Australian researchers have found that DNA repair may determine how cancer cells die following radiotherapy in a new study that may help improve cancer treatment and cure rates.

To understand how cancerous tumour cells die after being subjected to radiotherapy, scientists from Sydney's Children's Medical Research Institute (CMRI) followed irradiated cells for one week after radiation therapy by using live cell microscope technology, said an announcement by CMRI, News agency reported.

"The surprising result of our research is that DNA repair, which normally protects healthy cells, determines how cancer cells die following radiotherapy," said Tony Cesare, head of the CMRI Genome Integrity Unit.

New expensive but disease-modifying treatments are expected to foster Alzheimer’s disease market growth globally, according to a report.

The report by GlobalData, a data and analytics company, showed that the growth will particularly be visible in eight major markets -- US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, Japan, and China.

The report forecasted that the Alzheimer’s disease market in these countries to grow from $2.4 billion in 2023 to $19.3 billion by 2033 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.4 per cent.

This will be primarily driven by the entry of expensive disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) into the market, which will likely result in increased treatment rates as more options become available. An ageing global population leading to an increase in prevalent cases, and the launch of novel symptomatic therapies for the treatment of agitation and psychosis associated with Alzheimer’s disease will also contribute to the growth.

Cognitive problems like more diminished attention, but better immediate recall and memory may help predict Lewy body dementia, according to a study.

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is the most common neurodegenerative dementia after Alzheimer's Disease, yet is usually misdiagnosed, preventing affected people from accessing care better tailored to their prognosis.

To aid in early detection which may help improve outcomes, researchers from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus gathered information from available studies and established a cognitive profile that can differentiate DLB from Alzheimer's before the dementia stage hits.

South Sudan's health ministry said that it has rolled out a week-long campaign aimed at vaccinating more than 300,000 people against cholera in Rubkona, a hotspot county in Unity State.

The ministry said the campaign, backed by the World Health Organization, United Nations Children's Fund, Medecins Sans Frontieres and various other partners, is an important step to curb the ongoing outbreak and brings the total number of counties where the vaccination campaign has been conducted to four nationwide.

South Sudan's Vice President for Service Cluster Hussein Abdelbagi Akol, who spoke during the launch, expressed the government's commitment to fully combat the outbreak and ensure effective measures are implemented to stop the spread of the disease.

"The rollout of the cholera vaccine nationwide is part of the broader government efforts aimed at combating the cholera outbreak and saving lives," Akol said in a statement issued in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.

The number of influenza patients reported at designated medical institutions across Japan in the final week of December hit the highest level since the current record-keeping began in 1999, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

In the week through December 29,317,812 flu patients were reported across roughly 5,000 institutions, averaging 64.39 people per facility and surpassing the warning level of 30, the ministry said.

The record figure jumped from 42.66 the week before, marking the 10th consecutive week of increase.

Greece has confirmed its first case of Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV) in a 71-year-old man, the national news agency AMNA reported on Wednesday.

The patient, who had pneumonia and underlying health conditions, is in intensive care in Thessaloniki, a northern port city. The National Public Health Organisation has advised medical staff to follow Covid-19 protocols and maintain strict hygiene measures.

Gkikas Magiorkinis, associate professor of epidemiology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, reassured the public, saying there is no need to panic as HMPV is a known virus that has circulated for decades and is not considered highly dangerous, news agency reported.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can significantly aid in early detection of autoimmune diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus especially in high-risk patients, leading to better outcomes, finds a study.

In people with autoimmune diseases, the immune system mistakenly attacks their body's healthy cells and tissues. Some well-known diseases include type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis.

Early diagnosis is critical and may improve treatment and better disease management, said the team led by researchers from the Penn State College of Medicine.

Using machine learning, a type of AI, the team developed a new method that could predict the progression of autoimmune disease among people with preclinical symptoms.

Two children in Chennai have tested positive for Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV) and are recovering, officials said on Monday.

Doctors stated that both cases are linked to common respiratory symptoms such as fever, cold, and cough.

Tamil Nadu Health Department officials told IANS that proactive measures are being taken to prevent the further spread of the virus. They also said that the affected children are recovering well.

The first case was reported at a private hospital in the Chetpet area, where a child was admitted with respiratory symptoms, including fever, cold, and cough.

Following diagnostic tests, the child was confirmed to be infected with HMPV.

Another child receiving treatment at a private paediatric hospital in Guindy also tested positive for the virus.

The prevalent cases of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in the eight major markets globally are set to register an annual growth rate (AGR) of 4.08 per cent from 15.99 million in 2023 to 22.51 million in 2033, according to a report on Monday.

China will have the highest number of total prevalent cases of AD (by DSM-IV criteria) at 10.4 million cases, whereas Spain will have the lowest number at 0.62 million cases in 2033, according to the report by GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

“In 2023, women were more affected than men, accounting for approximately 73 per cent of the total prevalent cases,” said Antara Bhattacharya, associate project manager, epidemiology team.

Older adults in ages 75 years and above accounted for almost 79 per cent of the total prevalent cases of AD in the eight major markets in 2023, while comparatively younger adults in ages 65-74 years accounted for approximately 21 per cent of the cases.

One more case of the Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV) has been detected in Gujarat on Monday, taking the tally to three cases in the country.

A two-year-old child was reported to be infected from Chandkheda’s area of Ahmedabad.

The child, from Rajasthan, was admitted to a private hospital in Chandkheda after showing symptoms of cold and cough. The child is stable now, reports quoted civic officials as saying.

This comes after the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Monday informed of two HMPV cases in two babies -- aged three- and eight-month-old -- in Bengaluru.

The HMPV infection was detected via routine surveillance in a 3-month-old girl and an 8-month-old boy in Bengaluru.

The Karnataka government on Monday clarified that the two cases of Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV) detected in two babies -- aged three- and eight-month-old -- in Bengaluru, are not the first in India.

“We cannot call it the first case in the country. The virus already exists here. The individual may have been tested for this specific virus, and it has been detected, that’s all,” said Karnataka Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao, while speaking to the media, ahead of an emergency meeting on the matter.

“It is not proven that the case detected in Bengaluru is India’s first. That claim is not true. This is an existing virus, and a certain percentage of people are affected by it. It is not something new,” Rao further explained.

The minister clarified that the baby infected with the virus has no travel history and is from a local family.

Israeli researchers have discovered a unique mechanism in marine bacteria that protects them from virus attacks, the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) said in a statement.

A new study published in Nature Microbiology focused on the battle between bacteria and phages, viruses that infect bacteria. This constant struggle leads to the mutual evolution of these two populations in marine environments, news agency reported.

In some areas, viral infections drastically reduce large bacterial populations, and without resistance mechanisms, the bacteria would be wiped out.

Even as China is reportedly seeing an outbreak of Covid-like Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV), Indian health officials on Friday said that there is no need to worry.

This comes as several media reports and social media posts suggest that the virus is spreading rapidly in China, five years after the Covid-19 pandemic. Some even claim that hospitals and crematories are being overwhelmed.

"The spread of HMPV in China is like any other respiratory virus," Director General of Health Services (DGHS), Dr Atul Goel told the media

“There is no need for alarm about the present situation," he added.

Immuno-oncology (IO) drugs or cancer therapeutics represent one of the most promising areas of medical innovation in the next five years, according to a report on Friday.

The report by GlobalData, a data and analytics company, based on a survey of 128 pharma industry professionals, showed that the innovation will fundamentally transform how cancer is treated.

“Advancements in immunotherapy such as checkpoint inhibitors, CAR-T cell therapies, cancer vaccines, etc., are revolutionising the way cancer is treated,” Urte Jakimaviciute, Senior Director of Market Research and Strategic Intelligence in the healthcare division at GlobalData.

Jakimaviciute noted that these therapies will evolve to lead “to more effective and personalised treatments”.

Further, “high unmet needs in cancer with many types of indications lacking effective treatments are driving and will continue to drive the innovation in immuno-oncology/ cancer therapeutics,” Jakimaviciute said.

Scientists from the Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST) Mohali, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), have showed that nano-formulation of melatonin -- the hormone produced by the brain in response to darkness -- could provide therapeutic solution for Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the most common neurological disorders caused by the death of dopamine-secreting neurons in the brain due to aggregation of synuclein protein inside it.

Available medications can only minimise the symptoms but cannot cure the disease and this underlines the need to develop better therapeutic solutions for the disease.

Previous studies have shown the implications of Parkinson’s related genes in governing a quality control mechanism called "Mitophagy". This mechanism identifies and removes dysfunctional mitochondria as well as cuts down oxidative stress.

Adaptive cardiac devices are revolutionising heart disease treatment for real-time monitoring and dynamic therapy adjustments, according to a report.

The report by GlobalData, a data and analytics company, showed that these devices offer continuous, precise interventions enabling better patient outcomes. These also present a shift toward more effective and responsive management of heart disease.

In contrast to traditional devices like pacemakers that deliver consistent outputs, the novel adaptive cardiac technologies leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse heart activity. The adaptive technology also adjusts treatment based on fluctuations in cardiac rhythms, leading to a personalised approach.

This ensures that therapy aligns precisely with a patient's evolving condition, providing 24/7 care and better health outcomes.

Researchers have unveiled transformative insights into the relationship between inflammation and depression, a finding that can fundamentally change our understanding of depression's biological underpinnings.

The research by neuroscientist Professor Raz Yirmiya from Hebrew University of Jerusalem extends far beyond the laboratory.

His discoveries about the role of microglia cells and interleukin-1 in stress-induced depression raise intriguing questions about therapeutic interventions: How might understanding inflammatory processes lead to more targeted treatments? What role do different types of immune responses play in various forms of depression?

"Most depressed patients do not have any overt inflammatory disease. However, we and others found that exposure to stress, which is the most significant trigger of depression in humans and animals, also activates inflammatory processes, particularly in the brain," Yirmiya explained in a comprehensive Genomic Press Interview published in the journal Brain Medicine.

Ladies, blame your levels of oestrogen -- female sex hormone -- for making you binge on alcohol, according to a preclinical study in mice on Monday.

Scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine showed that the hormone oestrogen regulates binge drinking in females, causing them to “pregame” or binge. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, establishes that circulating oestrogen increases binge alcohol consumption in females and contributes to known sex differences in this behaviour.

“We know a lot less about what drives alcohol drinking behaviour in females because most studies of alcohol use have been done in males,” said senior author Dr. Kristen Pleil, Associate Professor of pharmacology at the varsity.

Yet recent studies indicate that women have increased their heavy alcohol consumption more than men. This overindulgence is set to make them more susceptible to the negative health effects of alcohol than males, said Pleil.

India has achieved key targets for cases and deaths of vector-borne diseases like malaria, kala-azar, lymphatic filariasis, the government said on Saturday.

The National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) is responsible for preventing and controlling these diseases.

According to the Ministry of Health, India has made substantial progress in reducing the malaria burden.

Between 2015 and 2023, "the country has achieved a reduction of 80.53 per cent in malaria morbidity and 78.38 per cent in malaria mortality", the Ministry said.

Cooking garlic and onions in vegetable oil at high temperatures can generate trans-fatty acids (TFA) and can prove to be detrimental to heart health, claims a study by Japanese researchers.

TFAs are harmful fats that can accumulate along artery walls, restricting blood flow and increasing the risk of heart attacks.

While TFAs are commonly present in processed foods, evidence suggests that they can also be created at home during cooking. Studies indicate that unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs), usually considered beneficial, can undergo trans-isomerisation -- a molecular reconfiguration that transforms them into TFAs when heated at 150 degrees Celsius or higher.

To explore, researchers from Meijo University assessed the role of isothiocyanates and polysulfides -- sulphur-containing compounds found in vegetables like garlic, leeks, onions, scallions, and shallots -- in promoting the trans-isomerisation of vegetable UFAs during cooking.

Even as digital healthcare consultations are becoming more common, a study showed it may not be enough for a safe assessment of tonsillitis.

Tonsillitis is a painful infection of the tonsils -- two lymph node-rich glands in the back of the throat. Symptoms of tonsillitis include swollen tonsils, sore throat, and difficulty swallowing.

The study showed that digital assessment may not be reliable, thus increasing the risk of over- or undertreatment of a sore throat.

As tonsillitis is commonly treated with antibiotics, digital assessment may not be as reliable as physical examinations in determining whether antibiotic treatment is warranted, said the team from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

Socio-economic disparities may cause changes in brain structure and connectivity associated with ageing and dementia, according to a study on Friday.

The study, led by an international team of researchers led by Trinity College Dublin, found that higher levels of inequality are linked to reduced brain volume.

It can also lead to disrupted connectivity, especially in temporo-posterior and cerebellar regions -- crucial for memory and cognitive function.

The findings also revealed that people with Alzheimer’s disease face the most severe impacts.

This suggests that environmental demands linked to structural inequality may exacerbate neurodegeneration in ageing populations.

In contrast, the researchers observed milder effects in frontotemporal lobar degeneration. It may be due to a more significant genetic influence.

A 30-year-old man recently returning from West Africa was confirmed as a new case of mpox in Serbia on Friday. He is also the first confirmed mpox case in the Kosovo region, according to the regional Institute of Public Health.

The institute stated that the patient was hospitalised on December 24, with symptoms including fever, chills, and skin lesions on his face and hands. His condition is stable.

Authorities have traced all close contacts of the patient and issued infection control guidelines to prevent potential transmission, the institute said.

Serbia confirmed its first mpox case in June 2022. The World Health Organization continues to classify the mpox outbreak as a public health emergency, news agency reported.

In August, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said Europe will probably see more imported cases of mpox but the likelihood of sustained transmission in Europe remained very low.

Exercise is a cornerstone in managing metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), according to a study led by an Indian-origin researcher.

MASLD, previously known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), is a chronic liver disease that occurs when fat builds up in the liver in people who don't drink much alcohol. It can affect people with diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol.

The study, led by Hirsh D. Trivedi and team at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in California, US showed that exercise can be beneficial even for patients who have progressed to cirrhosis -- severe scarring of the liver.

Besides weight loss, exercise can aid in reducing liver fat, improving inflammation biomarkers, and enhancing cardiovascular health, revealed the study, published in the Liver International journal.

There is an urgent need for improved diagnostic tools and targeted therapies to address the gap in care for patients with severe asthma, specifically for those with T-helper cell type 2 (T2)-low asthma, a subtype lacking typical inflammatory biomarkers, according to a report on Friday.

T2-low asthma presents unique challenges due to the absence of eosinophils and immunoglobulin E (IgE), which complicates both diagnosis and treatment. And treatments currently available are primarily focused on eosinophilic and allergic inflammation. This leaves patients with non-eosinophilic or neutrophilic asthma without adequate options.

The report by GlobalData, a data and analytics company, showed that while T2-high asthma has benefitted from targeted biologic treatments, T2-low asthma remains largely underserved.

California's battle against avian influenza A (H5N1) intensified amid spreading infections across dairy farms and a growing number of human infection, including two newly confirmed cases in Stanislaus and Los Angeles counties.

The virus, commonly known as bird flu, has infected 659 of California's 984 dairy operations since August, with one-quarter of these cases emerging in the past month alone, according to California authorities.

The rapid spread through the state's dairy industry prompted Governor Gavin Newsom to declare a state of emergency last week to protect agricultural workers and public health, news agency reported.

Malaria cases and deaths have dropped significantly by around 80 per cent from 2015-2023, with cases going down from 11,69,261 in 2015 to 2,27,564 in 2023, while deaths falling from 384 to just 83, the government said on Wednesday, as India envisions to achieve malaria-free status by 2030.

In 2023, zero malaria cases were reported in 122 districts across various states, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

At the time of independence in 1947, malaria was one of the most pressing public health challenges, with an estimated 7.5 crore cases annually and 800,000 deaths.

Over the decades, relentless efforts have drastically reduced these numbers by over 97 per cent, with cases declining to just 2 million and deaths plummeting to just 83 by 2023.

Wearable heart sound devices represent a groundbreaking shift in cardiac care, offering continuous, non-invasive monitoring with the potential to revolutionise the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cardiovascular conditions, according to a new study.

Cardiovascular diseases remain a global health crisis, spurring an urgent demand for innovative diagnostic tools that enable early detection and effective treatment.

These cutting-edge advancements promise to enhance patient care and outcomes by providing real-time insights into heart health, said researchers from the City University of Hong Kong.

"Our work on wearable heart sound devices marks a significant step forward in the early detection and monitoring of cardiovascular diseases," said Dr Bee Luan Khoo, Associate Professor at the City University of Hong Kong and a leading researcher in the field.

Namibia's Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS) has raised an alert following a sharp rise in malaria cases in the country's northern regions.

The outbreak resulted in 2,210 cases reported as of December 15 and 265 severe cases, nine deaths during the period from November 4 to December 15, MoHSS Executive Director Ben Nangombe said in a statement Tuesday.

"At least 16 malaria-endemic districts have surpassed the epidemic threshold and are experiencing outbreaks," he said.

Affected districts include Eenhana, which accounted for 661 cases or 30 per cent of the total, followed by Okongo with 336 cases or 15 per cent. Other districts affected include Outapi, Engela, Nkurenkuru, Oshakati, and Omuthiya, Nangombe added.

The online pharmacy sector in the country will see steady revenue growth next fiscal, reducing operating losses to below 10 per cent from over 30 per cent in fiscal 2023, by sharpening focus on high-margin product segments and operational efficiencies, a report showed on Tuesday.

E-pharmacies are eyeing sustainable growth by diversifying into high-margin segments such as wellness products and medical equipments, which are expected to comprise 40 per cent of sales next fiscal, up from about 30 per cent now and under 15 per cent in fiscal 2023.

“Players are also moving away from aggressive discounting to reduce key operating costs (discounting, delivery, distribution and employee — or DDDE) from around 65 per cent in fiscal 2023 to below 35 per cent next fiscal, which should help narrow losses and accelerate the move to profitability,” said Poonam Upadhyay, Director, CRISIL Ratings.

A Covid-19 infection does not worsen symptoms or disability in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a study.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease that affects the central nervous system (CNS) and is caused by an autoimmune attack on the body's healthy cells.

Researchers from the University of Texas’s Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas conducted the study on 2,132 adults with MS with an average age of 65. They were followed over 18 months.

While infections are known to cause disability among people with MS, the results published in the online issue of the Neurology journal, showed that “for Covid-19 infections specifically, this was not true”.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that Yemen bears the highest burden of cholera globally.

In a statement, the WHO reported on Monday that as of December 1, Yemen had recorded 249,900 suspected cholera cases and 861 associated deaths in 2024 alone, representing 35 per cent of the global cholera burden and 18 per cent of reported global fatalities from the disease.

The latest figures reveal a significant year-on-year surge, with the number of cases and deaths reported in November 2024 increasing by 37 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively, compared to the same period in 2023, the WHO said.

"The outbreak of waterborne diseases like cholera and acute watery diarrhea imposes an additional burden on an already stressed health system facing multiple disease outbreaks," WHO representative and head of mission in Yemen, Arturo Pesigan, was quoted as saying.

The epidemiological situation of Mpox in Africa remains "especially concerning," with high case counts observed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Burundi, and Uganda, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.

According to the latest report of the WHO, Africa has seen 13,769 confirmed cases across 20 countries as of December 15, including 60 deaths. The most affected country continues to be DRC, with 9,513 confirmed cases detected.

While the DRC, the outbreak's epicenter, has seen a relatively stable epidemic trend in recent weeks, WHO still warned that the plateauing and declining trends should be interpreted cautiously, given possible reporting delays.

The latest outbreak features the emergence and spread of a more dangerous but poorly understood variant, clade 1b, first detected in the DRC in September 2023. Cases of this clade 1b strain have since been reported in several countries, including Sweden and Thailand.

Consumption of coffee and tea can lower the risks of developing head and neck cancer, including cancers of the mouth and throat, claimed a study on Monday.

Head and neck cancer is the seventh most common cancer worldwide, and rates are rising in low- and middle-income countries.

The findings, based on an analysis of data from 14 studies, showed that compared with non-coffee-drinkers, individuals who drank more than 4 cups of caffeinated coffee daily had 17 per cent lower odds of having head and neck cancer overall. It also led to a 30 per cent lower risk of having cancer of the oral cavity, and 22 per cent lower odds of having throat cancer.

Drinking 3-4 cups of caffeinated coffee was linked with a 41 per cent lower risk of having hypopharyngeal cancer -- a type of cancer at the bottom of the throat), revealed the study published in the peer-reviewed CANCER journal.

The Afghan caretaker government's Ministry of Public Health on Monday announced a three-day vaccination campaign aimed at protecting 4.8 million children under the age of five from poliovirus.

Running from Monday to Wednesday, the campaign will provide anti-polio drops to children in 11 out of the country's 34 provinces, said Sharafat Zaman Amarkhil, spokesperson for the ministry.

In his message, Amarkhil urged tribal elders, religious scholars, and parents to actively participate and fully cooperate with polio workers to implement the campaign appropriately, news agency reported.

On October 28, the Afghan caretaker government's Ministry of Public Health announced a three-day vaccination campaign aimed at protecting 6.2 million children under the age of five from poliovirus.