Health

[Disaster Series] Disaster Management Act 2005 & Coronavirus LockdownPREMIUM 

Disasters & Management / Diseases / Important Legislation (Bills & Acts)

Reading Time: 8 mins On 24th March 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a nation-wide lockdown, from 25th March 2020 to 14th April 2020. The nationwide lockdown aims to combat the COVID-19 outbreak that is infecting thousands of people across the country and is intended to enable the concept of “social distancing” to contain the spread of the virus. The lockdown has legal backing based on Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 and Disaster Management Act, 2005.

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India & Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19): Impacts, Measures & Challenges

Diseases

Reading Time: 16 mins The deadly new strain of coronavirus, COVID-19, has taken the lives of over thousands of people across the world. India is also currently facing a rapid spread of the infection, leading to the government putting the whole country under 21-day lockdown. This seems to do little to no impact as many people are either unwilling or cannot abide by the lockdown rules. Increasing the number of tests and rapid strengthening of the country’s healthcare system is a need of the hour.

Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897: Origin, Importance & Limitations

Diseases / Important Legislation (Bills & Acts)

Reading Time: 6 mins On March 11, 2020, the Cabinet Secretary announced that all states and UTs should invoke provisions of Section 2 of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 so that Health Ministry advisories are enforceable. As the number of cases in India has crossed 120 and is already in Stage 2 (local transition) of COVID-19, it is vital to enforce necessary measures to prevent the country from moving to stage 3, which involves community transmission of the disease. The Epidemic Diseases Act, despite being more than 100 years old, is playing a crucial role in dealing with the current outbreak. However, this colonial-era law has numerous limitations that need to be reformed to prepare the country of future epidemic outbreaks.

Abortion in India & Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020

Women / Women Health

Reading Time: 7 mins The union cabinet recently approved the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020. The move is expected to liberalise the practice of abortion and is long overdue. The move has been called for by many women’s rights groups and even the Supreme Court. The move is also significant as liberal abortion laws have been linked with a decline in unsafe abortions and abortion rates in general.

Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) in India – Reasons & Responses

Women / Women Health

Reading Time: 6 mins According to the recently released Sample Registration System (SRS), India’s Maternal Mortality Ratio has declined from 130 per 1 lakh live births in 2014-16 to 122 per 1 lakh live births in 2015-17. This is of significance as it means that about 2,000 maternal deaths have been prevented each year. This may be due to the improving accessibility and affordability to healthcare and also due to increasing awareness about the benefits of the public health system.

Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) in India – Reasons & ResponsesPREMIUM 

Child Health / Children

Reading Time: 8 mins The J.K Lone Hospital in Kota, Rajasthan is seeing an increasing number of deaths of infants. Amid the outrage caused by the infants’ death, disturbing figures of similar deaths emerged from Jodhpur and Bikaner as well as Rajkot and Ahmedabad in Gujarat. Reports indicate that the cause for these increasing infant deaths is the poor quality of infrastructure in public hospitals. The low-quality public healthcare has a huge impact on the nation’s Infant mortality rate – the indicator of the quality of a country’s healthcare system.

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Vaccine Hesitancy – Meaning, Factors, SolutionsPREMIUM 

Diseases

Reading Time: 6 mins In recent years, there is a significant increase in the measles cases at the global level. This is mainly attributed to the increase in the vaccine hesitancy. This led to the World Health Organisation to declare “vaccine hesitancy” as one of the 10 deadly threats to global health in 2019. Yet, it still remains a threat to the international community given the increasing misinformation in the current Information Age.

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