Health

WASHINGTON: The 2022 floods in Pakistan demonstrate how the changing global climate can destabilise a strategically important region, warns a new US State Department report on emerging security threats. The March 2024 report on “New Security Challenges,” released in Washington this week, delves into the ongoing conflict in Gaza, cautioning that the mere absence of war in a region should not be …

KARACHI: While there has been a slight decrease in measles’ cases with the weather conditions getting warmer in a couple of days, the highly contagious infection remains a serious public health concern in Karachi as complicated cases continue to be reported at the city’s tertiary care hospitals, it emerged on Saturday. According to experts, the majority of children being brought …

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Health has confirmed the presence of poliovirus in environmental samples from Badin district of Sindh. Samples analysed at the anti-polio laboratory established in the National Institute of Health (NIH) revealed the presence of the virus. Earlier this week, polio virus was found in nine sewerage samples of five cities of Pakistan including, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Chaman and Mastung. …

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has informed a UN environment meeting that it plans to establish zero plastic waste cities along the Indus River to combat the pervasive issue of plastic pollution. Revealing details of the plan to the world body, Pakistan’s UN envoy Munir Akram stated that it forms a crucial component of the broader ‘Living Indus Initiative,’ which seeks to …

PARIS: Struggle to wrap your head around daylight savings? Spare a thought for the world’s timekeepers, who are trying to work out how climate change is affecting Earth’s rotation — and in turn, how we keep track of time. In a strange twist, global warming could even help out timekeepers by delaying the need for history’s first “negative leap second” …

ISLAMABAD: In view of its wealth of data and expertise, Pakistan’s Malaria Control Programme will train nine African countries to deal with a mosquito, native to South Asia, which may lead to a rapid increase in Malaria cases in the continent. The Directorate of Malaria Control (DoMC), Ministry of National Health Services has been selected for the exchange program under …

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 …