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 …
At least 217 people have succumbed to spinal meningitis over the past two months in Togo, Burkina Faso and Ghana, according to a recent World Health Organization (who) report. who said in a statement that at least 1,571 people have been affected by the epidemic, adding that the figure was …
Alarm bells are ringing in Bangladesh following a warning by the World Health Organization (WHO) arsenic contamination is seriously affecting the country. As preventive measures, the effectiveness of household arsenic removal candle filters were field-tested by the public health engineering department. "The problem has developed over a long period of …
On December 26, 1996, the Convention to Combat Desertification, a UN treaty aimed against formation of new deserts, came into force. It was one of the pacts agreed at the UN sponsored Rio summit in 1992, as part of an action plan to protect the global environment. Besides checking desertification …
promoting non-chlorofluorocarbon (cfc) refrigerators worldwide, to ensure the safety of the ozone layer, is having an unfortunate fallout. Immunisation programmes which involve the use of vaccines have been on a shaky ground ever since the global programme to switch over to cfc-free refrigeration began according to a recent report of …
According to a recent UN report, the world population growth rate is slowing down. Nevertheless, the world is expected to see 3.7 billion more people by the year 2050 from the current level of 5.7 billion. The less developed countries will continue to be burdened with more denizens. Their growth …
close on the heels of the dengue, yellow fever is threatening to break out in India, according to the World Health Organization. The Aedes aegypti mosquito which spreads the dengue fever can also carry the yellow fever virus, said the Heart Care Foundation of India, New Delhi. However, Pradeep Seth, …
With the world perilously close to a global crisis in infectious diseases, the UN health body has chalked out a 20-point programme on how to prevent it. WHO has admitted that the promised slogan of "health for all by the year 2000' may not after all be met considering the …
Ageing population will be a serious cause for concern in the coming century according to the World Health Organization (WHO). By 2020, the number of old people is set to nearly double to around one billion. WHO warned that, "If left unattended now, it may have far-reaching consequences for public …
it took more than a 100 deaths in New Delhi to shake the government out of its apathy to the dengue epidemic. The World Health Organization ( who ) recently revealed that it had warned the Union health ministry and New Delhi's civic bodies in early September about an impending …
when the new century rolls in, it will bring in its wake more mental illnesses and deaths and disabilities due to traffic accidents, according to a World Health Organization ( who ) report released recently in Geneva. The report
Epilepsy, a neurological disorder characterised by fits, is the focus of a combined drive launched by the World Health Organization and the International League Against Epilepsy, an international NGO. The campaign which began last month, will essentially aim at increasing public and professional awareness of the brain disorder which affects …
realising the need to redress the growing burden of neuro-psychiatric and behavioural disorders, the World Health Organization ( who ) has launched a worldwide inter-agency programme called the
Thousands of Africans fall prey to meningitis every year. A major initiative was launched this week by the World Health Organization ( who ) to control the recurring cycle of cerebrospinal meningitis epidemics in Africa and reduce their devastating consequences. Since the beginning of this year, more than 140,000 cases …
HUMANITY seems to be losing the war against tuberculosis (T13).The picture is unnerving - eight million new victims and 2.9million deaths every year; dilapidated national TB programmes; emergence of multi -drug-resistant strains; prohibitive costs of treating the burden of excess cases; receding hopesof new drugs as research budgets shrink; the …
Mycobacteria make daunting subjects for study. In contrast to the more commonly used organism for molecular biological research, the E Coli, which produces a visible colony in about eight hours, Mycobacterium tuberculosis requires three to four weeks to yield a comparable colony. Its formidable waxy coat of multiple complex lipids …
In the treatment of TB, the intensive periods under standard regimen (SR) and shorter course chemotherapy (SCC) remain constant at two months, after which the patient turns sputum negative. The length of the treatment is reduced in the follow-up phase from 10 months to four. This fact is significant because …
Besides BCG vaccination, another preventive control measure practised widely in North America but largely ignored in developing countries, is isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT). Unfortunately, the impact of this measure on TB is as uncertain. The recent epidemic of HIV-associated TB in countries in sub-Saharan Africa had led to proposals for …
WHILE the World Health Organization (WHO) indulges in endless prolatives of achieving "Health for All" by 2000 AD, the global disease burden is on the boil, especially in developing countries. According to the Organization's World Health Report, 1996, infectious and parasitic diseases killed about 17 million people in 1995 - …
WOMEN face a great risk to their own health during pregnancy. A joint study conducted by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization highlights the normally underestimated fact of maternal mortality. The report says that there are nearly 80,000 more pregnancyrelated deaths per year than previously …
