Stay Fit While You Fly: Ayush ministry launches Smart yoga regime to Air Travellers

Posted on March 20, 2026 by Arun Kumar N

Everything appears to get slower at 35,000 feet above ground, though the body does, as well. Even the most experienced traveller can get a sore back, tired and mentally exhausted because of hours in a tight seat. To combat such a contemporary issue of traveling, a very uncomplicated yet effective remedy is flying: Yoga for Air Travel – the 5-minute on-flight wellness system made with the intent of being very easy to follow.

An innovative project launched at Yoga Mahotsav 2026 by Shri Prataprao Jadhav, Hon. Union Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ayush This is an innovative project where the timeless yoga can be practiced in the octant and convert your seat into a rejuvenation zone. The protocol was designed by the Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga to suit the needs of the modern frequent fliers – giving a fast, safe and efficient method to refresh oneself in the air.

Emphasizing the idea behind the project, Hon’ble Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Ayush Shri Prataprao Jadhav, stated that yoga has an immense preventive health and well-being power. This in-flight yoga guideline is an indication of our desire to ensure that yoga is available in all environments including those at the 35,000 feet location so that people can remain active, relaxed, and balanced when people are on the move.

Why In-Flight Yoga Matters

Long-haul travel especially by air can cause a lot of immobility. This may cause muscle stiffness, lack of circulation, fatigue, jet lag and in some instances, more severe issues such as deep vein thrombosis (DVT). The necessity to have a basic wellness intervention is clear in a combination with travel stress and change of cabin pressure.

The 5-minute Yoga protocol will help with these challenges with the help of gentle movements, mindful breathing and short meditation, and will help to restore the balance in the body and mind.

Insisting on the scientific and preventive touch, Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, the Secretary, the Ministry of Ayush, stressed that the practice of yoga in everyday life, even in rather limited conditions such as flights, may play an enormous role in enhancing circulation, alleviating stress, and maintaining the well-being. This is because such practical interventions simplify preventive healthcare and make it accessible.

Eating and Exercising at Your Desk

The protocol is easy and accessible and does not need any special equipment or can be conducted when one is seated. It is a smooth combination of physical mobility and breath awareness and mental relaxation:

Centring (15 seconds): Start with a silent awareness or intent to get yourself grounded.
Light Joint movements (45 seconds): rotations of shoulders, stretching of ankle, and any simple movements to enhance blood flow and lessen stiffness.
Seated Yoga Poses: Altered poses include Tadasana (Palm Tree Pose), seated Cat-Cow, spinal rotations, and mild movements involving the legs in order to relieve tension and posture.
Pranayama (Breathing Practices): Deep breathing, Anulom Vilom, Bhramari, and Sheetali to relax the nervous system and improve the flow of oxygen.
Meditation (30 seconds): A short break to re-focus the mind and help bring about relaxation.
Enhancing the greater picture of changing behaviour, Ms Monalisa Dash, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Ayush, stressed, “The initiative shows how yoga may be effectively applied in day-to-day circumstances. We want to establish a culture of wellness, which will accompany a person wherever he or she may go by encouraging so easy habit.

Small Practice, Big Impact

Within five minutes, this routine can:

Improve blood circulation
Decrease muscle stiffness and fatigue.
Ease stress and anxiety
Help in digestion and hydration awareness.
Help manage jet lag
Most importantly, it enables travellers to be in-charge of their well-being- even in-flight.

Wellness, Anywhere You Go

Yoga is beautiful because of its flexibility. It finds you at home, in the office, or at the altitude of the clouds. This in-flight procedure is an instructional notice that wellness does not need additional time or area–only purpose.

The next time you buckle in your seatbelt, take a moment to pay attention to yourself. It is better to stop and rest to reconnect with oneself sometimes, the best way to travel far.

Fly well. Breathe easy. Stay balanced.

Also Read:

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Organ Donations After Cardiac Death Soar in US, Expand Transplant Lifeline

Posted on March 18, 2026 by Arun Kumar N

One of the significant changes in the way people approach organ donation in the United States is the growing availability of transplantation organs, with almost half of all donors being patients whose heart has gone dead, according to latest studies.

According to the study by scientists at NYU Langone Health, it has been established that donation after circulatory death (DCD) has increased significantly in the last 25 years – marking an increase of 2 percent of all donors in 2000 to 49 percent in 2025. According to the findings published in Journal of the American Medicine, the development of medical technology is transforming transplant medicine.

The growth has been realized when demand is acute. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, more than 100,000 individuals are already on transplant waiting lists in the U.S., and this fact requires finding new sources of viable organs.

Conventionally, organs donated have been infected out of patients who have been declared brain dead, those organs keep being oxygenated with the heart still beating. Conversely, DCD deals with patients who are not yet dead, but are on life support. In case life-sustaining treatment is withdrawn and the patient dies in a given period, then organs can be removed to be transplanted, though it must be otherwise previously agreed.

Drawbacks Overcome With Tech

In past, organs transplanted by such sources were less viable because of a short period of lack of oxygen following the cessation of the heart. Nevertheless, these drawbacks have been overcome with the recent technology advances.

Improved organ preservation has been achieved using techniques like normothermic regional perfusion in which blood flow to organs is resumed following cardiac death and machine perfusion systems in which oxygenated fluids are delivered extravascularly. These inventions have made innovations through which the surgeons can safely utilize organs that were not considered to be perfect.

According to researchers, this has expanded the pool of donors. The researchers discovered that current DCD donors are older individuals with higher probabilities of underlying diseases like diabetes or hypertension as compared to previous generation, which is more inclusive in the selection of the donor.

Syed Ali Husain, the lead author, indicated that the increase in circulatory-death donations is already producing a tangible impact, and thousands of patients were already getting transplants who otherwise would not have been able to survive the wait.

Regional Disparity Persists

The national data on transplants also indicated that there were disparities in the connections of the regions. DCD donors contributed up to 73 per cent of all donations in certain regions of the country and only 11 per cent in other regions indicating a lack of balance in the practice.

The researchers working on the study underlined the importance of developing uniform national standards and ongoing involvement of the population to protect the ethics and preserve a trusting attitude towards the process of donating.

Researchers believe that more papers are required to understand long-term outcomes and enhance protocols as the DCD is becoming more popular. Further research will aim to enhance the process of donor identification and understand the performance of organs of donors who died of a circulatory death as opposed to the performance of organs of those who died of a traditional brain-death.

The results represent an important development in the field of transplant medicine – one that may aid in reducing the disparity between supply and demand of organs, and also pose new challenges to clinical practice, ethics and popular opinion.

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India’s Silver Economy Emerges as ₹73,000 Crore Opportunity as Senior Citizens Double by 2050

Posted on March 17, 2026 by Arun Kumar N

India’s “silver economy”, the ecosystem of goods and services catering to the elderly, is rapidly transitioning from a niche social welfare concern into a formidable economic driver, currently valued at approximately ₹73,000 crore ($8.8 billion) and poised for explosive growth in the coming decades.

With the country’s senior population projected to surge from 153 million in 2020 to 347 million by 2050—more than doubling in three decades—the sector is expected to expand at an annual rate of 20 percent, potentially reaching $50 billion by 2030, according to government and industry data .

This demographic shift, which will see the elderly share of India’s population climb from 11 percent to 21 percent by mid-century, is reshaping everything from housing and healthcare to financial services and technology adoption. The old-age dependency ratio is forecast to move from 16 percent in 2020 to 34 percent by 2050, fundamentally altering family structures and caregiving dynamics across the nation .

Senior Living Market Gains Momentum

The most visible manifestation of this transition is the booming senior living housing market, which is expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 17.4 percent. Industry research indicates the sector was valued at $3.55 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $14.14 billion by 2031, registering a remarkable CAGR of 25.92 percent during the forecast period .

Major players including Ashiana Housing, Antara Senior Care, and Columbia Pacific Communities are aggressively developing age-friendly “lifestyle” projects, expanding beyond traditional southern strongholds into northern and western metropolitan regions. This geographic diversification is being encouraged by state-level incentives that reduce transaction costs for older buyers.

Independent living currently dominates the market with a 64.50 percent share, where residents purchase or rent units resembling standard apartments but benefit from emergency call systems, housekeeping, and recreational programs. Assisted living, though smaller, carries a 27.35 percent CAGR, with developers now creating “continuum-of-care” campuses where independent, assisted, and memory-care wings sit side by side—allowing residents to shift care levels without leaving familiar surroundings .

However, adoption faces cultural headwinds. The Longitudinal Ageing Study of India reports that 26.7 percent of urban elders now live alone, yet the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act 2007 reinforces expectations of at-home care. Current penetration of senior living communities stands at merely 1 percent, compared to 11 percent in the United Kingdom, suggesting vast headroom for growth despite lingering stigma .

Healthcare Transformation and Government Initiatives

The healthcare dimension of the silver economy is equally transformative. With over 75 percent of Indian seniors living with chronic diseases, demand for home-based medical services, telemedicine, wearable health trackers, and remote monitoring is rising sharply. The Ayush sector—Ayurveda and Yoga—is seeing increased demand for preventive care among health-conscious older adults .

The Union government has responded with significant policy interventions. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has launched the SAGE Portal, supporting startups developing elderly-care products with equity funding up to ₹1 crore, and the SACRED Portal, a digital platform helping citizens over 60 find re-employment opportunities .

Most significantly, the Union Cabinet recently approved expanding Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) to provide free health coverage of ₹5 lakh per year for all senior citizens aged 70 and above, regardless of income. This groundbreaking move aims to benefit approximately 4.5 crore families containing six crore senior citizens .

“The eligible senior citizens will be issued a new distinct card under AB PM-JAY,” the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare announced. Senior citizens aged 70 and above belonging to families already covered under the scheme will receive an additional top-up cover of up to ₹5 lakh per year exclusively for themselves, which they need not share with other family members below 70 .

President Droupadi Murmu, addressing a joint sitting of Parliament in January, highlighted that during the past year-and-a-half, Vay Vandana cards have been issued to approximately one crore senior citizens, with nearly eight lakh receiving free treatment as hospital in-patients .

Budget 2026: Building Care Infrastructure

The Union Budget 2026-27 has doubled down on elderly care infrastructure, announcing that approximately one lakh allied health professionals will be added across ten disciplines—including optometry, radiology, anaesthesia, and applied psychology—over the next five years. The Union Health Ministry has been allocated ₹1,000 crore for the Scheme for Allied Health Care Professionals for the first time .

Additionally, a focused programme will train 1.5 lakh geriatric caregivers, addressing the rapidly rising long-term care needs of India’s elderly population. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that programmes aligned with the National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) will be developed to train multi-skilled caregivers combining core care skills with wellness, yoga, and operation of medical devices .

“A strong care ecosystem, covering geriatric and allied care services will be built,” Sitharaman said while presenting the Budget. “In the coming year, 1.5 lakh caregivers will be trained” .

This workforce expansion addresses critical shortages. According to the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare’s National Health Workforce Accounts, India currently has about 12–13 lakh allied health professionals, while workforce assessments suggest the country requires at least 25–30 lakh to meet current and projected demand—implying a shortfall of over 10 lakh workers .

Financial Framework and Challenges

On the financial front, the Senior Citizens’ Savings Scheme remains a primary tool for steady returns, while Atal Pension Yojana enrolments have reached over 8.27 crore by late 2025. Budget 2026 discussions have proposed increasing the standard deduction to ₹90,000 from ₹75,000 to ease the tax burden on retirees, alongside a ₹10,000 crore Biopharma Shakti initiative to boost domestic medicine manufacturing, aiming for long-term affordability of chronic disease drugs .

Yet significant challenges persist. India produces fewer than 80 geriatricians annually, creating a critical workforce gap. Limited digital literacy hinders many seniors from accessing online health and financial services, while accessible public transport and “barrier-free” urban design remain underdeveloped outside major urban centers .

Writing in The Times of India, public health professional Pratima Kishore and geriatrician Dr. Abhishek Shukla noted: “District hospitals should have dedicated geriatric outpatient services. Primary health centres must be equipped to manage chronic disease follow-ups and frailty screening. Referral systems should be streamlined so that older adults are not left navigating fragmented services” .

They emphasized that “a significant proportion of elderly health needs do not require hospitalisation. They require assistance with mobility, medication management, nutrition, physiotherapy and basic daily activities. Without formal systems, this responsibility continues to fall on families, particularly women, who shoulder a disproportionate burden of unpaid caregiving” .

Market Outlook

Industry analysts project that meeting anticipated demand will require roughly 2.4 million new units designed for older residents by 2030 . Competition is shifting from small local operators to integrated real-estate and healthcare alliances that bundle preventive care, telemedicine, and social engagement services.

Technology adoption, particularly wearables that transmit blood pressure and glucose readings, is improving risk management and reducing liability insurance premiums for operators. Partnerships with tertiary hospitals provide visiting specialists, while tele-diagnostics reduce response time during medical events .

The Elderline national toll-free helpline (14567) continues to provide information, guidance, and emotional support to seniors across the country, complementing the growing ecosystem of formal elderly care services .

As India ages while still strengthening its public health and social protection systems—unlike many high-income countries that aged after becoming wealthy—the window for strategic intervention remains open. How the nation responds to its demographic transition will shape not only health outcomes but economic stability, gender equity, and family resilience in the decades ahead.

A folding sheet robot that can deliver drugs with precision is here

Posted on March 14, 2026 by Sridhar P

A new magnetorheological fluid-based soft robot created by the researchers includes reversible t robot with reversible gastrointestinal tract medical applications.

Millions of people around the world are infected with gastrointestinal tract diseases and the conventional drug delivery system lacks high targeting capacity with chances of side effects of systemic drug delivery. The development of magnetic soft robots has become an innovative solution to minimally invasive medical procedures, due to their miniaturity, untethered locomotion and their agile movements. Nonetheless, the current magnetic soft robots have severe constraints of multi-angle folding, real time reconfigurable magnetization, and compliance with the irregular and constrained gastrointestinal cavity, which are the barriers to clinical use of targeted drug delivery.

In order to solve these problems, a research team, comprising of researchers at China University of Mining and Technology, Soochow University, RWTH Aachen University and the University of Oxford created a magnetic soft sheet robot with magnetorheological fluids. The robot takes the form of a four-layered fully-soft sheet, which consists of upper and bottom layers of linear low-density polyethylene surface, a core layer of magnetorheological fluids and a polyamide nylon mesh support layer. The robot is non-magnetized in zero magnetic field, weighing 0.55 g (a weight of 30 mm in length, 10 mm in width, 1.5 mm in thickness), which is small (30 mm in length, 10 mm in width, 1.5 mm in thickness), which removes unwanted magnetic interference in the human body.

The main novelty of such robot is the magnetization, which can be reconfigured in real time, and the performance by reversible folding. The magnetic particle chains along the magnetic field direction can be generated by the internal magnetorheological fluids within milliseconds under the external magnetic and the magnetization direction can be dynamically readjusted using the spatial magnetic field. Propelled by a 5 degree of freedom magnetic field platform, the robot can be folded to a one third size of the original to move in slender intestinal tracts and unfolded to a large surface area to move in a stable fashion within the stomach cavity-achieving the flexible adaptation to the different spatial sizes of the gastrointestinal tract.

The research group used the fabrication of five prototypes of the soft sheet robot with varying magnetorheological fluid densities (3.0 g/mL to 4.2 g/mL) and a series of motion performance tests under various environments.
The robot was found to have a stable flip, steering and folding motion on smooth surfaces, on flexible fluff surfaces and on slope surfaces and also in environment with underwater. It was also able to maintain consistent performance of movement even under load (carrying biodegradable hydrogel drugs with a mass of 0.15 g, which is about 30 percent of the own mass of the robot).
The ex vivo porcine stomach experiments, which mimicked the human gastrointestinal environment, were done to have critical validation. The robot was able to reach any predetermined location in the porcine stomach in an average of 5 minutes and firmly secured to the point of drug release with the loaded hydrogel drugs dissolving within 30 minutes to create localized targeted therapy in 10 repetitions.
Also, the ultrasonic detection technology (Voluson E10), was able to trace real-time movements of the robot in closed gastric cavity, which proved traceable and controllable in closed biological environments- a technical assurance in monitoring robots in clinical practices.

The biocompatibility tests continued to confirm the safety of the robot when used in human body: the robot was immersed in the simulated gastric juice (pH 1.2) and intestinal juice (pH 6.8) at 37degC after 24 hours and no rupture of its surfaces, expansion of its volume and deformation of the shape were observed. It was revealed that no exceeding of the safety levels was detected in the extract solutions by the heavy metals and harmful substances and no bacterial colonies were obtained in the tests related to the growth of microbial cultures, which indicates the biocompatibility and non-toxicity of the robot in the gastrointestinal tract environment.

The research team observed that the magnetic soft sheet robot has overcome the technical bottlenecks of the conventional magnetic soft robots in terms of folding capability and magnetization ability. It has the benefit of untethered drive, complete soft-structure, and excellent targeting precision, which render it the best noninvasive medical device to deliver drugs to the gastrointestinal tract.

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What are Zombie cells? Mayo Clinic researchers minimize cells in diabetic kidney disease

Posted on March 13, 2026 by Arun Kumar N

The results of these researchers in Jacksonville, Fla., are that a drug-and-supplement combination therapy can be used to lessen the harmful effects of senescent cells, or, to be more exact, zombie cells, in diabetic kidney disease.

In an article published by the Lancet, the team has found that the combination of the cancer drug dasatanib and a naturally occurring substance quercetin reduced inflammation and enhanced protective factors in the kidney.

Diabetic kidney disease is the number one cause of renal failure and goes over 12 million individuals in the U.S. Whereas there is a partial cure in newer treatments to slow the loss of kidney function, it has no cure at all.

According to LaTonya Hickson, a nephrologist with Mayo Clinic in Florida and the main researcher of the study, the combination therapy, administered on a short term basis, decreased the amount of senescent cells within a preclinical diabetes kidney disease model and also led to the enhancement of kidney functioning. In order to prolong the health of the kidney, researchers have been keen on the solution to the existence of senescent cells, which do not get to pass through the natural process of death and instead hang around in tissues leading to aging and disease.

Therapy to Attack Senescent Cells

The therapeutic strategy is senolytics, natural and synthetic substances that in combination selectively attack senescent cells.

In a clinical trial that was previously carried out and was a pilot study, researchers at the Mayo Clinic led by Hickson discovered that dasatanib combination with quercetin diminished senescent cells of skin and fat tissues in diabetic kidney disease patients. The impact of the combination therapy on senescence and protective factors on the diabetic kidney, however, had not been described yet.

“The need to demonstrate that this single, momentary, treatment has an outcome on the kidneys was informed by the necessity to do so without the use of invasive procedures in the patients,” says Xiaohui Bian, a nephrologist who did the work as a post-doctoral fellow at Mayo Clinic and leads the study.

The group identified that the combination therapy enhanced kidney performance and protective mechanisms and minimized injury, senescent cells, and inflammation in a preclinical model of diabetic kidney disease. The combination therapy also lowered the number of senescent cells and the inflammatory response caused by them in cultured human kidney cells.

According to Hickson, the results indicate that this combination treatment has a potential to assist in reducing and stopping the damage of kidneys caused by diabetes. These two studies are now promising and indicate that larger scale research in patients with senolytics is warranted to enhance the health of the kidneys.

How being squeezed contributes to risk of breast cancer cells

Posted on March 11, 2026 by Arun Kumar N

A recent study conducted by scientists working in Adelaide University and published in the journal Science Advances has shown the reason as to why certain cancers may grow and survive the body, whereas others do not. It happens that the hard mechanical stress to which the early cancer cells undergo as they are squeezed into a narrow area, causes some of the cancer cells to grow quicker, not to grow, as would otherwise be supposed.

This squeeze worked to the favor of the early breast cancer cells as scientists discovered.

The key point that was explained by the lead researcher, Professor Michael Samuel, of the Centre of Cancer Biology at Adelaide University and the Basil Hetzel Institute is that these breast cancer cells steal a particular sensor – one that our bodies rely on to sense touch – and use it to divide quickly and aid them in making their escape off the major tumour.

The process creates an indefinitely lasting mechanical memory in the breast cancer cells and it still contributes towards aggressive behaviour even after the pressure itself has been removed, Professor Samuel said.

The tumours which are solid are exposed to a lot of physical pressure when the disease is at its early stage of development, as the cancer cells grow in tissues that are limited in space, e.g. the milk ducts of the breast. Up to this day, the mechanism by which these cancer cells detect this pressure and whether or not it impacts the progression of the disease is unknown.

We have a tendency to believe that cancer is a genetic disease, but through this work we know that there is the same importance of physical forces within the tumours as the cause of cancer as there are genetic changes that cause cancer.

The researchers discovered that cancer cells respond to pressure via a molecule named PIEZO1, which is a hole in the cell that relates the interior of a cell to the exterior environment. Upon pressure stimulation, PIEZO1 enables the movement of calcium ions into the cell and subsequent signal transduction containing the Rho-ROCK pathway – a central regulator of cell movement, shape and growth.

The team demonstrated that mechanical pressure of a short duration that is obtained through compressing cancer tissue was sufficient to cause tumour growth to increase significantly. Mechanically compressed tumours in laboratory models of breast cancer became larger and the cancer cells in them fragmented faster than control groups.

In addition to promoting growth, compression was also identified to drive cancer cells into a more aggressive, invasive, state in a process known as epithelial-mesenchymal transition. When either of the PIEZO1 or the Rho-ROCK pathway had, however, been inhibited with the help of suitable drugs, compression did not propel cancer aggressiveness, making their role in this process definite.

Co-lead author Dr Sarah Boyle mentioned that one of the most significant findings was that the cancer aggressiveness effects of compression remained even after removal of the force itself.

According to Dr Boyle, even relatively short durations of pressure can lead to a mechanical memory by altering the way the DNA is packed into the cell, by chemically modifying the histone proteins.

These changes, which are called epigenetic changes, are modifications of the interpretation of the DNA code by the cell, which enables the process of switching on some genes that promote tumour growth and aggressiveness.

This type of epigenetic mechanical memory offers a molecular basis to the long term effects of short term mechanical forces on the cell level of the behaviour of tumours.

Notably, the research established that PIEZO1 is over-expressed in human breast cancers compared to normal breast tissue, and that the level of PIEZO1 differs among the patients. The high PIEZO1 levels have been linked to low patient survival implying that the identical pressure-detecting system found in test animals would probably be applicable in human cancer.

The results indicate a little-known role of mechanical pressure in the development of cancer aggressiveness and represent the PIEZO1 -Rho-ROCK pathway as a possible new therapeutic objective that can be used as an early intervention.

According to the researchers, future therapies can restrict tumour growth and invasiveness by interfering with the sensory and response of cancer cells to mechanical pressure. The results can also be applied in diagnosing the patients who are susceptible to aggressive breast cancers due to excessively high concentrations of PIEZO1.

That work has opened up a whole new field of so-called mechanotherapy – the use of treatments that disrupt the mechanical signals that tumours are dependent on to develop and spread out, as cancers grow to be mechanically responsive diseases, said Professor Samuel.

Use of Boron in Proteins to Create New Treatments to Cure Cancer: Study

Posted on March 10, 2026 by Arun Kumar N

A large number of the most important proteins of modern medicine and science are insoluble. These comprise a host of signalling proteins and protein hormones, and all of the receptors embedded in the cell membranes, which are directed at approximately 60 percent of the active ingredients presently utilized in medicines. When the concentration of these proteins crosses some given level, they will form clumps and become useless.

This aggregation renders synthesis of these molecules in lab impossible. Since specialised production with specialised synthesing robots always needs more than a single fragment to be conjugated into a full protein, a single poorly soluble fragment of protein is usually sufficient to inhibit production. The reason is that the current techniques employed by chemists to assemble protein fragments merely perform successfully when the fragments exist in solution and in very high concentrations.

A team of researchers, headed by Jeffrey Bode, professor at the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry at ETH Zurich has now discovered how to couple even the poorly soluble portions of proteins into functional proteins. In order to do this, they utilized special properties of a chemical compound comprising an element named boron.

The slow carbon chemistry has a concentration constraint.

The only major difference between the ETH technique and the traditional strategies is in the rate of the coupling reaction. Unlike in biochemistry, which occurs extremely fast in cells of living organisms, through enzymes, reactions such as these typically need to be carried out at unnatural concentrations within the laboratory. The reason behind this is that the slower the reaction is taking place, the greater the concentration of the reacting substances should be so that the reaction processes take place as intended.

The novel coupling technique invented by the team of Bode is approximately 1000 times faster and thus was also applicable in 1000 times lower concentrations.

Boron opens up new opportunities bio-chemistry

The ETH chemists hastened the reaction by including Boron atoms to the carbon-based molecules. These are not found in natural molecules.

In several of its properties, the metalloid boron behaves in a somewhat different way. On bonding with metals, it forms very tough and heat-resistant metal alloys. Alternatively, it is capable of bonding with the nonmetals carbon, oxygen or nitrogen in the lab to form molecules that tend to have bizarre reaction characteristics. In 2010, Akira Suzuki, a Japanese researcher and Richard Heck, an American researcher, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry due to the development of boron-based coupling reactions to enable laboratory synthesis of natural substances.

According to Bode, “We reach an ultimate limit of reaction rate with purely carbon based systems. It is further expansion into previously untapped boron based reagents that places us in a space where even the most recalcitrant reactions that bring large biological molecules together can occur in a very brief time.”

cancer cells/photo:en.wikipedia.org

Protective acids: a rocky road

As shown by Bode and colleagues in 2012, this was the first study to demonstrate that it was possible to add an element of a hitherto unexplored chemical group to proteins fragments and do so with great speed and stability. Nevertheless, this compound was not stable with strong acids hence could not be utilized in automated synthesis.

To endure the tough environment that was applied to the sensitive boron compound in normal laboratory robots, the compound would require protection in the form of a chemical packaging, but this was easier said than done. The researchers experimented with a number of strategies in four years to little effect.

The discovery was made by mistake and eventually, the discovery occurred when a doctoral student tried an experimental method that the team had indeed thought was ineffective. The resulting protective compound binds to the boron group on three sides, therefore, being unable to be terminated in the acids in protein production.

According to Bode, such fundamental research, in which there is no assurance of success, is feasible only due to the unrestricted funds provided by the Swiss National Science Foundation and ETH.

Inorganic amino acids and cancer treatment

The ETH method implies that new peptide and protein drugs or drugs of medical interest to cure cancer that are prone to clumping, can now be produced via the usual laboratory protocols.

Moreover, special amino acids that are not natural can also be incorporated in the location of choice on the poorly soluble proteins. As an example, the chemists can functionalized these building blocks in a protein in a specific way in case they wish to attach it to an active substance on a particular location. Some of the applications of antibody-drug conjugates prepared through this method include cancer treatment procedures that do not damage normal tissues.

The way in which the method will be applied to clinical practice is not yet clear. In 2020 Bode co-founded the ETH spin-out Bright Peak Therapeutics, which applications the technologies invented in his lab to build immunotherapies to fight cancer. A therapeutic agent has already entered clinical trials and the new method based on boron may assist in increasing the size of the product pipeline of the spin-off.

World News in Brief: Deadly strikes in Sudan, Guterres calls for unity ahead of Ramadan

Posted on February 14, 2026 by Arun Kumar N

Fresh waves of violence in Sudan and neighbouring South Sudan are pushing fragile communities into deeper crisis, with attacks on towns, health facilities and aid infrastructure forcing thousands to flee and leaving humanitarian agencies scrambling to respond.

Over the past week, conflict has intensified in Sudan’s North Kordofan state, where more than a dozen attacks were reported around the towns of El Obeid, Bara, Rahad and Um Rawaba. The violence is part of a broader deterioration in security conditions across several regions already battered by prolonged conflict.

Attacks Spread Across Kordofan

In South Kordofan, suspected drone strikes targeted health facilities in Kadugli, the state capital, as well as in the town of Kuweik. According to early reports, the strikes killed at least four medical workers and injured more than 20 others.

Aid officials say the attacks on medical infrastructure have further strained already fragile health services in the region. Hospitals and clinics have struggled to cope with rising casualties while dealing with shortages of medicine, equipment and trained staff.

The renewed violence has also raised alarm among international observers. A recent report by the United Nations Human Rights Office warned that systematic attacks against civilians in Sudan’s Darfur region during late 2025 may amount to crimes against humanity.

Displacement And Humanitarian Needs Rising

The escalating fighting is triggering fresh displacement across several parts of Sudan.

UN Secretary-General spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the violence was forcing large numbers of people to abandon their homes and seek safety elsewhere.

“The violence is triggering a new wave of displacement, with reports of many fleeing homes and in need of food, health care and protection,” he said during a briefing on Friday.

Humanitarian agencies say the situation is particularly worrying in the towns of Dilling and Kadugli, where conditions continue to deteriorate. Aid groups have warned that without immediate access to affected areas, relief operations will struggle to meet growing needs.

Drone strikes have also damaged telecommunications infrastructure, commercial vehicles and major transport routes. The disruptions have slowed the movement of humanitarian supplies and staff, complicating efforts to deliver aid.

The United Nations has urged all parties involved in the conflict to ensure the protection of humanitarian facilities and to allow safe and unhindered access for relief operations.

Violence Spills Into South Sudan

Meanwhile, the humanitarian outlook in South Sudan is also worsening.

Since late December 2025, violence has surged across northern and central regions of the country, according to the UN children’s agency UNICEF.

In Jonglei state alone, at least 280,000 people have been displaced by the fighting. Aid officials say most of those forced to flee are women and children.

Many families have sought refuge in displacement camps originally set up during earlier phases of South Sudan’s civil war. Others are sheltering in remote areas with little or no access to basic services.

Children account for more than half of the displaced population. UNICEF warns that many of them face grave risks, including recruitment by armed groups, family separation and gender-based violence.

Children in Gaza hold lanterns to celebrate the advent of Ramadan. (file)

Health System Near Collapse

The continuing violence has pushed South Sudan’s already fragile health system to the brink.

UNICEF says at least 11 health facilities have been attacked or looted since the latest surge in fighting began. Several nutrition centres have also been forced to shut down.

At the same time, a cholera outbreak has added further strain. Nearly 500 cases have been reported nationwide, overwhelming treatment centres and stretching limited medical resources.

Aid agencies estimate that about 825,000 children in Jonglei, Unity and Eastern Equatoria states are now at risk of acute malnutrition. Without urgent treatment, severely malnourished children face dramatically higher mortality risks.

Despite the challenges, humanitarian organisations continue to operate health, nutrition and child protection programmes in several parts of the country.

Global Appeal For Peace During Ramadan

Against the backdrop of these crises, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged the international community to embrace unity and compassion as Muslims around the world prepare to observe the holy month of Ramadan.

He described Ramadan as a time of reflection and hope, but acknowledged that for many people living in conflict zones—from Gaza and Yemen to Afghanistan and Sudan—peace remains elusive.

“For Muslims around the world, the holy month of Ramadan is a sacred period of reflection and prayer. Ramadan also represents a noble vision of hope and peace.” Mr. Guterres said in a message ahead of the start on Tuesday. “May this Holy Month inspire us to work as one to build a more peaceful, generous and just world for all people,” he said.

Calling for greater solidarity, Guterres urged governments and humanitarian actors to work together to bridge divisions, deliver aid to vulnerable communities and uphold the dignity and rights of people affected by war.

He expressed hope that the spirit of Ramadan would inspire renewed efforts to build a more peaceful and just world.

Finding strength amid sleepless nights: Ukraine’s hidden mental health toll

Posted on September 4, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

Speaking from the capital Kyiv which was rocked by some of the deadliest attacks of the war last week – and following a visit to the frontline region of Sumy – UN Women’s Representative in Ukraine Sabine Freizer Gunes described to UN News’s Nathalie Minard both the emotional exhaustion and the resilience she had witnessed.

The interview has been edited for clarity.

UN News: The situation for civilians in cities is drastic, with shelling and air raid sirens sounding for days and nights at a time. Could you describe your personal experience of living in a war zone?

Sabine Freizer Gunes, UN Women Representative in Ukraine: Living in a war zone like Ukraine is, on one hand, quite challenging, because as a UN official, we’re not allowed to bring our families here. So, one difficulty is living far away from one’s family.

Usually, in terms of the war situation and the attacks, they tend to happen at night. One of the clear challenges is being able to get through your week, when you’re woken up numerous times during the night. Sometimes there are attacks on Kyiv several days in a row. Sometimes it’s quiet for a week or 10 days.

Not knowing when you’re going to go to sleep, if you’re going to be able to sleep a full night, or if you’re going to have to wake up three or four times, if you’re going to have to go down to the shelter, if you’re going to have to check the news – I would say that mentally, that’s the most difficult thing. It’s not so much fear, it’s not knowing what your night is going to look like.

A resident near the ruins of a residential building in Kyiv, watching as emergency crews search for survivors following a missile strike in the early hours of the morning on 28 August.

UN News: You were recently in Sumy, very close to the eastern frontline. Many people have left the East for safer locations, but others have chosen to stay. How is the UN and UN Women and partners helping them?

Sabine Freizer Gunes: It is quite extraordinary that many Ukrainians are staying in their frontline communities. And some of these places have been under attack since 2014. What we do see is that people are continuing to live their lives.

I just came back from Sumy, which is 20 kilometers away from the Russian border, and the city is still completely vibrant. Businesses continue, cafes, restaurants, and shops are still open. People are still walking down the street.

This is the situation in Ukraine: from one moment to the next, tragedy can strike.

Life seems quite normal during many hours of the day, but then there’s always something kind of hidden beyond that. For example, with some of our colleagues, their husbands may be fighting on the frontline, their fathers or their brothers may have disappeared.

There’s always that element which isn’t visible but is behind the reality of the people that are working.

UN Women works very closely through local women’s rights organizations. When we have an attack, we ask them what kind of assistance we can provide.

Very often, those are going to be kits that are specifically assembled to meet the needs of women, particularly elderly women. It’s elderly women who are generally the last ones to leave their homes.

They insist on staying in their house, in their small yards, because they believe that’s a much better outcome than going to live in a collective centre.

What we try to do then is to provide them with some basic items so that they can stay in their homes.

One thing that I saw yesterday in Sumy, I saw that women’s rights organizations were doing very different kinds of activities. They’re doing cultural activities, activities to support young people, they’re providing legal advice or psychosocial advice. They are helping women get new skills to start their own businesses.

On one hand, there’s an humanitarian crisis and we need to provide life-saving support, but on the other, in the same town, we’re also discussing recovery and development.

UNFPA’s mobile psychosocial support teams travel across Ukraine, including to the front lines, offering immediate emergency interventions as well as access to longer-term assistance.

UN News: Can you share the story of a woman that particularly moved you?

Sabine Freizer Gunes: One thing that really moved me recently was talking to six women who each represented a different NGO.

We were talking about our cooperation, and we asked them, “how have we helped you over the past several months?” And they said that one thing that they really benefited from was a retreat that we organized. I thought they were going to say that they benefited from material things that we gave them.

Instead, they said what they benefited from was a retreat, which was organized in western Ukraine, which is generally more peaceful. And we gave them five days to be in a quiet space where they could get to know each other, share experiences, and where they could sleep. One of them said, “this is the first time in three years that I got a decent night’s sleep”.

That was very powerful to hear, that giving space, a sense of normalcy to our partners can be incredibly powerful.

Listen to the full interview:

UN News: It’s three and a half years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. What are the most common impacts on women’s mental health you’ve encountered?

Sabine Freizer Gunes: Pretty much everybody who lives in Ukraine and who’s been living in Ukraine for the past three and a half years has some mental health issue. There is a clear effect of the war on everyone’s mental health. Regardless of who we’re working with at UN Women, we always include a mental health component.

In the war-torn Ukrainian town of Snihurivka, a groundbreaking initiative is training women as tractor drivers – a role traditionally dominated by men.

For example, we are currently training women to be bus drivers, to take over positions which used to be held by men, but now with the men at the front, women are needed to take up these jobs.

UN News: Do you see a rise in gender-based violence (GBV)? What are the specific mental health challenges faced by women survivors of conflict-related sexual violence; and how do you address them?

Sabine Freizer Gunes: Conflict-related sexual violence is a real challenge in Ukraine. But very often in conflict situations, conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) is something that’s hidden under the rug.

Here in Ukraine, the Government itself has spoken about conflict-related sexual violence and really encouraged those who are survivors to speak openly about it and to seek remedies and reparations.

In Ukraine, the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights has documented 484 cases.

But it is expected that’s just the tip of the iceberg, that there’s a lot of cases that are not known because they’re occurring today in occupied territories, in territories occupied by the Russian Federation, but also people do not feel ready yet to speak about it.

For CRSV in Ukraine, what’s interesting is that there are also many cases against men. So out of those 484 cases, 350 cases are men, and 119 cases are women.

That is because a vast majority of those cases are cases that occur in detention. Survivors of conflict-related sexual violence need extensive psychological support.

UN News: What urgent gaps exist in providing support to women in Ukraine today? How are funding cuts affecting your activities?

Sabine Freizer Gunes: Funding cuts are having a massive effect on the ability to provide support and services to Ukrainian women and girls. What we find to be the most disturbing is the effect of the cuts on Ukrainian women’s rights organizations.

UN women carried out a study back in March, about a month after the US declared its cuts. We did a survey of 100 different women’s rights organizations.

Seventy-three per cent reported already significant disruptions to their operations due to the cuts. Thirty-two per cent expected that they may have to suspend their operations in the next 6 months. Sixty-seven per cent were already forced to lay off staff. And 50 per cent expected that there would be further layoffs.

Most worryingly, 60 per cent of the women’s rights organizations have been forced to reduce or to suspend their gender-based violence services.

This is directly affecting women and girls’ lives. You imagine if you were a woman who was living an abusive relationship, you know that there is a shelter down the road, and suddenly you say, okay, this is too much. You go to the shelter, you knock on the door, and nobody answers anymore because there’s no more funding to keep that shelter open.

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WHO sounds alarm as mental health conditions soar past one billion worldwide

Posted on September 3, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

Disorders such as anxiety and depression are exacting a heavy toll on individuals, families and economies, yet most countries are failing to provide adequate support.

Mental health problems are widespread across every society and age group and remain the second leading cause of long-term disability. They drive up healthcare costs for families and governments while costing the global economy an estimated $1 trillion each year in lost productivity, UN health experts said.

Way off track

The findings are detailed in two new reports: World mental health today and the Mental Health Atlas 2024.

Together, they show that while there has been some progress since 2020, the world is still far off track in tackling the scale of the crisis. The reports will help to inform debate at a UN high-level meeting on noncommunicable diseases and mental health, to be held late this month in New York.

“Transforming mental health services is one of the most pressing public health challenges,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“Investing in mental health means investing in people, communities and economies, an investment no country can afford to neglect. Every leader has a responsibility to act urgently and to ensure mental health care is treated not as a privilege, but as a basic right.”

Troubling gaps, uneven progress

The reports highlight several stark findings:

Women are disproportionately affected by mental health conditions, with anxiety and depression most common among both sexes.
Suicide claimed an estimated 727,000 lives in 2021 and is a leading cause of death among young people. On current trends, the world will fall far short of the UN target to reduce suicide deaths by a third by 2030, managing only a 12 per cent reduction.
Median government spending on mental health remains at just two per cent of health budgets, unchanged since 2017. While high-income countries spend up to $65 per person on mental health, low-income countries spend as little as four cents.
The mental health workforce is dangerously thin in many regions. There are just 13 mental health workers for every 100,000 people worldwide.
Fewer than one in 10 countries has fully moved to community-based care, with most still relying heavily on psychiatric hospitals. Almost half of inpatient admissions are involuntary, and more than one in five patients remain hospitalised for over a year.

Despite these challenges, there have been some positive developments. More countries are integrating mental health into primary healthcare and expanding early intervention programmes in schools and communities.

Over 80 per cent of countries now include mental health and psychosocial support in emergency response, up from less than 40 per cent in 2020. Telehealth services are also becoming more widely available, though access is still uneven.

Call for systemic change

WHO is urging governments to step up investment and reform, warning that the current pace of progress is too slow to meet global goals. Key priorities include:

Fairer financing of mental health services
Stronger legal protection and rights-based legislation
Greater investment in the mental health workforce
Accelerated shift towards community-based, person-centred care

The UN health agency stresses that mental health should be treated as a fundamental human right. Without urgent action, millions will continue to suffer without support, and societies will bear rising social and economic costs.

For more information on how the UN overall is advocating for more resources to support mental health and wellbeing, check out this story from our colleagues at www.un.org.

Health and aid workers targeted in conflicts around the world, UN agency says

Posted on August 23, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

Attacks against health facilities doubled between 2023 and 2024, and more than 900 health workers were killed last year, the agency reported.

Humanitarian aid workers were also killed in record numbers in 2024. Yet, 2025 is outpacing even these dark statistics at a time when funding for humanitarian work is shrinking and support services established over decades are struggling to operate.

The Special Surgery Building at Al-Shifa Medical Complex in central Gaza City has been reduced to rubble.

Assault on Gaza’s health system

The nearly two-year-long war has devastated Gaza’s health system, leaving thousands without access to essential services. Now, as famine takes hold, miscarriages, premature births and low birth weight cases have surged, while newborn deaths are increasing, the UN agency warned.

PULL QUOTE: Life must continue even when bombs are going off.

“Because the delivery room was under direct fire, I delivered babies in hospital hallways,” said Ayda, a senior midwife in northern Gaza. “For lights, we used mobile phones. Despite the lack of supplies and water, our hands continued to work. Life must continue even when bombs are going off.”

Since October 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) has documented over 720 attacks on healthcare in Gaza, with at least 1,580 health workers killed and as yet unknown numbers arrested and detained by Israel. Among them was Ayda, who just days after sharing her story, was killed in an airstrike along with 37 members of her family.

Dr. Khalid Badreldin completed his studies at the Ibrahim Malik Hospital in Khartoum, which now lays in ruins.

Delivering amid devastation in Sudan

In a field of rubble that used to be part of the Ibrahim Malik Hospital in Khartoum, Dr. Khalid Badreldin, a reproductive health analyst with UNFPA in Sudan, recalled performing his first surgery and delivering his first baby there.

“Now, I find it like this,” he said, lamenting the now shuttered hospital that was once a major provider of emergency treatment and maternal and neonatal services. The hospital has joined more than 80 per cent of health facilities in Sudan’s conflict zones that are no longer operational.

Meanwhile, midwives in Khartoum, the capital, are taking “huge risks to reach women in their homes”, explained Hawaa Ismael, who works at the UNFPA-supported Kararai Health Centre.

“It was exhausting, working day and night, but it’s our duty, and I’m proud of what we’ve done.”

On the other side of the country, staff at the El Fasher Maternity Hospital have come under attack, with one midwife killed when her home was shelled on Thursday and another kidnapped.

Haiti’s spiralling crisis

Clinics and hospitals have been deliberately targeted in the crisis that has gripped Haiti over the past 18 months, further weakening a health system already hobbled after years of conflict, looting and financial collapse.

In Haiti, people carrying their belongings flee in near darkness.

The State University Hospital, the country’s largest, was attacked at its reopening ceremony in December 2024, following a 10-month closure, with several people killed, according to reports. In the same month, armed gangs set fire to the Bernard Mevs Hospital in Port-au-Prince, the capital, and in April, attacks forced Mirebalais University Hospital to close.

Organized gangs are waging a brutal campaign to seize control of the capital, with sexual violence rampant. An estimated 1.2 million women and girls are in urgent need of protection against gender-based violence, but due to ongoing insecurity, three out of UNFPA’s four safe spaces in Port-au-Prince were recently forced to close and relocate. As access to emergency services remains extremely limited, just one quarter of rape survivors receive care within the critical 72-hour period.

Ukraine’s largest pediatric health centre, Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv, was hit on 8 July 2024 in one of the worst missile attacks on the country.

Heavy toll in Ukraine

Since January 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recorded over 300 attacks by Russia on healthcare facilities, services and personnel in Ukraine, where women and girls are often compelled to find safer places to shelter and give birth.

I was afraid to give birth, but life goes on. We want to live too.

“Every day brings stress,” said Anastasiia from Sloviansk, on the frontline Donetsk region. “Even if there’s no immediate strike, the fighting nearby is loud and constant. I was afraid to give birth, but life goes on. We want to live too.”

Her region lacks a neonatal intensive care unit and while doctors can perform a Caesarian section, they could not provide full care if complications arose. As her due date approached, Anastasiia travelled some 20km to reach the Kharkiv Regional Perinatal Centre despite the city being regularly subjected to bombings, drone strikes and artillery shelling.

The response workers who help women like Anastasiia often face risks.

“When we arrive at the sites of attacks or in cases of violence, we don’t have time to slow down,” explained Roman, who works with a UNFPA mobile psychosocial support team in Dnipro. “It’s like our own reactions are on hold. Only later, when we look back and discuss it, do we realise how difficult it actually was.”

Under fire in DR Congo

In the restive eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), most facilities providing maternal healthcare have been bombed or looted.

Midwife Loti Kubuya Mielor assists a newly arrived displaced woman who gave birth in a shelter in Goma, DR Congo.

Indeed, just one third of hospitals in the region and one in five health centres are able to function. UNFPA’s mobile health teams are often the only option women have.

Displaced since February 2023, Francine Toyata recalled her recent travel through “darkness and chaos” with her mother to reach a UNFPA-supported mobile health clinic to give birth in the Rutshuru territory of North Kivu province.

“It is for women like Francine that we do this work,” said Nelly, her midwife.

As the conflict escalates, bombs have started hitting camps for internally displaced people, and mobile health clinics and listening centres have also been looted and destroyed.

“We were not safe,” Nelly added. “We need more support to meet these urgent needs.”

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Rubella eliminated as a public health problem in Nepal: WHO

Posted on August 18, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

Rubella – which is commonly known as German measles – is a highly contagious viral infection, and particularly serious for pregnant women as it can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth or a range of debilitating birth defects. Safe and cost-effective vaccines have made it highly preventable.

“Nepal’s success reflects the unwavering commitment of its leadership, persistent efforts of the healthcare workers and volunteers, and unstinting support of engaged and informed communities, for a healthy start for babies and a future free of rubella disease,” said Catharina Boehme, Officer-In-Charge of WHO in Southeast Asia.

National immunisation push

Nepal introduced rubella vaccines via a 2012 immunisation programme, beginning with a nationwide campaign targeting children aged nine months to 15 years, with a second dose added to the routine schedule in 2016.

Despite major public health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic and devastating earthquakes in 2015 and 2023, Nepal achieved over 95 per cent coverage of at least one dose of rubella vaccine by the start of 2024.

This Monday, WHO’s Regional Verification Commission for Measles and Rubella elimination made the official announcement: “This public health achievement is the result of close collaboration between the Government, dedicated health workers, partners and communities,” said Dr Rajesh Sambhajirao Pandav, WHO Representative to Nepal.

Innovative approach

Strategies such as promoting “immunisation month”, outreach to unvaccinated c

hildren, and efforts to have districts declared fully immunised gave fresh momentum to elimination efforts.

In addition, to further rubella surveillance, Nepal recently introduced a robust laboratory testing algorithm, the first country in WHO’s Southeast Asia Region to do so.

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Gaza health system ‘catastrophic’ as hospitals overwhelmed and medicines running out, WHO warns

Posted on August 12, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

Fewer than half of Gaza’s hospitals and under 38 per cent of primary healthcare centres are partially functioning – or are doing so at minimal levels – said Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative for the West Bank and Gaza.

Bed occupancy in major facilities is exceeding limits by large margins – Shifa Hospital is at 250 per cent capacity, Nasser at 180 per cent, Al-Rantisi at 210 per cent and Al-Ahli at over 300 per cent.

Critical supplies running out

“The critical shortage in medications and consumables continue and have only exacerbated, with 52 per cent of the medicines and 68 per cent of consumables at zero stock,” Dr. Peeperkorn told journalists in Geneva, speaking from Jerusalem.

“Hospitals are particularly overwhelmed by injuries from food distribution areas, which are also driving persistent shortages of blood and plasma,” he added, noting that since 27 May, at least 1,655 people have been killed in those areas and more than 11,800 injured.

The crisis has been exacerbated by displacement orders in Gaza City that now place WHO’s own warehouse in an evacuation zone. Hospitals, primary care centres and ambulance facilities are also located inside or near these areas, threatening further disruption to services.

Malnutrition worsening

Hunger and malnutrition are worsening rapidly.

Since the start of 2025, 148 people have died from malnutrition, including 49 children – 39 of them under five years old. Nearly 12,000 children under five were diagnosed with acute malnutrition in July, the highest monthly figure to date, with more than 2,500 suffering from the most severe form.

New threat from meningitis

Disease outbreaks are adding to the pressure.

Suspected meningitis cases reached 452 between July and early August – the highest number since the escalation began. Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare post-infection disorder, has also surged, with 76 suspected cases since June.

Both conditions are harder to treat due to “zero stocks” of vital medicines, including intravenous immuneoglobulin and anti-inflammatories, Dr. Peeperkorn said.

Access challenges

Access for international medical teams and supplies remains a major obstacle.

Dr. Peeperkorn said that international medics face entry denials, while key items such as ICU equipment, anaesthesia machines and cold chain supplies continue to be held back.

Though WHO managed to bring in 80 trucks of medical supplies since June, he stressed that procedures are slow and unpredictable, with many shipments delayed or denied.

“We need multiple crossings into Gaza opened, procedures simplified, and access impediments lifted,” he said. “We hear about more humanitarian supplies being allowed in – but it’s not happening, or it’s happening far too slowly.”

Preparing for the next flood: Protecting women’s health in Bangladesh

Posted on August 9, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

Sunamganj is a district in the wetland ecosystem in northeast Bangladesh, which is particularly vulnerable to climate change. Floods arrive quickly and suddenly and can last for weeks. They disrupt life, displace families and cut off access to services.

For the over 670,000 women of reproductive age living in the area, increasingly extreme weather events are threatening their access to reproductive healthcare.

Preparation and planning

To help prepare for these crises, UNFPA is training reproductive-aged women to protect themselves and their children during the next flood.

Shakila Akhter, a 24-year-old mother of two, was eight months pregnant during the last flood.

“Thanks to the training I received, I knew what to carry, how to prepare and how to protect my family,” she recalled. She now uses family planning tools she didn’t know about before: “I want to choose when I’m ready for another child.”

She also underscored the link between climate change and these severe floods: “We understand that the climate has changed over the past 20 years. In Bangladesh, the flood season has become longer, sudden floods are more frequent, heatwaves have intensified, and winters are now shorter.

“So, we all should be prepared to manage it to survive.”

Local volunteers

This training is made possible by volunteers trained to help others prepare for climate shocks.

Shakila Begum, 26, began volunteering with just two days of training. She works with the Climate Resilience Health System and Community initiative – supported by the UNFPA and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency – which educates women on topics from menstruation to childbirth during floods.

Ms. Begum is now the point of contact for 75 families, helping them with issues like family planning and maternal healthcare.

“One woman had dangerously high blood pressure just before giving birth,” she recalled. “I advised her family to go to the local hospital, where she safely delivered – completely free of cost.”

UNFPA Representative Catherine Breen Kamkong (centre) meets Shakila Begum (right, in green), a 26-year-old volunteer with the Climate Resilience Health System and Community Project in Sunamganj.

Empowerment through safe spaces

The initiative also offers safe community spaces where women can learn about sexual and reproductive health.

In Kurban Nagarn, an area in Sunamganj, volunteers have begun hosting “street dramas”. The volunteers act out scenes related to issues such as maternal health, disaster preparedness and child marriage prevention, with over 500 people attending each performance.

Taskira Hauque Tazin, a local student, is one of the moving theatre’s core members. She has attended many conferences in Bangladesh and abroad, where she shares her experiences and is recognised for her work.

“I feel proud to work for women’s empowerment and to support underprivileged communities. Through these plays, we raise awareness so that women don’t fall behind. We want to stop early marriage, promote girls’ education, and ensure that women get access to maternal health care,” she said. “Whether it’s in the sun, rain, or storm – we’ll keep doing this work for the people.”

Villagers gather for an afternoon street drama in Bodipur, Kurban Nagar Union, Sunamganj, as part of the Climate Resilience Health System and Community Project.

Anima Akhter, a 24-year-old mother in Kurban Nagarn, explained that the street dramas provide a safe space for difficult conversations: “We want to share our problems, especially about our bodies – but we often can’t speak.”

With the support of local volunteers, Anima delivered her youngest child safely at the hospital.

Amina’s husband, Nurul, now accompanies her to community sessions and has become a role model in the community, receiving training from volunteers to teach his neighbours about women’s and girls’ health.

“Since my wife underwent training, I took it very seriously and felt inspired to help our neighbours, especially concerning women’s and girls’ health,” he said. “I regularly talk about these important messages with other men at the tea stall, encouraging them to be prepared for disasters and to take the same precautions.

“I urge them to seek help from service providers if they face any problems, especially concerning pregnant women’s deliveries and family planning methods.”

Anima Akhter, 24, with her husband Ruhul Amin, 30, a steelworker, and their two children outside their home in Bodipur village in Kurban Nagar Union.

Ongoing challenges

But challenges remain despite the best efforts of the UNFPA and other UN partners.

In flood-prone villages in Sunamganj, over half of deliveries still occur at home.

Many women and girls also still feel shame discussing topics like menstruation, and cultural norms often restrict women who attempt to generate their own income.

These vulnerabilities faced by women and girls are exacerbated by climate-related disasters, which often hit them the hardest.

Continued commitments

From 28 to 31 July, global experts convened at the Global Symposium on Climate Justice and Impacted Populations in Brasília, co-hosted by UNFPA and the Government of Brazil.

There, leaders worked to address the disproportionate impact of climate change on women and girls. The event called for gender-inclusive climate negotiations and a renewed commitment to understanding the impact climate change has on sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Diene Keita, Acting Executive Director of UNFPA, highlighted the gendered impact of climate change at the event: “The evidence tells us that climate change is increasing the risk of maternal mortality, disrupting access to contraceptives and increasing the risk of gender-based violence.”

“Our collective efforts need to strengthen the resilience of women, girls and health systems to withstand and adapt to climate shocks,” Ms. Keita stressed. “Being prepared, responding rapidly, and building forward better must be central pillars for our work.”

Sudan: UN sounds the alarm as health and food crises worsen across the country

Posted on July 29, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

As conflict between rival militaries rages on, millions of people keep on being displaced.

While the UN and its partners continue to provide assistance to newly displaced families in North Darfur, “nearly 60 per cent of displaced families still lack adequate shelter support,” said Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, Farhan Haq, at a daily press briefing on Monday.

In Abu Shouk camp in El Fasher, the North Darfur capital, displaced families are facing acute shortages of food and medicine, with local sources reporting four hunger-related deaths last week, as food insecurity continues to worsen across the entire country.

In North Darfur state notably, low cereal supply, poor harvests and a prolonged food deficit have severely affected food availability.

Health crisis

Meanwhile, cholera cases continue to rise in Tawila. More than 1,500 suspected and confirmed serious infections have been reported since June, with over 500 people currently receiving treatment.

While local authorities have introduced emergency measures, including market closures and a ban on public gatherings, humanitarian organizations urgently require $120 million to scale up life-saving support in Tawila over the next three months.

“This funding is essential to contain the outbreak and sustain critical services,” according to OCHA.

Meanwhile, in Port Sudan, the main entry point for humanitarian personnel and supplies, a sharp increase in heatstroke cases linked to extreme temperature and prolonged power outages is raising concerns, as one death was recorded over the past two days.

Food crisis

In El Fasher, food prices continue to rise to alarming levels. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has already identified famine conditions in multiple areas of North Darfur and the eastern Nuba Mountains, with more locations at risk.

In May, the average cost of the local food basket in El Fasher was more than six times the national average, as the city recorded the highest prices for nearly all essential items among assessed localities.

An IPC alert earlier this month noted that Sudan’s food security and nutrition situation is set to further deteriorate over the lean season from July to October, notably in areas of active conflict with limited access and experiencing high levels of displacement.

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UN forum to spotlight health, gender equality, oceans, in critical bid to meet development goals

Posted on July 14, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

The 2025 High-Level Political Forum, or HLPF, follows two recent successful UN conferences focused on vital development issues: one in June in Nice, France, dedicated to ocean protection, and another held in Sevilla, Spain, centred on boosting financing for sustainable initiatives.

The Sevilla meeting ended with a strong call to action: to urgently address the massive $4 trillion annual shortfall in financing needed to achieve the SDGs. It also highlighted the pressing need for greater investment and deep reform of the global financial system.

Held under the auspices of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the forum will take place from 14 to 23 July at UN Headquarters in New York.

Here are five key things to know about this year’s forum:

1. It’s all about accelerating action

The HLPF is the United Nations’ main platform for tracking global progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. It meets each year to review countries’ efforts, share solutions, and push for faster action to meet the 2030 targets

The 2025 forum is convening under the theme:

Advancing sustainable, inclusive, science- and evidence-based solutions for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals leaving no one behind.

This reflects a growing sense of urgency. With the 2030 deadline fast approaching, the forum will emphasise practical, data-driven strategies to close implementation gaps– particularly in the face of intersecting global crisis including climate change, inequality, and economic instability.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals are all interconnected, for instance progress on SDG 2 to end hunger is closely tied to advances in health and education.

2. Five SDGs in the spotlight

Each year, the HLPF conducts in-depth reviews of selected Goals. In 2025, the focus will be on:

SDG 3: Good health and well-being

SDG 5: Gender equality

SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth

SDG 14: Life below water

SDG 17: Partnerships for the goals

These Goals span a wide range of issues – from public health and gender equity to economic resilience and marine conservation.

SDG 17, which is reviewed annually, highlights the importance of revitalising global partnerships and enhancing means of implementation – including financing, which nations committed to just last month in Sevilla.

3. Countries will share their progress, voluntarily

A hallmark of the HLPF is the Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) – self-assessments by Member States on their progress toward the SDGs. In 2025, dozens of countries are expected to present their VNRs, offering insights into both achievements and persistent challenges.

These reviews foster transparency, peer learning, and accountability. They also provide a platform for civil society and other stakeholders to engage directly with governments on development priorities.

VNR Labs – interactive sessions focused on national reviews – create space for dialogue, innovation, and collaboration

4. It’s not just governments

While the HLPF is a UN intergovernmental platform, it brings together a diverse range of voices, including youth groups, local authorities, indigenous peoples, NGOs, academics, the private sector, and UN system agencies.

A rich programme of side events, exhibitions, and roundtable-discussions. This inclusive approach reflects the spirit of the 2030 Agenda, which recognises sustainable development is a universal, shared endeavour.

A wide view of the opening of the 2023 High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development convened under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), held in the General Assembly Hall.

5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 The Final Countdown

With only five years left to deliver on the 2030 Agenda, the 2025 HLPF marks a critical inflection point.

It is more than a yearly check-in. This year’s session comes at a time when science, solidarity, and urgent action must converge. It will help set the tone for the next Sustainable Development Goals Summit in 2027, where world leaders will take stock of collective progress and determine the final push toward 2030.

What happens now – at this two-thirds deadline moment – will shape whether the SDGs will realise a global promise or become a missed opportunity.

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UN warns of deepening health crisis in Gaza amid mass casualty incidents

Posted on July 10, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

Across the Gaza Strip, as people desperately search for food, mass casualty incidents are reported almost daily, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, told reporters at his regular briefing in New York.

Hospitals, already under immense strain, are struggling to cope and lack of essential supplies – including fuel and medicines – is placing even greater pressure on overstretched teams.

The war has also had a devastating impact on health workers. According to Gazan health authorities, more than 1,500 medical staff have been killed in Gaza since October 2023.

Medical supplies arrive – but much more is needed

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that 11 trucks carrying medical aid, including surgical supplies, assistive devices, orthopaedic instruments and other essential medical items, had entered the Strip on Tuesday.

These supplies are set to be distributed to various health facilities across Gaza.

“The health needs remain immense. Much more medical supplies are needed. We urgently call for the unimpeded entry of fuel, food, and health aid at scale into Gaza through all possible routes,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO General-Director, said in a post on social media.

Mr. Dujarric echoed that message, calling for the opening of all crossings and corridors “to ensure the consistent, frequent and large-scale distribution of aid to people in need, wherever they are.”

Disease risk rising

Against the backdrop of access challenges, the spectre of deadly disease outbreaks is also rising.

In northern Gaza, 10 water wells have stopped functioning due to lack of fuel, and another 25 are operating only partially and could soon shut down.

“Shorter pumping hours, reduced water production and limited solid waste collection provide fertile ground for diseases to spread – especially among vulnerable people including children, older people and pregnant women,” Mr. Dujarric said.

No hygiene items have entered Gaza since early March 2025, he noted, added that the ongoing shortage of cleaning and sanitation supplies is severely affecting health and impeding an effective medical response.

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In South Asia, anaemia threatens women’s health and economic futures

Posted on July 9, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

The warning, issued jointly by UN agencies and the regional socio-economic bloc SAARC on Wednesday, underscores South Asia’s status as the “global epicentre” of anaemia among adolescent girls and women.

An estimated 259 million already suffer from the condition, which impairs the body’s ability to carry oxygen, contributing to chronic fatigue, poor maternal outcomes, and reduced educational and economic participation.

“This is a clarion call for action,” said Sanjay Wijesekera, Regional Director for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which together with the UN World Health Organization (WHO) and SAARC prepared the analysis.

“When half of all adolescent girls and women in South Asia are anaemic, it is not only a health issue – it is a signal that systems are failing them.”

A far-reaching but preventable condition

Anaemia doesn’t just affect women and girls – it contributes to 40% of the world’s low birth weight cases and affects child growth and learning, particularly in poorer households.

The economic toll is staggering: anaemia costs South Asia an estimated $32.5 billion annually, perpetuating cycles of poverty and poor health.

Yet, the condition is preventable and treatable. Proven solutions include iron and folic acid supplementation, iron- and vitamin-rich diets, better sanitation and infection control, and stronger maternal health services.

Experts stress that multi-sector collaboration is critical for sustained progress.

A nurse speaks to women about nutritious food in western India’s Sabarkantha district, were many women and girls suffer from iron deficiency.

Integrated efforts crucial

In nearly every country, progress hinges on strengthening health systems, expanding nutrition programmes, and reaching adolescent girls and women in marginalised communities.

Sri Lanka, where 18.5 per cent of women of reproductive age are anaemic, is scaling up its national nutrition initiative, focusing on the most affected districts.

India and Pakistan are also seeing encouraging signs. In India, high-burden states are integrating iron supplementation into school and maternal care programmes. Pakistan has piloted community-based nutrition initiatives linked to reproductive health services, enabling early detection and follow-up care.

In Bangladesh, school-based health initiatives are reaching adolescents with fortified meals and health education, coordinated across health, education, and agriculture ministries.

Community-driven action works

The Maldives and Bhutan are prioritising early prevention through childhood nutrition, food fortification, and public awareness campaigns. Though smaller in population, both are investing in anaemia surveillance and inter-ministerial collaboration.

Nepal stands out for its equitable results: since 2016, the country has cut anaemia among women of reproductive age by 7 per cent, with larger declines in poorer areas. Its female community health volunteers are key, providing counselling and referrals in remote regions and linking vulnerable households to public services.

Man Kumari Gurung, a public health nurse in Karnali Province, credits the achievements to a range of community-driven efforts.

“Pregnant women receive eggs, chicken and nutritious food through programmes like Sutkeri Poshan Koseli (Nutrition Gift for New Mothers),” she said. “Cash grants also help with transport to hospitals, supporting safer births and better nutrition.”

A nurse checks a pregnant woman’s weight and vital signs at a clinic in Galigamuwa, Sri Lanka.

Everyone has a role

Ending anaemia requires leadership and teamwork. Governments must lead, but communities, health workers, schools, and families all play a part.

Stronger health systems, better data, and coordinated action across sectors can help girls and women reach their full potential – building healthier communities and stronger economies.

“Young people and mothers are at the heart of South Asia’s development goals. Ensuring that they are healthy, nourished and empowered is not just a moral imperative, it is a strategic investment in the future of our societies,” said Md. Golam Sarwar, Secretary General of SAARC.

Every hour, 100 people die of loneliness-related causes, UN health agency reports

Posted on June 30, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

Loneliness is linked to approximately 100 deaths every hour – more than 871,000 deaths annually. By contrast, strong social connections are associated with better health and longer life, the UN health agency said on Monday.

WHO defines social connection as the ways in which people relate to and interact with one another. Loneliness is the distressing feeling that arises when there is a gap between desired and actual social relationships, while social isolation refers to the objective lack of social ties.

“In this age when the possibilities to connect are endless, more and more people are finding themselves isolated and lonely,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.

Disproportionate impact

While loneliness affects people across all ages, young people and people living in low- and middle-income countries are especially vulnerable.

“Even in a digitally connected world, many young people feel alone. As technology reshapes our lives, we must ensure it strengthens – not weakens – human connection,” said Chido Mpemba, co-chair of WHO Commission on Social Connection, which published the report.

The report, From loneliness to social connection: charting the path to healthier societies, highlights concerns about excessive screen time and harmful online interactions, particularly among youth and their negative effects on mental health.

Multiple factors contribute to loneliness and social isolation, including poor health, low income and education, living alone, lack of adequate community infrastructure and public policies, as well as certain aspects of digital technologies.

Serious health risks

Loneliness and social isolation increase the risk of stroke, heart disease, diabetes, cognitive decline, and early death. Lonely people are twice as likely to experience depression and may also face heightened anxiety and suicidal thoughts.

Conversely, social connection offers protective benefits throughout life—reducing inflammation, lowering the risk of serious illness, promoting mental health, and extending longevity.

Towards healthier societies

The report lays out a roadmap for global action focused on five key areas: policy, research, interventions, improved measurement and public engagement. Together, these aim to reshape social norms and build a movement for social connection.

While the costs of social isolation and loneliness are steep, the benefits of social connections are profound. WHO urged governments, communities, and individuals to make social connection a public health priority.

Gaza: Health system crumbles amid growing desperation over food, fuel

Posted on June 27, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

“Definitely, people get shot,” said Gaza-based medic Dr. Luca Pigozzi, WHO Emergency Medical Team Coordinator. “They are victim of blast injuries as well and bodily injuries.”

The WHO official’s comments follow reports of another mass casualty incident on Thursday, this time involving a strike on a market in the central city of Deir al Balah.

More than 20 people were killed and approximately 70 others were injured, said the UN aid wing, OCHA, with victims rushed to Al Aqsa Hospital, Nasser Medical Complex and two other health facilities.

Hundreds killed seeking food

In addition to the latest deadly incident, at least 410 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military while trying to fetch aid from controversial non-UN aid hubs supported by Israel and the United States, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Tuesday.

Providing high-quality medical care is very difficult in the war-torn occupied enclave today, “particularly because we are speaking about a high volume of patients every time”, Dr Pigozzi insisted.

Health needs are widespread and dramatic, with almost 50 per cent of medical stocks completely depleted.

WHO’s first medical shipment into Gaza on Wednesday was its first since 2 March, when Israel imposed a full blockade on the Strip.

In total, nine trucks carrying essential medical supplies entered the enclave with 2,000 units of blood and 1,500 units of plasma; all transited through the Kerem Shalom crossing. It is “only a drop in the ocean” of what is required, Dr Pigozzi said.

Aid obstacles remain

Speaking to journalists from Jerusalem, WHO’s Dr Rik Peeperkorn highlighted renewed difficulties in securing agreement from the Israeli authorities to allow more UN and partner agencies’ supply trucks into Gaza.

“That’s really unfortunate and should not happen, because you don’t want to see those desperate people, and specifically desperate young men, risking their lives to get some food either,” he said, amid reports of a chaotic rush for supplies at non-UN distribution points and of starving Gazans taking goods directly off lorries.

Before the Israeli blockade, the UN and its humanitarian partners demonstrated that their aid delivery system reached those most in need, insisted Dr Peeperkorn, WHO Representative in the occupied Palestinian territory. Today that is not the case because of repeated refusals by Israeli authorities to allow supplies into Gaza.

“Open the routes and make sure that we can get our supplies in,” he said. “The market needs to be flooded with food and non-food items and water, et cetera, et cetera, and including essential medicines in a most cost-effective manner.”

Denied entry

Since March, aid teams have encountered a 44 per cent denial rate, meaning that for every 10 staff requesting entry, “four to five of them are denied per rotation”, WHO’s Dr Pigozzi said.

Echoing that message, WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier insisted that people are starving, sick and dying across Gaza every day.

“They have been killed on the way trying to get medical help, they have been killed inside hospitals. Now, additionally, they are being killed on the way to get food items which are scarcely being provided,” he said.

“We have food and medical help minutes away across the border, sitting there and waiting for weeks and months by now. Just open the door.”