Health

Proposals to give weight loss jabs to unemployed people living with obesity could be “very important” for our economy and health, the prime minister has told the BBC. Sir Keir Starmer said he acknowledged that more money was needed for the NHS, and the government also needed to “think differently” to ease pressure on the health system. His comments came ...

The Seventy Seventh Regional Committee Session of WHO South-East Asia wrapped up with Member States adopting resolutions setting new targets for measles and rubella elimination, expanding the corpus of the regional health emergency fund and committing to adolescent responsive health systems. “While regionally, we have made good progress on elimination of measles and rubella, the COVID-19 pandemic did disrupt this ...

When I was in class nine, a friend of mine spoke to me about her irregular menstruation cycle; she lamented how her periods almost lasted a month. At the time, I couldn’t fully grasp the depths of her plight. I, with my textbook 28-day cycle, assumed such things were impossibilities, just another bizarre quirk of adolescence. It wasn’t until years ...

On 2 March 2022, a milestone in Bangladesh’s medical history was set when a 42-year-old woman, Tasnova Mostafiz Nova, became the first person in the country to receive an artificial heart. Although the event received significant media coverage at the time, Tasnova herself did not appear before the public. However, nearly two and a half years later, Tasnova and her ...

One in five people in the country, most of whom are over 35, have presbyopia, or the inability to see objects up close, said a new study. The study conducted by BRAC and VisionSpring also shows that the silent epidemic also has significant economic consequences. Moreover, treatable blindness remains a major challenge, with nearly 1% of people over 40 at ...

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an invisible killer, which is directly responsible for 1.3 million deaths and a contributing factor to five million other fatalities every year. Everyone seems to have had a family member or friend who has either gotten seriously ill or died due to acquiring an infection that did not respond to prescribed medicines, and the underlying reason ...

In recent years, vaping has caught the attention of nouveau riche youngsters of Dhaka, in contrast to smoking. According to Statistica, the revenue generated in the e-cigarette market in Bangladesh will amount to US$99.4 million in 2024. Interestingly, vaping is marketed as a safer option. They are portraying traditional cigarettes as this harmful, doomed choice. But is it the truth? ...

Jihan Ara, aged 38, discovered in 2020 that she had developed resistance to 14 antibiotics following a COVID-19 infection. Medical professionals informed her that this resistance was due to incomplete courses or overdoses of the antibiotics prescribed. Currently, only a few antibiotics remain effective in her system. Meanwhile, six-year-old Afrin Naba frequently suffers from fever and colds. Her mother, Monira ...

Humanity is hitting the upper limit of life expectancy, according to a new study. Advances in medical technology and genetic research – not to mention larger numbers of people making it to age 100 – are not translating into marked jumps in lifespan overall, according to researchers who found shrinking longevity increases in countries with the longest-living populations. “We have ...

Scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of microRNA and its role in gene regulation, the award-giving body said on Monday. The winners for medicine are selected by the Nobel Assembly of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute medical university and receive a prize sum of 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.1 million).