Tackling polio has entered "emergency mode" according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative after "explosive" outbreaks in countries previously free of the disease.

It has launched a plan to boost vaccination in Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the only countries where the disease is still endemic.

Experts fear the disease could "come back with a vengeance".

The World Health Organization says polio is "at a tipping point".

BHUBANESWAR: Even as Odisha battles with high incidence of diarrhoea among children, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) is all set to launch an extensive programme on ‘Management and prevention of childhood diarrhoea’ to combat the menace in the State. The programme would be launched in five districts of Rayagada, Kalahandi, Nabarangpur, Koraput and Kandhamal in association with Unicef and NRHM. These five districts, which are predominantly tribal, have been witnessing frequent outbreaks of cholera over the recent years.

Dhaka: About 28 percent of Bangladesh's total population (41.7 million) is living in urban areas, said a Unicef report released on Wednesday.
Among the top 21 mega cities of the world, according to the report, Dhaka ranks 9th position with 14.3 million people, while Tokyo 1st with 36.5 million, Delhi 2nd with 21.7 million, Sao Paolo 3rd with 20.0 million.

A coordinated plan of five ministries to accelerate the reduction of maternal and child under-nutrition in the country is taking pace, officials said.

National Planning Commission has recently prepared a six-year plan to improve the nutrition of babies up to two years of age through the coordinated efforts of the ministries of health, education, agriculture, local development and physical planning and works.

In an interaction with BW’s Rajeev Dubey, Professor S. Mahendra Dev argues why our inclusive growth is far from ‘inclusive’

Both UPA I and UPA II have had identical social objectives: enormously expensive subsidy-laden programmes that began with job guarantee through MGNREGA and have since expanded to free education, food security and now universal healthcare.

Two ICDDR,B doctors, also experts in cholera management, returned home Wednesday after a two-week visit to the Horn of African countries —Somalia and Kenya — where they trained more than 50 health professionals, including doctors and nurses, in cholera case management.
Heavy rainfall caused increased fears of a wide- scale cholera outbreak in an already volatile region marred by warfare and subsequent breakdown in basic infrastructure and services.

A large population, especially children, in 27 of the 50 Madhya Pradesh districts are threatened by the fluorosis menace as people in these districts are being forced to drink water with excessive fluoride, much beyond the permissible limit. According to the latest information available from the state public health engineering department, the fluoride content in water is much beyond the prescribed norms of 1.5 mg per litre or 1.5 part per million (ppm) in 11,460 drinking water sources (mainly handpumps) in 6,746 habitats spread across 27 districts.

The UN warns that a million children in Africa's Sahel region face malnutrition due to drought in region. In all 15 million people face food insecurity in eight nations across the Sahel, a region that is still recovering from drought and a food crisis of 2010. Un some countries the situation is worsened by conflict.

NEW DELHI, May 7 – UNICEF has reported arsenic contamination in ground water in 18 districts of Assam and fluoride contamination in five districts.
Based on information from Chief Engineer (PHE) of the State Government, a UNICEF study has found arsenic and fluoride contamination, Minister of State for Water Resources, Vincent H Pala said in a Rajya Sabha reply to a question by Naznin Faruque.