Now, watch out for Double Helical National Health Awards 2017!
Dear readers,
As you are aware, Double Helical is engaged in the dissemination of knowledge and awareness about issues confronting the health and well-being of people and the challenges before the healthcare sector. Further, to acknowledge the extraordinary achievements of the outstanding doctors, medical institutions and allied professionals, we also organize national and state level awards. We are pleased to announce that we are going to hold National Health Awards in May, 2017 in New Delhi, for which we seek your support and blessings to make the event a success for the betterment of this noble profession.
In keeping with our mission to regularly update you with the latest health news and views, you will read comprehensive and authentic coverage of health issues in the current issue. As part of our special story, this time we are covering Padma Shri and Dr B C Roy awardee Dr K K Aggarwal, who recently took charge as National President, Indian Medical Association. He is a multifaceted healer full of deep compassion, care, and sensitivity, wiping away the tears of mankind with his magical healing touch.
We are also focusing upon the Supreme Court’s recent decision to allow a rape victim to abort her abnormal 24-week-old foetus on medical grounds, which is beyond the permissible 20 weeks limit prescribed under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971. As a matter of fact, there is a crying need to revisit the present legal limit to save a mother’s life, especially in view of the rapid advances in medical science.
The Supreme Court’s decision comes on the ground of danger to the victim’s physical and mental health. The victim got relief under an exception in section 5 of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, which allows abortion after the permissible 20 weeks in case it “is immediately necessary to save the life of the pregnant woman.”
In many parts of India, daughters are not preferred and hence sex-selective abortion is commonly practised, resulting in an unnatural male to female population sex ratio due to millions of girls selectively being targeted for termination before birth. The prevalence of illegal abortions, combined with the idea that abortion could be a mode of population control, has caused the government to reconsider the law. After the Supreme Court’s recent order, the entire medical fraternity has started demanding immediate implementation of the much-awaited draft Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2014.
Lack of food safety is one of major threats to public health in India. Child deaths from diarrhea in the country are among the highest in the world due in part to poor water quality. Perhaps very few cities in India provide clean water that can be consumed from the tap without filtration. As India needs FDI to maintain growth, Prime Minister Narendra Modi aims to improve India’s ranking in the Global Competitiveness Index, but India’s discouraging record on the issue of food safety is stymieing these efforts by presenting a picture that the country is far from ensuring good quality of food to its people.
To achieve food safety, we need allocation of adequate resources to regulatory units. Institutions need to be strengthened and their capacity enhanced. We require tighter strategic and operational coordination among various agencies. We need to apply restrictions and sanctions in areas needing urgent policy attention, but targeting high-profile products in an attempt to step up regulatory activities may prove to be counterproductive. Noodles of a particular brand may or may not be a legitimate health threat, but it is clear that the country’s food safety and public health regulatory regimes should undergo a complete overhaul, sooner or later.
The story entitled ‘Mankind under Threat’ explains how human beings are vulnerable to various infectious diseases or zoonoses, which are transmitted from animals. Zoonoses is defined as an infection or infectious disease transmissible under natural conditions from vertebrate animal to man. Based on the direction of transmission, these are classified as Anthropozoonoses, which are infections transmitted from animals to man, for example rabies, plague, etc. For the benefit of our readers, we have come out with an in-depth study of these deadly infections, the strategies for their prevention and their possible cures, written by our expert panel.
There are many more such interesting and thought-provoking stories in the January 2017 issue of your favourite magazine Double Helical. Our best wishes to you for a rewarding, productive and successful New Year. Happy reading!
Warm regards,
Amresh K Tiwary
Editor-in-Chief