This letter is in response to the editorial, “In the Time of Ebola” (EPW, 8 November 2014). Among the many relevant points, the editorial mentions the shortage of healthcare workers in the Ebola-affected countries in west Africa.
The Central Government Health Scheme provides health services to three million government employees, pensioners and their dependents with the second being the fastest growing segment. However, a scheme that started with a lot of promise has got bogged down with medical and administrative problems that need to be dealt with if it has to fulfil its aim of reducing medical expenditure costs and maintaining healthy lifestyles.
In the article titled “Can the Polio Elimination Success Story Breed More Successes in India?” by T Jacob John (EPW, 5 April 2014), the author makes a comment that India would have eliminated polio decades ago had it used inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) in the universal immunisation programm
