Pandemic Latest News

Non Communicable Diseases

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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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 …

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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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Mandy Cohen

Biden to appoint Mandy Cohen as Director of the CDC; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi Public health advocates are applauding the news that President Joe Biden intends to name Mandy Cohen, a physician and public health expert with broad government experience, to lead the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.adj1029?et_rid=785235729&utm_campaign=SCIeToc&af=R&et_cid=4766136&utm_medium=email&utm_content=alert&utm_source=sfmc Biden will appoint …

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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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New global database highlights health inequality; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi Billed as the world’s most comprehensive collection of statistics on the topic, the Health Inequality Data Repository allows users to compare how people of differing incomes, ages, genders and rural-versus-urban settings compare on more than 2,000 measures of health, ranging from …

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WHO expands mRNA facilities to South Africa; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday launched its mRNA vaccine technology hub in South Africa’s Cape Town, to help poorer countries struggling to gain access to life-saving medication. www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/who-officially-launches-mrna-vaccine-hub-cape-town-2023-04-20/ In 2021, the WHO picked South African biotech firm Afrigen Biologics …

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Chinese researchers release new COVID-19 data; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi Chinese researchers released a trove of new genetic data last Wednesday that may offer fresh clues to the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic. They also substantially revised a related study they first posted online 13 months ago to include this evidence, …

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WHO reviews risk of bird flu transmission; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi The World Health Organization (WHO) expressed concern about bird flu on February 24 after the father of an 11-year-old Cambodian girl who died from the disease also tested positive, raising fears of human-to-human transmission. However, officials say the father is asymptomatic. …

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