Public Health News - Frontline

Children eating a a free midday meal at a government school in Allahabad in 2012. The prevalence of undernourishment seems to have risen between 2015 and 2023, whereas child mortality, though still high, showed decline..

Despite India’s low ranking in the Global Hunger Index, Modi government is hesitant to address the issue

Why is it reluctant to conduct a household consumption survey?

T.K. Rajalakshmi

NTPC Vindhyachal is India’s biggest power plant. It released about 25 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2022, placing it in the top 10 of global polluters, according to satellite data from Climate Trace.

The energy capital powering India and poisoning its residents

India’s super-polluter Vindhyachal plant experiments with carbon capture, but trial fails to appease local coal concerns.

Global Hunger Index

India’s 2024 GHI rank: Marginal improvement masks deep-rooted nutrition crisis

Child wasting, stunting, and undernutrition still remain formidable challenges, compounded by the lack of critical data.

T.K. Rajalakshmi

Public Health & AI

AI beds to remote ICUs: How startups are plugging India’s health gaps

Health-tech firms are looking to use cutting-edge technologies to fill chronic, structural lacunae in the country’s healthcare delivery.

A new study has found that depression remaps the brain’s internal communication pathways.

Depression remaps people’s ‘attention brain networks’

A brain network involved in motivation and attention is larger in people with depression. The difference is also visible in people before they develop

Reproductive Rights

India’s move to restrict morning-after pills could backfire on women’s health and autonomy

WHO says these pills should be easy to get, but India may soon require a doctor’s note—risking more unwanted pregnancies and dangerous abortions.

Shaibya Saldanha ,Sylvia Karpagam

Antimicrobial resistance is a huge threat—new deal offers hope

The decision by world leaders to boost efforts to fight AMR is a big step forward in the battle against this major health threat.

More stories from Health

Carl Linnaeus, in a 1775 painting by Alexander Roslin. Linnaeus’ system could absorb the global scatter of plants. Explorers brought back forests entire, and here at last was a method to catalogue them. Once named, plants from anywhere became Europeanised as the rightful botany of Empire.

Linnaeus’ taxonomy and the roots of scientific bias

His plant classification system, based on sexual characteristics, reinforced binary gender concepts and facilitated colonial botanical appropriation.

A toilet built as part of the Swachh Bharat Mission in Virhamatpur village, Uttar Pradesh, on April 7, 2018.

Why the Nature paper on Swachh Bharat Mission, lauded by Modi, should be read with caveats

The study links a decrease in infant deaths to the number of toilets constructed, but the correlation appears weak.

New data on water contamination levels raises concerns that over 4.4 billion people worldwide cannot access safe drinking water.

Over 4.4 billion people lack access to safe drinking water: study

Though access is dependent on the local geographic, sociocultural, and economic situation, water contamination also poses a major risk.

In 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone at the construction site in Thoppur.

AIIMS Madurai: Elusive medical institution mired in delays and disappointment

The much-awaited hospital has already enrolled three batches of students, but they struggle in temporary facilities as construction crawls.

Saatvika Radhakrishna

Mosquitoes can infect us with malaria and other illnesses.

The most dangerous mosquito-borne diseases

Malaria, dengue, zika—mosquitoes are not just annoying when they buzz around your ear at night, they can also infect us with countless illnesses.

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