infectious diseases

UK COVID-19 surveillance “flying blind”; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi The UK is nearly “flying blind” when it comes to COVID this autumn, experts have said, amid an increase in cases. While the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) continues to track some metrics of COVID, including hospitalization numbers, many of the […]

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US Senate approves budget increase for biomedical research; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi To the relief of biomedical research advocates, a US Senate spending panel has approved a modest budget increase of 2% for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The bump to $47.8 billion roughly matches President Joe Biden’s request for the 2024

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TB, tuberculosis

More affordable tuberculosis medication on the horizon; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi The pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson (J&J) in mid-July agreed to help make a therapy critical to fighting drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) more widely available and affordable. J&J said it would allow competitors to market generic versions of the lifesaving drug, bedaquiline,

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Gambian families take government to court over cough syrup deaths; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi Families of 20 Gambian children who died after consuming cough syrups made in India will take their government to court this month for allegedly mishandling drug imports — a rare step in one of Africa’s poorest countries, where few have the

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TB, tuberculosis

Efficacy trials launch for tuberculosis vaccine; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi A large-scale efficacy trial of a promising tuberculosis (TB) vaccine will soon launch with substantial backing from two major philanthropies. The vaccine, dubbed M72, has so far crawled through clinical trials. A placebo-controlled study completed in 2015 found that in adults

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Diabetes drug may reduce risk of long COVID; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi The inexpensive and widely used diabetes drug metformin decreased the risk of developing Long Covid in overweight and obese outpatients who took it while acutely ill with SARS-CoV-2 infection, researchers reported last week in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. https://www.science.org/content/article/news-glance-long-covid-treatment-global-earthquake-model-and-deep-sea-mining The risk

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Long COVID symptoms identified by study; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi A team of scientists says it has nailed down the major symptoms of Long Covid, which has disabled millions of people since the pandemic began. https://www.science.org/content/article/major-u-s-effort-pins-down-symptoms-long-covid? In a study published yesterday (25 May) in The Journal of the American Medical Association,

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RSV

FDA approves new RSV vaccine; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi A panel advising the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week recommended that it approve a vaccine given to pregnant people to protect infants from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which can cause severe lung infections. https://www.science.org/content/article/news-glance-china-s-ethics-oversight-arpa-h-s-new-science-and-210-million-protein? The vote was unanimous

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EU and US launch joint task force on global health threats; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi The European Union and the United States have launched a new joint health task force to cooperate on cancer, global health threats and related supply chains and infrastructure, officials told a press conference last Wednesday. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/992081?ecd=wnl_edit_tpal&uac=398271FG&impID=5445031&faf=1 The task force was set

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