Public Health Chronicle    News Analysis 

India's Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Act 2021 is a great step in improving women's health and reproductive rights. It is a step in the direction of lessening the stigma and discrimination experienced by women who seek abortions and towards building a more just and equitable society.

The Union Budget 2023 was unveiled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on 1st Feb 2023. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare was allocated 89,155 crores as health budget for the financial year 2023-24, which is 0.34% higher than last year’s 86,200 crores. After accounting for inflation . . .

A population-based prospective cohort study was conducted from 8 May 2009 to 26 December 2019 on individuals aged 60 years or older with the objective of identifying an optimal lifestyle profile to protect against memory loss in older individuals recently got published in BMJ. The study shows . . .

An analysis of the NFHS-5 data highlights the fact that eople living in the Northeast states of Mizoram, Assam and Tripura, parts of Eastern India and Goa had higher consumption of fried foods and . . .

Millets are one group of food that are nutritious and also one of the hardiest crops that can be grown in extremes of climate. Because of their nutritive value, they are also called “Nutri-Cereals”. International Year of Millets is celeberated with an objective . . .

Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, launched The National Lists of Essential Medicines (NLEM) 2022 on 13th September 2022. The first National List of Essential Medicines of India in 1996, encompassing 279 drugs, and this list was subsequently revised in 2003, 2011, 2015 and . . . .

World Hearing Day (3rd March 2023) is here to remind us of the importance of preventing hearing loss and promoting ear care worldwide by integrating ear and hearing care into primary healthcare for universal health coverage.

Menstrual leave or Period leave is paid or unpaid leave offered to female employees or students despite their sick or other leaves. Historically, Menstrual leave concept evolved after World War I, as Russian Soviet introduced to promote reproductive health and population stability measure. Thereafter, many countries introduced menstrual leave policies.

You must have heard about the experimental mRNA cancer vaccine being developed by Moderna and MSD (Merck & Co.), it was reported to show promising results against advanced melanoma. In a study that involved 157 melanoma patients, it was found . . .

The IHR Emergency Committee, concerning the ongoing events and context involving transmission and international spread of poliovirus, held the thirty-fourth meeting of the Emergency Committee under the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR) on 25 January 2023. The recent update on polio . . .

The National Hydrogen Mission was launched on August 15, 2021, with a view to cutting down carbon emissions and increasing the use of renewable sources of energy. The Union Cabinet on January 4, 2023, approved the National Green Hydrogen Mission, which is aimed at making India the global hub for the production of green hydrogen . . . .

It was possible only because of huge developments that took place in public health, nutrition, personal hygiene and medicine in the last two centuries. As a result, there was gradual increase in human lifespan with global life expectancy at all-time high in 2019 – 72.1 years . . . .