HUMAN gut is host to numerous species of bacteria that enhance metabolism, protect against pathogens and prime our immune system to fight diseases. Dietary habits determine the diversity of this bacterial flora. Understanding this interplay is important as it controls the abilities of our gastrointestinal tracts. With increased use of …
On July 15, 1962, a Washington Post story, ‘Heroine of FDA keeps bad drug off market,’ shocked Americans. The heroine in question was Frances Oldham Kelsey. She had joined the US Food and Drug Administration two years earlier as a drug application investigator. With her expertise in pharmacology, she was …
AN 11-MEMBER committee, formed by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), is set to begin screening of toys made in India and abroad for toxicity. The tests will be conducted on 2,800 samples of toys collected from across India. Samples of branded and unbranded toys will be picked from …
LEAD poisoning is one of the oldest occupational and environmental hazards. Present in everything from house paints to toys, even a small amount of lead can interfere with children’s developing brain and nervous system and affect their learning and cognitive ability. But the precise mechanism by which lead affects brain …
IT IS difficult to escape advertisements. They are everywhere, on billboards, in mass media and on the Internet. Those who find virtue in the notion that anyone with money can promote a product to consumers and increase growth rates form the cheering brigade for ads. Then there are those who …
MAHARASHTRA’S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has filed a chargesheet against Complan, a health drink by Heinz Indian Pvt Ltd, over its advertising claim that it can help children “grow twice as fast”. FDA’s chargesheet names seven officials of Heinz in its petition, describing the commercial as an “exaggerated advertisement …
Multiple micronutrient deficiencies are highly prevalent among preschool children and often lead to anemia and growth faltering. Given the limited success of supplementation and health education programs, fortification of foods could be a viable and sustainable option. We report results from a community based double-masked, randomized trial among children 1
SEVERE anaemia is the major cause of death in malaria patients. Soon after infection, parasite Plasmodium invades red blood cells and bursts them, causing anaemia. Controlling malaria has been a challenge for Asian and Latin American countries where helminthiasis, another anaemia-causing disease, is prevalent. It occurs when the body is …
THE Union health ministry is pushing for the inclusion of the pentavalent vaccine in the universal immunization programme (UIP) for children. In April, the government tried to convince the Delhi High Court to clear the vaccine by submitting a World Health Organization (WHO) report that said there was no problem …
Exemplary agricultural research supported by good government policies has ensured food security in India. It is the right time to focus on micronutrient malnutrition in the country. Recently, Zn deficiency in diet especially of young children below 5 years of age has received global attention. Zn deficiency diseases in infants …
Controversy surrounding the true toll and disease burden caused by fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 has resurfaced following the release of a new study.
Rates of obesity and other childhood chronic conditions have increased over recent decades. Patterns of how conditions change over time have not been widely examined. This study aims to evaluate change in prevalence of obesity and other chronic conditions in US children, including incidence, remission, and prevalence.
Lead exposure has long been associated with deficits in IQ among children. However, few studies have assessed the impact of lead on specific domains of behavior and cognition. The authors evaluated the associations between lead and different domains of neurobehavior and their relative sensitivity to lead.
The three rounds of the National Family Health Survey have generated vast amounts of data, which unfortunately have been subject to only limited critical examination by Indian research scholars, though the opposite is the case with scholars outside India. The nfhs-3, which was conducted in 2005-06, covered many more areas …
The Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) strategy and associated clinical care guidelines were developed in the mid-1990s to reduce mortality from major diseases in children younger than 5 years. Countries have been encouraged to follow a structured process to adapt the IMCI guidelines to their own epidemiological, health-systems, and …
The Infant Milk Substitutes, Feeding Bottles and Infant Foods (Regulation of Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 1992 attempted to curb the efforts of baby food manufacturers to undermine breastfeeding and was further amended in 2003 to plug loopholes. However, public-private health partnerships are now found to be advocating nutrition policies …
Eating the food provided at the balwadi has left 11 children ill and three of them in the hospital. The balwadi, in Posiyampatti village in Thennilai panchayat in Karur district, has 25 children on its rolls but on Thursday only 11 of them had turned up when it opened for …
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit expressed confidence that polio would soon be eliminated from the Capital. She said this at the launch of another phase of special intensified pulse polio immunisation programme (PPIP) today in the Capital. She also administered polio drops to children. The Chief Minister exhorted parents to administer …
GPCC President Francisco Sardinha has expressed his reservations over the budget proposal to extend Mid-Day Meal scheme to secondary school students and the hike on excise duty on liquor consumed by the common man. While welcoming the government's budget as a "good' one in keeping with the trend set by …
