Indian Health Camp of New Jersey annual Health Camp in Bridgewater

Members of the Indian community waiting to be screened at the free health camp in Bridgewater, NJ

On May 22, 2011, a health screening and disease awareness and prevention camp was organized by the dedicated volunteers of Indian Health Camp of New Jersey, a non-profit organization, for the 10th consecutive year at the Shree Venkateswara Temple in Bridgewater, New Jersey.

More than 125 participants from the various areas of New Jersey attended this full day health camp. Activities included blood draw, EKG, vision screening for glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy, physical examination, cardiology and physical therapy counseling, various types of cancer screening and prevention education, chronic disease self management and a lecture from renowned cardiologist Dr. Dinesh Singal on cardiac disease risk and prevention.

Approximately 10-12 physicians from various specialties such as internal medicine, cardiology, ophthalmology, gynecology, urology and physical therapy provided services to screen and educate patients on diabetes, hypertension, cardiac diseases, high cholesterol, various types of cancer and other chronic debilitating diseases in the South Asian community.

Various health care professionals such as EKG technicians, phlebotomists, nurses, medical students, pharmacists and social workers provided their services to physicians in their health screening, disease prevention and awareness efforts for more than six hours. Blood test services were provided by the Lab Corp of Raritan.

Dr. Tushar Patel, Dr. Prema Prasad, Dr. Ashok Patel, Dr. Sunil Parikh, Dr. Rajesh Thaker, Dr. Anjali Patel, Dr. Dhiren Dave, Dr. Ashok Kumar, Dr. Naveen Mahrotra, Dr. Dinesh Singal, Dr. Manisha Patel, Dr. Bharti, Dr. Parul Dixit and Dr. Rajiv Ulpe provided their dedicated services on this day. Jigisha Kothari, Jitendra Fadia, Shirish Parekh, Navin Merai, Babubhai Patel, Thakor Bulsara, Kiran Kothari, Subhash Shah, Ulhas Amin, Kiran Amin and Subhash Amin and other dedicated members Jersey provided selfless service to make the camp a huge success.

Indian drug firms use South Africa to access continent

Indian drug firms Ranbaxy and Cipla have won fans by slashing the price of anti-AIDS drugs, saving countless lives

Awhite South African woman runs the local operations of India's largest drug company, Ranbaxy, and the second largest, Cipla, is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

Laboratory researchers are seen at the Ranbaxy Laboratories in Mumbai.

India's pharmaceutical industry has rolled out a strong local presence in South Africa, cornering a large share of the market and using the country as a base to gush a flood of cheap generic drugs into Africa. India’s pharmaceutical industry has rolled out a strong local presence in South Africa, cornering a large share of the market and using the country as a base to gush a flood of cheap generic drugs into Africa.

Unlike most multinational companies, India’s “big three” pharmaceuticals -- Ranbaxy, Cipla and Dr Reddy’s -- have carefully cultivated their local credentials by bringing South Africans into the top corporate echelons.

Ranbaxy and Cipla have also won fans by slashing the price of anti-AIDS drugs, saving countless lives in the country with the world's largest HIV epidemic.

"They've been very strategic in terms of how they've positioned themselves in South Africa and using South Africa as a launch pad into Africa," said Abdullah Verachia, an analyst at consulting firm Frontier Advisory who has followed the Indian companies' ascent. "That reflects one, their understanding of the market and two, their commitment to South Africa. You seldom get a foreign multinational company appointing a local CEO," he told AFP. India's pharmaceutical industry has transformed itself over the past three decades from almost non-existent to the secondlargest in the world by volume, with revenues of $3 billion (two billion euros). Cheap generic drugs have been the catalysts of that growth, and Africa has been a key market, buying 14 percent of India's $8-billion pharmaceutical exports in 2009.

The relationship was cemented in 2001 when Cipla announced it would supply anti-AIDS drugs to Africa at a massive discount, slashing the per-patient price of the "AIDS cocktail" from more than $10,000 a year to less than $400 "Indian pharmaceutical companies have been absolutely critical in bringing down the cost of treatment," Francois Venter, head of the South African HIV Clinicians Society, said. "If the cost of treatment hadn't come down, there would be very many fewer people on the drugs." Sub-Saharan Africa, which has an estimated 22.5 million HIV positive people -- 68 percent of all infections globally -- is chronically short of funds to fight the disease.

Even rich, educated in India abort second girl child

Even rich and educated Indian families with a girl as the first child choose to abort their second child if prenatal test shows it to be a girl, said a study released by Centre for Global Health Research (CGHR) here.

"Analysis of the trends examined from the statistics of the census of year 2011, 2001, 1991 note a sharp decline in the girl-to-boy sex ratio for second order births when the firstborn was a girl, sex ratio falling by an average of about 0.5 percent annually between the year 1990-2005."

"These declines are greater in educated and in richer households than in illiterate and poorer households," said the study, to be published in the medical journal Lancet May 24. The study, led by Prabhat Jha of the CGHR and joined by professors from foreign universities and former registrar-general of India Jayant K. Banthia, said: "The girl-boy ratio fell from 906 girls per 1,000 boys in 1990 to 836 per 1,000 boys in 2005, showing an annual decline of 0•52 percent."

"The declines were much greater in mothers with 10 or more years of education than in mothers with no education, and in wealthier households compared with poorer households," it said. Census 2011 shows the child sex ratio dropped to 914 females against 1,000 males - the lowest since Independence.

NRI TODAY JUNE 2011 31 Members of the Indian community waiting to be screened at the free health camp in Bridgewater, NJ Indian drug firms Ranbaxy and Cipla have won fans by slashing the price of anti-AIDS drugs, saving countless lives

[ BY RITU PANDEY ]