Health

Ice. Urgently and in large quantities. At a Paris-region hospital, emergency medics needed it to plunge patients into cold-water baths to speedily bring down their temperatures so they wouldn't join the growing tally of dead from a record-smashing heatwave. But lacking an ice-making machine, where to get it?  A fast-food restaurant helped out last week, saying the hospital could take its ice. Staff also bought ice from the supermarket. The Paris-Saclay Hospital has now ordered its own ice machine, eagerly awaited in the emergency department for a future attack of sizzling heat. Whether that hits next week, as France's weather service says it might, or in summer months ahead, medics and hospital administrators are acutely aware that the battle they've just endured will, because of climate...

Few foods enjoy the emotional status that chocolate does. It appears during celebrations, marks special occasions, offers comfort after difficult days, and has become almost universally associated with pleasure. But behind chocolate’s feel-good reputation lies a more intriguing scientific question: why does eating chocolate seem to make people feel better? For years, researchers have explored whether the ‘chocolate happiness effect’ is purely emotional or whether something measurable happens inside the brain. Today, emerging evidence suggests that dark chocolate occupies an unusual space where biology and psychology overlap. It does not simply satisfy a craving, but engages taste, memory, reward pathways, circulation, and chemical messengers that together shape how people experience pleas...

Nine more people tested positive for cerebral malaria in Potka block of Jharkhand's East Singhbhum district, taking the total count of such cases in the area to 150 in the last one week, an official said on Thursday. The district administration has intensified screening for such a vector-borne disease, he said. "A total of 3,000 samples have been tested in the Potka block since June 24. Around 150 people, including nine found positive on Wednesday, have been detected with cerebral malaria," the official said. Cerebral malaria is a life-threatening neurological complication of Plasmodium Falciparum infection, resulting in coma and severe brain damage. The majority of cases have been reported from villages such as Kandar and Hithbasa, where medical teams are continuously monitoring the s...

Europe is still taking stock of a powerful heatwave in late June but experts are already confident it ranks among the worst ever recorded even rivalling a freak 2003 episode. Temperature records were rewritten across Europe as hundreds of millions of people withered under extreme heat that closed schools, shut down transport and cost untold lives. A heat dome trapped hot air from North Africa over the Iberian Peninsula in late June before spreading as far as the United Kingdom, eventually weakening over central and eastern parts of Europe in early July. As the mercury starts to rise again in Europe, here's what we know so far about the impact of the early summer heatwave:  Memories of 2003  As the June episode intensified, comparisons were quickly made to August 2003, when a heatwave ...

The World Health Organization on Thursday declared an end to the deadly hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship which sparked international alarm, after the last person left quarantine. There were 12 confirmed and one probable case stemming from the MV Hondius, including three deaths. But while the outbreak is now over, for scientists and experts, the work is only in its early stages, as they try to learn lessons from the episode that triggered a global health alert. "Today, the final contact of a person exposed to hantavirus on the cruise ship MV Hondius completed their quarantine period, tested negative and returned home," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference. "No further cases have been reported since May 25. "We are therefore very pleased to say that WHO consi...

The Rajasthan Drug Control Department has imposed a statewide ban on the sale and use of a specific batch of Bupivacaine injection following reports of serious adverse reactions among patients at a hospital in Hyderabad.   Bupivacaine is widely used to administer spinal anaesthesia during various surgical procedures, including Caesarean deliveries. "Instructions have been issued to immediately stop the use of this injection until the investigation is completed. This decision has been taken on the advice of anesthesiologists," said Dr Deepak Maheshwari, Principal, SMS Medical College. The precautionary action comes after 16 patients reportedly developed adverse reactions after receiving the injection in Hyderabad. The Indian Society of Anesthesiologists (ISA) and the Anaesthesia Patient ...

NITI Aayog on Thursday suggested that the government should create a global Ayurveda register (GAR) and adopt a strategic approach towards the recognition of the traditional medicine system in India. The Aayog, in a report titled ''Strategic Roadmap for Making Ayurveda Global'', further said that the government should establish a world federation for Ayurveda and yoga. It also recommended that the government should formulate an ayurvedic pharmacopoeia-export edition. "The government should create a real-time Ayurveda trade dashboard," the Aayog said. The Aayog also pitched for increasing coordination between industry and academia for the promotion of Ayurveda. Ayurveda is a well-recognised and regulated system of traditional medicine in India. India maintains a strong domestic ecosyste...

A new analysis of dementia public health campaigns in eight countries, including Australia, the US, and China, has suggested that engaging, personalised, and community-driven approaches are needed to genuinely influence behaviour change and reduce dementia risk. The neurodegenerative condition affects 57 million people globally and the figure is forecast to triple by 2050, substantially burdening families, health systems and economies, researchers from Australia's Curtin University said. Nearly half of global dementia cases are preventable, simply by tackling modifiable risk factors, including physical inactivity, smoking, high LDL cholesterol and depression, a study published in The Lancet journal in August 2024 said. However, public health approaches are falling short of driving real ...

India needs a coordinated national strategy to bridge the gap between breakthrough cancer treatments and patient access, ensuring that scientific advances benefit every eligible patient, leading oncologists, cancer survivors and public health experts said on Wednesday. Speaking at a media roundtable on "Bridging Innovation and Affordability in Cancer Care", organised by the Indian Cancer Society (ICS), the experts said that although cancer treatment has advanced significantly, access remains limited due to high costs, inadequate insurance coverage, limited diagnostic facilities and unequal healthcare infrastructure. The roundtable, held during Cancer Survivor Month, brought together oncologists and cancer survivors to discuss ways to make innovations in cancer care more affordable and ac...

A new review has analysed billions of administered doses of messenger RNA, or mRNA, vaccines and confirmed that they protect against infectious diseases, including severe COVID-19, across diverse populations, including children, pregnant women and immunocompromised people. mRNA vaccines act by delivering genetic instructions to human cells to manufacture harmless viral proteins which train the immune system to recognise and fight the real virus. Researchers, including those from the University of British Columbia in Canada and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said existing evidence reinforces that mRNA vaccines are safe. They noted that serious adverse events, including myocarditis, are rare, with protection against severe disease, hospitalisation, and death substanti...