The COVID-19 outbreak, since it originated in Wuhan, China towards the end of 2019, has spread globally since January of 2020. Since then, the disease has been classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a pandemic. More than a year on since this declaration, the disease has spread across the globe, claiming more than […]
Infectious diseases
Global Health Newsletter XVII
It’s been just a year since the first anti-COVID-19 vaccine surfaced. And the virus has again turned up as a complicated avatar, its fifth since the original emerged from Wuhan in China two years ago. The World Health Organization (WHO) has christened it Omicron. Since its emergence in South Africa on 24 November, cases have […]
Scrub typhus, an overlooked condition
Scrub typhus is a little known disease that goes overlooked in India. Its burden is thought to be significantly underestimated due to a lack of available data and low public awareness. Scrub typhus is caused by being bitten by chiggers (larval mites) infected with the bacteria Orientia tsutsugamushi, which belongs to the Rickettsiaceae bacteria family. […]
Global Health Newsletter XVI
There is a new version of COVID-19 and the World Health Organisation has labelled it a “variant of concern.” First identified in South Africa on 25 November, preliminary evidence suggests that it carries a greater risk of reinfection than other strains. (www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2021/11/26/a-new-covid-19-variant-has-emerged) Just a day after its emergence, the world turned hyper. The EU imposed […]
Does Omicron threaten India’s COVID-19 decline?
The news of a new strain of COVID-19 — designated as Omicron, or B.1.1.529, that was first detected in South Africa — has put recent news of India’s consistent decline in COVID-19 cases into question. With a new strain on the horizon, will India continue its success story in keeping COVID-19 under control? A […]
Zoonotic diseases must be a priority in India
Zoonotic diseases have long been a blight to India. COVID-19 has underlined this issue, but India is no stranger to a host of other zoonotic diseases. In an exclusive interview with BusinessLine, Atul Chaturvedi, Secretary of the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying introduced the concept of “One Health”. The One Health framework underlines […]
Global Health Newsletter XV
The more things change the more they remain the same or, what you gain in the swing you lose on the roundabout. Despite the vaccine, Europe is back where it started, becoming the focal point of the Covid-19 pandemic just as it was in the spring and summer of 2020. However, thanks to the vaccines, […]
The history of polio in India
“I didn’t know immunization could have saved my child,” Munni Begum reflected. More than thirty years ago, Munni’s infant son, Zulfikar Ahmed, fell victim to polio. Now she volunteers as a ‘change agent’. This involves working in her local community of Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, where she encourages other mothers to immunise their children and […]
COVID-19 in India, is the worst over?
Just 9,283 new COVID-19 cases have been recorded in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry. Such figures are encouraging, indicative that after a period of being the most heavily affected nation, India has turned the tables. “Even after Diwali, we are not seeing a surge,” Dr M D Gupte, former director […]
Dengue fever outbreak continues to spread
Still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic, India’s already overburdened health system is now grappling with one of the worst Dengue fever outbreaks in recent years. Since the beginning of the Dengue outbreak in late August in Firozabad city in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh there have been 116,991 cases nationally. According to The […]