New Delhi, Mar 28: The Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) nominees in the Union Cabinet, Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss and Minister of State for Railways R Velu, will resign today from their ministerial posts.

According to PMK sources, Ramadoss and Velu will hand over their resignations to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh this evening.

The move comes two days after the party surprised all and decided to switch-over to AIADMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu for the Lok Sabha polls.

The newest edition of the "Tobacco Atlas" released on Monday paints a grim picture of Tobacco usage, which is likely to take lives of around six million people throughout the world by 2010.

The report also disclosed that it drain approximately $500 billion from the global economy, on a yearly basis, as the industry has shifted its focus to poor nations, which have less effective public health plans.

World Lung foundation jointly with American Cancer society (ACS) prepared the Atlas.

The Union minister for health and family welfare, Anbumani Ramadoss said that social stigma attached to mental illness can be removed only in long run.

Mr. Ramadoss also expressed unhappiness with the running of the National Mental Health Programme (NMHP).

The health minister talked about the situation of mental illness treatment facilities at the silver jubilee celebration of Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF) on Sunday.

Health minister Anbumani Ramadoss will have to answer the Supreme Court for his decision to close three public sector units manufacturing many life-saving vaccines. On January 15, 2008, the production licenses of Pasteur Institute of India (Coonor), BCG Vaccine Laboratory (Chennai) and Central Research Institute (Kasauli) were cancelled.

The Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Union Health Minister A. Ramadoss over the closure of three public sector undertakings (PSUs) manufacturing vaccines like DPT, measles, polio and BCG.

The three PSUs are Central Research Institute of Himachal Pradesh, Coonoors Pasteur Institute of India and BCG Vaccine Lab in Chennai.

New Delhi, Feb 4 : Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss has expressed concern over the killing of Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka.

He told reporters here on Tuesday that incidents such as self-immolation, which took place in Tamil Nadu, should not be encouraged, while at the same time the sentiments of the people should be taken into consideration.

The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) second Common Review Mission said that some improvement has taken place in health sector still a better management of health-related initiatives is required.

Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) appointed under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) will be given a regular remuneration along with the incentives they get as per the existing arrangement, health minister Anbumani Ramadoss announced after the second Common Review Mission of the NRHM here on Wednesday.

New Delhi, Jan 29 : Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss has said that he will challenge the decision of the court overturning a central ban on smoking in films.

Ramadoss said the court decision was divided and the Central Government''s decision to ban smoking in films was based on the decision of the World Health Organisation (WHO) not to glorify smoking by projecting it in movies.

In a major announcement on Thursday, Union health minister Anbumani Ramadoss said that the Central Government is planning to make yoga compulsory in all schools as well as colleges, including private institutions.

While inaugurating a seminar on “disease control priorities in India,”, organised by D G Vaishnav College, Dr. Anbumani stated that pupils should understand the value of yoga that had been known to thwart lots of health-related troubles including hypertension plus heart diseases.

New Delhi, Jan 7 : Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr Anbumani Ramadoss today exhorted new doctors to stay in the country, as the country is in great need of quality medical human resource.

Addressing the 36th Annual Convocation of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, here, Dr Ramadoss told graduating doctors that they have been given quality education in the premier institute of the country, and therefore, are a valuable commodity in the light of huge shortfall of specialists in the country.

Addressing media during a function on Monday to mark the up gradation of the Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute at the Victoria Hospital complex, Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss revealed plans regarding National Urban Health Mission.

The Union Health and Family Welfare ministry will soon make labeling of food products mandatory. This step has been taken to make consumers aware of ingredients, calories and saturated fat they intake. Government authorities believe that labeling food items will also make people aware of the harms of consuming junk food.

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Anbumani Ramadoss told media that in a month's time, all food products in India will essentially have ingredients on one side

New Delhi, Dec 22 : Union Health Minister, Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss today reviewed the Avian Influenza situation in the country and looked into the preparedness of various agencies in this regard.

Dr. Ramadoss will write to all the Chief Ministers and Health Ministers to upgrade the preparedness to deal with the disease.

Expressing concern on recurrence of Avian Influenza in West Bengal, he requested the health set up of the State to scale up their preparations and efforts to deal with the situation.

The Union Health minister, Anbumani Ramadoss refused to accept that some Ayurvedic drugs manufactured by leading Indian companies contained heavy metals above the permissible limit as reported in a US medical journal.

Based on the information collected from an article in the ‘Journal of the American Medical Association’, the US Food and Drug Administration had recommended the consumers to use caution with Ayurvedic products.

Environment ministry would like to introduce GM food like the Bt Brinjal in India but the health minister, Anbumani Ramadoss has promised to oppose. Ramadoss said on Tuesday, “All GM food must undergo tests in Indian conditions before they are allowed into Indian markets. The Bt Brinjal has not been tested in India. I am writing both to the PM and the agriculture minister about this.”

New Delhi, Dec 16 : Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Anbumani Ramadoss has said that the Centre will look into the requirements of medical infrastructure in Puducherry and will render all possible support.

A delegation of the State Ministers, Legislators, led by Chief Minister V. Vaithilingam met him along with Narayansamy, Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Professor M. Ramadass, Member of Parliament from Puducherry.

Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said that government is looking for land either in Delhi or in (suburban) Noida for the second campus of the premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

Mr. Ramadoss added that the 50-year-old institute's infrastructure was facing tremendous pressure as on an average 8,000 to 9,000 patients visited the institute every day from all over the country for treatment. He said that the new campus would help lessen the load on main AIIMS campus.

Here’s good news for the medical students in the country. The Union health Ministry, under Anbumani Ramadoss has given the go-ahead for splitting campuses to start medical colleges with existing hospitals. As a result of this, medical students across the country can expect more seats for them in the coming times.

In Gujarat alone, nearly 400 more seats will be generated for this purpose. Out of these 400, Ahmedabad alone will be able to pitch more than 100 medical seats.

Oslo (Norway), Nov 18 : Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, who is on official visit to Norway met the Prime Minister of Norway Jens Stoltenberg at Oslo today and discussed issues pertaining to health sector cooperation between the two countries.

During this meeting, Dr. Ramadoss highlighted implementation of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), Imunisation Programme, maternal and child health programme, tobacco control measures, HIV/AIDS in India.

Stoltenberg appreciated Dr Ramadoss on the NRHM and the reduction in Maternal mortality ratio in India.

Chennai, Nov 15 : Union Health Minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss today launched a National Organ Transplant Programme to improve the scenario for major transplantations like kidney, liver and heart in the country.

The proposed national plan will have emphasis on promoting cadaver donation. The national programme will aim to enhance the facilities for organ transplantation throughout the country, establish a network for equitable distribution of retrieved deceased organs, and increase the availability of organs through facilitation and attitude change.