Category: Uncategorized

Index Home Healthcare suffers from male dominance. At the beginning of 20th century, most doctors were men. Maternal care, commonest women’s health concern, was more of a tradition rather than part of a profession. Midwives and later nurses were flag bearers of health issues affecting women. In this context, it is no surprise that in comparison… Continue reading Women’s health, cancer screening and Papanicolaou

Index Home Conflict affects health (and vice-versa) Conflicts disrupt health systems. They not only overwhelm health-facilities with wounds and injuries, they also disrupt supply chain of medical supplies. Further, health-care workers, who now fear for their lives, themselves migrate or are unable to report for work. Thus, peace is first requisite for an effective health system.… Continue reading Conflict, peace and health

Birthday commemorations for WHO After the end of the second world war, victorious nations agreed to form an organisation, that could prevent a third-world war. When the ward ended in 1945, these countries formed United Nations. This was a beginning of global cooperation at an unprecedented scale As nations started their deliberations, there also was… Continue reading World Health Organization: Philately @75

Index Home This is not a blog about mid-life crisis. Neither is it about a disease. Rather, it is about a modern structure. Nations anticipated its birth for seven long years. Its parent architect died, before a single brick could be laid. Despite these odds, it was beautiful when completed. Nations rejoiced at its birth. As… Continue reading A Toast at birth, but stranded at fifty-five

Index Home Earliest faith based charities Philanthropy is often related to religion. Before 1900s church was a base for most international charities. These derived their name from a saint. For instance, St John of God who worked for the ill lived between 1495 and 1550. In his name his followers set-up an order of brothers of… Continue reading How some international Philanthropies in health were named ?

Index Home Towards the end of 20th century, JK Rowling created Harry Potter. Slytherin was one of its four houses. This house had serpent as a symbol, and its inmates were cunning, resourceful, took leadership roles, and were ambitious. Some consider Slytherins as evil, and others as a necessity. As in Harry Potter, slimy, slithering and… Continue reading Slithering serpents and health-care

It was 1870. A mysterious disease had struck Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay. Men and women would develop fever, muscle pains, yellow eyes, and would die as their liver would fail. This was yellow fever. In a few years, it was seen all over south and Central America. About a decade later, in 1881, a… Continue reading Story behind world’s first international health organisation

Home Index Story of polio is indeed strange. We only find scanty mentions of this limb and muscle paralysing illness in ancient and medieval literature. First description of the disease was by Dr Micheal Underwood, an English physician in 1789. He described it as fever, followed by limb-paralysis, mostly affecting infants. Fifty years later, in 1840… Continue reading Mission immunisation and polio eradication

Home Index Two ubiquitous child-survival tools, oral rehydration solutions (ORS) and growth charts, are less than 50 years old. Both of these tools are simple, intuitive, and logical. In the 1980s, many developing countries celebrated these tools through postage stamps. Let’s take a look at some of them in this blog. Eureka moments are often gradual… Continue reading Two tools for child survival: ORS & Growth charts

Home Index Have you ever wondered about old baby-food advertisements. In these advertisements, we could see healthy-chubby infants and happy composed mothers. Once frequent on television and in print media, these have faded away. Often these advertisements projected condensed milk as a preferred option. In India we had sought to curtail these in 1992. Eventually they… Continue reading Breast feeding: A preferred infant nutrition in postage stamps