Meningitis outbreak begins in West Africa

In Short

If bird flu arrives, what will India do?

India is a hotbed not only of strange diseases but of stranger disease surveillance and control institutions. Every year, known and unknown …

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 …

Anatomy of the plague

The Black Death is an established phenomenon the world over, so there is no point pillorying India alone

Confronting cholera in Peru

The year-long cholera epidemic in Peru refocussed scientific attention worldwide on the causes of the disease and the various strains of cholera …

Outbreak Outrage

There is a suspicion among African biomedics about the well projected linking of the continent's environment with the emergence of lethal viruses …

Malaria menace

Health experts warn of an impending malaria epidemic in Vadodara. But government officials are silent over the issue

Counting out pestilence

The patterns that diseases furrow among large sections of a population provide clues to check epidemics

The number of new flu viruses is increasing, and could lead to a pandemic

How is it the flu has managed to stay around for so long, and why haven't we beaten it yet?

Unravelling the Bombay plague

Room 000: Narratives Of The Bombay Plague is the story of the plague that killed thousands in Mumbai in the late 1890s. Very little was known …

Slippery bacillus

Despite desperate combing operations, the plague bacillus is playing hide-and-seek with doctors

Over 7.7 million people vaccinated in DRC against yellow fever

In neighbouring Angola, an estimated 3 million people have been vaccinated since mid-August.

World Health Assembly agrees to new ‘Health Emergencies Programme’

Programme aimed at providing rapid and comprehensive support to countries and communities for tackling crises hazardous to human health

Chimp's aid

Chimps are not victimised by AIDS because a lethal sickness has made their immune system resistant to the disease

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 …

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