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 …
Professionals and activists at a global conference on sanitation and hygiene on Wednesday stressed the need for coordinated efforts from the government and non-government organizations to remove institutional as well as cultural barriers to make sure that all, including the marginalised and the physically-challenged people, have access to proper sanitation. …
New Delhi: India has not reported a single polio case in over 200 days. The country’s only polio case reported this year was on January 13 from West Bengal. India has been alert to any sort of import of the virus from neighbouring countries too. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative …
The World Health Organization says the number of people with tuberculosis has been falling. A report issued on Tuesday estimated that 8.8 million people became ill last year, down from a peak of about 9 million in 2005.
A six-day global conference on sanitation and hygiene which began here on Monday called for all out efforts to ensure that everyone across the world has access to toilets and safe water to prevent deaths from diarrheal diseases. Professionals, activists and policy makers from different countries told the conference that …
Tiered pricing - the concept of selling drugs and vaccines in developing countries at prices systematically lower than in industrialized countries - has received widespread support from industry, policymakers, civil society, and academics as a way to improve access to medicines for the poor. We carried out case studies based …
The World Health Organisation’s chief on Monday urged governments to unite against ‘big tobacco’, as she accused the industry of dirty tricks, bullying and immorality in its quest to keep people smoking. WHO director-general Margaret Chan accused cashed-up tobacco firms of using lawsuits to try and subvert national laws and …
Why does nobody question the absurdly high numbers cited for India? In the early 2000s, when the 55th (1999-2000) round of the expenditure survey showed a surprisingly sharp decline in poverty over its predecessor survey, the reform critics descended on the finding like a ton of bricks. Their critique eventually …
Ask Priyabrata Kanjilal, a grocery store owner in one of the bylanes of south Kolkata, for a Vim washing bar. Chances are he will produce an egg (dim in Bengali), for he cannot distinguish between the two words. Twenty years at the store has taken a toll on his hearing …
Constant exposure to noise can make one deaf. The major culprit is road traffic. Can one avoid noise? It’s difficult. Checking it, however, is not impossible. As the Central Pollution Control Board regulations remain unimplemented, the authority has initiated a nationwide real time noise monitoring, hoping for an improvement.
In many cities air pollution is reaching levels that threaten people's health according to an unprecedented compilation of air quality data released today by WHO (World Health Organization). The information includes data from nearly 1100 cities across 91 countries, including capital cities and cities with more than 100,000 residents. WHO …
An alliance of 24 civil society organisations and non-state actors was formed on Monday. The association is said to advocate for improving human resources for health. Allying organisations include major INGOs, NGOs, donors, professional organisations, educational institutions and health workers’ unions engaged in Nepal’s health sector. According to a statement …
GENEVA: Cities in Iran, India, Pakistan and the capital of Mongolia rank among the worst on the planet for air pollution, while those in the US and Canada are among the best, according to the first global survey released on Monday by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The southwest Iranian …
Indian cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Ludhiana and Kanpur are among the worst polluted cities in the country, according to a survey by the World Health Organization (WHO). Ludhiana ranks as the most polluted city in the country with 251 micrograms per cubic meter of PM10 (particulate matter-10) with Kanpur …
New Delhi: Cancers caused by tobacco is highest among men from Kolkata and least among those from Mumbai, in the four metropolitan cities. Among women, tobacco related cancers were highest in those from Chennai and least among women in Delhi. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research’s “Cancer associated …
Even as the Prime Minister’s Office expressed concern over the latest outbreak of bird flu in West Bengal and sought utmost caution, the Health Ministry today deputed a Central team to monitor its consequences on human health. Avian influenza, or bird flu, is caused by Influenza A virus that has …
Health officials are banning the only asthma inhaler sold over the counter in the United States starting from next year to prevent the use of products that harm the environment. The Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in metered-dose asthma inhalers that contain the drug epinephrine …
Two million Pakistanis have fallen ill from diseases since monsoon rains left the southern region under several feet of water, the country's disaster authority said Thursday. More than 350 people have been killed and over eight million people have been affected this year by floods that officials say are worse …
A team of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, an international health research institution in Dhaka, has provided its assistance to famine-hit Somalia people to fight cholera. On September 11, the ICDDR,B emergency cholera response team travelled from their base in Nairobi to Somalia’s beleaguered capital Mogadishu to …
WHO Sets Alarm Bells Ringing After Deadly Variant Reaches China, Sparks Outbreak Geneva: Pakistan is dubbed as the “epicentre” of global terrorism. Now, the terror-affected country is the hotbed of a deadly strain of polio which threatens to spread globally if not checked. A deadly strain of polio has spread …
n 2008, 36 million people died from non-communicable diseases (NCDs). 1 By 2020, NCDs are projected to cause almost three quarters as many deaths as communicable, maternal, perinatal, and nutritional diseases, and by 2030 to exceed them as the most common causes of death. 2 On Sept 19, 2011, the …
