-The Economic Times The government must explain to the Supreme Court, with scientific evidence, why the pentavalent vaccine, now introduced into the immunisation programme, should not be banned. The vaccine is designed to combat five childhood DISEases: diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, Hepatitis B, pneumonia and meningitis. So far, more than 82,000 doses have been administered and there have been 29 cases of adverse effects after immunisation. After examining the evidence, it is unclear...

-The Indian Express Pune: Rajendra Kumar, Rajkot's district collector, has had a first-hand experience of the DISEase his office is tracking. "On the very first day of fever, I had my blood tested to rule out dengue," he says. "I was extremely weak and had to be hospitalised in the first week of September." The district has seen 280 cases of dengue so far this season. In Pune, National Institute of Virology deputy director Dr...

-PTI Gorakhpur: Ten more children have succumbed to encephalitis at BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur in last 24 hours, taking the death toll due to the DISEase to 319 in eastern district of Uttar Pradesh this year. The deceased include three children from Gorakhpur, two from Maharajganj and one child each from Deoria, Kushinagar, Sant Kabirnagar and Siddharthanagar districts of eastern UP, while one child from adjoining Bihar also succumbed to the...

-The Business Standard The food security Act's provision for millets to every household is a magic bullet to attack malnutrition The food security Act has sought to address a nutritional imbalance in the public distribution system (PDS). The Act, by providing for a kg of millet per person at Rs 1/kg, would be a big step towards filling a wide gap in nutrition caused by the popularisation of cereals at the cost of...

-The Hindu Bangalore: In one of the biggest cattle deaths due to foot and mouth DISEase in the State, the outbreak in southern districts has claimed 730 head of cattle so far this month. Negligence on the part of farmers to get the cattle vaccinated and also delay in starting the seasonal vaccination is said to have contributed to the outbreak even as the officials suspect that a new strain of the...