Health issues in India
An outbreak of the tick-borne Kyasanur forest disease has claimed the lives of nineteen people in the Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra. Kyasanur forest disease (KFD), also known as “monkey fever”, is spread to humans either through bites from infected ticks or contact with an infected animal. The disease is therefore far more common in […]
The upcoming parliament session is expected to contain a bill allowing for the DNA profiling of unidentified bodies and missing people. However, with consistent complaints of health insurance companies discriminating against those with genetic conditions, would many be reluctant about any kind of DNA profiling system? The intention of the bill thus far only extends […]
Approximately 172 women die every day in India due to cervical cancer. According to the Indian Council for Scientific Research (CSIR), more than 63,000 women in India died of the disease in 2015. This is despite cervical cancer being 80 percent preventable, often treatable and having a high survival rate if caught in its early […]
An outbreak of the Nipah virus in the Indian state of Kerala has made global headlines and creating an air of tension similar to that of the ebola crisis. Fears of a large-scale epidemic are abundant. However, is there any credibility to these claims? What is the Nipah virus? The Nipah virus is a zoonotic […]
The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a stark warning about the threat of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). India should take note. “NCDs and mental disorders currently pose one of the biggest threats to health and development globally,” a WHO high-level independent commission on NCDs said in their report released on Friday, June 1. It added, […]
A new study reports that it is difficult to show the overall impact of massive European investment in poverty-related diseases. The study was conducted by RAND and Baird’s CMC, a policy research company that is in the same group of companies as Health Issues India. The study, commissioned by the European Union (EU), did report […]
Dust storms at the beginning of May left a trail of death and devastation across the northern Indian states of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. More than 127 people were killed. Dust storms are a normal part of India’s climate in the summer months. They usually pass with comparatively little incident. The death toll rarely exceeds […]
A rare disease causes children to rapidly mimic the symptoms — often dying before they become teenagers — yet it remains under-identified. The disease is all but unknown in India due to its rarity, though efforts of the Progeria Research Foundation (PRF) and social media campaigners such as Nihal Bitla — a child from Mumbai […]
Access to healthcare has improved in India since 1990 – but not enough. Meanwhile, inequality persists. The country takes the 145th place out of 195 countries on the Healthcare Access and Quality (HAQ) Index. This measures the accessibility and quality of healthcare in countries by drawing on a plethora of data, including the 2016 Global […]
The Centre will establish seventy new cancer facilities across the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged. The Centre plans to erect twenty state cancer institutes and fifty tertiary cancer care centres, Modi said during a speech at the Adyar Cancer Institute in Chennai. There will be fourteen new oncology-focused All India Institutes of Medical […]
