reported cases of pulmonary paragonimiasis misdiagnosed as smear-negative tuberculosis and subsequently treated with tuberculosis drugs., () |
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Indian patents may hamper access to antiretrovirals globally |
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International AIDS action groups fear that the supply of cheap antiretroviral drugs from India to poor countries will be hit by the new product patent regime the country has adopted from Jan 1, 2005, and have urged the government to withdraw the new law., () |
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Bhopal: 20 years on |
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Relatives of those who died in Bhopal's 1984 pesticide leak are at last beginning to receive compensation. But, as Dinesh Sharma reports, activists are now turning on the Indian medical establishment with claims that it withheld post-exposure data that could have saved many lives., () |
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India to decentralise disease surveillance |
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India's health ministry has unveiled a national disease-surveillance plan, which will decentralise the monitoring of disease, and will involve private-care providers in disease surveillance and investigations of outbreaks., () |
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Indian group challenges rights granted for leukaemia drug |
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A patient-support group, Cancer Patients Aid Association (CPAA, Mumbai, India) has challenged the exclusive marketing rights (EMR) granted by the Indian patent office to Novartis for imatinib for treatment of chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) and gastrointestinal stromal tumours. The EMR were granted as part of the Indian government's commitment to shift to product-patent regimens in 2005., () |
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India to use AD syringes to stem infection from reused needles |
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The Indian health ministry has decided to introduce auto-disposable (AD) syringes to all immunisation programmes, in a bid to improve injection safety and prevent spread of infection through reused syringes. AD syringes will replace the glass syringes being used in immunisation programmes. The use of these syringes has been tested out in a pilot scheme of hepatitis B vaccination at over 45 locations across India. No date has been fixed for the switchover, but officials said it might take place in a phased manner., () |
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International Publications 
