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Health articles - Down to Earth


Down To Earth •

World Health Assembly passes historic resolution on climate change & health, urging countries to take action

Underscoring the urgency of dealing with health risks posed by climate change, the member countries supported the resolution which said it was time to prioritise it in national and international climate policy frameworks.Seen as a key moment in the World Health Organization’s battle against climate change and its impact on health, the resolution underlines the need for collective action on a global scale. At the 28th UN Climate Change Conference (COP28), more than 123 countries adopted a declara...
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Agreement on sharing pathogen access unlikely at World Health Assembly, may delay pandemic treaty

The World Health Assembly has its work cut out as it meets from May 27-June 1, 2024. Even after two years of negotiations, countries have not reached a consensus on the finer details of the pandemic agreement.The pandemic treaty is a draft meant to guide nations in the event of an unprecedented global health crisis. Speaking to Reuters, the Netherlands-based co-chair of the talks, Roland Driece, did not hold out much hope on a full agreement being reached even now. He said that it was more likel...
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COVID-19 pandemic erased decade of gains in life expectancy, NCDs deaths on the rise: World Health Statistics Report

The estimates showed that 13 million people died of COVID-19 between 2020 and 2021. During which time, COVID-19 visibly became the leading cause of death among communicable diseases, ranking third-highest worldwide as the cause of mortality globally in 2020 and second in 2021.Communicable diseases, however, increased when the pandemic struck. “With the emergence of COVID-19, communicable diseases surged back to 23.0 per cent of all deaths in 2020 and 28.1 per cent in 2021 — a return to 2005 leve...
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Food labels misleading, India’s new dietary guidelines warn

Food products often loosely state they are “all-natural”, the health research organisations stressed. On the contrary, they could have added flavours or substances, with minimal processing, they added. Manufacturers can see through this and identify a few natural ingredients when they see this displayed on the label, the authors of the document explained. Another popular claim, they observed, was on the proportion of the nutrient offered in a single serving of a product marketed as a “good sourc...
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Activists call out FSSAI for increasing permissible level of pesticides in Indian herbs, spices

Amit Khurana, programme director of sustainable food systems at the Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi, told Down to Earth (DTE), if the FSSAI is relaxing the limit, then ultimately it allows for more pesticides to be ingested into the human body with severe health implications. “If you are making such a huge upward revision, then you have to substantiate it by releasing the data based on which the decision was made,” he said, adding:  The MRLs of pesticides for food and commodities,...
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Nestle adds almost 3 grams of sugar in every serving of baby food Cerelac sold in India

Startling findings have emerged regarding the sugar content in Cerelac, a milk cereal-based complementary food for babies produced by the multinational food company Nestlé. Despite the World Health Organization’s (WHO) stringent guidelines banning added sugars in baby food products, Cerelac has been found to contain an average of nearly 3 grammes of sugar per serving in India.The researchers exposed an unusual double standard, where the company was not following the WHO guidelines in poor countr...
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Whooping cough cases outbreak reported around the world

Whooping cough, a highly contagious respiratory illness also known as pertussis, is making a concerning comeback across the globe. Outbreaks are being reported in numerous countries, raising concerns about vaccine efficacy and the vulnerability of young children.China has reported a more than 20-fold increase in whooping cough cases in January and February compared to the same period last year. After confirming 32,380 cases and 13 deaths, Chinese authorities warned that it is a major cause of mo...
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India had over 11% of global hepatitis burden in 2022, with 35.3 million cases

India accounted for a significant 11.6 per cent of the world's hepatitis cases in 2022, according to 2024 Global Hepatitis Report by the World Health Organization (WHO). This translates to a concerning number of over 35.3 million hepatitis infections in the country, with 29.8 million hepatitis B and 5.5 million hepatitis C cases.The country ranked second after China, contributing 27.5 per cent of the global total with 83.8 million cases in 2022. The two countries were among the top ten, which al...
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Global life expectancy increased by 6.2 years in the past three decades: Lancet study

An overall increase in life expectancy worldwide by 6.2 years was observed by a new study published in The Lancet from 1990 to 2021. This progress is owing to a reduction in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, ischemic heart disease, and strokes across the globe. COVID-19, however, was a dampener in many countries.Enteric illnesses are food and waterborne illnesses, that are bacterial, parasitical, and viral diseases, contributed to the highest reduction in deaths. The...
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WHO launches ‘CoViNet’ — a global laboratory to monitor emerging coronaviruses

The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a global network of laboratories to identify and monitor potentially novel coronaviruses that could emerge shortly. Besides SARS-CoV-2, the new WHO Coronavirus Network, called CoViNet, will assess other coronaviruses, including MERS-CoV, with enhanced laboratory capacity.The international agency widened its focus by building on its earlier collaboration with the WHO COVID-19 reference laboratory network, which was set up in January 2020 during the...
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Occupational heat exposure doubles risk of miscarriages or stillbirths

The increasing frequency of heatwaves in tropical countries like India can impact the health of pregnant women. Occupational heat exposure poses, in particular, a threat to the health of working mothers and the foetuses in their wombs, doubling the risk of miscarriages or stillbirths.  A study based in six districts of Tamil Nadu followed pregnant women performing heavy manual work in the informal sector, primarily in agriculture, brick kilns, salt pans and construction. They worked in the scorc...
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Unhealthy levels of arsenic in water could exacerbate health concerns when used to boil rice

A new study underlines the risk of using water contaminated with arsenic to cook rice, a staple food serving more than half the world’s population. It highlighted that 32 per cent of the global population lives in low- and middle-income countries that do not adhere to the World Health Organization’s recommended limits.The study, conducted by the University of Sheffield’s Institute for Sustainable Food and the Department of Geography (United Kingdom), pointed out that some countries still follow...
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Major droughts make women 35 per cent more likely to be underweight: New study

A new study released by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development recently estimated that exposure to major droughts increases the likelihood of being underweight in women by 35 per cent, and child marriage in girls by 37 per cent. The research led by the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation was a collaborative endeavor with Karmannya Counsel, a not-for-profit, and the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, a non-governmental trade association and advocacy group. Data was s...
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Bharat Biotech’s vaccine, Covaxin not as effective as Serum Institutes of India’s Covishield

Covishield elicited higher levels of antibodies against various SARS-CoV-2 strains in comparison to the government-backed Covaxin, a study led by the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) that compared the two primary COVID-19 vaccines administered in India indicated.The study was a collaboration of eleven institutes such as the Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine, the National Chemical Laboratory, the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune and St....
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44 million women, 26 million men in India were obese in 2022: The Lancet

There were 70 million adults living with obesity in India in 2022, with almost twice the number of women than men, at 44 million and 26 million, respectively. In children aged 19 and under, 5.2 million girls and 7.3 million boys were obese, a global study published on February 29 in journal The Lancet noted. The study also found drastic increases in obesity rates compared to figures from 1990.From 1990 to 2022, obesity rates among children and adolescents worldwide quadrupled and obesity rates a...
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Cancer treatment can cause metastasis; a new nutraceutical drug can contain it: Research

Dying cancer cells generated by cancer treatment release chromatin particles that turn healthy cells into cancerous ones, spreading the disease from the primary site to other parts of the body, the decade-long research led by Professor Indraneel Mittra found. Chromatin particles (cfChPs, or fragments of chromosomes) merge with healthy chromosomes, leading to the formation of new tumors, TMC’s Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer’s (ACTREC) study revealed.“Chemotherapy...
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Indians have worse lung function post COVID-19 compared to other populations: CMC study

A new study assessed lung impairment in Indians post-COVID-19 recovery and found that the prevalence of residual lung damage was much higher compared to the Europeans and Chinese. This might have been influenced by the higher rate of comorbidities in the Indian population, the researchers said.The study published in the PLOS Global Public Health Journal by the Christian Medical College (CMC) in Vellore analysed lung impairment in patients that persisted 63 days after the onset of the disease dur...
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Bird flu outbreak in Andhra: Could H5N1 spark next pandemic? New paper warns of risks

The bird flu cases were discovered in the villages of Chatagutla in Podalakur and Gummaladibba in Kovur district sub-divisions after several chicken deaths were reported on poultry farms. The disease did not emerge in commercial operations but was found in backyard poultry farms.The poultry likely caught the virus from migratory birds in Pulicat lake in nearby Tirupati district, according to officials. Migratory wild aquatic birds, particularly waterfowl, are the primary natural reservoirs for m...
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Bubonic plague of infamous 'Black Death' era strikes Oregon resident. Is there a climate change link?

Close contacts of the resident and the cat have been given medication beforehand to contain the spread. “Consult a veterinarian immediately if your cat becomes sick after being in contact with rodents,” the authority warned in a press release.In the mid-1300s, the bubonic plague was responsible for the pandemic that was infamously known as the Black Death, wiping out more than 50 per cent of Europe’s population. The bacterial infection remains today but is uncommon and treatable with modern anti...
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2024 peak year for Kyasanur Forest Disease, Karnataka health officials confirm as cases rise

Bhat, a senior epidemiologist with Karnataka’s department of health and family welfare, added, “The ongoing trend over the past several decades shows that once in every four to five years, a peak emerges, with minor fluctuations in the two major hotspots (Shivamogga and Uttara Kannada). It is the pattern the disease outbreak follows.”  The KFD virus resides in the Haemaphysalis spinigera species of ticks. The life cycle includes eggs that will hatch into larvae and develop into nymphs between No...
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COVID-19 pandemic may have led to 14% spike in number of underweight children in Bihar, Odisha: Study

The analysis showed a decline in the children’s body weight of 0.5 to 0.6 from the standard deviations (SD) of weight after the pandemic, according to Weight-For-Age Z (WAZ) scores. A negative sign (-) reveals that the child’s body weight is less than the median child of the same age and gender in the reference group, therefore indicating malnourishment. A positive sign (+) indicates that the child has more than the median weight.“A child is classified as being underweight (a measure of nutritio...
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India reported 1.41 million new cancer cases in 2022; breast cancer ranks highest

Breast cancer had the highest proportion in the country, with 192,020 new cases, accounting for 13.6 per cent of all patients and over 26 per cent in women. The approximation reflected the global estimates that ranked female breast cancer as the second highest reported, with 2.3 million cases worldwide.In India, breast cancer was followed by lip and oral cavity (143,759 new cases, 10.2 per cent), cervix and uterine (127,526 new cases, 9 per cent), lung (81,748, 5.8 per cent), and oesophagal canc...
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Union Budget 2024-25 encourages vaccination against cervical cancer, provides insurance to frontline health workers

Srinath Reddy, former president of the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), told Down to Earth (DTE): “As far as the actual increase in funding is concerned, it is marginal at one per cent. Compared to the revised estimates which is the spent amount, it is about 12 per cent. We have to look at why the amount spent was less than what was allocated. It may mean administrative inefficiencies, and health system weaknesses in absorptive capacity that may need rectification. We hope the regular b...
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The pandemic treaty can help the world brace for Disease X: WHO Director-General

COVID-19 was the first ‘Disease X’ and it may happen again, warned the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. He spoke during a recent discussion titled Preparing for Disease X, hosted by the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos. “However, one unfortunate possibility is that COVID-19 and other recent pandemics might have been milder versions of what will eventually be the most prominent Disease X,” a 2021 paper published in the Cambridge Un...
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Health Articles - Medical Daily, affiliated with IBT Media

Explore a featured selection of my writing work below.
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 fractured...
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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 are g...
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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...
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Screens, Blue Light and Poor Sleep: Still Debated Links

Of the many reasons that can hamper your daily productivity, poor sleep is at the top of the list. But is poor sleep connected to the constant use of technology? This is is still a point for debate.Those incessantly glued to a screen before bedtime for either work or personal reasons – for some, an inevitable event during the pandemic, when most communication is via a screen, could be losing sleep because of blue light.Blue light coming from phones, tablets and laptops could reduce the quality...
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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 Hea...
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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 few...
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Nitric Oxide Could Ease COVID-19 Symptoms: Study

Antiviral and anti-inflammatory drugs such as remdesivir, favipiravir and corticosteroids are those commonly prescribed to treat COVID-19 infection.Now, a recent Swedish study is pointing to another possible treatment contender: inhaled nitric oxide (NO). While only studied within the confines of a test tube, the researchers said inhaled nitric oxide has COVID-fighting potential. "Until we get a vaccine that works, our hope is that inhalation of NO might be an effective form of treatment," said...
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The Cause of Lung Cancer in China is Shifting

China has experienced an alarming increase in lung cancer deaths of both men and women over the past three decades, an increase attributed not only to smoking but to air pollution.In 1990, about 760,000 men died worldwide from lung cancer; 164,448 of them died in China. By 2017, the annual worldwide number had grown to 1.3 million, with Chinese men accounting for one-third of those deaths, or 477,246. These figures were published in the journal Cancer in July.Meanwhile, in 1990, 272,811 women d...
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U.S. TB Efforts Falling Behind During Pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic is threatening to undo the progress made in tuberculosis (TB) eradication. A new survey of TB healthcare workers from 89 countries has made clear which of these two, highly infectious respiratory diseases is getting all the attention, and which one has been forced to take back seat.Released in mid-September, the report, entitled The Impact of COVID-19 on the TB Epidemic: A Community Perspective, suggests that because of the money and personnel rerouted to the COVID-19 ep...
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Part 2: TB Contact Tracing Not Working For COVID-19

Despite years of experience, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has not yet been able to translate its success in contact tracing cases of tuberculosis (TB), to tracing cases of COVID-19.While both infectious diseases share some similar modes of transmission, and therefore require the same expertise in tracing contacts, COVID-19 tracers are hampered by three things: (l) the disease’s sheer swiftness in spreading; (2) trust issues between contact tracers and the community; and (...
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Q&A On COVID Herd Immunity: Is It Coming Soon?

If a vaccine for coronavirus were to be developed, people could be protected from an infectious disease en masse, thanks to herd immunity.Herd immunity results when a huge population develops immunity against a virus. Polio was virtually eradicated this way.Of course, the ideal way to develop herd immunity is through vaccination. But, since a COVID-19 vaccine has not yet been discovered, researchers have chosen to first study antibodies.Recently, epidemiologists at Yale School of Public Health a...
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Studies Show Little Progress in Reining in Opioid Epidemic

Paul DeKraai knows about opioid addiction. For years, the 74-year-old Oakland, MD, resident helped those in need: adolescent psych unit, methadone clinic, detox clinic. So the irony didn’t escape him when 1 week after constant dosing with an opioid to treat the pain from a broken collarbone, torn rib and bruised lung following a horse-riding accident, he recognized his own signs of addiction.Throughout Mr. DeKraai's 6-day post-surgical stay in the hospital, the pain-soothing hydromorphone flowed...
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Study Shows Extent, Danger of TB Exposure: Part I

In 2018, 8 countries – led by India – made up two-thirds of the world’s tuberculosis cases, followed by Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and South Africa. In an effort to eradicate the disease, global leaders from over 100 countries pledged to provide preventive TB treatment to the 24 million contacts of active TB patients by 2022. So far, the countries are far from reaching this goal.As a result, on World TB Day March 24, 2020, the World Health Organization reco...
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For Seniors, Flu Shot Safer Bet to Reduce Cardiovascular Risk

With the annual flu season comes advice for people to get vaccinated. But not everyone does, and some end up regretting that decision. While the race is on to find a COVID-19 vaccine, researchers confirm that the seasonal flu shot, already available, could prevent some flu-related complications. Most people recover from the flu within 2 weeks without medical intervention. But those in high-risk populations, including adults over 65 and children 2 years and younger, can benefit from a flu vaccina...
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With Good Hygiene, Mom Can Breastfeed

The act of breastfeeding -- the holding, the closeness, the skin contact -- does not appear to pass on COVID-19 to newborns, says a new study. The journal The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health said that if mothers follow correct hygienic practices, they are unlikely to pass the disease to their infant. Mothers or soon-to-be moms who were worried that the act of nursing could pass on the virus needn't do so, said the clinical researchers. Researchers looked at 116 mothers who were diagnosed with...
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When Personal Liberties, Public Responsibilities, Clash

Before COVID-19, most of us Ordinary People had no notion that wearing a face mask would disrupt and infiltrate nearly every aspect of our lives. Are there any among us who don't notice the itchy skin, the sweat, the instant fog on our glasses, the perceived if not honest suffocating feeling when we exercise, climb a flight of steps? Masks must be washed or carefully discarded once we are back home. And we might run out of masks at any point, so we must always keep stock on hand. In other words,...
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Does Mom's Depression During Pregnancy Affect the Children Later in Life?

Mental health professionals have long known that children raised by mothers with depression may have similar issues themselves. Many of these kids are known to act out and to have health care problems. But researchers from medical institutions in the U.S., Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom wanted to know this: do these youngsters, born of mothers depressed during and for at least a year after giving birth, end up depressed themselves? For many the answer is yes, even more so if the...
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HPV Vaccinations Should Start at Age 9, Says American Cancer Society

In order to reduce the spread of human papillomavirus (HPV), the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States, healthcare providers usually recommend routine HPV vaccinations begin at an early age. Earlier administration leads to better chances of completing the series on time and decreasing the rising cases of cancer. As a result, the American Cancer Society (ACS) recently urged medical professionals to offer the vaccine to both boys and girls as young as 9 years old. Recommend...
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Can Psychosocial Distress Make People More Vulnerable To COVID-19?

Quarantining at home for the past few months has considerably reduced professional and socializing activities. Adding to the sense of isolation from stay-at-home orders are other factors including unemployment, financial troubles, and the threat of COVID-19 infection and death, all significantly increasing stress levels for many people. One researcher from the United States recently published a piece suggesting that psychosocial distress increases susceptibility to upper respiratory viruses like...
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Researchers Identify An Infectious Mutation Of COVID-19

Mutations of RNA viruses are part of natural growth and development. WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan confirmed on the sidelines of a news conference in Geneva that from the 60,000 samples of SARS-CoV-2 gathered by the World Health Organisation (WHO), about 30 percent appear to have mutated. The D614G genetic mutation circulated across Europe and the U.S. is speculated to have caused the increase in infection rates in some regions, while other areas had similar density but no rise in cases...