Reason to be happy:

On the AIDS front there was some good news as the revised report of the United Nations programme on HIV AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) put the figure at 2.5 million, less than half of 5.7 million cases as estimated earlier.

There was good news on the polio as only 60 cases were reported this year.

Most importantly less cases were being reported of the more dominant WVP1 strain in hotbed Uttar Pradesh. However, there was a resurgence of the wild WVP111 strain in Bihar. Officials attributed this to the fact that the immunisation campaign had been directed mostly against the strain 1.

Dengue and chikungunya that created panic in the year 2006 also did not create much of a problem this year. Though the country was declared free from Avian influenza last year, fresh outbreak was reported in July in Manipur.

Medical Tourism:

Call it a dichotomy, while on one hand the country witnessed patients frustrated because of strike and on the other people from countries like Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan,Nepal, Dubai and even from UK thronged the country to avail low cost quality treatment. Though the private sector is attracting this aspect of tourism , government is planning to invest 6 billion rupees in coming years. While people from developed US, UK visited here for rejuvenation programme (yoga, spa, ayurvedic massage), people from developing world came for high end surgeries like Cardiac ByPass Surgery or a Knee/Hip Replacement. An estimated 2 lakh patients came in the year 2006. Medical tourism is increasing at a whooping 25 per cent annually contributing approximately 1200-1500 crore rupees to the Indian economy and is expected to earn $ 2 billion by 2012.