-The United Nations   With no registered polio cases over the past year, India is on course to becoming free of the disease, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) reported today. If all pending samples for the virus test negative, India &NDAsh; once regarded as the world’s epicentre for polio &NDAsh; will become free of the disease for the first time in its history, reducing the number of polio-endemic countries to three:...

“Only one third of the journey has been completed” The last case of wild polio virus reported in India was exactly one year ago, on January 13, when stool samples showed that 18-month-old Rukhsar Khatoon in West Bengal had polio. She has since recovered, but it is the progress of whittling down from the largest number of cases in the world to zero that is fascinating to public health experts globally. Clearly,...

The recent shocking video showing naked Jarawa tribeswomen being forced to dance for food by tourists may highlight the risks of isolated, indigenous peoples of the world having contact with the modern world. The Jarawas of India’s ANDAman and Nicobar islands are only one of several reclusive tribes around the world that are now facing extinction. While the government of India and tribal affairs officials have tried to protect people like the...

Mass public campaign a success but experts warn of need for continued vigilance Not even superstition can render this Friday the 13th unlucky for India. Today, the nation will reach a major milestone in the history of polio eradication &NDAsh; a year without any case of wild polio being recorded. For a nation that notoriously had, only two years ago, the largest number of polio cases in the world (741), this...

Pointing out that nearly one out of seven Americans face food insecurity, Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz said here on Thursday that by recognising the right to food as a basic human right, India is leading the way for the rest of the world. “India has recognised the right to food as a basic human right, leading the way for the rest of the world, and is on the verge of a...