India launches project to reduce transport emissions

According to the UN Daily News, India has launched a new United Nations-backed project to reduce emissions and develop a low-carbon transport system. While India’s per capita emissions are below the global average, they have the world’s second largest population – ranking the country as the world’s fourth largest greenhouse gas emitter. In 2007, around [...]

Polio outbreak in Congo kills nearly 100

Polio has killed nearly 100 people, mainly young adults, in the Republic of Congo and paralyzed more than twice as many in the past six weeks, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and a report from Reuters. The crippling viral disease normally strikes children under five years of age, making the acute, fast-spreading outbreak [...]

Polio in retreat – a feature in Scientific American

An interesting article from Scientific American on global efforts to eradicate polio, and recent indicators of significant progress in regions of India where the virus used to be prevalent. Polio in Retreat: New Cases Nearly Eliminated Where Virus Once Flourished New cases in key Indian states are hovering near zero—unprecedented, historic lows—suggesting that a long-time [...]

Burden of NCDs in India – estimated USD 237 billion in lost national income (2006-15)

The Cameron Institute – a not-for-profit, public policy think tank — recently released an analysis of the economic impact of non-communicable diseases in India. As of 2005, India experienced the “highest loss in potentially productive years of life” worldwide, according to an article published in The Lancet.The projected cumulative loss of national income for India due [...]

India’s PM wants country to be world leader in IP

According to an article in the Economic Times, India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently made a forceful plea for fostering an environment that promoted scientific advancement in the country to help it become a “world leader” in creating intellectual property. “Innovation and knowledge will be the key-factors in our progress in the 21st century,” said the [...]

Access to medicines in India: feedback from a gov’t consultation on compulsory licensing

India’s Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (managed by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry) recently released a Discussion Paper on Compulsory Licensing and invited feedback from civil society groups, industry, academia and other stakeholders to guide their formulation of a compulsory licensing policy. The Discussion Paper expressed concern regarding the availability of new products [...]

Gates Foundation – 60 Minutes Interview

A very interesting interview on 60 minutes with Bill and Melinda Gates highlighting the work and priorities of the Gates Foundation. Asked what the foundation’s global priorities are, Melinda Gates said, “HIV/AIDS, malaria, mother-and-child deaths, in that order.”

New drug-resistant superbug spreading from India

A new superbug could spread around the world after reaching Britain from India and scientists say there are almost no drugs to treat it. (source: Reuters) The new superbug – New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase, or NDM-1 – makes bacteria highly resistant to almost all antibiotics. Almost as soon as the first antibiotic penicillin was introduced in [...]

Access to new test for drug-resistant TB must be improved: WHO expert

A World Health Organization expert called for greater access to a new diagnostic tool for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in the Western Pacific and southeast Asia.  The new diagnostic tool reduces the time needed to detect MDR-TB from eight weeks to two hours. Drug-resistant TB emerges when patients fail to follow treatment regimens, take substandard drugs [...]

Fighting neglected diseases: anti-TB compounds offer hope

Compounds being developed against tuberculosis also show promise against deadly tropical diseases threatening millions of people.  As reported by Reuters, the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development has granted the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) rights to develop a class of potential anti-TB compounds offering hope of treating Chagas disease, African sleeping sickness and [...]