WHO published its World health statistics report 2025, revealing the deeper health impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on loss of lives, longevity and overall health and well-being. In just two years, between 2019 and 2021, global life expectancy fell by 1.8 years—the largest drop in recent history— reversing a …
Non-communicable diseases like cancer, diabetes and heart disease killed two out of three people in 2010 — a larger share than in 1990, when they were responsible for every second death in the world. Of the 52.8 million people who died worldwide in 2010, ischaemic heart disease and stroke accounted …
High blood pressure (BP) has become the world’s deadliest diseasecausing risk factor. But for Indians, IAP (indoor air pollution) — emanating from chulhas burning wood, coal and animal dung as fuel — has been found to be a bigger health hazard for Indians. The first-ever estimate of the contribution of …
One in two children suffers from zinc deficiency, a study conducted on newborns and infants in three city hospitals has found. The study, coordinated by the AIIMS paediatrics department, found that even babies born with a normal birth weight suffer from deficiency of the crucial micronutrient. Low birth weight infants …
India will soon have a scientific regulatory agency responsible for the safety of the nation’s domestically produced and imported foods, cosmetics, drugs, biologics, medical devices, and radiological products. Proposed on the lines of Centre for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition in USA and the Centre for Disease Control, the new …
A study published in the Malaria World Journal has found that worldwide 2.6 per cent of all WHO-approved artemisinin-based anti-malaria drugs are substandard, as they have less than the prescribed quantity of active ingredient. For India, the figure stands at 4 per cent while in China it is 12.3 per …
Patancheru and its surrou-nding areas in Hyderabad are well known for soil and water pollution, but what is shocking is that the contamination level of poisonous arsenic have touched 50,000 parts per billion (ppb) in certain pockets. This is 1,000 times more than the maximum permissible level of 50 ppb …
With the HIV/AIDS epidemic showing signs of reversal globally, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and countries are now working towards zero new HIV infections, zero deaths from AIDS-related illnesses and zero discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS. To achieve this goal, the WHO has emphasised the need for people to …
The world’s most effective vaccine candidate against dengue is all set for trials in India and if all goes to plan, the vaccine will be available globally by 2015. The vaccine will be tested on 120-odd adults in the beginning, the results of which should be available by 2013. Thereafter, …
Two new drugs to treat drug-resistant TB are expected to hit the market in 2013. The drugs, Bedaqiline (TMC207) and Delamanid (OPC6783) are practically the first drugs to be developed in nearly 50 years and are expected to improve treatment of DR-TB. These two investigational TB drugs are entering phase …
India tops in global pneumonia deaths of children under five years of age with 3.97 lakh reported in 2010, says a Unicef study. The third annual International Vaccine Access Centre’s (IVAC) Pneumonia Progress Report 2012 says that almost 1,088 children under five years of age die everyday in India, an …
The health system in India has “collapsed”, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh made this candid confession on Friday and lamented that even poorer countries like Bangladesh and Kenya had better health indicators. His comments assume significance in view of Planning Commission’s recent controversial proposal to restructure the country’s health …
Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh on Friday said public health system in the country had “collapsed”, noting that even poorer countries like Bangladesh and Kenya have superior health indicators. In a candid assessment of the country’s health sector, Ramesh also said 70% of the health expenditure is met from …
India continues to top the global pneumonia mortality charts, witnessing four lakh deaths of children every year. This translates into 1,095 children dying every day on account of a vaccine-preventable disease, which is also treatable with antibiotics. Worldwide, 13 lakh children died of pneumonia in 2011, with 30 per cent …
According to this Pneumonia Progress Report 2012 released by IVAC and John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, more than 99 per cent of all pneumonia deaths occurred in developing countries and 3/4 of it in 15 countries, among which India tops the list. Recent estimates from the United Nations …
India ranks shamefully low in a new report that put countries according to how successfully they managed to introduce pictorial health warnings on tobacco packets — a proven strategy that deters people from smoking or chewing tobacco. According to the Cigarette Package Health Warnings: International Status Report, which was released …
Pictorial warnings on cigarette packs continue to sully India’s anti-tobacco efforts on the global arena. The third edition of the Cigarette Package Health Warnings: International Status Report has indicted India for its indequate efforts in putting effective pictoral warning on cigarette packs. The report, released recently at the conference of …
When it comes to pictorial warnings on tobacco packets, India ranks a low 123 among 198 countries surveyed on the warnings parameter. While experts agree that pictorial warnings on tobacco packets is a proven strategy that deters people from smoking or chewing tobacco, the ground reality is that less than …
Upping the ante against the WHO-sponsored efforts to bring down tobacco farming in the world, International Tobacco Growers’ Association chief executive Antonio Abrunhosa said such regulations would only bring hardships to farmers in the tobacco growing countries such as Brazil and India, instead of getting the desired results. “Five of …
JAIPUR: Raising doubts over the inspection by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS) in Rawatbhata, anti-nuclear activists on Friday demanded safety examination by an independent body. Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP) and People's Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) claimed that the exercise is …
It was the lull before the storm. After a significant drop last fiscal, the number of deaths from swine flu has shot up by about 800% in the state this year. A total of 113 deaths were registered till November 7 this year compared with the 12 in 2011-12. Ten …
