Feature Article

This study presents the first estimate of the worldwide burden of disease and premature death attributable to exposure to second-hand smoke (SHS) during 2004 through a retrospective analysis of data from 192 countries. The resulting burden of disease is measured as number of deaths and loss of diability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for children and adult non-smokers.

A cluster-randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was undertaken in 7 districts of the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana to assess the effect of weekly, low dose vitamin A supplementation in women of reproductive age on pregnancy-related mortality, all-cause female mortality and survival of their babies.

Probiotics are widely used in promoting human health and adjunctive therapy of human disease. Many clinical trials and research studies have shown benefits of probiotics. We review the literature associated with the clinical applications of probiotics in paediatric diseases.

School-based health programmes are widely used to improve the health and nutrition of schoolchildren in developed countries. However, little effort has been made in developing countries to provide preventive and promotive school health programmes in rural areas, while in urban areas the focus is on a curative approach for health problems.

Perhaps one of the most important signs that a country has effectively responded to its governance issues is in the management of its healthcare challenges. Healthcare presents a particularly complex situation for governments, one that is not easy for developing nations to tackle. Healthcare goals cannot be reached through funding and budgets alone. Rather, they require a coordinated effort from both the government and a network of service providers; they require programmes and policies that connect with individuals throughout their lives, from birth to death. (Editorial)

Surveillance and monitoring do not evoke much enthusiasm among doctors. Perhaps we have forgotten what these terms mean and their true purpose. Surveillance is the continuous collection, analysis, interpretation, dissemination and feedback of health related data, and is essential for guiding prevention and control activities for any disease. (Editorial)

Beacuse of the pressure of development, displacement of people from project sites has become an ubiquitous phenomenon. Relatively high rate of growth of the Indian economy has added new dimensions and diversity to project-related displacement. Development projects call for acquisition of land which, undertaken on a large scale and without consultation with the owners of land, have led to agitation and public protests. A proper resettlement policy is a key to dealing with this problem.

In a state such as Odisha in which Dalit and tribal groups comprise about 40 per cent of the total population, the issue of ‘access’ to land and resources has apparently been central to all conflicts. For traditional communities, ‘access’ is directly linked to civilizational paradigms and cultural ethos, which rather decide their ‘economics’, and not the other way round that may be true for modern, techno-centric civilizations. Most mainstream discourses of history have, however, tried to locate the crisis in the ‘absence of state interventions’.

The Government of India set up the ‘Health Survey and Development Committee’, popularly known as the ‘Bhore Committee’ in 1943 to draw up the scheme of health services for the newly emerging independent India. The recommendations made by the committee remain a landmark in the development of health services in the country and continue to inspire the health workers in the country in their struggle for developing pro-people health system.

The neo-liberal transformation of global economy has brought in a new trade regime replacing GATT 1947 with incorporation of services and intellectual property in the products to be exchanged and WTO as its powerful regulator. Health being one of the services has become tradable for the first time. India has chosen to engage in health trade substantially to drive economic benefits from medical tourism, export of pharmaceuticals and manpower, and to carry out contract clinical trials.