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Background: Despite unprecedented socio-economic growth experienced by Indians in the past few decades, and a long history of anti-anaemia public health measures, prevalence of anaemia in Indian non-pregnant women of reproductive age group (NPWRA) has not declined. This warrants a firm understanding of what explains the anaemia situation over time, preferably by sub-populations. Therefore, we aimed to examine the trends of anaemia in tribal NPWRA (least privileged) and compare with the trends in the NPWRA of general caste (most privileged) between 1998 to 2021. Additionally, the study also explored explanation of any decline and tribal/general narrowing of these trends. Methods: We studied four rounds of National Family Health Survey (1998–99, 2005–06, 2015–16, 2019–21). We examined the trend of anaemia (haemoglobin < 12 g/dl) and its possible determinants in tribal and general NPWRA and estimated the portion of "decline" and "narrowing" that could be explained by the underlying and intermediate determinants (wealth, education, residence, parity and food security) using multiple logistic regression. Results: The distribution of determinants improved over 23 years in both the groups but more in tribals. But anaemia either remained unchanged or increased in both except 7.1 points decline in tribals between 2006–2016, leading also to 7 points narrowing of tribal/general gap. The modest attenuation of beta coefficients representing the change of anaemia prevalence (log of odds) in tribals from -0.314(-0.377, -0.251) to -0.242(-0.308, -0.176) after adjustment with determinants could explain only 23% of the decline. Similarly, only 7% of the narrowing of the tribal/general anaemia gap could be explained. Conclusions: The structural determinants wealth, education, food security, parity and urban amenities improved immensely in India but anaemia did not decline in this 23-year period. This implies that the "usual suspects" – the structural determinants are not the main drivers of anaemia in the country. The main driver may be absolute and/or functional deficiency status of micronutrients including iron attributable to inadequate uptake and absorption of these elements from Indian diets; and therefore, their effects are noticeable in every socio-economic stratum of India. Future research for aetiologies and new interventions for anaemia alleviation in India may focus on these factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, the world is experiencing one of the most disruptive pandemics in the modern history of disease and illness. As human beings became more civilized, started building cities, establishing trade routes between cities and countries, the conditions needed for these diseases to spread were greatly enhanced, and hence history has recorded many more epidemics and pandemics since the advent of global travel. Many of these epidemics and pandemics have disrupted the life of common human beings from BC 430 (Athens Plague) until date (COVID-19). Most of the recorded epidemics in history were originated in the western world like Athens, Romans, and Germans, etc. Sufferings of the human beings were enormous and the destruction of the population was innumerable. There are incidences where up to 25% of the total population was devastated. For the majority of the pandemics, the scientists succeeded in inventing vaccines, including COVID-19. Hence, pandemics and epidemics have helped human being to change their living pattern, adapt to changes, and accommodate healthy habits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public health professionals have long played a vital—albeit underappreciated—role in shaping, not simply using, US Census data, so as to provide the factual evidence required for good governance and health equity. Since its advent in 1790, the US Census has constituted a key political instrument, given the novel mandate of the US Constitution to allocate political representation via a national decennial census. US Census approaches to categorizing and enumerating people and places have profound implications for every branch and level of government and the resources and representation accorded across and within US states. Using a health equity lens to consider how public health has featured in each generation's political battles waged over and with census data, this essay considers three illustrations of public health's engagement with the enduring ramifications of three foundational elements of the US Census: its treatment of slavery, Indigenous populations, and the politics of place. This history underscores how public health has major stakes in the values and vision for governance that produces and uses census data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the processes and problems related to cultural encounters as reflected in the transmission of medical ideas and practices in colonial India. Precolonial experiences serve as background. Transmission was a complex process; it was never linear. One has to look at it from different angles; individuals, professional societies, institutions and of course the government policies played important and varied roles. They also differed according to time and locale. Probably they were multi-sited and this is the central argument of the article. Examples are drawn from the writings of contemporary medical men, journals, government documents and private papers, and taken together they shed some light on the contours of the interaction and the medical encounter which took place in the nineteenth and early twentieth century India. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the early 1970s, a World Health Organization-initiated and United States-funded project released lab-reared mosquitoes outside New Delhi in the first large-scale field trials of the genetic control of mosquitoes. Despite partnering with the Indian Council of Medical Research and investing significantly in outreach to local communities at the release sites, the project was embroiled in controversy and became an object of vehement debate within the Indian parliament and diplomatic contretemps between the United States and India. This early episode of genetic control research demonstrates how a scientific collaboration was entangled in geopolitics and shaped by the legacy of colonialism. This historical case study has implications for public deliberation in the present, pointing to the challenges of shared decision-making in the context of structural inequality, the way that a backdrop of military interest in a technology can impede trust, and the long-term consequences of projects that foster mistrust., (© 2021 The Hastings Center.)