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October 01, 2000
The field of dermatology is seen by many in the medical fraternity as a "hassle-free" subject. However, it has its role to play from a public health viewpoint. People's skin is the focus of much debate in India. Most public health issues relating to dermatology in India stem from poverty. At the ...
July 01, 2000
The future of health care has become an important social and political issue over the last decade. One major issue in this debate is how to keep costs under control while meeting consumers' increasing expectations. The per capita cost of health care in developing countries is much less than that ...
July 01, 2000
Diabetes is the second most common chronic disease in childhood (the first being asthma). It is a disease for which there is no cure as of today. Diabetes in children is usually of the insulin dependent variety. The condition poses a major challenge to diabetic children and to their families.
July 01, 2000
As diabetes is a chronic disease, it has become common for unethical people to offer instant cures, and even advise patients to stop treatment with time-tested anti-diabetic agents.
April 01, 2000
Although the false incidence (children born with neural tube defects or NTD) and true incidence (foetuses with NTD) of spina bifida is on the decline in the developed world, the same cannot be said of spina bifida in developing countries. In a country like India, the socioeconomic consequences of...
April 01, 2000
Multidrug resistant infections are on the increase and include common community-acquired infections such as typhoid, malaria and tuberculosis. Multidrug resistant typhoid fever assumed epidemic proportions in the country some years ago, initially catching physicians unawares. As the epidemic wors...
April 01, 2000
Medical ethics is a code of behaviour accepted voluntarily by the medical profession. Unfortunately, unlike other countries where the respective national medical associations lay down various codes of conduct and enforce them on their members, in our country, medical councils, both national and s...
April 01, 2000
Intersex cases are rare, and even medical personnel may not fully understand the finer nuances, implications and complexities of such cases. The arrival of a newborn is a highly emotional event in our country, and gender plays a key role. The birth of a boy is greeted with great enthusiasm. Not o...
January 01, 2000
The national immunisation schedule includes BCG, DPT, oral polio and measles vaccines, besides DT and TT. Many more vaccines are now freely available in the country. The immunisation committee of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics has considered most of these vaccines 'optional' and not included t...
January 01, 2000
The current claims of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) carrier rate in India are highly exaggerated, unscientific and misleading. A series of errors is being made in estimating the burden of HBV disease and its significance. These errrors must be corrected, and we must scientifically assess the burden of ...