India’s noncommunicable disease (NCD) rate continues to grow, according to a recent study. The survey by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), and prepared by the Thought Arbitrage Research Institute, covered 233,672 people and 673 public health offices across 21 states. It marks the latest reminder of the growing NCD crisis […]
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Pfizer vaccine talks ongoing with expert group
An expert government panel is in talks regarding the BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine, Union Health Minister Mankush Mandaviya told the Lok Sabha on Friday. The Minister said “an expert group of the Indian government is still in talks with Pfizer over COVID vaccine supply.” United States State Department spokesperson Ned Price has announced that the […]
Black fungus deaths at 4,200 and counting
Mucormycosis, or ‘black fungus’, deaths tally at more than 4,200 – underscoring the scourge of a condition which has only exacerbated India’s COVID-19 woes. Black fungus, as my colleague Nicholas Parry reported in May, “is the result of exposure to mucor mould typically found in soil, plants, manure, and decaying fruits and vegetables…the condition affects […]
Medical oxygen shortages: Deaths comments spark firestorm
A minister’s claim that no deaths due to medical oxygen shortages have been reported by the states has sparked a firestorm, with criticism pouring in. Bharati Pravin Pawar, a minister of state in the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, told the Rajya Sabha that “health is a state subject. All states / UTs […]
First bird flu death of the year
India experienced its first confirmed human death due to bird flu this week, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has said. An eleven-year-old boy, who was also affected by leukaemia and pneumonia, was admitted to AIIMS in Delhi on July 2nd, having contracted a bird flu virus of the H5N1 strain. He tragically […]
Excess mortality statistics defended by Government
Excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic could be ten times higher than the official numbers, research claims – but the Government has defended its figures. A recent study carried out by the Center for Global Development estimated that excess mortality between January 2020 and June 2021 could be between three million and 4.7 million. This […]
Antibodies in more than two-thirds of Indians
The fourth national serosurvey carried out by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) indicates that more than two-thirds of India’s population have developed antibodies against COVID-19. Conducted between June and July of 2021, the survey’s findings found 67.6 percent of the country’s 1.3 billion people presented with antibodies. This marks a substantial increase from […]
‘Long COVID’ test devised by the University of Cambridge
Many questions have thus far been left unanswered regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Foremost among these is the question of how will so-called ‘long COVID’ affect us in the future? There remain many unanswered questions. How many individuals have been affected by the disease and remained asymptomatic is all but unknown, as is the length of […]
What is the Monkey B virus?
Zoonotic diseases have been at the forefront of media attention since COVID-19 began to spread in late 2019. Yet another disease has been reported to have taken a human life in China — the Monkey B virus. A 53-year-old man who contracted the virus in March of this year is reportedly the first to die […]
Rainfall: Deadly Mumbai downpours highlight climate change’s continued scourge
Torrential rainfall in Mumbai has left dozens of people dead and many without drinking water. As of Monday morning, the city recorded more than 250 millimetres of rain in the preceding 24 hours. The deadly Mumbai rains resulted in a landslide, causing considerable damage and loss of life. The Chembur suburb witnessed 21 deaths and […]