Nigeria on the brink of becoming polio-free
On August 21 this year, Nigeria crossed an important milestone in the eradication of polio when it successfully completed three successive years without a single case of wild poliovirus. The…
Category: Communicable disease
Vaccine hesitancy and the deadly spread of measles
With 3,65,000 cases of measles reported globally in the first six months of this year, vaccine hesitancy appears to have grown more dangerous to public health. In 121 Indian districts…
Transgenic mosquitoes transfer genes to native mosquito species
Transfer of genes from genetically-modified Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to naturally-occurring ones were seen in Brazil where transgenic mosquitoes were released from June 2013 to September 2015. Contrary to claims made, genes…
Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal perform better than India in controlling hepatitis B
India introduced hepatitis B vaccine in the Universal Immunisation Programme in 2002 and scaled-up nationwide in 2011. But even eight years later, the prevalence among children less than five years…
Cholera bacteria from India show high drug-resistance
The 443 cholera-causing Vibrio cholerae isolates isolated from patients from Kolkata and Delhi show very high drug resistance to 22 antibiotics belonging to nine classes. About 99% of the isolates…
Deadly Ebola virus on the brink of being tamed
Preliminary analysis of 499 Ebola infected participants has sprung a surprise — the chances of survival may be as high as 90% if patients are treated with one of the…
IIT Hyderabad: A step closer to oral administration of Kala-azar drug
Using a novel drug-delivery approach, IIT Hyderabad researchers have made oral administration of the drug Amphotericin B for treating Kala-azar and fungal infection possible. The drug encapsulated in polymer nanofibres…
Sri Lanka: Island of hope in the midst of global measles resurgence
Even as Europe is seeing a resurgence of measles with 1,60,000 cases and more than 100 deaths between January 2018 and May 2019, on July 9, Sri Lanka became the fourth country…
