COVID-19 pandemic has upended every aspect of lives around the world. Many people in the world including scientists and public health experts strongly believe that a vaccine is the only solution to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, scientists and vaccine companies are working tirelessly to bring a safe and effective vaccine in the market. However, no matter how effective the vaccine will be, it will not solve this looming crisis until we eliminate deeply rooted mistrust against vaccines in general and burgeoning hesitancy toward the COVID-19 vaccine in specific.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli set a historic precedent by having his second kidney transplantation in Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, a public hospital, inside the country. According to the hospital, his operation was successful, and he is desperately waiting to join the office. Neglecting suggestions from his relatives and kitchen cabinet, he took a bold decision to receive treatment from public hospital and this decision can have great ramifications in the country’s health sector.

Given the current situation of the rapid spread of novel coronavirus, a mysterious virus which  originated from the Wuhan city of China and later spread around the globe, a number of questions regarding the appropriate interventions have been raised in the scientific arena. One of the questions is whether mass quarantine is effective to prevent the transmission of coronavirus.

Nowadays, the news of airlifting childbearing women from remote areas by the government is common. In this fiscal year only, the government airlifted four childbearing women from Bajhang, a remote district of Sudurpaschim Province. Similar incidents were observed in Dolpa, Jajarkot, Bhojpur and many other remote districts. While on the one hand, it shows the responsiveness of the government to save the lives of needy people, on the other, it depicts the failure of the local health system. If we don’t think judiciously in this matter, this will further jeopardize the local health system. Only a few lives will be saved, and in the long run, the needy people will be deprived of quality health services.

If we had tackled this problem from women’s health perspectives rather than cultural taboos, perhaps the woman who died in Chhaupadi shed would be among us today

Despite clear legal provisions to discourage use of formula milk, pediatricians and health workers still prescribe it without hesitation.