Full Coverage: Disease

25.04.2008 On World Malaria Day, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is due to announce a global initiative to fight against the vector-borne disease that kills a million people around the world every year. In India, malaria is spreading to newer areas owing largely to a changing climate.

25.04.2008 Today, on World Malaria Day, 3,000 children will die of malaria. This year, it will kill more than one million people. When faced with such disastrous statistics, it can be easy for us to feel overwhelmed – to see malaria as another problem that is too big and too complex. The reality is different: malaria is 100 per cent preventable. But action must be taken before the mosquito bites.

19.04.2008 Figures compiled by WaterAid disprove the government's claims of providing safe drinking water to over 90% of population. India has yet to do more to reach the Millennium Development Goals in this sector as millions continue to suffer from contaminated water-borne diseases.

18.04.2008 Female community health workers are saving young lives in the country by providing key services and interventions to pregnant women and children. While Nepal’s success in reducing child mortality puts it on track to achieve Millennium Development Goal 4, neonatal mortality remains a challenge with over 50% less than one month old babies dying.

14.04.2008 Indian Institute of Health Management Research, in collaboration with WHO and UNFPA, is organising a training course on ‘Programming for HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Health of Young People in South and South-East Asia’ in Jaipur, India. The programme, aimed at strengthening management capabilities, addresses the concerns of younger generation about the disease.

11.04.2008 Climate change can cause rise in malaria and diarrhea, the global killers of children. Fall in crop productivity and water availability will also severely impact the lives of women and children, warned UNICEF on the occasion of World Health Day 2008.

08.04.2008 Increasing resistance to antibiotic drugs around the world has many factors from overuse to poor diagnostic capability to faulty prescribing practices to abundance of fake drugs. Authorities, doctors and patients all have a role to play in fighting it, says Jia Hepeng.

02.04.2008 Asia may have 8 million more new cases of HIV/AIDS by 2020, according to a new report by the independent Commission on AIDS in Asia. The report, presented to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, is the first ever comprehensive study in the region and calls for immediate priority interventions.

02.04.2008 Social stigmas attached to leprosy continue unabated in India, home to over 50% of the world's leprosy patients. Ostracised by society and lacking government support, it is ghettos like the Village of Hope in Delhi that offer shelter, companionship and dignity to those afflicted by the disease, writes Aditi Rao.

02.04.2008 The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis & Malaria (GFATM) has launched its Round 8 funding to scale up health systems across the world. The India – Country Coordinating Mechanism for the GFATM invites proposals from government agencies, civil society networks and private sector for receiving grants.

01.04.2008 Designed to ensure that people complete their treatment of tuberculosis, the Indian government introduced a strategy called the Directly Observed Treatment or DOT in 1997. But most poor patients still find its benefits beyond their reach.