For how we live.
A Global Burden of Disease 2023 analysis counts 241 million users worldwide, concentrated in south Asia, with a rising burden of stroke and oral cancer even as prevalence has barely moved.
In 643 Indian infants, an adjuvanted dose-sparing IPV with about a quarter of the antigen was non-inferior to standard IPV across all three poliovirus types — a possible answer to supply strain.
Varespladib, given on top of antivenom in a randomised trial in India and the USA, did not beat placebo. But it reached patients seven hours after the bite, and the authors say that timing may be the story.
Bangladesh was validated in 2023 as the first country to eliminate visceral leishmaniasis as a public health problem; India is nearing the same threshold, even as post-kala-azar skin cases climb.
A five-year panel study found sales of mental-disorder medicines rose 144% in a cyclone's landfall year and 173% the next in coastal districts, with no measurable effect further inland.
A single infusion of a pan-serotype monoclonal antibody cut viraemia and shortened fever in a 250-patient phase 2 trial in India — the first therapy to show preliminary efficacy against wild-type dengue in people.
A single patient is on ventilatory support in Kozhikode. WHO says 104 contacts are being monitored and the source of infection has not been identified.
WHO was notified on January 26 of the third Nipah outbreak recorded in West Bengal. There is no licensed vaccine or drug, and the source of exposure is still under investigation.
Emergency restrictions came into force on 13 December when the index passed 450. The more telling number is how many days the city has now spent in a category that was meant to be exceptional.
A 43-year analysis at hourly resolution finds a 3.3% rise in average heat stress exposure duration across districts, with the change varying by time of day, season and region.
BCG and oral polio vaccine given within 48 hours to 5,420 babies under 2,000 g reduced deaths from infections other than tuberculosis. The effect is off-target, and the mechanism is unresolved.
Three of the four cases drank raw date palm sap in the usual December-April window. The fourth, a child who fell ill in August, did not — and the source remains under investigation.