epidemic

Cost of diabetes epidemic reaches $850 billion a year

Web Desk Nov 14, 2017

NEW YORK: The number of people living with diabetes has tripled since 2000, pushing the global cost of the disease to $850 billion a year, medical experts said on Tuesday. The vast majority of those affected have type 2 diabetes, which is linked to obesity and lack of exercise, and the epidemic is spreading particularly fast in poorer countries as people adopt Western diets and urban lifestyles. The latest estimates from the International Diabetes Federation mean that one in 11 adults worldwide have the condition,…

Death toll from dengue fever climbs to 15 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Web Desk Sep 5, 2017

Pakistan

PESHAWAR: The outbreak of dengue fever in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has so far claimed fifteen lives within two months with 400 patients, suffering from the epidemic, being treated at different health facilities across the province. The provincial health authorities’ efforts to rein in mosquito-borne disease does not seem to yield results as yet as the epidemic has recently claimed two more lives, pushing the total death toll to fifteen. Authorities said more than 400 patients suffering from the deadly disease were…

Tuberculosis epidemic larger than previously thought, warns WHO

AFP Oct 13, 2016

Health

WASHINGTON: The tuberculosis epidemic is larger than previously thought, infecting 10.4 million people last year, while research into vaccines and cures is "severely underfunded," the World Health Organization warned on Thursday. Across the planet, 1.8 million people died of TB last year, 300,000 more than a year earlier, according to the WHO's Global TB Report 2016. Two out of five people who fell sick with the disease -- caused by a bacteria that infects the lungs and makes people cough up blood -- went undiagnosed and…

World must ready for global microcephaly ‘epidemic’: study

AFP Sep 17, 2016

Health

PARIS: The world should prepare for a "global epidemic" of microcephaly, a condition which restricts head growth in foetuses, as the Zika virus takes root in new countries, researchers said Friday.

Heroin use at 20-year high in U.S. drug ‘epidemic’, U.N. says

Reuters Jun 23, 2016

Health

WASHINGTON: A heroin "epidemic" is gripping the United States, where cheap supply has helped push the number of users to a 20-year high, increasing drug-related deaths, the United Nations said on Thursday.

Poor countries increasingly targeted by tobacco marketing

AFP Dec 1, 2015

Business

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND: Faced with falling sales in richer nations, the tobacco industry has increasingly marketed their product in the developing world, where restrictions on promoting smoking are more relaxed, a new study said Tuesday.

Rape on U.S. university campuses reaches ‘epidemic’ levels: study

Web Desk May 26, 2015

International

NEW YORK: More than 18 percent of female students at one U.S. university reported incidents of rape or attempted rape during their first year at the institution, according to a new study.

Meningitis epidemic kills 45 in Niger

Raza Haidery Apr 5, 2015

Health

NIAMEY: A meningitis epidemic that broke out in January in Niger has so far killed 45 people, the health minister told AFP on Saturday.

First Ebola case hits New York: report

Anees Hanif Oct 24, 2014

International

NEW YORK: A doctor who recently returned to New York from treating Ebola patients in Guinea tested positive for the deadly virus Thursday, US news reports said.

Ebola adversely affected economic growth in West Africa: IMF

Anees Hanif Sep 12, 2014

Business

WASHINGTON: Economic growth in Liberia and Sierra Leone could decline by as much as 3.5 percentage points as the worst-ever outbreak of Ebola has crippled the key mining, agriculture and services sectors in the two West African countries, the IMF said on Thursday.

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