Half of the world’s population still does not have adequate access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) which could have prevented at least 1.4 million deaths and 74 million disability-adjusted life years in 2019, according to this latest report by the World Health Organization (WHO). The report summarizes …
Since April this year, about 332 persons have died due to communicable diseases in Humla, Nepal. An investigation committee confirmed the death toll to be 332 after conulting Village Development Committee chairpersons and health workers, says Jeevan Prasad Oli, chief district magistrate of Humla. About 23 villages of Humla district …
Serious diseases have been reported in remote villages of northern Afghanistan, which were severely damaged by a recent earthquake. The United Nations and Red Cross have evacuated 102 of the most seriously injured people from remote villages, and delivered food to 31 of the approximately 100 affected villages. An outbreak …
fresh water supply is gradually becoming a matter of serious concern, says a report of the United Nations ( un ). With nearly 900 million people affected by diarrhoea each year and an equal number suffering from diseases caused by round worms, unclearn water ranks at the top of the …
scientists in the us , Finland and India have reported significant breakthroughs in research that could help develop vaccines for rotavirus infection. Rotavirus infection is caused due to ingestion of the viral particles in water or other means of child-to-child infection. According to the World Health Organisation, the disease accounts …
measles , diarrhoea, and rabies have claimed 121 lives in Nepal in this year's rainy season. Three districts of the mid-west and two districts of the central region have been worst affected with measles and diarrhoea claiming 114 lives, said Benu Bahadur Karki, director of epidemiology and disease control division …
There were reports of epidemics among the victims of flood disaster in Bangladesh in mid-July as the death toll rose to 84. The health ministry's permanent epidemic monitoring centre in Dhaka said recently that at least eight of the 1,219 people hospitalised with diarrhoea had died. Reports said that the …
A CHANCE discovery' by. virologists of Baylor college of, medicine in Houston, Texas, could stop life-threatening diarrhoea in children, dead in tracks. Led by Mary Estes, the virologists were actually investigating the parts of the virus when they stumbled on to how the viral particles infect human cells. "We found …
LISSOME Seeta Mahato, 21, married last year, is the healing and humane touch in down and out Hiramiya village, tucked away in the backward Samastipur district of Bihar. Lissome is a lady health worker (lhw). And her team has worked wonders. "In just 6 months, we reduced the spate of …
CONTAMINATION of weaning food and water, mother's nails and teats, improperly cleaned utensils and feeding bottle nipples are responsible for a high incidence of infantile diarrhoea in Chandigarh, suggests a study. Conducted by researchers of the Government Home Science College, Chandigarh, this study on the major modes of transmission of …
*Every year, 4 million children in Africa and Asia die of diarrhoea. * Nearly 800 million people in the 2 continents are at serious risk of contracting chronic respiratory diseases and cancer from indoor air pollution. * It is believed that global warming could trigger epidemics of tropical diseases worldwide. …
The drug controller of India is considering banning anti- diarrheal drugs for children because they are increasingly replacing oral rehydration solutions -- the first-line treatment for replenishing lost water and salts in the body. The ban will be part of a plan to ban "irrational" combinations, which is likely to …
NEW STRAINS of diarrhoea, malaria and cholera are spreading rapidly in South Asia, adding to the burden of health care systems that are already stretched to breaking point. Scientists in Bangladesh say the new cholera bacterium, named vibrio non-01, has killed as many as 4,000 of 70,000 victims, mostly residents …
A premature death seems in store for the "cradle baby scheme" launched with much fanfare by Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalitha last October, following reports of female infanticide in Salem. This is because between March 23 and April 24, of the 51 babies cared for under the scheme at the …
NESTLE seems to have perfected the fine art of profiting at another's expense. Its infant food substitutes have been a known cause of diarrhoea and death among year-old babies. Now, the company claims to have developed a carob-based baby food which, it says, helps remove diarrhoea-causing bacteria from the intestines. …
A study in rural Bangladesh has found victims of watery diarrhoea treated with rice-based oral rehydration solution (rice-ORS) recover faster and require fewer hospitalisations than those treated otherwise (Glimpse Newsletter, Vol 14 No 4). Rice gruel has traditionally been used to treat diarrhoea. Packaged rice-ORS and glucose-ORS were supplied to …
THE US National Cancer Institute plans to test nationwide a drug called taihoxifen that might prevent breast cancer, lower the number of deaths from heart attacks and reduce the number of broken bones among middle-aged and older women. The trial, over a period of five years, will involve about 16,000 …
SCIENTISTS are now advocating that harvesting locally used medicinal plants from tropical forests could be more lucrative than clearing the land for farming or growing timber. When compared to other land uses, medicinal harvesting appears to be more valuable. For example, clearing the rain forest for agriculture is 'worth US …
WaterAid began its water, sanitation and hygiene work in Nepal in 1987 and now works with seven partner organisations in the country. Our activities with them are vital as approximately a third of all deaths in Nepal are of children under five, and half of these are due to diarrhoea. …
