Despite all efforts, HIV/AIDS continues to be a word that generates more anxiety than awareness. The tremendous amount of stigma and shame which this disease has instigated in the minds of people and the fear it evokes is an issue which needs to be tackled as soon as possible.

Source: Zee News
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With a view to boost girls’ education and stem the dropout rate in higher classes, the Bihar government will distribute sanitary napkins in State-run schools, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said at an event titled ‘Tarang’ at Gandhi Maidan on Thursday.   
Source: The Hindu 
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"Touts from labs outside the hospital are not allowed in the gynaecology OPD area and hospital premises. Strict action will be taken if someone is caught by security persons or police," reads a notice displayed prominently outside the radiology division of Guru Tegh Bahadur (GTB) Hospital in east Delhi. At Lok Nayak Hospital in central Delhi, security personnel ensure the crowd remains in a queue during OPD registration and while buying medicines.    
Source: The Times of India 
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Just over 7% of women globally and 3% in South Asia have experienced sexual violence at the hands of a non-partner, a new global study finds.Both globally and in South Asia alone, rape by an intimate partner or member of the household is far more common than that by a stranger, the researchers found.

Source: The Hindu
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India on Wednesday launched third-line drug therapy for people living with HIV/AIDS and extended free anti-retroviral therapy (ART) to more of them by revising the eligibility norm.

The third-line therapy, sometimes called salvage or rescue therapy, is prescribed for people who have limited drug options left — after the failure of at least two drug regimens and with evidence of HIV resistance to at least one drug in each line or the latter cause alone. The highly expensive therapy will be provided free.

Source: The Hindu 
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There is better awareness about genetic testing for cancer in the city. Within a month of its launch, the first counselling centre set up in a city hospital to advise people on whether or not they need to take genetic tests has seen eight families with a strong family history of cancer walk in for consultations, to figure if they are predisposed to the condition. In three cases, genetic tests were advised to assess their risk. 

Source: The Times of India
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In 2010, at the age of 30, I felt a new taste on my tongue, for a few seconds. Stagnant objects seemed to be moving and unspoken words were heard. In multiple instances over a period of six months, I lost consciousness for a couple of minutes. An electroencephalogram procedure indicated seizures. Linking seizures to stress, the neuro-physician prescribed medicines. An MRI procedure confirmed the presence of a tumour in the brain’s left frontal lobe.   
Source: The Hindu 
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Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Wednesday said that there is a need to strike balance between the interests of all the stakeholders with regard to the country’s regulatory policy on clinical trials, noting that innovation should be encouraged. Pharma firms have complained that India's new regulations for clinical trials were too stringent and some of them are in the process of moving trials overseas despite the higher costs involved.

Source: Financial Express
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Biocon’s launch of the world’s first bio-similar of Trastuzumab, a critical breast cancer drug, is unlikely to benefit patients in a big way if the company sticks to the prices it has indicated, claimed health activists on Monday.  They allege that Roche, which retails the drug at . 75,000 for 440 mg vial, sells it at a discount to its long-term patients through many of its dealers for . 55,000-57,000. Biocon’s retail price of . 56,000 per 440 mg vial doesn’t make the drug much cheaper. 

Source: The Times of India 
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The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has released draft guidelines that make it mandatory for clinical research organisations to conduct an audiovisual recording of the trial patients informing them about each and every risk involved while undergoing the trial.  
 Source: The Times of India 
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