-Livemint.com A new paper suggests the second covid-19 wave had a more fatal impact on Chennai’s poorer neighbourhoods than richer ones Poorer communities saw far more excess deaths during the pandemic than richer neighbourhoods, evidence from a new Chennai-based study shows. Taken with data from other parts of the country, the findings suggest that India’s poor, particularly the elderly, may have disproportionately borne the burden of the pandemic’s fatal impact. In a study...

-Outlook India Eminent epidemiologist and health economist Dr Ramanan Laxminarayan tells Outlook in an exclusive interview why rapid Covid antigen tests are problematic and should not, in any case, replace the existing RT-PCR tests. While the Delhi government's data on Coronavirus cases shows a decline in the number of positive cases, experts believe that the real picture might not be what it looks like. Eminent epidemiologist Dr Ramanan Laxminarayan, who is also...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Children below five years in India who receive good nutrition are likelier to complete college education, find jobs and remain unmarried in their early 20s, researchers said on Friday. The health researchers, who surveyed a group of adults who had received a daily corn-soya blend upma meal when they were children, say their findings show how nutritional intervention during early childhood can influence long-term outcomes in education and...

-Livemint.com The Gorakhpur tragedy must be seen against the larger backdrop of public health failure in Uttar Pradesh The recent tragedy of more than 85 children and newborns who died in Gorakhpur has, not for the first time, put the spotlight starkly on the country’s ailing public health system. The lack of all things important to human settlements—sanitation, disease surveillance, primary healthcare, tertiary hospitals, resources, life-saving equipment, political will and public health...

-The Hindu India’s UIP will now be able to provide free vaccines against 13 life-threatening diseases to 27 million children annually India has made huge strides as far as public health achievements are concerned, made possible by the use of safe and effective vaccines delivered through quality programmes. For example, small pox was eliminated in 1975, polio in 2014 and maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT) in August 2015. While India has shown its...