News and blog

New Delhi, Jan 7 (IANS) India needs to dramatically improve its health situation to sustain growth as it shares 21 percent of the global disease burden, a World Health Organisation (WHO) official said Friday. Speaking at a seminar on 'Public Heath: Engaging the diaspora' on the...

2010 was a year of contrasts for those seeking to boost the role of science in the development agenda. Many new initiatives were launched; some took root, others ran into difficulties. And progress in meeting big challenges, such as conserving biodiversity and tackling climate change,...

The last phase trial of the world’s most clinically advanced malaria vaccine candidate, known as RTS, is underway at one of the 11 sites in Lilongwe, Malawi. This investigational vaccine iss administered at UNC Project-Malawi under the auspices of the Institute for Global Health & Infectious...

It's unfortunate but true that sometimes the hard facts of science don't turn out to be so grounded in reality after all. Scientific fraud is certainly not new, but manipulation of medical data is always troubling, and potentially deadly, for the public. That's the case with...

He may have won the largest prize money that India can offer a scientist — Rs 50lakh, science award from Infosys Science Foundation — but for Chetan E Chitnis that is merely incidental in his journey towards the real prize. If his bets do pay off,...

Nairobi — Medical experts have warned that malaria and HIV have monopolised interventions geared towards curbing child mortality in Kenya, thus ignoring the equally deadly killer, diarrhoea. This disease has silently claimed the lives of hundreds of children every year. Read more....

The Ministry of Health is seeking over sh12b to fight the yellow fever disease that has so far killed 50 people in northern Uganda. The yellow fever outbreak, which was first reported in Abim district in Karamoja sub-region in November 2010, has since been identified in...

Vaccines have become a common tool to prevent infections, with many deadly diseases kept under control by a programme of childhood immunisation. In developed countries, such health programmes normally include vaccination against the bacteria Streptococcus pneumonia. Severe pneumococcal diseases – primarily pneumonia and meningitis –...

Dr Robert D Newman was appointed director of the World Health Organization’s Global Malaria Programme in July 2009. From 2000 to 2009, he held a number of posts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States of America, including deputy...

Pregnant women are being given a drug that rich countries would no longer allow to prevent their HIV infection being transmitted at birth to their baby. Yet the United Nations still counts this as success - and in so doing, puts mothers and children's health...