senior fellow, health initiative, @orfonline.
student of health policy. patient. optimist. marathon, not sprint.
#HealthForAll #SDGs #UHC.
Mar 8 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
#Thread
"The scheme initially got off to a slow start, and in the first six years of operation, until 2015, only 80 #JanAushadhi Kendras were functioning. However, the pace of expansion accelerated and between 2016 and 2025, around 14,000 new Kendras have been established." 1/n
"The scheme had outpaced the government’s deadline, achieving the goal of opening 10,000 Kendras well before the March 2024 target. The next target of opening 15,000 Jan Aushadhi Kendras by March 2025 was also achieved, beating the deadline by two months." 2/n
3.Urgently approve & deploy a broader mix of vaccines.
4. Ramp up manufacturing capacity.
5. Address vaccine hesitancy.
6. Monitor, collate, and transparently report on Adverse Events Following Inoculation (AEFIs).
7. Public advocacy campaign on mask wearing & safe behaviour
Mar 31, 2021 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
A lot being written about Brazilian regulator "rejecting" Covaxin. I'll wait for more information to emerge to ensure larger pharma interests are not in play.
3 factors:
1) WHO's BB inspection didnt find anything. 2) Lower half of the map 3) Read paper(gh.bmj.com/content/bmjgh/…)
1: WHO's inspection report of @BharatBiotech's facilities (who.int/immunization_s…) . They seemed happy. Now, unless things degraded fast, I'm surprised why Brazilian team would find anything fishy.
Oct 1, 2020 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
#AntigenTests#Masks#Lockdown
India now has the highest daily recorded Covid19 new cases and deaths in the world, with cases and deaths plateauing.
There are many who think India bungled its Covid19 response badly. Here’s a #thread examining the claim. 1/n @orfonline
Let’s start with the #lockdown.
It’s now become fashionable to act as if the early & decisive lockdown was an unmitigated disaster. However, the aim of the lockdown was to hit a pause button in a time of almost complete uncertainty. It helped the health system prepare well. 2/n
I remember answering long questions from the author of this piece. Guess they didn't find my inputs on the invisible (& imaginary for now)catastrophe alarmist enough.
The official response from The Hindu on #KuchBhiResearch is based on a strawman argument. It asserts that the flawed method was called "fudging of data". NO.
The "experts" systematically used wrong data to overestimate multiplication factor and published wrong numbers.@orfonline
"One can differ with the writers’ methodology & their estimate, which is based on a raw factor of multiplication and ...... but that does not diminish their plea for a robust health data system."
Talk about how charlatans hijack a genuine demand from researchers for data release.
I was recently asked what has #COVID19 taught us about how much attention to pay to our public- funded healthcare system. Here is my answer:
I was recently asked whether poor human resource management practices show that health workers are neglected in India's healthcare system. Here is my answer:
Jul 10, 2020 • 7 tweets • 5 min read
My latest situation assessment.
#DataNarrative#HealthExpress | Declining COVID19 Burden in Delhi and Mumbai: Assessing Unlock and Planning for the Future orfonline.org/expert-speak/d… via @orfonline
Surprisingly, a look at the weekly new case load reveals that notwithstanding the public perception to the contrary, Mumbai has managed to keep the numbers almost constant across five weeks. @orfonline
Jun 19, 2020 • 8 tweets • 1 min read
District level COVID testing status: AP
DISTRICTTested
Anantapur 48811
Chittoor46294
East Godavari70204
Guntur42782
Krishna52824
Kurnool49177
Prakasam42789
S.P.S. Nellore38752
Srikakulam70521
Visakhapatnam48702
Vizianagaram28029
West Godavari41394
YSR Kadapa47996
From the book Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present (2019) by Frank Snowden
-Bombay (now Mumbai) provides a perfect illustration of the negative possibilities that could result from invoking traditional plague regulations.-1/n
-The disease struck the western capital of India and its more than eight hundred thousand inhabitants in September 1896. By December, more than half
the population had deserted the city. -
There is a tendency to glorify Kerala's situation as a great success of government dominating health care scene.
NO.
Kerala is one of the most privatised health systems in India.
The percentage of Kerala households reporting catastrophic expenditure due to health reasons is more than 20% - perhaps the highest in India.
On April 24, 2009, Mexico's govt responded to an unexpected eruption of swine flu by activating National Pandemic Preparedness & Response Plan & announcing school closures in the capital.. 1/n
Once cases of the disease were detected in the USA, American officials declared a public health emergency of international concern. Experts predicted that two billion people could contract the contagious germ once it spread worldwide. 2/n
India has 13966000 episodes of seasonal influenza linked lower respiratory tract infections & about 26000 deaths A YEAR.
The new virus is less deadly than say H1N1 & harms mostly the very young, v old, & v weak.
Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) advice for the public: Myth busters from the @WHO
Can pets at home spread the new coronavirus (2019-nCoV)?
At present, there's no evidence that companion animals/pets such as dogs or cats can be infected with the new virus. #coronavirusindia
Jun 19, 2019 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Important article by a doctor laying out technical details.
-All it would have taken was to ensure that the children had a meal at night-
-The disease affected only malnourished children between the ages of two and 10. A majority of them were from families camping in orchards for fruit harvesting. No child from the nearby towns fell ill. Children of well-to-do families never fell ill.-
May 25, 2018 • 14 tweets • 5 min read
#Nipah
India's inadequate surveillance systems & a history of 'mystery deaths'
From a 2003 article:
"A "mystery" disease in India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, that has so far affected 112 children and resulted in 43 deaths continues to baffle medical researchers. " 1/n2/n
"The outbreak comes after a similar situation last year in Siliguri district in West Bengal and a suspected plague in the early 1990s. These outbreaks have highlighted India's serious weakness in identifying pathogens. "
