In India, a country with a vast population and a diverse socio-economic fabric, healthcare remains fraught with challenges including disparities in access. These socio-economic disparities are deep, and they influence health outcomes. It is imperative to bridge these gaps amid the ongoing epidemiological, nutritional and demographic transitions that are bringing …
For years, Dr. Robert A. Holt, a genomics researcher at the British Columbia Cancer Agency, wrestled with a question about colon cancer. Might it be caused, or pushed along, by a bacterial infection? Cancers of the liver, stomach and cervix have all been linked to microbes, he knew. And if …
The Earth's natural resources like food, water and forests are being depleted at an alarming speed, causing hunger, conflict, social unrest and species extinction, experts at a climate and health conference in London warned Monday. Increased hunger due to food yield changes will lead to malnutrition; water scarcity will deteriorate …
FOR generations scientists have tirelessly been looking for a cure to what appears to be the enemy from within—cancer. Though tremendous progress has been made and multiple avenues of treatment made available, it is apparent that there is never going to be a single golden bullet to cure cancer because …
Historic it may be—even if watered down. The unanimous adoption of a “political declaration” by the UN on the need to fight the rising tide of non-communicable diseases (NCD) is a singular development and, as analysts have been reminding us, it is only the second time a health issue has …
THE UN General Assembly has adopted a watered-down political declaration to reduce the burden of chronic lifestyle diseases. The event signals the beginning of a larger fight between industry and health policy makers. The resolution was passed at a summit ahead of the General Assembly in New York on September …
The sacred sindoor (vermilion), a symbol of married Hindu women and also liberally used at Hindu shrines, will have to comply with safety standards. The Drug Technical Advisory Board has decided to regulate the sale and quality of sindoor. It is being brought under Schedule S of the Drugs and …
Should government-run companies invest in tobacco companies? This is the question that Voices of Tobacco Victims (VoTV), an NGO working for cancer patients, has raised after its recent query under the RTI Act revealed that the Life Corporation of India has invested up to Rs 3,500 crore in various tobacco …
In a first-of-its-kind surgery in India, doctors at a hospital near here have performed a robotic liver transplant surgery to save the life of a four-year-old boy. The surgery was conducted at Medanta Medicity hospital in Gurgaon, the Capital's suburb in Haryana, last month, doctors said here today. The Da-Vinci …
Fear stalks Amargarh residents with more and more residents succumbing to cancer. Most suspect that the water in the area is to blame for the calamity and have installed reverse osmosis pumps in their homes. Lakhveer Singh, who lost his father Harmail Singh in 2002 and two years later his …
Onco Therapies Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Strides Arcolab Ltd, has announced that it has received US FDA approval for Cladribine injection. Cladribine is part of the oncology (cancer) drug portfolio licensed to Pfizer in January 2010 for the US market. The drug comes in 1 mg/ ml packaged in …
In an effort to track the long-term health effects of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan has begun a survey of local children for thyroid abnormalities, a problem associated with exposure to radiation. The study comes in response to concerns over the health consequences of the serious radiation leaks caused …
About 90 per cent of people in Dodo Panhwar village in the vicinity of evaporation ponds of the BHP-Zamzama gas plant, 15 kilometres from here, suffer from skin, eye and abdominal diseases apparently because of toxic fumes spreading in the air from the ponds. Hafiz Abu Bakar Panhwar, who lives …
Three scientists who unlocked secrets of the body’s immune system, opening doors to new vaccines and cancer treatments, won the 2011 Nobel prize for medicine today. American Bruce Beutler and French biologist Jules Hoffmann, who studied the first stages of immune responses to attack, share the $1.5 million award with …
A huge hole that appeared in the Earth's protective ozone layer above the Arctic in 2011 was the largest recorded in the Northern Hemisphere, triggering worries the event could occur again and be even worse, scientists said in a report on Monday. The ozone layer high in the stratosphere acts …
An ozone hole five times the size of California opened over the Arctic this spring, matching ozone loss over Antarctica for the first time on record, scientists said on Sunday. Formed by a deep chill over the North Pole, the unprecedented hole at one point shifted over eastern Europe, Russia …
Trace amounts of plutonium were found as far as 28 miles from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant, the first time that the dangerous element released from the accident was found outside of the immediate area of the plant. The science ministry report issued Friday comes just as the government …
Strides Arcolab Ltd. Friday said its unit has received U.S. regulatory approval for a generic version of cancer treating paclitaxel injections, which the Indian company will launch immediately through partner Pfizer Inc. Generic paclitaxel injections have estimated annual U.S. sales of $46 million, the company said in a statement. Strides …
To mark October as the "Breast Cancer Awareness Month" the Pink Ribbon National Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign held a ceremony in memory of 40,000 women dying every year with breast cancer in Pakistan. Speaking on the occasion National Co-ordinator of the Pink Ribbon Omer Aftab said that Pakistan has the …
About 18.4 in every 100,000 Sri Lankan women had breast cancer in 2005. This figure has gone up to 25, Health Ministry media coordinator W M D Vanninayake said. He said there has been an increase in breast cancer in Sri Lanka during the past 20 years. All Sri Lankan …
Summer monsoons that provide up to 80 percent of the water South Asia needs have gotten drier in the past half century, possibly due to aerosol particles spewed by burning fossil fuels, climate scientists said on Thursday. Monsoon rains are driven by looping air circulation patterns over India, and the …
