World Environment Day is observed annually on June 5th to commemorate the importance of conserving our environment from the many threats it faces. For India, World Environment Day offers a valuable opportunity to recognise one of the major issues confronting the nation: its poor environmental health, ranked as the worst in the world in the […]
Chennai
Chennai suffers from water woes
Chennai – a city reeling under water scarcity – is now battling water contamination woes. The Tamil Nadu state capital is facing an acute water shortage as temperatures soar in the city. Depletion of water reserves in lakes, wells and reservoirs has led to water scarcity plaguing 9.8 million people. Many Chennaiites are reliant upon […]
Screening for congenital disorders at Chennai hospital
This article was originally published on The News Minute and has been republished with permission. By Nimeshika Jayachandran The doctors at Chennai’s Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children in Egmore will soon be implementing mandatory screening for congenital hypothyroidism and adrenal hyperplasia. “A nationwide study which was conducted by the Indian Council of […]
Hospitals breeding mosquito-borne disease
Hospitals are home to some of the most vulnerable in society: the sick and the elderly. What if these hospitals are putting these vulnerable people at risk of potentially more deadly conditions than they arrived with? This is currently the case in many hospitals in Lucknow, where the hospitals themselves have become breeding grounds for […]
Oil spill in Chennai: volunteers’ health tarred, report says
Locals and volunteers will require treatment for long-term health effects following the oil spill in Chennai, recent reports suggest. MT BW Maple – a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tanker – and MT Dawn Kanchipuram – a petroleum, oil and lubricants (POL) tanker – collided in the early hours of January 28, 2017. The collision took […]
Google and Karnataka: Partners in public health?
Google and the southwest Indian state of Karnataka are possible partners in public health, reports the Economic Times. “Early-stage talks” Reports suggest that the ubiquitous tech giant is “in early-stage talks” with the Karnataka state government. Discussions concern the possible development of a new and more efficient way to collate and analyse public health data. […]
Mental health needs of India
HII last week wrote about the fact that suicide, being the leading cause of death among the young in India last year, should be looked at as a legitimate national health priority. We spoke about how lack of infrastructure and awareness of mental health issues seems to disproportionately affect people living in urban centres. Now […]