The reality of hospital-acquired infections is one that is difficult to ignore. New research has spotlighted one particular infection to which hospital visits can expose people. This time, alarm bells are being sounded about Clostridium difficile (also known as C. diff), a bacterium linked to stomach ailments such as diarrhoeal disease and colitis which can […]
diarrhoea
Assam flooding spreads as the region is lashed with rains
Assam has faced heavy flooding for several days, with the situation only deteriorating at the week’s end. As of Thursday, 4.2 lakh people across seventeen districts have been affected by the floodwaters. Many have been displaced, with 1,843 people taking refuge in relief camps as the waters submerge 749 villages. The flooding has gotten worse […]
World Toilet Day: A review of India’s toilets and Swachh Bharat
On World Toilet Day, United Nations figures on open defecation and toilets across the world should ring alarm bells. Four billion people still lack access to basic sanitation facilities. Each day, nearly a thousand children are dying due to preventable water and sanitation-related diarrhoeal diseases. What’s the situation in India? “Four years since Swachh Bharat’s […]
Fears of infectious disease outbreaks after Kerala floods realised?
Fears of infectious disease outbreaks in the aftermath of the Kerala floods appear to have been realised. Cases of leptospirosis, acute diarrhoeal disease (ADD) and dengue fever have been reported from the afflicted state, where 483 people lost their lives in its worst floods in almost a century. Kerala has reported 159 cases of leptospirosis […]
Shigella outbreak fears in Kerala
This article was originally published on The News Minute and has been republished with permission. By Nimeshika Jayachandran Kerala is under the lens again, with reports of a shigella outbreak in parts of the state. On Monday, a 2-year-old boy was suspected to have died due to shigella infection (shigellosis) at the Kozhikode Medical College […]
Diarrhoea is the most common infectious outbreak in India
Diarrhoeal disease is commonplace and often lethal in the developing world low and middle countries (LMICs). Diarrhoea is identified as the second most common cause of death in children under five by the World Health Organization, with 1.7 billion cases and 520,000 deaths every year. In India, acute diarrhoeal disease (ADD) is the most […]
Rotavac becomes first Indian developed vaccine to pass WHO standards
The Rotavac vaccine — created to immunise against rotavirus — has become the first vaccine entirely developed within India to receive World Health Organization (WHO) approval. Rotavac is currently considered to be “pre-qualified” by the WHO. This means that the vaccine can now be sold to countries across the world and included in UNICEF procurement […]
Non-communicable diseases are most common causes of death in India
India is host to huge numbers of tropical diseases, predispositions to genetic disease, as well as many rare conditions that as of yet remain largely unstudied. With endless reports of outbreaks of infectious disease as well as fears of vector borne conditions such as the Zika virus arriving in the country it is understandable to […]
India avoids one million child deaths since 2005
India has avoided around one million deaths of children under five since 2005 claims a study recently published in The Lancet. Despite this reduction, India still has more child deaths than any other country, with 0.9 million child deaths occurring annually. The reduction since 2005 does indicate a positive trend, though India requires a great […]