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 …
Sushmi Dey THE World Health Organisation (WHO) has proposed a parallel review of vaccines manufactured by Indian companies, to be carried out by the Canadian national regulatory authority, in addition to the marketing approvals given by the Indian drug regulator.
Bhutan has joined the global map of countries affected by the pandemic influenza A H1N1 virus, initially known as swine flu, with four Bhutanese having tested positive for the flu, of whom two were detected within the country. The two cases in Bhutan were confirmed on Monday in a three-year-old …
The Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) has begun to measure the position of tobacco use among people above 15 years of age in the country. With the support of WHO and Bloomberg Global Initiative, the survey will track prevalence of adult tobacco use, exposure to risk, knowledge of laws, and …
THE government has decided to take off the shelves an anti-malarial drug, artemisinin, in India that is already banned the world over. Sold locally under several brands, the drug when used as a single drug can make malaria parasites resistant to the medicine. The move comes in almost after two …
Swine flu cases cross 250 mark On a day when the UK warned its people of 65,000 possible swine flu deaths this winter, India said it was doing well to contain the spread of the virus.
It is unfortunate that family members of the patient recently isolated at the Chicalim Cottage Hospital on account of Swine Flu say they are being shunned by people around them. Swine Flu, like any other ordinary flu, is completely curable. Once cured, a patient cannot infect anyone else. In the …
Dubious vitamin drive: A committee investigating reports of deaths and illnesses following a nationwide campaign promoting vitamin A and de-worming medicines in Bangladesh said the tablets were safe. The government had launched the investigation after two children died and 400 fell sick soon after consuming the tablets. Some 20 million …
SHILLONG: The State Government has procured 30,000 vaccines from Croatia for the ongoing mass vaccination against meningococcal meningitis that has reportedly claimed 257 lives in Meghalaya in 2008-09. With 30,000 more vaccines, about three lakh people will be vaccinated against the disease. Out of the 257 meningitis deaths so far, …
The outbreak of dengue in Bhutan is an indicator of climate change, according to the world health organisation. Health officials said that, with the change in climate, higher altitude places in Bhutan could see cases of dengue fever. Dengue is an urban disease occurring in tropical and subtropical regions and …
- Scientists had warned of pandemic after detecting virus in pigs and humans Researchers in Calcutta saw a global swine flu pandemic coming more than two decades ago when they detected the H1N1 virus in both pigs and humans in the city.
The polio eradication programme in the country has taken a knocking again. From near-eradication in 2005 when only 66 cases were reported to 879 in 2007 and 559 in 2008, 89 cases have already been reported this year ahead of the July-September peak season. Worse, India is being blamed, along …
A total of 257 people have lost their lives due to suspected meningococcal meningitis in Meghalaya since 2008, the State Government said yesterday. In 2008, 130 people (10 of them confirmed) have died due to the disease. In this year, 127 (four of them confirmed) people have died so far. …
Environmental and health activists who have given a bad name to asbestos are facing the wrath of an industry that pleads that this is the best option for our country--------- FACT: In June 2001. the Supreme Court in Brazil rejected a petition by some activists for ban of asbestos-cement production. …
On June 11, the World Health Organisation (WHO) raised the current worldwide epidemic of the new influenza virus A(H1N1), commonly called swine flu, to the status of a pandemic, the highest level of global alert. This is the first flu pandemic in 41 years. The last one was the 1968 …
The number of dengue deaths has passed 127 and counting. The affected persons have exceeded 9000. In 2005 the number of patients that died from dengue was 28 while there were 5994 dengue patients. In 2006, 48 patients died from dengue while 11980 were affected. In 2007 the number of …
Rich nations want to own vaccines developed and developing countries failed to reach an agreement on the exchange of virus samples and vaccines of pandemic flu at a recent World Health Organization (who) meeting . The agreement was debated at the Intergovernmental Meeting on Pandemic Influenza Preparedness in Geneva on …
