Is HIV harmless?
A group of scientists believe that HIV does not cause the dreaded Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
Temperature increase could accelerate rise in antibiotic resistance
Temperature and population density could facilitate transmission and thus increase in antibiotic resistance, say scientists
Nigeria’s missing virus hunters: University decline robs country of virologists
Nigeria should create an enabling environment for scientists to function effectively and maximally
Gorakhpur child deaths not the only case of mismanagement in government hospitals
There is no scientific consensus on the cause of encephalitis that has been claiming lives every year in the Gorakhpur region since 1978. But an …
Catching viruses
Brand new infectious maladies such as Jacobson's disease have begun to plague the world, despite better sanitation and medication in developed …
Nipah outbreak synonymous with India's ill-preparedness to deal with health crises
Nipah virus is part of a clutch of emerging pandemics threatening the world due to global warming and environmental pressure
Nipah virus returns to Kerala, Ernakulam man tested positive
The state government was awaiting National Institute of Virology’s report which confirmed the presence of the virus that killed 17 …
IIT Hyderabad develops device to detect infectious diseases at low costs
The device can help detect infection on the first day of being infected and can be used without the help of a technician
Odyssey of a disease
From sheep to cattle and then to human beings, spongiform encephalopathies, a group of fatal brain maladies, have caught the attention of …
WHO: More investments needed in Africa to control, eliminate neglected tropical diseases
Around 400 million people in the region are still affected; 99 million in 26 countries at risk of not receiving treatment
Why we are bugged
Book>> Spillover • by David Quammen • W Norton and Company • Rs 1,550
Resistance-causing mcr-1 gene isolated in India
The gene is responsible for resistance against colistin, a last resort antibiotic used to treat human diseases
No money for labs in antibiotics research
Though increasing bacterial resistance to antibiotics is making it difficult to treat diseases such as malaria, pharmaceutical companies do not …
TB threat as acute as AIDS
Infectious diseases are still the largest cause of death in the world and tuberculosis remains the leader.
AIDS increases TB death risk
People infected with the AIDS virus are more susceptible to tuberculosis, and this further reduces their chances of survival.
Africans likely to live longer now; but will they live healthier?
The WHO said in a statement released August 4 that healthy life expectancy in its African region had increased on average by 10 years per person …
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
Designing infectious disease warnings that work
Most infectious disease warning systems have been set up to fail as they focus on science, not people.
Study indicates increasing multi-drug resistance in children against enteric bacteria
Children in India also carry high levels of antibiotic resistance against key pathogens causing difficulty in treating infections
Simon Schama’s history of 18th and 19th century disease outbreaks speaks powerfully to the present
At the core of Foreign Bodies is Schama’s understanding that “all history is natural history”
On the comeback trail
The scientific community is trying hard to combat communicable diseases which have made a comeback
COVID-19 testing led to new techniques of disease diagnosis: Progress mustn’t stop now
In the past three years, focus of disease testing moved from simple detecting & understanding to incorporating speed, efficiency & …
First ever national survey shows the extent of South Africa’s TB problem
In 2019, 58,000 people died of TB in South Africa and 1.4 million people died from TB globally
First ever case of H7N4 afflicting a human being reported in China
The virus, identified by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, is of avian origin
Outbreak of infectious diseases linked to change in forest cover, finds study
Outbreaks of vector-borne and zoonotic diseases linked to deforestation increased between 1990 and 2016