The world is battling an epidemic of drug resistant tuberculosis. A disease which was declared a global health emergency in 1993, continues to grow unchecked even today. ...
08:52 AM, Mar 24, 2013
New Delhi: The Union Health Ministry has ordered a blanket ban on Tubercolosis antibody tests after the World Health Organisation (WHO) raised an alarm. This came following inaccurate tests that gave false results leading to perfectly healthy patients being put on powerful TB drugs. The WHO had raised the alarm after reviewing 94 studies globally more than a year ago. Deputy DG of the TB division of the Health Ministry...
09:48 AM, Jun 26, 2012
New Delhi/Mumbai: India has been polio free for over a year. But the big danger now is a cross-border threat. Pakistan is seeing a sudden surge of new polio cases with the Taliban blocking the Polio vaccination drive in Waziristan. There have been no polio cases detected in India for a year and a half now - a tremendous milestone that has left only Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria on the...
09:49 AM, Jun 19, 2012
New Delhi: The fairness creams and soaps may promise you a fair skin but a new study now warns of dangerous side-effects, like kidney damage. In a blow to India's 2000 crore industry, a World Health Organisation (WHO) report has warned of serious side-effects of using fairness creams and products in India. The report finds that skin lightening soaps, creams and cosmetics like eye make up, which contain mercury as...
10:30 AM, Jun 14, 2012
Mumbai: Gutka packets on average contain seven per cent magnesium carbonate, which is a chemical used in fire extinguishers, according to The Food And Drug Administration. The news is alarming as 206 million Indians use some form of smokeless tobacco. The World Health Organisation estimates that 26 per cent of adults in India, use some form of smokeless tobacco and 40 per cent of them die because of this habit....
10:42 AM, Apr 20, 2012
Mumbai: Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who is Unicef's brand ambassador against polio, says he will be honoured for his contribution to the cause. "And the organisation that acknowledges social work for a cause, will honour yours truly for the work done as UNICEF ambassador for the fight against polio, which as you know has had some rather encouraging achievements," Amitabh wrote on his blog bigb.bigadda.com. In February, the World Health Organisation...
04:38 PM, Apr 06, 2012
Mumbai: Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi and 23 others have been booked under the Tobacco Act following a surprise check in a restaurant at suburban Vile Parle, where cops stumbled upon hookah smoking, the use of which is banned in public areas, police said today. The 35-year-old actor, who is incidentally the ambassador for World Health Organisation's anti-smoking movement, denied smoking hookah but a probe will find the truth, police said....
02:33 PM, Mar 31, 2012
New Delhi: India, which has been polio-free for over a year now, was today taken off the list of polio endemic countries by the World Health Organisation. This announcement was made by Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad at the polio summit 2012 in New Delhi in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Azad said he has received a letter this morning stating that the "WHO has taken India's name...
11:26 AM, Feb 25, 2012
London: Malaria kills over 1.2 million people every year worldwide, twice as many deaths as thought earlier, while deaths from the mosquito-borne disease in India could be more than 45 times higher than what is currently estimated, a new study has claimed. Researchers at the University of Washington's Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation who collected data on malaria deaths from 1980 to 2010 found that 1.2 million people died...
05:17 PM, Feb 03, 2012
Islamabad: India must receive "due appreciation" as it has been a year since its last case of polio was reported, said a leading Pakistani daily. An editorial in the Dawn on Saturday said that India is marking the passage of a full year since its last case of polio was reported. "If this trend continues, and no new or previously undisclosed case of the dreaded virus is reported, the country...
11:20 AM, Jan 14, 2012
New Delhi: Henceforth, every time an actor is seen taking a puff on screen, a prominent scroll warning that smoking is injurious to health will run at the bottom. What's more, the actor will personally read out the ill-effects of smoking, say the new health ministry rules to be effective from Monday. According to the rules, all filmmakers depicting usage of tobacco will have to show a message or spot...
11:47 AM, Nov 12, 2011
Mumbai: The world's first malaria vaccine is in its final stages of clinical trials. It's proving to be 56 per cent effective, which means it will reduce the risk of the disease by more than half. After 30 years of research, this is the best shot for a malaria vaccine. Two-year-old Philip is one of 15,000 African children taking part in a phase 3 trial. An earlier phase 2 trial...
09:07 AM, Oct 25, 2011
Geneva: Millions of people die each year from medical errors and infections linked to health care and going into hospital is far riskier than flying, the World Health Organization said on Thursday. "If you were admitted to hospital tomorrow in any country... your chances of being subjected to an error in your care would be something like 1 in 10. Your chances of dying due to an error in health...
11:58 AM, Jul 22, 2011
London: Despite a recent move to classify mobile phones as possibly carcinogenic, the scientific evidence increasingly points away from a link between their use and brain tumours, according to a new study on Saturday. A major review of previously published research by a committee of experts from Britain, the United States and Sweden concluded there was no convincing evidence of any cancer connection. It also found a lack of established...
12:53 PM, Jul 04, 2011
Berlin: The death toll in Europe's E coli outbreak has risen by three to at least 47, German authorities said on Monday, even as new infections continue to tail off. Germany's disease control center, the Robert Koch Institute, said 46 deaths have now been reported in the country. One person has died in Sweden, and officials say one death in the US may be linked to the outbreak but it...
01:07 AM, Jun 28, 2011
Berlin: New sicknesses are still being reported in the European E coli outbreak that has killed 39, but Germany's national disease control centre said on Friday indications are that the crisis is tapering off. The number of reported infections in Germany, the epicenter of the outbreak, is now up to 3,408, including 798 people who have developed a serious complication that can lead to kidney failure - about 100 more...
08:45 PM, Jun 17, 2011
London: A virulent new strain of E Coli bacteria that has killed at least 17 people in Europe may be the deadliest yet in human history, health experts said. Germany is at the centre of the outbreak, with more than 1,500 people ill from eating contaminated vegetables and salads, but the precise source of the new strain is not yet known. The highly infectious variant has never affected humans before....
07:03 AM, Jun 03, 2011
London: Using a mobile phone might increase the risk of developing certain types of brain tumors and consumers should consider ways of reducing their exposure, World Health Organisation (WHO) cancer experts said on Tuesday. A working group of 31 scientists from 14 countries meeting at the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said a review of all the available scientific evidence suggested cell phone use should be classified...
07:32 AM, Jun 01, 2011
New Delhi: With 1.8 million new cases of tuberculosis every year, India desperately needs more efficient prevention, diagnosis and treatment. The World Health Organisation has been endorsing a medical test called XPERT MTB. Dr Nata Manabde, WHO India Director said, "It's faster, quicker. The WHO believes that this can change the TB dynamics in the country." Quicker diagnosis would lead to more efficient treatment. The new test allows for a...
09:10 AM, Mar 24, 2011
London: Women have been awaiting it for years -- a contraceptive option for men to help them share the family planning burden. And, now scientists at Edinburgh University have confirmed that such a contraceptive jab has proved successful in preventing unplanned pregnancies after tests in Scotland, 'The Scotsman' reported. The World Health Organisation trial, involving 200 couples around the globe, uses a combination of the hormones testosterone and progesterone which...
10:12 AM, Feb 07, 2011
