Health issues in India
The fraught relationship between policymakers and India’s vaping community will not become any less contentious for the foreseeable future. On Tuesday, the Delhi High Court stayed a Union Health Ministry directive to state governments issued last year, encouraging them to ban electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) – commonly known as e-cigarettes or ‘vapes’. The Centre […]
A three-hour siesta will soon become a part of the working day for Kerala’s workers, as part of a policy to help them beat the heat. The policy will be good for workers in the short term – but over time, India’s climate will worsen to the extent that a siesta won’t be enough. . […]
When autoimmune diseases are mentioned, people typically think of type 1 diabetes or celiac disease. They rarely think of pemphigus – a far lesser known condition which causes the body’s immune system to attack its own skin. Pemphigus has been spotlighted recently by Dr Kalyani Bhola, a dermatologist at Alchemist Hospital. Bhola spoke of pemphigus […]
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 […]
The Kerala floods have displaced millions, with deaths numbering in the hundreds. The floodwaters are receding. However, as around a million displaced individuals remain in camps, further problems may be on the horizon. Fears have arisen that funneling so many people into relief camps could cause large scale outbreaks of infectious diseases – the scale […]
India has said “thanks, but no thanks” to foreign nations offering relief assistance for Kerala – for now. Offers of help have poured in from across the world, from nations including the Maldives, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. The Centre, however, is so far declining offers of assistance from foreign governments and choosing to […]
The Centre has given a shot in the arm for relief efforts in flood-battered Kerala. Rs 600 crore (more than $85.9 billion) will be released to the state and emergency supplies will be exempted from both customs duty and Goods and Service Tax (GST). Kerala endured one of the worst calamities in its history this […]
The Union health ministry has pledged its support for those hit by savage floods in Kerala, as fears of disease outbreaks loom. Kerala is battling one of the worst calamities in its history with nature’s fury leaving over 400 dead and lakhs homeless. The effect has also spread over to the neighbouring states of Karnataka […]
Kerala has learnt its lessons after the Nipah tragedy. It is to introduce a policy to control and prevent hospital acquired infections. The move comes after the Nipah virus outbreak in the state earlier this year, in which all but four of those who succumbed to the virus contracted it in hospital. “We are working […]
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 […]
