Poor nutrition to encephalitis outbreak: 2019's biggest health stories

All year round, the level of air pollution in Delhi remains three times higher than the national standard.

Business Standard : From a continued decline in infant and maternal mortality to inadequate funding for healthcare, from poor nutrition to an acute encephalitis syndrome outbreak, and from success in malaria prevention to below-par performance on leprosy control and tuberculosis elimination, here’s a look at 2019’s biggest health stories.

Decrease in maternal mortality, infant mortality

Fewer mothers died during childbirth as India’s maternal mortality ratio (MMR)--maternal deaths per 100,000 live births--fell 27% from 167 in 2011-13 to 122 in 2015-17, according to the Sample Registration System bulletin.

However, India is still a long way from the Sustainable Development Goal for MMR: a target of 70 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030. Three Indian states have already achieved this--Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

India’s infant mortality rate--deaths per 1,000 live births--also fell from 42 in 2012 to 33 in 2017, as IndiaSpend reported in June 2019. This rate is higher than the global average (29) and India’s neighbours Nepal (28), Bangladesh (27), Bhutan (26), Sri Lanka (8) and China (8), but better than that of Pakistan (61) and Myanmar (30).

While these reductions are great, a narrow focus on these indicators without tackling the social causes of these problems is pointless, said Rakhal Gaitonde, professor at the Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies in Thiruvananthapuram. “We are too fixated on technical and technological fixes while ignoring basic underlying issues of poverty, hunger, livelihood and childcare which are important,” he said.

This may be the reason why five of India’s poorest states--Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh--were among nine states that saw their overall health performance decline in 2019, according to government think-tank NITI Aayog’s health index, IndiaSpend reported in June 2019.

Health budget increases, Ayushman Bharat completes a year

The Centre has been increasing its allocation to the health ministry, and this year’s budget of Rs 62,659 crore--2.25% of total expenditure--was the highest till date, as IndiaSpend reported in July 2019.