Frogs are falling silent

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

Pox Americana

Is the West a victim of its own past?

Extreme weather events continue to hamper access to potable water, sanitation; urgent action needed: WHO 

The world is not on track to achieve Sustainable Development Goal on water and sanitation for all by 2030

New WHO panel to investigate rise in zoonotic diseases and build action plan

The experts will advise several international organisations on how future outbreaks can be averted

India joins global research hub on antimicrobial resistance

The country is the largest consumer of antibiotics in the world — consumption increased by 103 per cent from 2000 to 2015, the highest in …

Health report 2016: a glance at major developments

Down To Earth takes a probing look into key health issues that raised concerns and dominated medical discourse in 2016

Zika-the new global pandemic

After dengue and chikungunya, the Aedes mosquito is delivering a new emergency— Zika. Down To Earth looks into the reasons behind the …

Ineffective magic bullets: Antibiotic resistance is now the leading cause of deaths across the globe

Young children were found to be particularly affected by AMR

Long COVID: Here’s what we can learn from chronic sequelae of other infectious diseases

Long COVID-like conditions were recorded in patients of ebola, polio and chikungunya as well

‘Adaptation’ and ‘mitigation’ can reduce impacts of global pandemics

Mitigation programmes can save nearly US $360 billion over the next 100 years, says new study

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 …

Betel benefit

Compounds in paan leaf can kill several pathogenic bacteria

Green plans

Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2021: Why India needs to re-examine its pediatric practices

Children often receive multiple courses of antibiotics every year since viral infections are recurrent. This makes them more vulnerable to …

All about ACE-2 — the molecule that helps novel coronavirus invade cells

SARS-CoV-2 has a high-binding capacity for ACE2 — between 10 and 20 times more that of original SARS virus

Antimicrobial resistance a ticking time bomb, warn world health experts

They were speaking at a live broadcast organised at the 69th World Health Assembly

Alarming increase in global use of antibiotics, India is the largest consumer

A research published in a medical journal has sounded an alarm on overuse and misuse of antibiotic drugs

Swine flu tamed?

H1N1 cases on the rise but doctors say the strain is behaving like seasonal flu

Prickly issue

Will the inclusion of Hepatitis B vaccination in the Universal Immunisation Programme help?

COVID-19: Sharp dip in TB cases during lockdown, timely diagnosis major worry

A 25% reduction in TB detection due to the COVID-19 pandemic in three months could lead to a 13% increase in TB deaths, according to WHO

Outbreaks like coronavirus start in and spread from the edges of cities

The new coronavirus crossed the animal-human divide at a market in Wuhan, one of the largest Chinese cities and a major transportation node

New diseases are the result of environmental degradation

After being instrumental in the eradication of smallpox, D A Henderson , director, Centre for Civilian Biodefence, Johns Hopkins University, USA,…

Benin, Mali in Africa defeat trachoma as public health problem

Fifth and sixth countries to defeat eye-infection disease in WHO African region

Autonomous Africa CDC a game-changer on disease outbreak response: Experts

Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention will now be in a position to assess disease outbreaks on the continent and declare it an …

Unknowing vectors

Humans may be transmitting new and dangerous viruses to Antarctica