During this pandemic, misinformation about COVID-19 has been a major issue of concern. The scientific and medical communities are working to change that – especially when it comes to a COVID-19 vaccine. More than 100 scientists – including more than twenty from India – have joined the cause of Team Halo. Team Halo is a […]
United Nations
World Food Programme awarded Nobel Peace Prize
The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced earlier this week that the United Nations (UN) World Food Programme is the 2020 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts in tackling hunger worldwide. In Oslo, Norwegian Nobel Committee chairperson Berit Reiss-Andersen announced the decision. She espoused the principle that “food is one of our most basic […]
COVID-19 vaccine: UN endorses resolution
Member states of the United Nations (UN) have endorsed a resolution addressing the COVID-19 pandemic – including addressing accessibility of a COVID-19 vaccine. The COVID-19 outbreak mushroomed into a pandemic earlier this year, with more than two million people at the time of writing having become infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). […]
Guterres calls for action on climate change
United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres has called for action on climate change, deeming it an “emergency”. Speaking ahead of the UN Climate Action Summit, which will take place in New York next week, Guterres warned of seven million deaths a year due to climate change if action is not taken. The former Portuguese Prime […]
Will India achieve the SDGs on health?
India’s aim to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on Health seems likely to be unattainable by 2030, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has said. The main reason it identifies behind this is India’s ability to achieve public health expenditure targets, as the country faces a relative dearth of data […]
Malaria and TB metrics highlighted by UN
How does India fare in progress against malaria and tuberculosis (TB)? Poorly, according to the United Nations (UN). India’s progress in achieving health goals was deemed “dismal” by the 2018 global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It scored the worst among the four Asian nations in the middle-income […]
Progress on health goals deemed dismal by UN
India’s progress in achieving health goals has been deemed “dismal” by the 2018 global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). India has made huge strides towards some health goals within the last few decades. The eradication of polio is perhaps the most notable of India’s health success stories. However, […]
World TB Day: Will India show leadership in the fight against TB?
“It was something that I had never expected, I was really shocked,” Nandita Venkatesan said as she recalled finding out she had become re-infected with tuberculosis (TB) in 2013. It was six years after she was first diagnosed with the disease in 2007, some months before her eighteenth birthday. In a candid conversation profiled in […]
Climate change is heating up India – and you should be worried
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. . […]
Fewer Indians living with HIV but still miles to go
Since the start of the decade, India has witnessed significant reductions in its HIV/AIDS burden. New HIV infections fell from 120,000 in 2010 to 88,000 in 2017; AIDS-related deaths decreased from 160,000 to 90,000; and there were 2.1 million people living with HIV in India 2017, compared to 2.3 million in 2010. The findings were […]