Aumenta a desnutrição na India.

A India foi aquele paraíso para onde iam os hippies nos anos 60 e, agora dizem ser o exemplo a ser seguido pelo Brasil devido ao aspas vigor da sua economia aspas. Abaixo, relato do The Lancet sobre o aumento da desnutrição em crianças na India, mesmo no locais mais afluentes. De forma simplificada, a India passa por um período de crescimento ao período 1966-79 quando os indicadores sociais - mortalidade infantil, p.ex - não estavam em paralelo com aqueles da economia. O acesso ao The Lancet necessita inscrição, mas esse texto é de acesso livre em http://www.thelancet.com. O texto chega afirmar que a situação é pior do que na Etiópia.

The growth of India's economy during the past decade has had little effect on the nutritional status of its youngest citizens. Even in affluent states, the percentage of underweight children younger than 3 years has risen over the past 10 years. Chandigarh, the joint capital of Haryana and Punjab—two of India's richest states—is an elegant city, with the highest yearly per head income in the country. The signs of affluence are everywhere: glitzy malls, luxury cars, and a high-spending middle class. But on the outskirts of this town, the underbelly of India's booming economy is clearly visible. Despite having an economy growing at nearly 10% a year, widespread malnutrition, and its associated health problems, such as anaemia, remain one of India's formidable challenges. In February this year, UNICEF officials created a stir by telling a gathering of national and international journalists in Delhi that an Indian child is more likely to be malnourished than a child in Ethiopia, the Horn of Africa nation known for its periodic droughts, famines, and long civil conflict and border war with Eritrea. The comment stemmed from India's 2005-06 National Family Health Survey (NFHS), which reveals that almost half of Indian children younger than 3 years are underweight. The results show that the malnutrition crisis is not confined to migrants huddled in urban shanties.. Anaemia and undernutrition in small children and pregnant women in their prime is growing, even in India's prosperous states like Haryana.
Life in Dundahera village in the Gurgaon district of Haryana, offers a glimpse of perhaps why economic boom is not translating into better maternal and child health in India. In recent years, Gurgaon has emerged as one of India's hottest outsourcing hubs. Shopping centres, multinational companies, and industrial complexes dot the cityscape. Eager to tap the emerging commercial opportunities, Dunadhera's farmers are selling their land to builders. New houses have been built to accommodate the growing number of migrant families streaming into the area to fuel the economic boom. Many families who have sold their land have suddenly become rich. But within the family and this highly patriarchal society, the status of women has scarcely improved.

Aids na India

Nada preocupa mais do que o avanço da aids na China e na India, os dois países mais populosos. The New England Journal of Medicine dedica um texto elucidativo sobre a situação indiana. O acesso é livre em http://www.nejm.org. Abaixo, trecho inicial do artigo

The epidemiologic data for India (estimates of the number of infected persons range from 3.4 million to 9.4 million) are far less precise than for South Africa (4.9 million to 6.1 million). The estimate for India is based primarily on anonymous testing data from public clinics for prenatal care and for patients in high-risk groups or with sexually transmitted infections. Although the number of surveillance sites is expanding, the data may still be skewed and inadequate.2,3 In 2005, no data were available for many of India's more than 600 districts. The estimated HIV prevalence among people 15 to 49 years old in India is 0.5 to 1.5%, whereas in South Africa it is 16.8 to 20.7%. Moreover, HIV prevalence among 15-to-24-year-old women attending prenatal clinics in 4 southern Indian states decreased by 35% between 2000 and 2004; it was unchanged among women 25 to 34 years old in these states and in 14 northern states. These data suggest a slowing of any overall increase in prevalence.
Nevertheless, the 2006 estimates have served as a wake-up call. In January 2007, Sujatha Rao, director general of India's National AIDS Control Organization, said at a Mumbai conference on HIV–AIDS therapy, "We have come a long way from complete denial of the HIV epidemic when it was first discovered in 1986 to a complete acceptance of the fact that we have a problem."
India is a nation of contrasts. The economy is modernizing, but the culture is largely traditional. There are multiple religions and languages and long-standing patterns of behavior in relationships between the sexes. Violence against women is common and is "the most important structural issue" for HIV prevention, according to Ashok Alexander, director of Avahan, the India AIDS initiative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Discrimination by health care professionals against people with HIV also remains "a big problem," according to Soumya Swaminathan, deputy director of the Tuberculosis Research Center in Chennai. And many adults still say they have never heard of AIDS.).

Índia: poderio na área farmacêutica, fracasso na saúde pública.

A Índia é um país com uma indústria farmacêutica que está dominando o setor de genérico, por outro lado apresenta indicadores péssimos de saúde e nutrição. Abaixo, um despacho da Associated Press comentando pesquisa de saúde materno-infantil.

India Lags Behind West on Health Issues
NEW DELHI -- Preliminary figures from the National Family Health Survey highlighted persistent gaps between the health of rural and urban India, and between health awareness among men and women, who in many parts of the country remain second class citizens.
The most glaring problem in the 2005-2006 survey was the health of children. With about 46% of children malnourished -- a negligible improvement over the last survey, conducted in 1998-99 -- India is in the same league with nations like Burkina Faso and Cambodia. In China, Asia's other rising economic power and the country India often compares itself with, only 8% of children are underweight.
The improved infant mortality rate -- down to 57 per 1,000 births from 68 in the previous survey -- remains dramatically lower in Western nations. In the U.S., for instance, it is seven per 1,000 births.
Health in the countryside lagged far behind cities in every category where a comparison was offered. The rural infant mortality rate, for example, was 62 per 1,000 births, compared to 42 in urban areas.
Nearly 51% of women made at least three visits to the doctor when they were pregnant, up from 44% in 1998-99. Some 41% had children in a hospital or clinic, up from about 34% in the last survey.
The data also showed increased awareness about HIV. Some 57% of women who are or have been married knew about the virus -- a big jump from the 40% reported in 1998-99. But the figure is still likely to be criticized as far too low for a country with 5.7 million people infected with the disease, the most in the world.
A much higher percentage of men in the same group -- 80% -- had heard about the disease. No comparison with the data from previous surveys was offered for men. The difference may have something to do with the fact that men are much more likely to be exposed to the country's media -- the survey found 80% of men had access to media, while only 65% of women did.