-PTI KOLKATA: 49 children have died in the city's state-run BC Roy Children's Hospital over the last seven days. The largest referral children's hospital in the eastern region had been in the news for a large number of crib deaths in the past few years. "49 child patients have died in our hospital in the last seven days, and almost all of them were brought in a critical condition," hospital sources said. They said...

-The Hindu Sundarpahari (Jharkhand): In Santhali villages in Godda, along Jharkhand's border with Bihar, many slanting stone megaliths that mark the community graves are those of young women who died in childbirth in recent years. Tribal families in the hamlets scattered in Sundarpahari and Poreyhat - many of whom speak only Santahli - recount desperate struggles for medical help when young women in their families in advanced stages of pregnancy experienced...

-Down to Earth World Bank report says heart diseases have replaced TB and sepsis as two of the five leading causes of deaths between 1990 and 2010 Reasons for premature deaths in India have seen a significant shift over the past two decades. In 1990, the top five reasons were communicable diseases. In 2010, two of the top five reasons for premature deaths are non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Diet-related risks are the leading...

-Down to Earth Open defecation along the Gandak in Uttar Pradesh causes the disease in Bihar, says study Bihar all set to check encephalitis Open defecation along the Gandak in Uttar Pradesh causes the disease in Bihar, says study TIRED of failures by researchers to identify the virus that causes acute encephalitis syndrome (AES), the Bihar government, along with Unicef and the Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences (RMRI), has sent...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to examine a PIL alleging a sharp increase in infant deaths after administration of pentavalent vaccine, which replaced the tried and tested vaccines to fight five deadly diseases under the universal immunization programme (UIP). PIL petitioner Yogesh Jain, a former pediatrician in AIIMS and now a public health physician at Jan Swasthya Sahyog in Bilaspur district, alleged a conspiracy in...