Health

North Korea confirmed its first-ever Covid cases on Thursday and declared a “serious emergency”, with leader Kim Jong Un ordering lockdowns across the country. The nuclear-armed country had never admitted to a case of Covid-19 and the government had imposed a rigid coronavirus blockade of its borders since the start of the pandemic in 2020, reports AFP. But samples taken ...

Charges have been framed against Abdul Malek, a driver of Directorate General of Health Service (DGHS), and his wife Nargis Begum in two separate graft cases. Judge Al Asad Md Asifuzzaman of the Special Judge Court-6 of Dhaka framed charges on Wednesday. However, Malek pleaded not guilty and demanded justice after the judge read out the charges. The court fixed ...

Nearly 300 probable cases of children with severe hepatitis have been detected in 20 countries worldwide, with some in South East Asia, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said. Health officials around the world are investigating a mysterious increase in cases of the liver condition which was first spotted in the UK. A common virus called adenovirus, which has rebounded ...

Youth can play a good role in ensuring equitable and sustained access to water and a clean environment, through applying integrity in WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene). The views came by speakers at a youth’s orientation programme on integrity in WASH held at DORP head quarters in the capital on Sunday. Binayak Das, Programme coordinator of Water Integrity Network (WIN) ...

The Russian Federal Medical-Biological Agency (FMBA) plans to begin in 2022 clinical trials of the country’s new anti-coronavirus Convasel vaccine on people aged 60 and older, FMBA chief Veronika Skvortsova said. “Taking into account the past experience of such research work and successful pre-clinical and clinical trials, FMBA considers an opportunity of launching clinical trials of Convasel for people aged ...

Bangladesh has ranked 5th out of 121 countries in the Nikkei Covid-19 Recovery Index while the country secured top position among the South Asian countries. Bangladesh achieved the highest rank among South Asian countries with a score of 80 points, followed by Nepal which ranked 6th with a score of 79, according to the latest rankings published on Thursday( May ...

The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that has yet to be certified by peer review. OBESITY MAY WEAKEN VACCINE PROTECTION IN THE NEVER INFECTED Severe obesity may weaken the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in those who have never been infected with the coronavirus, ...

The US said Thursday only adults who “have personal concerns” about mRNA vaccines, access issues or medical reasons for refusing them may now receive the Johnson & Johnson Covid shot, which has been linked to a rare but serious clotting condition. The vaccine, which was authorized as a single shot, is less protective than those developed by Pfizer and Moderna, ...

The World Health Organization is estimating that nearly 15 million people were killed either by the coronavirus or by its impact on overwhelmed health systems in the past two years, more than double the official death toll of 6 million. Most of the fatalities were in Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas, reports AP. In a report released on Thursday, ...

Two new Omicron sub-variants are driving an increase in reported Covid cases in South Africa, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, stressing the importance of testing to monitor virus mutations and spread. The heavily mutated and highly transmissible Omicron variant of Covid-19, which was first detected in southern Africa in November last year and rapidly spread globally, is now the ...