World unprepared for future pandemics: Global Health Security Index 2021

Countries across all income levels are lacking on finance, logistics and planning when it comes to future pandemics

WHO fund to boost emergency preparedness in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia Regional Health Emergency Fund to help 11 member countries prepare for natural disasters and health emergencies

Epidemic at hand

Thanks to El Nio, east and central Africa is reeling under a deadly onslaught of killer diseases

New viruses on the prowl

Humans have exposed themselves to a host of new viral diseases by playing around too much with the environment

The black fever

While the nation's attention is focused on the caste killings in Jehanabad, a silent but deadlier killer is striking terror in Bihar. Kala-azar, …

Malaria in the Thar Desert: Facts, Figures and Future - Book review

One usually does not associate malaria with a desert environment. Common sense dictates that mosquitoes, that breed only in stagnant water, would …

"An epidemic of non-communication"

David Miller is an expert in psychosocial management of hiv/aids. He has worked in developing countries since 1986 and is currently the Country …

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 …

RASH OF EPIDEMICS

IN FOCUS

Spawning grounds

Environmental changes have led to the emergence of kala-azar in new areas

Malaria spreads in Orissa

In denial

Mystery fever kills hundreds; government clueless

4 flu mutants

Seven eminent virologists discuss the implications with Down To Earth

A plague on this country

The plague today holds the same threshold of dread that it did in the 14th century. So when the Black Death struck India late last month, the …

How did it get so bad?

Ostrich policy and bad science. In Bihar, embankments built by government to prevent floods have been counter-productive

Is the alarm justified?

Yes. The disease is spreading fast. Yet there is little scientific data to devise a strategy to deal with it

Deceptive bug behind Andhra disease

A seemingly harmless germ has been on a killing spree. This is what has been detected by the National Institute of Virology in respect of the …

Picking on pigs

Follow Up

Climate change

Least polluting countries hit the hardest

Nigeria faces shortage of meningitis vaccine as epidemic spreads

A new strand of the disease has emerged, for which vaccine is not available commercially 

The muck stops here

Indian lakes are no longer serene waterbodies. Instead, they have become stinking cesspools, a result of continuous inflow of sewage and massive …

SARS Wars

SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) is making the world sneeze. Even as the global health community struggles to unmask a new, deadly, …

Why diseases are "mysterious"

The government's public health system is completely defunct. Of late, there has been an alarming rise in disease outbreaks in the country. …