Health

BHUBANESWAR, India – An Indian health worker who contracted the deadly Nipah virus in December has died, a senior health official from the eastern state of West Bengal said on Feb 12. The woman – a nurse – was one of two people in the state who were infected and was being treated at a local hospital, Reuters reported in ...

Scientists have discovered how to make people less selfish – at least temporarily – by stimulating two areas of their brain. In a new study carried out at the University of Zurich, 44 volunteers were asked to decide how to split an amount of money between themselves and an anonymous partner. During the experiment, an electrical current was applied to ...

More than 94 million people suffer from cataracts, but half of them do not have access to the surgery needed to fix it, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. Cataracts — the clouding of the eye’s lens that causes blurred vision and can lead to blindness — are on the rise as populations get older, with age being the main ...

The Advisers Council Committee on Government Purchase today recommended approval of a proposal for procuring some 5,38,65,000 Anti-TB drugs (4FDC) under the revenue budget to strengthen tuberculosis control efforts. The Health Services Division proposed the purchase of 5,38,65,000 units of Anti-TB Drug (4FDC) under Package No GR-2557 at a total cost of Taka 77.57 crore. M/S Reneta PLC has been ...

Next time you’re considering consulting Dr ChatGPT, perhaps think again. Despite now being able to ace most medical licensing exams, artificial intelligence chatbots do not give humans better health advice than they can find using more traditional methods, according to a study published on Monday. “Despite all the hype, AI just isn’t ready to take on the role of the ...

The country’s telehealth service Shastho Batayon 16263 is at risk of shutting down after 17 months of unpaid salaries, as the interim government has failed to release funds, leaving its staff unpaid and the service in jeopardy. The 16263 helpline operates 24/7, providing health advice completely free of charge. A team of 100 MBBS-qualified doctors and 25 health information officers ...

Global cholera vaccine supply has now increased to a level sufficient to allow the resumption of life-saving preventive campaigns for the first time in over three years, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization (WHO) announced recently. Mozambique is the first country to restart preventive vaccination, following the halt in 2022 caused by the global surge in ...

Malaysia is emerging as a top medical travel destination for Bangladeshi patients, with Sunway Medical Centre (SMC) in Kuala Lumpur attracting a growing number seeking advanced healthcare. Patients and families cite Malaysia’s combination of world-class treatment, advanced technology, predictable costs, and patient-friendly services as major reasons for the shift from Thailand, China, and Singapore. Treatments include cancer care, cardiac and ...

A new WHO study suggests more than 7 million cases of cancer in 2022 were preventable. Nearly 40% of all the cases that year were caused by modifiable risk factors — behavioral and environmental factors we can change. “We now have the information to prevent cancer before it starts,” said Isabelle Soerjomataram, a cancer surveillance specialist at the International Agency ...

A breakthrough in the fight against pancreatic cancer was unveiled this week, after experts discovered a drug combination that may be able to defeat the disease. The treatment, which involves three existing medications, was found to completely wipe out pancreatic tumours in lab mice. The drugs work together to block the cancer’s ‘survival routes’ simultaneously, making it harder for tumours ...