Health news

For the first time, four patients of B.A. 4 variant and three cases of B.A. 5 variants of the Omicron sub-lineage of coronavirus have been found in Maharashtra, an official of the state health department said on Saturday.
All of them had only mild symptoms and were treated at home, he added.
These sub-lineages of Omicron were found in April in some parts of the world including South Africa, but until now no cases had been detected in the state.
“The whole genome sequencing was conducted by

Even as the world returns to pre-Covid ways, the pandemic is not abating anytime soon. The ferocity of the Delta wave may not be there, but the rate of infection is very consistent. India for example witnessed a sharp surge in the first week of May followed by an almost flat-curve trend. However, as the month comes to an end, the country is seeing a noticeable uptick once again. Meanwhile, the monkeypox infections have crossed 200-mark globally. Though, this may look like a miniscule number in t

The World Health Organisation says nearly 200 cases of monkeypox have been reported in more than 20 countries not usually known to have outbreaks of the unusual disease, but described the epidemic as “containable” and proposed creating a stockpile to equitably share the limited vaccines and drugs available worldwide.
During a public briefing on Friday, the UN health agency said there are still many unanswered questions about how the current epidemic arose, but there is no evidence th

Is it a concept of science thriller fiction or a not-so-distant reality? Can novel coronavirus and monkeypox virus infect one person at a same time? These are some of the worries that many of us are living with ever since the news of monkeypox virus broke. There have been many assumptions and several alarmist takes. But what are the experts saying? How do they view this scenario? Here’s what we know so far:
First things first. So far, across the world, not a single case has been reported w

Infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, can lead to severe bone loss during the acute and post-recovery phases of the disease, according to a study conducted in hamsters. The findings, recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications, provide insights into the possible long-term complications of COVID-19.In addition to lung infection, complications of different organ systems in the long-term SARS-CoV-2 infection, or “long COVID,” have been inc

According to North Korea, its fight against COVID-19 has been impressive: About 3.3 million people have been reported sick with fevers, but only 69 have died.
If all are coronavirus cases, that’s a fatality rate of 0.002%, something no other country, including the world’s richest, has achieved against a disease that has killed more than 6 million people.
The North’s claims, however, are being met with widespread doubt about two weeks after it acknowledged its first domestic COV

Odisha reported the highest point decline in the country in “Infant Mortality Rate” with 39 points decline from 2005 to 2020, according to the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Odisha on Thursday. According to a report by news agency ANI, the department has stated that “as per the latest publication of SRS bulletin, 2020, Odisha’s Infant Mortality Rate, now stands at 36/1000 live birth.”
“With effective implications of quality healthcare services and fo

The Union government is planning to repurpose the Co-WIN platform for India’s Universal Immunisation Programme and other national health programmes while continuing with its current function of recording Covid vaccination and issuing certificates. The vaccination record under the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) is now maintained manually.“Once Co-WIN is repurposed to include the UIP, the entire vaccination system will become digitised, thus easing tracking beneficiaries and fa

Even as the world returns to pre-Covid ways, the pandemic is not abating anytime soon. The ferocity of the Delta wave may not be there, but the rate of infection is very consistent. India for example witnessed a sharp surge in the first week of May followed by an almost flat-curve trend. However, as the month comes to an end, the country is seeing a noticeable uptick once again. Meanwhile, the monkeypox infections have crossed 200-mark globally. Though, this may look like a miniscule number in t

Amid the Monkeypox outbreak which has been reported in nearly 20 countries, no suspected cases of the disease have been detected in India so far. According to a health expert on Wednesday, Monkeypox is not as contagious as COVID-19 which wreaked havoc across the world. “Monkeypox is not as contagious or severe as COVID. However, its spread is a matter of concern. No suspect cases have been reported in India so far,” Dr NK Arora, Chairperson of the COVID working group, NTAGI, said as

German Ambassador to India and Bhutan, Walter J Lindner on Thursday said the government of the European nation will start recognizing Bharat Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine for travel purpose there from June 1.In a tweet, Lindner said, “Very happy that GER government just decided to recognize WHO-listed Covaxin for travels to GER, starting June 1! This Embassy has been pushing very actively for such decision (because of Covid-backlogs visa sections have longer waiting periods than normal,

Even vaccinated people with mild breakthrough infections can experience Long COVID — debilitating, lingering symptoms that affect the heart, brain, lungs and other parts of the body, according to a study of over 13 million people in the US. The research, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature Medicine, also shows that vaccination against COVID-19 reduced the risk of death by 34 per cent and the risk of getting long COVID by 15 per cent, compared with unvaccinated patients.However, va

Calling digital health a great equaliser, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday said there is a need to create a tech-supported healthcare service delivery that is resilient, reliable, and accessible till the last-mile.
Addressing a session on ‘Unlocking the power of digital health’ at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting here, he said India has been at the forefront of utilising technology to augment the healthcare delivery to its citizens.
“Digital health is a gre

Two new studies conducted by the scientists at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have found that breakthrough COVID-19 cases resulting in hospitalisations and deaths are significantly more likely in cancer and Alzheimer’s patients. The findings of the first study were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Oncology. The first study analysed the electronic health records to track the number of breakthrough COVID-19 infections, hospitalisatio

United Nations Under-Secretary-General Winnie Byanyima on Wednesday said denying life-saving COVID-19 vaccines to people of colour is a form of “policy violence” amounting to racism. Speaking at a session during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2022 here, she said “policy violence” such as the refusal to share COVID-19 vaccines with the Global South is as racist as the police violence that ended the life of African-American George Floyd in Minneapolis two years ago

Doctors at a Delhi government-run hospital have conducted a study to examine the epidemiological characteristics of the pandemic by describing clinical profiles of COVID-19 patients, and found that hypertension was the most common co-morbidity among them.The outbreak of the pandemic in Delhi was first reported in March 2020.A total of 3,534 patients were enrolled in this study done by doctors at the 650-bed Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital (RGSSH), aged 9-96 years. Among patients with symp

At least one novel pathogen emerges every year, with each one of those having the potential to morph into another worldwide pandemic and therefore, there is a need for a coordinated global response to tackle pandemics, health leaders said here on Wednesday.Speaking at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2022 here, they noted that the official count of COVID-19 deaths is more than 6 million, but the tail end of the pandemic is still raging in some parts of the world. Improved global coordinat

The latest data by the World Health Organisation says that there have been 131 confirmed cases n monkeypox infections outside Africa. The health boy, however, adds that the latest outbreak of the virus is still in the ‘containable’ phase.Moderna Inc is testing potential vaccines against monkeypox in pre-clinical trials as the disease spreads in the United States and Europe. The World Health Organization said on Tuesday there have been 131 confirmed monkeypox cases and 106 further sus

The US Food and Drug Administration which has put on hold the phase 2/ 3 clinical trials of Bharat Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin, in USA, has lifted the pause, according to a statement issued by Ocugen Inc, Bharat Biotech’s partner for the jab in USA and Canada.
“We’re extremely pleased that we can proceed with our clinical trials for Covaxin our whole virus inactivated COVID-19 vaccine candidate. The need for delivering an additional, differentiated vaccine option,

The latest data by the World Health Organisation says that there have been 131 confirmed cases n monkeypox infections outside Africa. The health boy, however, adds that the latest outbreak of the virus is still in the ‘containable’ phase.Moderna Inc is testing potential vaccines against monkeypox in pre-clinical trials as the disease spreads in the United States and Europe. The World Health Organization said on Tuesday there have been 131 confirmed monkeypox cases and 106 further sus

Infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, is associated with impaired function of the right side of the heart, according to a new study on intensive care patients in Scotland.
The researchers from NHS Golden Jubilee and the University of Glasgow in Scotland noted that these findings could play a vital role in not only saving the lives of COVID-19 patients, but for the care of potentially fatal heart and lung issues generally.
The first of its kind, the COVID-RV study aimed to h

Jindal Naturecure Institute has recently reported an increase in the cases of hypertension after people have gone back to their everyday work life post the coronavirus pandemic. According to the institute, most of these people are suffering from resistant hypertension. Resistant hypertension is a condition where your blood pressure remains high or uncontrolled despite the medications. The prevalence of hypertension is a major concerning factor for India, especially in urban areas as compared to

Over 80 per cent of people aged between 15 and 18 years have received the first dose of Covid vaccine, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Tuesday.
The total number of Covid vaccine doses administered in India exceeded 192.52 crore till Tuesday 7 am, according to a provisional report.
The COVID-19 vaccination for the age group 12-14 years was started on March 16 and so far more than 3.30 crore adolescents in this age group have been administered the first dose.
India began inoculatin

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is expected to be confirmed by the U.N. health agency’s member countries for a second five-year term on Tuesday.
No other candidate challenged Tedros for the post amid the ongoing difficulties of responding to the devastating coronavirus pandemic.
Tedros, a former government minister from Ethiopia, has directed the World Health Organisation throughout its management of the global response to COVID-19 and withstood occasionally withering criti

Common air pollutants, such as small particulate matter and ground-level ozone, are associated with more severe outcomes after COVID-19 infection, including admission to the intensive care unit (ICU), according to a study.The research, published on Tuesday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, analysed data on 151,105 people aged 20 years and older with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in 2020 in Ontario, Canada, not living in a long-term care facility. The researchers modelled historical e

China is trying to navigate its biggest coronavirus outbreak without a tool it could have adopted many months ago, the kind of vaccines that have proven to offer the best protection against the worst outcomes from COVID-19. As early as the spring of 2020 a Chinese pharmaceutical company, Fosun Pharma, reached an agreement to distribute — and eventually manufacture — the mRNA vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech. It still has not been cleared in mainland China, despite being authorized

The coronavirus pandemic is far from over, the WHO has reiterated once again as several nations witness new wave of Covid-19 infections and deaths.
In Europe, situation remains grim in Germany while in Asia, China has been facing a stubborn outbreak leading to disruption in daily life and supply chain management.
In India, which has been seeing rather moderate number of daily cases for over 10 days, there is a cause of new worry. INSACOG – the country’s Covid-19 genomic sequencing co

Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla on Monday said he is appealing to multilateral organisations and world leaders to come up with a draft about learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic to strengthen health systems globally.
The learnings from the global pandemic would help in addressing inequity in the health systems that are prevalent currently, Poonawalla said.
“This year @Davos, I am appealing to multilateral organisations & world leaders to come together in creating a d

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Indian government have established the Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in Jamnagar, in the state of Gujarat, to create a reliable body of evidence and data for practices and products that many millions of people use, the chief of the global body said on Monday.
“Recognising that almost 90 per cent of Member States report the use of traditional medicine, just last month we established the Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in India, to

The coronavirus pandemic is far from over, the WHO has reiterated once again as several nations witness new wave of Covid-19 infections and deaths.
In Europe, situation remains grim in Germany while in Asia, China has been facing a stubborn outbreak leading to disruption in daily life and supply chain management.
In India, which has been seeing rather moderate number of daily cases for over 10 days, there is a cause of new worry. INSACOG – the country’s Covid-19 genomic sequencing co

A recent study conducted by the scientists of Ireland revealed that levels of alcohol consumption currently considered safe by some countries are linked with the development of heart failure. The findings of the study were published in the journal, ‘Cardiology’ recently.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Union is the heaviest-drinking region in the world. Although it is well recognised that long-term heavy alcohol use can cause a type of heart failure kno

By Dr. Sahil Kohli
As the temperatures during the summer soar in the Delhi NCR region so are the patients’ complaints of headaches and Migraine exacerbations. Summer heat can be a contributor to both headaches and migraines. The milder form of summer headache may include a throbbing sensation in the head, fatigue, sensitivity to light and sound and dehydration. Sometimes a headache can be caused by heat exhaustion and has features of dizziness, muscle cramps, fainting attacks, numbness aro

The coronavirus pandemic is far from over, the WHO has reiterated once again as several nations witness new wave of Covid-19 infections and deaths.
In Europe, situation remains grim in Germany while in Asia, China has been facing a stubborn outbreak leading to disruption in daily life and supply chain management.
In India, which has been seeing rather moderate number of daily cases for over 10 days, there is a cause of new worry. INSACOG – the country’s Covid-19 genomic sequencing co

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday hailed ASHA workers after they were conferred with the World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General’s Global Health Leaders’ Award, and said they are at the forefront of ensuring a healthy India. India’s ten lakh all-women ASHA volunteers were honoured by the WHO on Sunday for their crucial role in providing direct access to healthcare facilities in rural areas and their indefatigable efforts to rein in the coronavirus pandemic in the

The coronavirus pandemic is far from over, the WHO has reiterated once again as several nations witness new wave of Covid-19 infections and deaths.
In Europe, situation remains grim in Germany while in Asia, China has been facing a stubborn outbreak leading to disruption in daily life and supply chain management.
In India, which has been seeing rather moderate number of daily cases for over 10 days, there is a cause of new worry. INSACOG – the country’s Covid-19 genomic sequencing co

The coronavirus pandemic is far from over, the WHO has reiterated once again as several nations witness new wave of Covid-19 infections and deaths.
In Europe, situation remains grim in Germany while in Asia, China has been facing a stubborn outbreak leading to disruption in daily life and supply chain management.
In India, which has been seeing rather moderate number of daily cases for over 10 days, there is a cause of new worry. INSACOG – the country’s Covid-19 genomic sequencing co

Beijing extended orders for workers and students to stay home and ordered additional mass testing Monday as cases of COVID-19 again rose in the city. Numerous residential compounds in the Chinese capital have restricted movement in and out, although conditions remain far less severe than in Shanghai, where millions of citizens have been under varying degrees of lockdown for two months.Beijing on Monday reported an uptick in cases to 99, rising from a previous daily average of around 50. In total

Monkeypox Live Updates May 22: The world is in the third year of the pandemic and the World Health Organisation has already predicted an outbreak of another virus. The Monkeypox outbreak is something “everybody should be concerned about,” U.S. President Joe Biden said on Sunday, adding that US health officials are looking into possible treatments and vaccines, reported Reuters. Various health experts have cautioned against the rising cases of Monkeypox in Europe and elsewhere, a type

Monkeypox Live Updates May 22: The world is in the third year of the pandemic and the World Health Organisation has already predicted an outbreak of another virus. The Monkeypox outbreak is something “everybody should be concerned about,” U.S. President Joe Biden said on Sunday, adding that US health officials are looking into possible treatments and vaccines, reported Reuters. Various health experts have cautioned against the rising cases of Monkeypox in Europe and elsewhere, a type

The Serum Institute of India (SII) has sought permission from the country’s drug regulator to conduct Phase-3 trial to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of its COVID-19 vaccine Covovax as a booster dose in children aged two to 18 years, official sources said on Sunday.
The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) had granted permission in March for conducting Phase-3 clinical trial of Covovax as a booster dose in adults.
In an application, SII Director for Government and Regulatory Af

Monkeypox Live Updates May 22: The world is in the third year of a pandemic and the World Health Organisation has already predicted an outbreak of another virus. The Monkeypox outbreak is something “everybody should be concerned about,” U.S. President Joe Biden said on Sunday, adding that US health officials are looking into possible treatments and vaccines, reported Reuters. Various health experts have cautioned against the rising cases of Monkeypox in Europe and elsewhere, a type o

India will have the notorious distinction of recording the highest number of cardiac deaths by 2030 in the world, with virtually every fourth death occurring due to the Cardiovascular Disease (CVD), warned renowned Cardiologist Dr C N Manjunath.
Addressing the ‘HAL Medicon 2022’, the National Conference for doctors of HAL on the theme ‘Ensuring Healthy Workforce’, the Director of Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research here called for a holistic int

Monkeypox Live Updates May 22: The world is in the third year of a pandemic and the World Health Organisation has already predicted an outbreak of another virus. The Monkeypox outbreak is something “everybody should be concerned about,” U.S. President Joe Biden said on Sunday, adding that US health officials are looking into possible treatments and vaccines, reported Reuters. Various health experts have cautioned against the rising cases of Monkeypox in Europe and elsewhere, a type o

Monkeypox Live Updates May 22: The world is in the third year of a pandemic and the World Health Organisation has already predicted an outbreak of another virus. The Monkeypox outbreak is something “everybody should be concerned about,” U.S. President Joe Biden said on Sunday, adding that US health officials are looking into possible treatments and vaccines, reported Reuters. Various health experts have cautioned against the rising cases of Monkeypox in Europe and elsewhere, a type o

Each year, fungal infections kill nearly the same number of people as tuberculosis each year. The infection takes hold mostly in vulnerable people because they have a defective immune system caused by an underlying disease, such as a viral infection (HIV or Covid-19), or cancer. Antibiotics can cause immune system defects that increase the risk of fungal infections, a new study has found.
Antibiotics are more likely to cause fungal infections because of disruption to the gut’s immune syste

Monkeypox Live Updates May 22: The world is in the third year of a pandemic and the World Health Organisation has already predicted an outbreak of another virus. Various health experts have cautioned against the rising cases of Monkeypox in Europe and elsewhere, a type of viral infection which is currently more common to west and central Africa. According to the WHO, as of May 21st, 92 confirmed cases, and 28 suspected cases of Monkeypox have been reported from 12 Member States that are not ende

Monkeypox Live Updates May 22: The world is in the third year of a pandemic and the World Health Organisation has already predicted an outbreak of another virus. Various health experts have cautioned against the rising cases of Monkeypox in Europe and elsewhere, a type of viral infection which is currently more common to west and central Africa. According to the WHO, as of May 21st, 92 confirmed cases, and 28 suspected cases of Monkeypox have been reported from 12 Member States that are not ende

How big is the pre-diabetic pandemic among the Indian population?
The prevalence of prediabetes in India is often under-estimated. Based on the research studies done in India, among the population that has been tested, the prevalence of prediabetes in India is estimated to be around 15%. Given that almost one in six of Indian adults have prediabetes, no wonder it is considered as an epidemic.
Is there any particular age group or demographic profile that is at risk?
Here are the risk factors for

Maharashtra on Saturday recorded 307 COVID-19 cases, including 198 from Mumbai, taking the tally in the state to 78,82,476, while the death toll remained unchanged at 1,47,856 for the second consecutive day, an official said.
So far, 77,32.792 persons have recovered from the infection, including 240 in the last 24 hours, leaving the state with an active caseload of 1,828, he said.
A state health department bulletin said Satara, Sangli, Nandurbar, Dhule, Beed, Latur, Hingoli, Akola, Buldhana, Yav

The UK’s coronavirus alert level has been reduced from four to three as COVID-19 cases continue to fall, even as two rare types of the Omicron variant sub-types have been reclassified as variants of concern.
The health authorities said on Friday that the current BA.2 driven Omicron wave is “subsiding” but it is expected the number of cases will increase due to BA.4 and BA.5 sub-types, which the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has elevated in classification to monitor their gr