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Plastic pollution is crossing frontiers in the Bay of Bengal. Countries are struggling to control it.

Just a few kilometres off the shores of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands —located in India’s Bay of Bengal— fishermen sometimes don’t find any fish… just plastic. The same plastic bottles and bags are also littered across the islands’ beaches.

But this plastic garbage is not all from locals: it travels far from countries around the Bengal Bay, such as Myanmar, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

As plastic pollution shifts from different countries, governments in the area ar
climatetracker •

Climate mitigation policies worldwide often do not address health impacts, study finds

Extreme weather events, droughts, floods and heatwaves are environmental changes that have an impact on human health. For example, malaria thrives in the heat, particularly in poor tropical and sub-tropical areas worldwide, but vectors breed more in humid weather.

India, for instance, along with 20 countries in the WHO African Region contributes to around 85% of malaria deaths globally. According to a 2019 study, climate variation could be a reason behind the high malaria rates.

Specifically,
climatetracker •

There are 67 coal mines for sale in India!

Today we are heading to the India, with Seema Prasad, a freelance reporter in Bengaluru, whose recent focus has been on the intersections of health and climate change.

My name is Seema and this week I’d like to take you on a deep dive into the world of India’s coal.


Before I do, I just want to recognise how lucky I am. So far, I have managed to evade the coronavirus that has infected more than 12 million fellow Indians, and the second wave is officially here. With 65 million vaccine doses al
climatetracker •

Marginalized Communities Bear Climate Change in India

Farmer Venkatravanna (45) owns 3 acres of land in Kolar district of Southern India’s Karnataka state. He grows capsicum and tomatoes by solely depending on borewells without any irrigation. Like him, marginalized communities bear the brunt of climate change in India.

He is baffled by the depleting water from the borewell he dug on his land years ago. ‘When there is not enough water for crops, I buy it from other farmers,’ he says sadly.

In Kolar, the main source of irrigation are the nearly 30
climatetracker •

Indian ocean climate monitoring needs improvement

In Sagar Island, on the Indian side of Bengal, environmental activist Pranabesh Maiti thought he was prepared to brave cyclone Amphan, which hit the Bay of Bengal on May 20, 2020.

Maiti and other islanders of the flood prone region were taken aback by the intensity of the cyclone due to the accuracy of past weather forecasts. Comparatively, cyclone Bulbul in November 2019 was easier to get through.

The government had warned the 200,000 inhabitants of Sagar CD Block in advance, part of the Indi
Medical Daily •

Education, Disrupted

Parents' fears regarding the impact of school closures on their children's education are proving true. Several researchers have found that because students missed classes on a regular basis during the first wave of the pandemic, their academic performance slipped.

Education disrupted is a global phenomenon. At various levels of schooling, 94% of students' education was interrupted worldwide. According to the United Nations (UN), the education of 1.6 billion students in 190 countries was fractur
Medical Daily •

The Symptomless on Surgical Floor: Probably Pregnant

Pregnant women in the obstetrical unit at one St. Louis hospital this spring and summer were nearly 16 times more likely to have asymptomatic COVID-19 than all other surgical patients put together.

Obstetrics patients at the Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis were tested for the SARS-CoV-2 virus before planned procedures, including deliveries, according to a new study published in the September issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology .

All surgical patients admitted there a
Medical Daily •

Autistic Children Use More Healthcare Services In Infancy

Over the years, the number of children diagnosed with autism has risen drastically. According to a research and advocacy foundation, Autism Speaks, the prevalence of autism increased by 20 times since 1980. This is largely since a whole spectrum of characteristics are considered autistic behavior today, unlike earlier when social isolation and repetitive behavior alone were the main symptoms. Therefore, more children with the disorder were identified with an improved criteria for diagnosis.

The
Medical Daily •

Tissue Damage Persists In Organs Of COVID-19 Survivors

Not all patients can heave a sigh of relief once they leave the hospital after receiving treatment for a moderate to severe case of the COVID-19 disease.

More than half of recovering COVID-19 patients surveyed in a new study at the University of Oxford showed tissue abnormalities in their organs two to three months after their initial infection, in addition to compromised mental and physical health.

Researchers looked at 58 patients who had been admitted to Oxford University Hospitals National
Medical Daily •

Does Blood Type Affect Who Gets COVID-19?

So far, age, gender and comorbidities have been considered determinants of the COVID-19 disease’s progression. Now, an unexpected factor seems to be influencing susceptibility to COVID-19, according to two recent studies: blood type.

In both studies published in the journal Blood Advances last week, researchers said that people with blood type O could be less vulnerable to the disease than people with other blood types.

While the outcome of the two research papers was the same, there were a fe