-The Hindustan Times Kolkata: The horror of crib deaths hit BC Roy Hospital in Kolkata once again which recorded 30 deaths in four days, majority of them were newborn. At least 10 newborns died on September 5 and eight on September 3 and 4, creating a flutter in the health department. The hospital hit the headlines in October 2011 when 18 babies had died in 36 hours sending the new Mamata Banerjee administration...

-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...

-The Hindu Biomass cookstoves and solar lighting improve the health of women and are creating business models that empower them Around the world three billion people have no access to modern cooking fuels. They depend mostly on direct burning of solid biomass for cooking and heating. The smoke from these rudimentary stoves causes some four million deaths annually, destroys millions of tonnes of crops and leads to global warming and large-scale regional...