Health

GAZA STRIP: Israeli forces fought fighters in besieged Gaza on Monday including around at least two major hospitals, raising fears for the patients, medics and displaced people trapped inside. Troops and tanks have encircled Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital, the territory’s biggest, for a week and more recently moved on the Al-Amal Hospital in the main southern city of Khan Yunis. …

WASHINGTON: Experiments in the weightless environment of space have led to “crazy progress” in the fight against cancer, Nasa officials said at a recent event highlighting an important and personal initiative of US President Joe Biden. Space is “a unique place for research,” astronaut Frank Rubio said at the event in Washington. The 48-year-old, a physician and former military helicopter …

QUETTA: Amid the reemergence of polio cases in Balochistan after a three-year gap, the health authorities have appealed to parents and caregivers to prioritise children’s health by participating in the vaccination campaign starting in 11 districts on Monday. Despite significant progress in the fight against polio, the recent detection of two cases in Chaman and Dera Bugti serve as a stark reminder of the …

ISLAMABAD: While World Tuberculosis (TB) Day will be observed today with the theme ‘Yes We Can End TB’, the cases of drug-resistant TB in Pakistan are going to become a major challenge as “75pc of them are not identified”. With Pakistan ranking fifth among high-burden countries globally, the country witnesses approximately 608,000 new TB cases and 15,000 drug-resistant TB cases …

Kate, Britain’s Princess of Wales, said on Friday she was undergoing preventative chemotherapy after tests taken after she had major abdominal surgery in January revealed that cancer had been present. Kate, 42, the wife of heir to the throne Prince William, spent two weeks in hospital in January after undergoing what her office said at the time was successful, planned …

BARCELONA: Tourists arriving at Barcelona’s airport or gazing at its iconic Sagrada Familia basilica will this Easter holiday be met with large signs in English that read: “Drought alert. During your stay, save water”. As the impact of climate change intensifies across southern Europe, Spain’s Mediterranean region of Catalonia, which includes Barcelona, is enduring its worst drought on record. Reservoir levels are …

RAWALPINDI: Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) has announced that it would be taking several measures to ensure provision of clean drinking water to citizens, including repairing and renovating mini-filtration plants across the city, adding chlorine to improve water quality and replacing filters in purification plants on time. This was stated by acting managing director of Wasa Mohammad Salim Ashraf at …

PARIS: The world threw away a record amount of smartphones, televisions and other electrical devices in 2022, the UN said on Wednesday, warning this avalanche of dumped gadgets was polluting the planet. Less than one quarter of the 62 million tonnes of e-waste produced in 2022 was recycled, resulting in heavy metals, plastics and toxic chemicals leaking from junked devices. …

ISLAMABAD: Nine sewage samples collected from six districts were found positive for wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1). According to the Regio­nal Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH), WPV1 was found in two sewage samples taken from Quetta, two from Chaman, two from Peshawar and one each from Karachi South, Karachi Korangi and Mastung in …

CAIRO: Armed and masked men from an array of clans and factions have started providing security to aid convoys in Gaza, Palestinian officials and sources in the Hamas group say. Video footage obtained by Reuters showed a convoy of trucks entering Gaza City with foreign aid overnight, watched by several men armed with AK-47 assault rifles and others wielding sticks. With Israeli …