Today government delegates from across the world adopted the illicit trade protocol of the global tobacco treaty – the world’s first public health and corporate accountability treaty - but not without a fight from Big Tobacco. In the lead up to the Seoul negotiations, the World Health Organization,

Ms Mary Musoke of Kampala in Uganda is expecting to have her third born child in late March or early April 2013, making the delivery timely for the newborn to get its Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV), which debuts in the Uganda public health system for free. Due to the high disease rates of the

According to the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), child pneumonia remains a major threat to children under 5 years of age despite the great potential of the pneumococcal vaccine. “Pneumococcal vaccine is an important intervention that is already in use and highl

The growing trend by Asian countries to allow local production of cheap generic drugs got another feather in its cap recently in India. In a landmark victory for patients’ groups fighting against patents to ensure access to medicines, the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB), while holding t

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of India's oldest and perhaps most neglected public health challenges. It is a disease caused by bacteria that are spread from person to person through the air. Chronic cough (for more than 2 weeks) and fever are the most important symptoms of TB. When a person with TB cough

With diabetes largely associated with over-consumption of sugar by many Zimbabweans, it is hardly surprising that its link to tuberculosis (TB) is hardly a public health matter. TB kills more than 3,500 people each day worldwide, leading to approximately 1.4 million deaths every year. One-third of t

The Smokeless Tobacco Association, the All India Kattha Factories Association and the Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Co-operative Ltd have suddenly assumed the responsibility to inform people about the relative merits of gutkha over cigarettes. Their bold and blatant advertiseme

The peace prize awarded by the Nobel Committee to the European Union in 2012 has outraged and baffled many, and many more have derided it as shameful, absurd, satirical and a joke. The reason for derision of the European Union is its heavy debt and the dissatisfaction of some of its members who hav

With growing strong evidence on the dangerous communion between tuberculosis (TB) and diabetes in India, government health programmes must no longer delay implementing TB-diabetes collaborative activities. “Like the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the diabetes epidemic threatens to cause an escalation in TB inci

In 2011 India had 61.3 million people living with diabetes (17% of the global incidence of 366 million) with 983,000 deaths (20% of the global figure of 4.6 million) attributable to the disease. India also accounts for 21% of the global incidence of tuberculosis (TB) with 1.98 million people develop

How can we be saved? What can we do to become guiltless in the sight of God after having committed countless sins? How can we escape the enslaving power of sin? Everyone of us needs answers to these questions, for we all have sinned and live far away from God our creator.
The teaching of the Bible,

Pakistan's blasphemy laws may be used to punish Muslims suspected of ransacking a Hindu temple, an intriguing twist for a country where harsh laws governing religious insults are primarily used against supposed offenses to Islam, not minority faiths.
The blasphemy laws, sections of which carry the

In an exclusive interview given to Citizen News Service onsite at the Amrita Endocrinology, Diabetes and Diabetic Foot Conference (AEDFC 2012) held recently at the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) in Kochi, two renowned and senior stalwarts of the institute’s Department of Endocrinology,

Are Christians in Pakistan live in a healthy environment? Even a little kid can answer it. I leave answer to my readers in the light of facts and figures.
One of the facts is that, in Pakistan, our forefathers have been contributing a lot in the uplift of the community of Pakistan. Christian tod

Whoever reads the Qur'an carefully, finds in it unique verses and striking expressions about Christ and his mother:
"She guarded her virginity, so we breathed into her of our spirit and made her and her Son a sign to the worlds" (Sura al-Anbiya' 21:91).
In a sereis of Old Testament prophets, the V