Government News

India has continued WHO engagement to support India maintain international quality surveillance for poliovirus detection in the country.

There have been reports in a section of the print media mentioning that bivalent oral polio vaccine supplied by a particular manufacturer had some quality issues. India was certified polio-free in March 2014 and continues to be so. India continues to remain vigilant against all three types of polioviruses. The last polio case due to wild poliovirus in the country was detected on 13 January 2011.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the signing of an Agreement between India and Uzbekistan on cooperation in health and medical science.

WHO  published its first investment case, setting out the transformative impacts on global health and sustainable development that a fully-financed WHO could deliver over the next five years.

More than 3 million people died as a result of harmful use of alcohol in 2016, according a report released by the World Health Organization (WHO). This represents 1 in 20 deaths. More than three quarters of these deaths were among men. Overall, the harmful use of alcohol causes more than 5% of the global disease burden.

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A clinical trial testing infusions of combination antibodies in people living with HIV has begun at the National Institutes of Health. The early phase clinical trial will evaluate whether periodic infusions of two highly potent, HIV-specific, broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs)—3BNC117 and 10-1074—are safe in people living with HIV. The study also will gather preliminary data on how effectively the bNAb infusions, delivered together every two to four weeks, suppress HIV following discontinuation of antiretroviral therapy (ART).

Six research awards totaling $9.4 million over three years will study the impact of behavioral interventions for primary or secondary prevention of opioid use disorder (OUD), or as a complement to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) of OUD.

World Health Organisation is developing Benchmark Documents for practice in Ayurveda, Panckarma and Unani system as part of its global strategy to provide safe, effective and accessible Traditional Medicine to global community. Development of these benchmarks documents is included in the Project Collaboration Agreement (PCA) between WHO and Ministry of AYUSH. WHO Working Group Meetings for three WHO benchmark documents scheduled 17 -19 September, 2018, was inaugurated at Jaipur. The three days programme containing four sessions on each day has been organized by Ministry of AYUSH and coordinated by National Institute of Ayurveda (NIA), Jaipur.

The Central government initiated empanelling independent individual and institutional monitors across the country.

The main objective is  to undertake regular monitoring of major national programmes and special monitoring of specific interventions under the NHM, to identify areas for improvement following the review and to provide suggestions for addressing the gaps identified

The National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) released the report HIV Estimations 2017 at a function. The HIV Estimations 2017 is the 14th round in the series of HIV Estimations under National AIDS Control Programme (NACP).

The National Institutes of Health announced the launch of a new initiative to help speed the development of cures for sickle cell disease, a group of inherited blood disorders affecting at least 100,000 people in the United States and 20 million worldwide. The Cure Sickle Cell Initiative will take advantage of the latest genetic discoveries and technological advances to move the most promising genetic-based curative therapies safely into clinical trials within five to 10 years.