-The Hindu Why New Delhi must not bask in the WHO’s polio-free certification and, instead, have an ambitious plan to eradicate polio-like flaccid paralysis. On November 30, the day India introduced an Injectable Polio Vaccine (IPV) in its routine immunisation programme, stating that it “will be an important step in the Polio Endgame Strategy”, a case of Vaccine Derived Polio Virus (VDPV) was reported from New Delhi. This was the second such...

-NDTV Chennai:  As Chennai struggles to find its footing after the Massive floods that has killed over 100 people, experts say it was a man-made disaster that was waiting to strike the city.   Over the years, water bodies across the city have been filled up and built upon, often by politicians with interests in the real estate business, say environmentalists. The result:  During incessant rains, water overflows. In 2005 a similar deluge...

-The Indian Express Unusually heavy rain has exposed the city’s broken urban planning, revealed its stolen natural waterways, and exposed its tolerance of illegal construction. The catastrophic flooding in Chennai is the result of the heaviest rain in several decades, which forced authorities to release a Massive 30,000 cusecs from the Chembarambakkam reservoir into the Adyar river over two days, causing it to flood its banks and submerge neighbourhoods on both...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: When World AIDS Day is observed across the globe on December 1, India will enter the third, and perhaps the most perplexing decade of its HIVAIDS epidemic. The first 29 years were marked with victory as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) metamorphosed from being the deadliest word in public health to just another chronic disease such as diabetes or hypertension. that can be managed well with medicines....

-Economic and Political Weekly The importance of hand-washing in personal and public hygiene has evolved over the centuries. While the market with its countless number of soaps and hand-wash products for personal hygiene with the accompanying advertising has created a false sense of security, it is community hygiene implemented through public health measures that is really effective in the battle against disease. Lekha D Bhat (lekhabhatd@gmail.com) teaches at the Department of Social...