Non Communicable Diseases

Malaria vaccine resulted in 13% drop in deaths; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi In a major analysis in Africa, the first vaccine approved to fight malaria cut deaths among young children by 13% over nearly 4 years, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported last week. Data from a pilot rollout of the vaccine, called […]

Malaria vaccine resulted in 13% drop in deaths; The latest health stories from around the world Read More »

Strain of flu eradicated during pandemic? The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi  An influenza virus variant that circulated widely before the COVID-19 pandemic has disappeared, leading an expert group that advises the World Health Organization (WHO) to recommend last week that it no longer be included in flu vaccines. https://www.science.org/content/article/news-glance-more-success-fusion-medical-tests-under-scrutiny-and-grizzly-reintroduction?  The strain, known

Strain of flu eradicated during pandemic? The latest health stories from around the world Read More »

Nobel Prize awarded for COVID-19 mRNA vaccine development; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been jointly awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2023/press-release/  The discoveries by the two

Nobel Prize awarded for COVID-19 mRNA vaccine development; The latest health stories from around the world Read More »

New monovalent COVID-19 vaccines approved in US; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi  After the US Food and Drug Administration authorized new monovalent COVID vaccines on early last week, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices backed the decision a day later with a nearly unanimous vote in favour of universal XBB-containing

New monovalent COVID-19 vaccines approved in US; The latest health stories from around the world Read More »

USAID slashes funding for scheme identifying zoonotic diseases; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has prematurely ended a $125 million program aimed at identifying viruses that might harm humans in animals. Many see this as a fallout from the concern that researchers studying bat viruses may have triggered

USAID slashes funding for scheme identifying zoonotic diseases; The latest health stories from around the world Read More »

US to negotiate on prices for a number of prescription drugs; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced its first list of 10 prescription drugs whose prices will be open for negotiation in 2023 and 2024. Any settled price will become effective in 2026. The HHS will be

US to negotiate on prices for a number of prescription drugs; The latest health stories from around the world Read More »

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

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

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

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

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,

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

Prototype point-of-care test for detecting HPV offers hope for cervical cancer detection; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi DNA-based screening methods for high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) have proven to be highly effective for early cervical cancer detection but remain too expensive and difficult to use in resource-limited settings. Kundrod et al. have developed a prototype point-of-care test for detecting

Prototype point-of-care test for detecting HPV offers hope for cervical cancer detection; The latest health stories from around the world Read More »