Page 3 - World Health Organisation

Florida's 6-week abortion ban takes effect, draws doctors' criticism

Florida's ban on most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before many women even know they are pregnant, went into effect on Wednesday, and some doctors are concerned that women in the state will no longer have access to needed health care. Dr. Leah Roberts, a reproductive endocrinologist and fertility specialist with Boca Fertility in Boca Raton, said the anti-abortion laws being enacted by Florida and other red states are being vaguely written by people who don't understand medical science. The rules are affecting not just women who want therapeutic abortions, meaning procedures to terminate viable pregnancies because of personal choice, but also nonviable pregnancies for women who want to have babies. We're coming in between them and their doctors and preventing them from getting care until it's literally saving their lives, sometimes at the expense of their fertility, Roberts said. The new ban has an exception for saving a woman's life, as well as in cases involving rape an

India second only to China in hepatitis B and C cases, says WHO report

India accounted for the second-highest number of cases of hepatitis B and C in 2022 after China, with 3.5 crore infections, according to a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver that can cause a range of health problems and can be fatal. According to the WHO's 2024 Global Hepatitis Report released on Tuesday, 254 million people lived with hepatitis B and 50 million with hepatitis C in 2022 globally. India, which was second only to China in the viral hepatitis burden, registered 2.98 crore hepatitis B cases in 2022 while the number of hepatitis C infections stood at 55 lakh. China registered 8.3 crore cases of hepatitis B and C, representing 27.5 per cent of the total disease burden. The report said that with a total of 3.5 crore cases, India accounted for 11.6 per cent of the total disease burden globally that year. There are five main strains of the hepatitis virus, referred to as types A, B, C, D and E. While they all cause live

World TB Day: As India's eradication deadline nears, Bimaru states a drag

Experts say that despite the decline in incidence rates, the 2025 deadline may be ambitious

Bharat Biotech's TB vaccine MTBVAC begins clinical trials in India

The trials will assess the vaccine's safety, immune response, and efficacy in preventing TB in adults and adolescents. MTBVAC has been developed after research spanning over three decades

Neurological issues leading cause of ill health, disability: Lancet study

Neurological conditions such as epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease and dementia are now the leading cause of ill health and disability globally, affecting 3.4 billion people in 2021, according to a major new analysis published in The Lancet Neurology journal. Globally, the number of people living with, or dying from, neurological conditions such as stroke, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, and meningitis has risen substantially over the past 30 years. This is due to the growth and ageing of the global population as well as increased exposure to environmental, metabolic, and lifestyle risk factors, the researchers said. The study suggests that worldwide, the overall amount of disability, illness, and premature death -- a measurement known as disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) -- caused by neurological conditions increased by 18 per cent over the past 31 years, rising from around 375 million years of healthy life lost in 1990 to 443 million years in 2021. The analysis from the .

Artificial intelligence game changer in tracking cases of tuberculosis

Qure.ai and India Health Fund's qXR tool leading better TB notifications

Obesity drugs will not solve our billion-person problem, warns WHO

New obesity drugs such as Novo Nordisk A/S's Wegovy and Eli Lilly & Co.'s Zepbound could be an $80 billion market by 2030

India registered 1.41 mn new cancer cases, 910,000 deaths in 2022: WHO

In 2022, India had more than 14.1 lakh new cancer cases and over 9.1 lakh deaths due to the disease, and breast cancer was the most common, according to the latest estimates of the disease's global burden by the World Health Organization (WHO). Cancers of lip, oral cavity and lung were the most common ones in men, accounting for 15.6 and 8.5 per cent of the new cases, respectively, whereas, cancers of breast and cervix uteri were the most frequent ones in women, making up close to 27 and 18 per cent of the new cases, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), WHO's cancer agency has estimated. It also calculated that the number of people alive within 5 years following a cancer diagnosis was nearly 32.6 lakhs in India. Globally, the agency estimated 2 crore new cancer cases and 97 lakh deaths, and about 5.3 crore people were alive within 5 years following a cancer diagnosis. About 1 in 5 people develop cancer in their lifetime, and roughly 1 in 9 men and 1 in 12 women di

What is Disease X? Future pandemic could be deadlier, warns WHO director

WHO director-general warns that the future pandemic could be deadlier. Here's what Tedros Ghebreyesus said at the World Economic Forum

Countries risk missing May deadline for pandemic accord, says WHO chief

Only once before in the organisation's 75-year history has the WHO managed to agree such an accord, and that was a Tobacco Control treaty in 2003

In a first, Corbevax vaccine gets WHO emergency use listing authorisation

India's first indigenously developed COVID-19 vaccine, Corbevax, has been granted an Emergency Use Listing by the World Health Organisation, the company which manufactures it in India said here on Tuesday. Corbevax is based on a protein sub-unit platform and manufactured by the pharmaceutical firm Biological E Limited in India. Mahima Datla, Managing Director of Biological E Ltd said: We are pleased with the WHO Emergency Use Listing (EUL) because it would help us use the platform to continue developing COVID-19 vaccines as and when it starts impacting public health. We are confident that this endorsement from WHO will bolster our global fight against COVID-19.'' The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) had already approved Corbevax for restricted use in emergency among adults, adolescents and young children in a sequential manner from December 2021 to April 2022. It was also given approval for use as India's first heterologous COVID-19 booster shot for adults aged 18 and above

World yet not fully prepared for future pandemics: Gates Foundation prez

Praising India and other countries for contributing to a global pandemic fund, a top official of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on Tuesday said the world is yet not fully prepared to deal with any future pandemic and a lot more work needs to be done. Speaking to PTI on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, where 'Disease X' is one of the key areas of discussions, Dr Christopher J Elias said we have learnt our lessons after Covid-19 but further efforts and discussions are needed, including on financing requirements. "A really important discussion had started nearly eight years ago after the Ebola outbreak and that discussion cake into very clear focus after Covid-19 that the world needs to be better prepared," he said. "The world needs to be ready for infections and diseases that we know such as influenza but also diseases that we don't know and may be new such as Disease X. But I don't think we are fully prepared yet," he added. Elias noted that there hav

Global deaths from fungal disease twice previous estimate: Lancet study

The annual number of deaths from fungal disease worldwide has risen to 3.75 million, double the previous estimate, according to a study using data from over 80 countries, including India. The research, published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, calculated an annual total at about 6.55 million acute cases. The updated mortality figures of fungal disease dwarf deaths from other single pathogens, killing six times more people than malaria, and almost 3 times as many than tuberculosis, the researchers said. The work is the result of a collaboration of over 300 professionals across the world who contributed to published estimates for their country and individual fungal diseases. Previous estimates were imprecise as many fungal disease exacerbate an existing disorder, itself often severe, such as leukaemia or AIDS, said David Denning, a professor of infectious disease at The University of Manchester, UK. However according to the study, of the deaths linked to fungal disease, .

Covid-19 JN.1: UP joins list of 16 states, UTs; total cases cross 1,000

The number of cases of COVID-19 sub-variant JN.1 has crossed 1,000 mark with Uttar Pradesh becoming the latest state to join the list of 16 states and UTs which have detected its presence, according to INSACOG. The data compiled by the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) showed Karnataka has reported the highest number of cases at 214, followed by Maharashtra (170), Kerala (154), Andhra Pradesh (189), Gujarat (76) and Goa (66). Telangana and Rajasthan have recorded 32 JN.1 cases each, Chhattisgarh has recorded 25, Tamil Nadu 22, Delhi 16, Uttar Pradesh 6, Haryana five, Odisha three, West Bengal two and Uttarakhand one, according to the data. A total of 1,013 cases of JN.1 have been detected till now across the 16 states and UTs. The Centre has asked the states and Union territories to maintain a constant vigil amid an uptick in the number of Covid cases and the detection of the JN.1 sub-variant in the country. The states have been urged to ensure effective compliance o

819 cases of Covid-19 sub-variant JN.1 reported from 12 states: Govt

A total of 819 cases of COVID-19 sub-variant JN.1 were reported from 12 states till Monday, official sources said. They said 250 cases were reported from Maharashtra, 199 from Karnataka, 148 from Kerala, 49 from Goa, 36 from Gujarat, 30 each from Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan, 26 each from Tamil Nadu and Telangana, 21 from Delhi, three from Odisha and one from Haryana. Even though the number of JN.1 cases is rising, there is no cause of immediate concern as the majority of those infected are opting for home-based treatment, indicating a mild illness, officials said. The Centre has asked the states and Union territories to maintain a constant vigil amid an uptick in the number of Covid cases and the detection of the JN.1 sub-variant of the virus in the country. The states have been urged to ensure effective compliance of the detailed operational guidelines for the revised Covid surveillance strategy shared with them by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The states have

760 new Covid-19 infections in India; JN.1 variant cases cross 500 mark

Covid-19 cases: Two deaths were reported in the past 24 hours. While active cases stood at 4,423, Karnataka reported the highest JN.1 variant cases at 199

Amid rising Covid-19 cases, govt not planning mask mandate or vaccine shots

On Thursday, India reported 358 new cases of Covid-19, of which 300 cases were from Kerala; Insacog said no traces of widespread infection were found yet

JN.1 Covid variant: States issue advisories, Mandaviya holds review meet

On December 19, WHO classified the JN.1 variant as a 'variant of interest' but maintained that it does not pose much threat to the public

China says no novel pathogens detected in surge of pneumonia cases: WHO

Some of these increases are occurring earlier in the season than usual, although this is not surprising given the easing of COVID-19 limitations, as seen in other nations

Mysterious pneumonia outbreak in China: Here is what we know so far

The World Health Organisation asked China for detailed information on the increase in the cases of respiratory illnesses and reported clusters of pneumonia in children