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Category: Discussions
January 01, 2003
The Supreme Court petition by the voluntary organisation Saarthak has triggered off a debate on the treatment of persons with mental disorders in India.
January 01, 2003
Domestic violence is becoming recognised as a serious public health issue. Country studies have shown that between 16 and 40 per cent of women in the Asia and Pacific region had suffered violence by their intimate family members. The medical profession must be sensitised to provide special suppor...
January 01, 2003
"The mentally ill person deserves the same privileges enjoyed by any other human being," wrote the National Human Rights Commission in its report Quality Assurance in Mental Health published in 1999. The mentally ill person is protected by the Declaration on the Rights of the Disabled, a...
October 01, 2002
This review is meant to be a starting point for discussion of legal and ethical questions faced by medical professionals in relation to Acute Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Existing laws and the Code of Medical Ethics require re-examination in the light of the profession's experiences.
October 01, 2002
6.6 Human rights: The physician shall not aid or abet torture nor shall he be a party to either infliction of mental or physical trauma or concealment of torture inflicted by some other person or agency in clear violation of human rights.
October 01, 2002
A married woman was tested for HIV in a medical check-up prior to tubectomy. She tested positive. The result was conveyed to the aunt who accompanied her, and the operation was cancelled. The aunt spread the news that the woman had 'AIDS' to relatives and neighbours. People stopped coming to thei...
October 01, 2002
Increasingly there is a consensus on people's right to quality health care, including access to information and counselling services. Among the organisations which have spoken of health and human rights are the International Planned Parenthood Federation and the 1994 International Conference on P...
October 01, 2002
There is one subject related to health care workers, particularly nurses, that I have never heard discussed, whether in government or in private hospitals, where nurses form the largest workforce. I refer to occupational health safety for nurses in the context of blood-borne infections including ...
October 01, 2002
Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) has dramatically declined morbidity and mortality due to AIDS in the developed world. However, rational use depends on multiple factors such as affordability and accessibility to drugs, a laboratory infrastructure to monitor therapy, trained physicians...
October 01, 2002
The National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) has embarked on an ambitious programme aimed at controlling paediatric AIDS in the country. NACO has reason to believe that HIV prevalence among ante-natal women is more than one per cent in the high-prevalence states of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karna...