Health

New Delhi, Oct 8 (IAS) Union Health and Family Welfare Minister J.P. Nadda and Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Thursday launched JOSH (Joint Squad for Health) Teams under the TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaany to strengthen youth-led community participation in efforts to eliminate tuberculosis.Describing the launch of JOSH Teams as a milestone in the collective fight against tuberculosis, Nadda said a WHO report shows India has recorded a 21 per cent decline in TB incidence and treatment coverage rose to 92 per cent, significantly ahead of global trends.He said that the country’s efforts towards a TB Mukt Bharat have evolved from a conventional health programme into a people’s movement, with Jan Bhagidari and community ownership emerging as the defining pillars of the national response.Nadda e...

New Delhi, Oct 8 (IANS) The Ayush services sector is emerging as a significant source of employment for women in India, with female participation surpassing 50 per cent in several organised segments of the industry, the goverment said on Thursday.The sector, which includes Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa and Homoeopathy, currently accounts for women making up 43 per cent of its overall workforce, according to the Ministry of Ayush.The findings were highlighted in the Ayush Service Sector Report, a study conducted by the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) and released on Ayurveda Day 2026. The report points to the growing role of women across healthcare delivery, education, wellness and allied services within the Ayush ecosystem.Accordin...

Gandhinagar, Oct 7 (IANS) A 26-year-old CRPF personnel who tested positive for dengue died at Gandhinagar Civil Hospital on Wednesday after his platelet count dropped and he developed chest pain, while the number of dengue-positive personnel currently admitted to the hospital has risen to 43, Resident Medical Officer (RMO) Vipula Pandya told IANS.The deceased was identified as Amal Barman, a native of Assam.He first visited the hospital on October 3 and tested positive for dengue.As his condition and other medical parameters were satisfactory at the time, he was treated as an outpatient and advised to rest."He had tested positive that day, but his condition and other reports were satisfactory, so he was advised to take treatment and rest," Pandya said.Barman returned to the hospital thre...

Gandhinagar, Oct 6 (IANS) Gujarat Health Minister Praful Pansheriya on Tuesday directed officials to intensify fogging, fever surveillance and anti-larval measures at the temporary accommodation of personnel who have arrived in Gandhinagar for the National Unity Day parade, after dengue cases were reported among them.The minister issued the directions during a high-level review meeting on vector-borne diseases, where the health department reviewed the situation across districts and municipal corporation areas of the state.Personnel of the BSF, CRPF and ITBP from different states have been arriving in Gandhinagar since September 21 for the National Unity Day parade.Their temporary accommodation has been arranged in government housing in Sectors 28 and 29 of Gandhinagar.According to the He...

Guwahati, Oct 6 (IANS) Assam is continuing to expand its cancer care infrastructure beyond major urban centres, with new facilities coming up in Sivasagar, Nagaon, Dhubri and Nalbari, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Tuesday.In a post on X, Sarma said the next phase of Assam’s cancer care network was taking shape, with the objective of bringing specialised cancer treatment closer to patients across the state.The initiative was launched to address the state's high cancer burden and reduce the need for patients to travel long distances for specialised treatment.The decentralised cancer care model envisages a network of facilities operating at different levels, linking district-level centres with larger and more specialised institutions.Its objective is to provide diagnosis, treat...

Nairobi, Oct 6 (IANS) Kenya on Tuesday confirmed its first imported case of Bundibugyo Ebola virus disease, one day after a man died in a Nairobi hospital, the country's health authorities said.The patient was a Kenyan citizen who had lived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for the past seven years, Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale said in a statement.He fell ill about a month ago and was treated at several hospitals while still in the DRC. He travelled by road from the DRC to Kampala, Uganda, then boarded Jambojet flight 8523 and arrived in Nairobi on October 3, Xinhua News Agency reported.A relative drove him directly from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to Nairobi Hospital, where he was quickly placed in an isolation facility, the statement said.He presented with feve...

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) Cervavac -- India's first indigenously developed human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine -- has received prequalification from the World Health Organization (WHO) which makes it eligible for procurement by United Nations agencies and expands its potential global reach.The vaccine -- which was developed by the Serum Institute of India (SII) -- had earlier received approval from India's Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for domestic use.Cervavac is a quadrivalent, gender-neutral vaccine that can be administered to both girls and boys between the ages of nine and 26 years.It targets four HPV strains -- types 6, 11, 16 and 18. While HPV types 6 and 11 are commonly associated with genital warts, types 16 and 18 are considered high-risk strains linked to several cancers...

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has asked food safety authorities across states and Union Territories to intensify surveillance, inspections and sampling during the upcoming Navratri and Diwali festive season to prevent the sale of adulterated, counterfeit and unsafe food products, it was announced on Tuesday.In a post on X, the food regulator said higher demand for items such as sweets, snacks, beverages, edible oil, milk and milk products during the festive period requires enhanced monitoring and enforcement measures.According to the FSSAI, the issue should be treated as a matter of utmost importance and directed state food safety commissioners to ensure that designated officers, food safety officers and central food safety officers carry ...

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) India’s National Telemedicine Service, eSanjeevani, has recorded a cumulative 50,00,92,730 teleconsultations, crossing the 50-crore mark on September 15, the government said on Tuesday.The statement from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said the milestone reflects success of leveraging digital technology to make quality healthcare more accessible, affordable and equitable for citizens across the country.The platform now supports over 1.42 lakh Ayushman Arogya Mandir spokes, 19,473 medical hubs and 901 online OPDs, with 2,41,923 registered healthcare providers, the statement added.To strengthen integrated healthcare delivery, eSanjeevani has been integrated with the Emergency Response Support System (ERSS)-112, enabling stronger linkages between emergency re...

Kolkata, Oct 5 (IANS) Command Hospital (Eastern Command), Kolkata, has successfully administered indigenously developed CAR-T cell therapy to a 39-year-old serving soldier battling relapsed/refractory B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (B-cell ALL).NexCAR19 is India’s first indigenous CAR-T cell therapy, developed to provide affordable and accessible immunotherapy for blood cancers such as leukaemia and lymphoma.The therapy was developed through a collaboration involving IIT Bombay, Tata Memorial Centre and ImmunoACT, a biotechnology start-up.It works by reprogramming a patient’s own T-cells with Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CARs) to identify and destroy CD19-expressing cancer cells.As it uses a humanised product configuration rather than murine (mouse-derived) components, it is associa...