Virginia Lee is a counsellor from Australia who recently spent seven months working as a mental health coordinator in a community clinic in Delhi. The clinic offers medical and psychological care to survivors of domestic and sexual violence Incidents of sexual and gender-based violence are unfortunately not uncommon in Delhi. An average of six cases … Read more
How doctors take healthcare to people who would otherwise struggle to access it Nearly 400km south of Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh, lies a town called Bijapur. It is the kind of town that now survives only as a memory for many people living in big cities. There are no malls or theatres, and power … Read more
Geneva/New York/New Delhi, 22 August 2017 – Hopes for improved access to an affordable pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) that safeguards both children and adults from pneumonia were dealt a major blow after the Indian patent office granted a patent to the US pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer for its PCV13 product, marketed as Prevnar13. “It’s unfair and … Read more
India does not implement six out of the 16 key World Health Organisation (WHO)- recommended tuberculosis (TB) control policies in diagnosis, patient care and treatment, a new global report has found. Four other policies that are a part of the national policy are not being fully implemented. Click here to read more
India’s tuberculosis control programme is not fully equipped to prevent, diagnose, and treat patients. The Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program uses outdated diagnostic techniques, suffers from repeated medicine stock-outs and lacks capacity to counsel tuberculosis patients, according to the Out of Step report released by the Stop TB Partnership and Médecins Sans Frontières last week. Click here … Read more
Hyderabad, July 21, 2017 – As negotiators for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade agreement meet for another round of negotiations in Hyderabad next week, networks of people living with HIV/AIDS from different parts of the country, public health experts from the region and Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) will mobilise in the city to … Read more
New York/New Delhi, June 26, 2017 – As U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meet at the White House today, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned that U.S. pressure on India to change its drug regulatory and patent system could result in millions of people in the U.S. and around the world losing … Read more
6 June 2017, New Delhi: On 25 May, an expert committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), the Indian drug regulatory authority, finally permitted the child-friendly and heat-stable pellet formulation of the HIV drug lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r) to be registered. This has opened up crucial supplies from Cipla to the Indian National AIDS Control … Read more
New Delhi/Geneva : MSF response on the India-EFTA free trade agreement negotiations in Liechtenstein this week Background: On 30 May 2017 (Tuesday), trade talks will resume for the India-EFTA (European Free Trade Association) free trade agreement (FTA) in Liechtenstein, between India and the EFTA countries of Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Through this deal, Swiss … Read more
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), an international humanitarian-aid non-governmental organisation, on Monday welcomed the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposal to bring in a law to make it mandatory for doctors to prescribe generic names. At present most doctors prescribe drugs using their brand names. Click here to read more