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Global Update Indian Pediatrics 2001; 38: 1437 |
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News in Brief |
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Education What can be the long term consequences of teaching students of modern medicine, Ayurveda, Siddha, Yoga, Homeopathy and Unani? The Ministry of Health in India’s proposal to do just this has created a furore in corridors of power in the Medical Council of India and Indian Medical Association. The General Secretary of the IMA feels that this will open the "floodgates to confusion and quackery". This they feel will be a unspoken license for students of traditional medicine to practice half backed knowledge of modern medicine. But a large fraction of the countries population depend on traditional medicine for several chronic or recalcitrant problems. An intelligent and unbiased debate on the subject is certainly warranted (eMBJ 10 Nov 2001). Controversy What went wrong with Vitamin A Twelve hours after administering the pulse vitamin A, several children all over Assam developed nausea and vomiting. At last count about 15,000 had reported sick and 5 had died. The Assam Government has stopped the program and the Health Minister is not mincing his words about action against UNICEF, if found guilty. The UNICEF representative Carrie Auer is firm in defending the program. The solution is manufactured by Nicolas Piramal India Ltd. and has stringent quality controls. The only difference this time was that 5 ml caps were used this time in place of the 2 ml spoons. What really went wrong, that is the crucial question (The Hindustan Times, 13 November 2001). Law The meek shall inherit the earth: In wake of the Anthrax scare, when the US government threatened to override Bayer’s patent on Ciprofloxacin and buy bulk drugs at cheaper rates, Bayer’s gave in and sold it to the government at half the price. But the US government has in the past several times used its power to limit drug availability in countries with clear public-health emergencies. It took a 3 year law suit against 39 multinational drug companies, for the South African Government to be able to buy cheaper antiretroviral drugs. Clarifications and changes in the TRIPS agreement during public health crises need to be sorted out (The Lancet Interactive, 10 November 2001). Gouri Rao Passi, |
