What a bloody mess

When the Ebola virus broke on April 10 this year, the scientific world went into a tizzy? It's uncontrollable, it's the big daddy of horror movies,…

Perseverance pays

Learning from Lorenzo's oil

Deadly Particles

They are tiny and deadly. Recent research has brought to light the existence of airborne particles so tiny they defy measurement. Toxic particles …

Out of breath

After visiting hospitals and slums VIBHA VARSHNEY has found that asthma makes poor children suffer far more than their rich counterparts. And a …

Every breath you take

Pollutants in the air damage more than the lungs, warn health experts

A toilet per second

Droopy dead

New findings suggest the vulture might be falling prey to an infectious disease. The scientific community is not yet certain if the vulture's …

Ray of hope for transplant patients

A bill introduced during the last session of Parliament seeks to change the definition of death from when the heart stops beating to when the …

Lost in the Thar

The Indira Gandhi canal project is a costly failure that has led to destruction of habitat and loss of arable land

Virus alert

A strain of the virus that causes bird influenza has been implicated in the death of a three-year-old boy in Hong Kong. The case, though …

Sponsored blight?

Another monsoon. The season of suffering in India's flood plains. And of blaming upstream people for floods. Is there an end to this

People play key role in anti-filaria project

A programme implemented in central Kerala shows how an illness can be controlled if the community is involved.

Can the Grim Reaper wait, please?

A timeless dream: eternal youth, unblemished by illness. The search for the font of immortality has taken a late 20th century turn into what …

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 …