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piqer for: Global finds Health and Sanity Doing Good
Bangalore-based Rashmi Vasudeva's journalism has appeared in many Indian and international publications over the past decade. A features writer with over nine years of experience heading a health and fitness supplement in a mainstream Indian newspaper, her niche areas include health, wellness, fitness, food, nutrition and Indian classical Arts.
Her articles have appeared in various publications including Mint-Wall Street Journal, The Hindu, Deccan Herald (mainstream South Indian newspaper), Smart Life (Health magazine from the Malayala Manorama Group of publications), YourStory (India's media technology platform for entrepreneurs), Avantika (a noir arts and theatre magazine), ZDF (a German public broadcasting company) and others.
In 2006, she was awarded the British Print-Chevening scholarship to pursue a short-term course in new-age journalism at the University of Westminster, U.K. With a double Masters in Globalisation and Media Studies from Aarhus Universitet (Denmark), University of Amsterdam and Swansea University in Wales, U.K., she has also dabbled in academics, travel writing and socio-cultural studies. Mother to a frisky toddler, she hums 'wheels on the bus' while working and keeps a beady eye on the aforementioned toddler's antics.
When The Cat Sleeps, The Mice Play: Superbugs Thrive As The World Looks Away
India is fast becoming the superbug capital of the world. Now, major new research has suggested that deadly superbugs are being created right in its backyard.
The country is struggling to manage its population’s high rates of resistance to antibiotic drugs. Poor public health access, lack of sanitation, high antibiotic usage in poultry rearing, and overuse of drugs are only some of the reasons for this growing crisis. Researchers say drug residues in the environment and water sources in and around pharma companies that make medicines for nearly all major drug companies of the world are allowing microbes to build resistance to the very medicines that are made to kill them. Thriving in this so-called "hostile environment" is turning them into superbugs, which multiply fast and travel even faster. And predictably enough, global health authorities have no regulations to prevent this from occurring.
Microbes, though, don't recognise borders.
The study was published in the journal Infection, and scientists have warned that antibiotic resistance can make even common infections fatal, and end up reversing years of medical progress. This investigative piece is not just about what the scientists are worried about, it also laments how nobody is addressing the "dirty drug production methods". The drug production rulebook does not cover pollution, and even the WHO buys medicines without any environmental checks.
Around 170 companies make drugs in the southern city of Hyderabad alone. The drugs produced in these rampantly polluting factories are bought by several companies in Europe and the US, as well as by the NHS and WHO. The area had been classified as "critically polluted" in 2009 but rules were relaxed in 2014.
For international bodies, it is easy to lay the blame at the door of domestic legislation. The Supreme Court of India has indeed ordered pharma companies to follow a "zero liquid waste policy" – fancy words on paper.
Meanwhile, the bugs continue to acquire super powers.
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thanks for this piq! a good reminder that "national solutions" as they become popular again worldwide solve nothing.