Posts tagged health

New dengue vaccine effective in clinical trials

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 12 November 2019 (SciDev.Net): An experimental dengue vaccine has proved 80.2 per cent effective against virologically-confirmed dengue among children and teens aged 4—16 years in the 12 months after a second dose, according to results of phase 3 clinical trials.

“A vaccine with this kind of efficacy could have a substantial impact on public health,” says Derek Wallace, contributor to the trial results, published 6 November in The New England Journal of Medicine. According to the WHO, dengue is one of the top 10 threats to global health, infecting nearly 400 million people and killing up to 25,000 people worldwide annually. There is no specific treatment for the mosquito-borne viral disease, which causes flu-like symptoms, joint and muscle pain and, in severe cases, leads to haemorrhagic fever and death. It is now endemic in more than 100 countries, with Asia shouldering 70 per cent of the disease burden.

Continue reading on SciDev.Net Asia Pacific edition.

© Copyright Neena Bhandari. All rights reserved. Republication, copying or using information from neenabhandari.com content is expressly prohibited without the permission of the writer and the media outlet syndicating or publishing the article.

Rural-urban divide in deaths from extreme weather

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 20.03.2019 (SciDev.Net): People in rural areas are at greater risk of dying from extreme hot and cold temperatures than those living in urban areas, says a new study conducted in China’s eastern Zhejiang province.

Published in March in Environmental Health Perspectives, the study relies on the province’s data on weather, air pollution, population density and mortality gathered from 2009 to 2015 to compare rural and urban mortality in Zhejiang.

Although Asian countries are recording steady urbanisation, a large percentage of population continues to live in villages and towns. The UN’s Population Division predicts that by 2025 about 45 per cent of Asia’s population will still be rural.

Continue reading on SciDev.Net Asia & Pacific edition

© Copyright Neena Bhandari. All rights reserved. Republication, copying or using information from neenabhandari.com content is expressly prohibited without the permission of the writer and the media outlet syndicating or publishing the article.

Stephen MacMahon – A visionary researcher’s offering to Indian public health

By Neena Bhandari

As new epidemics of chronic disease and injury were growing in the world’s largest emerging economies, Institute co-founders, Stephen MacMahon and Robyn Norton, thought there would be value in creating a research centre focused on developing new effective and affordable solutions, in partnership with researchers in India, China and other countries in Asia.

“The main challenge at the time we founded the Institute was that the entire focus of the global health world was infectious disease, maternal and child health, and malnutrition. There was very little interest in chronic disease or injury, trauma or mental health. There was the general view that these were all diseases of rich countries and of rich people and they weren’t likely to be of much relevance to people in emerging economies. That meant that it was very difficult to raise money for projects focusing on these diseases in low and middle-income countries. So we began by building a research program in Australia and extending that to places like India and China, until we were able to find financial support that allowed us to do work that was entirely focused on healthcare solutions for these countries”, says Professor MacMahon, who is currently the Principal Director of The George Institute for Global Health (worldwide).

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