A tale of two diseases

India is the shining star in the global battle to eradicate smallpox. It is also a branded villain as far as polio is concerned. How is it that …

Fowl Play

Is an avian flu pandemic imminent? As panic sends the world into a flutter, the Indian response still struggles to take wing, discover padmaparna …

Chikungunya chase

Nandan Kanan gets health cover

Non-profit diseases

There is a logic to the idea of neglected diseases. Historically the diseases poor people get--largely in the poorer parts of the world--haven't …

NCD battle starts now

The UN agreement on non-communicable diseases will get snagged on the issue of intellectual property rights for drugs

Children under threat !

Rising cases of respiratory ailments in children, due to air pollution, fail to stir the Indian government

Chikungunya spreads its tentacles

Chikungunya, a viral disease borne by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, has assumed epidemic proportions in large swathes of the country, especially …

Size does matter

Children's toilets are a breed apart from the everyday adult toilet

4 flu mutants

Seven eminent virologists discuss the implications with Down To Earth

Double whammy

Increasing pollution, depleting water table make groundwater in Kathmandu unfit for drinking

Famines in India are a nightmare of the past

A WHO study notes that While India has achieved impressive levels in food production, equitable distribution is still a distant dream. Chronic …

Rat chronicles

The tiny rodents that most people link only to pestilence and crop destruction have fascinated Ishwar Prakash -- one of that rare breed: a rat …

Will milk fortification benefit the poor?

Lean pastures

Drought and a viral disease strike Jaisalmer’s livestock. Kurush Canteenwala finds out how the herders are coping

How pure are their claims?

Market for water purifiers booms, but consumers cannot be sure of quality in absence of regulations

Fever still a mystery

Authorities yet to identify cause of deadly disease prevalent in Muzaffarpur for a decade

Gasping millions

Asthma, the bane of modern life, stalks the young ones and the affluent. It will strike 32 million people in India by 2010. The silent strangler …

Hidden industry hand

Attempts are on to derail UN initiative to declare noncommunicable diseases a global priority

Frogs are falling silent

The decline of the frog population is an early warning that something is seriously wrong with living conditions on Earth

Great depression of lac

Biggest producer Jharkhand worst hit—and clueless

The link between blood pressure and suicides

Fowl play

January 3, and all is not well in Hong Kong. With four people dead, and 11 confirmed and six suspected cases of A (H5N1) infection, the new …

Monkey business

Coping with the nuisanceof urban monkeys may be beyond human patience. But shooting or declaring them pests will not serve the problem. Only a …

Knowledge of medicines by indigenous communities receding