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Category: COMMENTS
July 01, 2007
In January 2007, two Phase III clinical trials of a candidate microbicide among women at high risk of HIV in India, South Africa, Benin, Uganda, and Nigeria were halted. This was done because analyses of preliminary data by the Independent Data Monitoring Committee indicated that the product was ...
July 01, 2007
According to estimates of the WHO, 13-19 million couples in India are infertile. Infertility due to reproductive tract infections and genital tuberculosis is preventable and amenable to treatment, and an estimated 8 per cent of infertile couples opt for medical intervention involving the use of a...
July 01, 2007
In many countries in the West, outpatient services are primarily provided through standalone doctors’ offices or group practices, or through outpatient services attached to tertiary care hospitals. Patients are seen by appointment in the outpatients’ clinic. The time of the appointment is based o...
July 01, 2007
The writer has painted a worst-case scenario based on her visits and observations. On the other hand, I have observed the practices of doctors who are members of a local family physicians’ association, who have, over the years, tried to provide the best to their patients. What I am going to write...
July 01, 2007
Why are Indian health delivery systems deficient in operating along the Western paradigm of appointment-driven practices with their proven “efficiency”? Is our “inefficiency” a result of people, both physicians and patients, or of the setting? Does systemic inefficiency thwart the efforts of effi...
April 01, 2007
Medical students undergo tremendous stress during their time as students. The magnitude of the stress as well as the ability to cope with it has changed along with changes in the social environment and technology. For both undergraduate and postgraduate students today, the unce...
April 01, 2007
I had an important professional matter to discuss with a senior surgeon who specialises in cancer care. The discussion lasted for about five minutes, after which I left the room. Being a physician myself, I was grateful that the busy surgeon was kind enough to answer the question that had kept me...
April 01, 2007
The litany of woes related to HIV/AIDS continues unabated in India. An orphanage in Gujarat's Kutch district removed two boys after they tested HIV-positive. The head of the orphanage claimed that the young boys posed a risk to the other children in the orphanage. The boys have lost their mother ...
April 01, 2007
The sale of kidneys is a regular scandal in India. A recent expose of yet another racket in the sale of kidneys in Tamil Nadu involved persons affected by the December 2004 tsunami. When some of them did not receive the money they were promised, they complained to the police. This is one more exa...
October 01, 2006
This commentary on a paper discussing the high levels of hypertension found in a tribal Indian community reflects on how the poor are affected by the hidden epidemic of non-communicable diseases. They suffer multiple burdens - of communicable and non-communicable diseases, of poverty and of ill-e...