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About 1.3 billion people around the world were living with Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) in 2023, marking a 143 per cent increase since 1990, a study published in The Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology journal has estimated. The analysis, based on data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2023, also projected that global cases of MASLD could rise to about 1.8 billion by 2050, driven largely by population growth and lifestyle changes, including increasing rates of obesity and high blood sugar. Researchers forming the GBD 2023 MASLD Collaborators also found that regions such as North Africa and the Middle East had disproportionately higher rates of MASLD than other regions. They also found that although more people are developing the disease, the overall impact on health -- measured in years lost due to illness or death -- has remained stable. The result suggested that advances in treatment and care are help
Five children, including two siblings, have died within five days from a mysterious illness in Rajasthan's Salumber district, officials said on Wednesday. The children, aged between two and four years, reportedly developed symptoms such as fever and vomiting and died within 24 hours, they said. The cases were reported from Lalpura and Ghata villages in the Lasadiya sub-division, where health department teams have been deployed to collect samples and monitor the situation. Officials identified the deceased as Deepak (4), his brother Laxman (3), and Seema (4) from Lalpura village, and Rahul (4) and Kajal (2) from Ghata village. Eight other children are currently undergoing treatment at hospitals in Salumber and Udaipur, officials said. Additional District Magistrate Dinesh Rai Sapela said screening of residents was carried out in the affected villages, which have over 560 households. "Medical teams have conducted screening and any person showing symptoms will receive treatment," he
Two persons have died after an outbreak of Guillain-Barr Syndrome, an immunological nerve disorder, in Madhya Pradesh's Neemuch district, prompting the government to launch a drive to identify patients and ensure their treatment, officials said. Following the detection of over a dozen cases in Manasa town, the authorities have been asked to set up a control room there, create a special ward for GBS patients at the local government hospital and make other arrangements to tackle the outbreak. Deputy Chief Minister and Public Health and Medical Education Minister Rajendra Shukla on Saturday visited Manasa, located 30 km from the district headquarters, to review the situation. After a meeting with officials, Shukla told reporters that the first GBS patients in Manasa were identified on January 12 and admitted to hospitals in Jaipur and Ahmedabad. He said 14 GBS patients have been detected so far in Manasa, which has a population of about 35,000. Unfortunately, two patients have died. T
My year of unraveling is how a despairing Christy Morrill described nightmarish months when his immune system hijacked his brain. What's called autoimmune encephalitis attacks the organ that makes us us, and it can appear out of the blue. Morrill went for a bike ride with friends along the California coast, stopping for lunch, and they noticed nothing wrong. Neither did Morrill until his wife asked how it went and he'd forgotten. Morrill would get worse before he got better. Unhinged and fighting to see light, he wrote as delusions set in and holes in his memory grew. Of all the ways our immune system can run amok and damage the body instead of protecting it, autoimmune encephalitis is one of the most unfathomable. Seemingly healthy people abruptly spiral with confusion, memory loss, seizures, even psychosis. But doctors are getting better at identifying it, thanks to discoveries of a growing list of the rogue antibodies responsible that, if found in blood and spinal fluid, aid ..
An artificial intelligence tool deployed by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in 2022 may have helped issue more than 5,000 alerts of infectious outbreaks to health authorities in real-time since installation, according to a study. Developed by WadhwaniAI, a New Delhi-based healthcare AI solutions provider, the 'Health Sentinel' tool could have helped slash 98 per cent of manual workload, enabling a quicker detection of an outbreak and proactive public health response, findings published as a pre-print paper and yet to be peer-reviewed suggest. Nearly 200 countries are legally bound by the International Health Regulations (IHR) to operate a national disease surveillance system. The IHR and World Health Organization work together in protecting global health security. News reports in print, electronic and online media are scanned by media scanning and verification tool under India's 'Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme' (IDSP) for unusual health events, which are th
The Kerala government has designated snakebite envenomation a disease of "utmost public health importance", a move aimed at enhancing data collection and documentation in response to concerns over fatalities from related incidents. The significant decision was made under Section 28 of the Kerala Public Health Act, 2023, as per the gazette notification issued on Friday. Snakebite envenomation is a life-threatening disease caused by the migration of venomous snakes, it said. "Snakebite envenomation is hereby declared a disease of public health importance throughout the state," said the notification signed by Dr Rajan Khobragade, Additional Chief Secretary (Health). Any disease, whether communicable or non-communicable, can be declared as a disease of public health importance if the government needs to collect more information about it or if any treatment standards are to be followed in its connection, it said. If appropriate treatment is not provided in a timely manner, the bite of
More US children have died this flu season than at any time since the swine flu pandemic 15 years ago, according to a federal report released Friday. The 216 pediatric deaths reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eclipse the 207 reported last year. It's the most since the 2009-2010 H1N1 global flu pandemic. It's a startlingly high number, given that the flu season is still going on. The final pediatric death tally for the 2023-2024 flu season wasn't counted until autumn. This number that we have now is almost certainly an undercount, and one that when the season is declared over, and they compile all the data it's almost certain to go up, said Dr. Sean O'Leary, of the American Academy of Pediatrics. There are likely several contributors to this season's severity, but a big one is that fewer children are getting flu shots, added O'Leary, a University of Colorado pediatric infectious diseases specialist. The flu vaccination rate for US children has plummeted f
Only about eight per cent of bacterial infections detected in 2019 in India were treated appropriately, according to an analysis of low- and middle-income countries. Findings published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal show that in 2019, there were nearly 15 lakh bacterial infections resistant to carbapenems -- a common antibiotic -- across eight countries that were under study. Carbapenems are used for treating severe infections -- such as those acquired from being inside a hospital, where bacteria resistant to antibiotics are abundant. Of the 15 lakh bacterial infections, only over a lakh treatment courses were procured -- the resulting treatment gap meant that only 6.9 per cent of the patients were treated appropriately, researchers, including those from the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP), Switzerland, found. "India procured most of the treatment courses (80.5 per cent; 83,468 courses), with 7.8 per cent of infections treated appropriately
A second unvaccinated child has died from measles in Texas, as the United States confronts its worst outbreak of the disease in more than 30 years. The school-aged child, with no underlying conditions, died from complications while hospitalised, according to the University Medical Center (UMC) Health System in Lubbock, a leading regional hospital and teaching institution. The death follows another fatal pediatric case in Texas in February and an adult death in neighbouring New Mexico in early March. Nationwide, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed 607 measles cases across 21 states this year, more than double the total for all of 2023. Texas has reported 481 cases, the highest statewide tally in decades. "If this trend continues, we may surpass the 2019 outbreak -- the worst in nearly 30 years," Dr Peter Hotez, a leading vaccine expert at Baylor College of Medicine, told PTI. "And what's tragic is that these deaths are entirely preventable." Measl
Actor Gene Hackman died of heart disease a full week after his wife died from hantavirus in their New Mexico hillside home, likely unaware that she was dead because he was in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease, authorities revealed Friday. Both deaths were ruled to be from natural causes, chief medical examiner Dr Heather Jarrell said alongside state fire and health officials at a news conference. Mr Hackman showed evidence of advanced Alzheimer's disease, Jarrell said. He was in a very poor state of health. He had significant heart disease, and I think ultimately that's what resulted in his death. Authorities didn't suspect foul play after the bodies of Hackman, 95, and Betsy Arakawa, 65, were discovered February 26. Immediate tests for carbon monoxide poisoning were negative. Investigators found that the last known communication and activity from Arakawa was February 11 when she visited a pharmacy, pet store and grocery before returning to their gated neighbourhood that .