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 …
FALLING OUT: Bangladesh-based Grameen bank, the pioneering micro-credit institution, has fallen out with Monsanto, the agro-chemical combine, just a month after agreeing to a partnership to introduce biotechnology to small farming communities in Bangladesh. The first project envisaged demonstration of cotton farming using hybrid cotton to increase yields and reduce …
MERCURY, which is known to damage the nervous system and disrupt mental development, can also cause infertility in men at levels well below those the World Health Organisation (WHO) says are safe. Mike Dickman, biologist at the University of Hong Kong, and Clement Leung of the In Vitro Fertilisation Centre …
IT MAY not be possible to eradicate poliomyelitis from the world by the year 2000 unless adequate resources are mobilised in time, warn World Health Organisation (WHO) officials. Bruce Aylward, in-charge of the WHO Global Polio Eradication Initiative, says that only a few polio-endemic countries are left in the world. …
the World Health Organisation's (who) plans to eliminate seven major diseases may require more than us $7.5 billion, which the agency has budgeted. Some us officials claim that the programme could even soak up money from other programmes, harming public health. The who targets to eradicate diseases such as lymphatic …
out of a total of 52.2 million deaths around the world in 1997, 17.3 million people died due to infectious and parasitic diseases and 15.3 million, due to circulatory diseases. Another 6.2 million people died due to cancer, 2.9 million due to respiratory diseases, mainly chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and …
A taskforce of foreign policy makers recently suggested that an analysis unit should be set up at the United Nations (UN) to facilitate Security Council's decision-making. Lord Carrington, the UK foreign secretary and chairperson of the task force, said that he was "worried about the gap between the readiness of …
China has found its biggest threat yet. Pollution. With 178,000 annual deaths being attributed to urban pollution, the nation's leaders have become keenly sensitive to the issue and going by the rhetoric and new regulations, are indeed concerned about the problem. The blood-lead levels in Chinese children are 80 per …
a group of French researchers has come across a bubonic plague bacterium that is resistant to multiple antibiotics. The bacterium, called Yersenia pestis (y pestis), was isolated from a 16-year-old boy from Madagascar in southern Africa. It has developed resistance to all first-line antibiotics and principal alternate drugs used to …
trace elements, that form a part of human nutrition, are not well understood. These substances, occurring in small amounts (especially in the soil) are usually needed in extremely small measures for the proper growth of plant and animal life. However, they can become toxic even in relatively low dosages. Also, …
Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) or sexually transmitted infections (STIs), have been recognised as a major public-health problem for a number of years. In 1912, Prince Morrow, chair of the US committee looking into the problem of venereal diseases, was quoted as saying "it is a conservative estimate that fully one-eighth …
Scientists have for long propagated that breast feeding is perfect for babies and fulfils their total nutritional requirements for the first six months. Realising its importance, Brazil has launched several campaigns to promote breast feeding. There are six lactation training and resource centres in the country. The Lactation Training Programme …
On the occasion of the UN cation control programmes. World Day to Combat Desertificaion on June 17, Elizabeth Dowdeswell, violence as a public health problem was Aecutive director of the gramme, said that the viewed as an isolated, focalised threat; it h abstract planning and lack of political will 00031MMENIM …
Tropical cyclones will become more fierce over the next few decades as a It of global warming. But mes are unlikely to become frequent or spread beyond tropics, according to a report prepared for the World Metrological Organization. The rt predicts that the intensity rclones will increase between nd 20 …
the much-publicised 'breakthrough' for tuberculosis (tb), hailed by the World Health Organization (who) as capable of bringing the global epidemic under control, has been criticised by top tb researchers. Experts are anxious that the who's statements will fuel a dangerous complacency that could increase the death toll of tb patients. …
recently, a team of experts from India and Bangladesh met at the South East Asia Regional Office of the World Health Organization (who) at New Delhi, from April 29 to May 1, to deliberate on arsenic contamination of groundwater in West Bengal (wb). The government of India, feel experts, have …
the theme of the World Health Organization's (who) annual report the World Health Report (WHR) 1997, confronts chronic conditions like cancer, mental disorders, metabolic and hormonal imbalances, musculo-skeletal conditions - most of them preventable, but not easily curable. In view of the fact that in the last decades of this …
millions of people in tropical regions of Asia, Africa and South America suffer from permanent disability due to leprosy, river blindness, Chagas disease and lymphatic filariasis. The World Health Organization (who) has predicted that these four diseases will be "eliminated as public health problems" within 10 years. These predictions are …
a recent study conducted in Hungary with the help of the World Health Organization (who) has found that workers exposed to pesticides showed a considerably higher percentage of abnormal cells than the accepted amount. According to a team headed by I Desi of the department of public health at Albert …
drugs containing narcotics and psychotropic substances can now be easily imported, thanks to a new set of guidelines being issued by the World Health Organization (who). The new rules aim to simplify the procedures for the international movement of drugs containing these substances for emergency purposes. They would allow selected …
