Lancet Report

Omicron XBB.1.5 variant is highly transmissible and infectious: Lancet

This indicated that an individual with the XBB.1.5 variant could infect 1.2 times more people in the population than someone with the parental XBB.1 variant

Pneumonia linked with higher death risk from respiratory infection as adult

Respiratory infections contracted during early childhood are associated with an increased risk in death from respiratory illness between the ages of 26 and 73 years, according to a study published in The Lancet journal. The study suggests that, although the overall number of premature deaths from respiratory disease was small, people who had a lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI), such as bronchitis or pneumonia, by the age of two were 93 per cent more likely to die prematurely from respiratory disease as adults, regardless of socioeconomic background or smoking status. Chronic respiratory diseases pose a major public health problem, with an estimated 3.9 million deaths in 2017, accounting for 7 per cent of all deaths worldwide, the researchers said. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) caused most of these deaths, they said. Infant LRTIs have been shown to be linked to the development of adult lung function impairments, asthma, and COPD, but it was previously unclear i

India may miss 2030 deadline for over half of health SDGs: Lancet study

India is not on target for over 50 per cent of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators related to health and social determinants of health seven years before the 2030 deadline, according to a study published in The Lancet journal. An international team of researchers found that over 75 per cent Indian districts are off target for crucial SDG indicators like access to basic services, poverty, stunting and wasting of children, anaemia, child marriage, partner violence, tobacco use, and modern contraceptive use. For these indicators, more than 75 per cent of the districts were off-target. These districts are concentrated in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, and Odisha. "India is not on target for 19 of the 33 SDGs indicators ... Because of a worsening trend observed between 2016 and 2021, and assuming no course correction occurs, many districts will never meet the targets on the SDGs even well after 2030," the authors of the study ...

No new Covid variants emerged during China's recent outbreak: Lancet study

Two known Omicron sub-variants rather than any new variants have chiefly been responsible for the recent COVID-19 surge in China, according to a study of cases in Beijing published in The Lancet Journal. The analysis suggests Omicron sub-variants, BA.5.2 and BF.7 among the most dominant variants in Beijing during 2022 accounted for more than 90 per cent of local infections between November 14 and December 20, 2022. The results represent a snapshot of the pandemic in China, due to the characteristics of Beijing's population and the circulation of highly transmissible COVID-19 strains there, the researchers said. China is widely reported to have ended its zero-Covid strategy on December 7, 2022. Since the lifting of these strict COVID-19 control policies which included targeted lockdowns, mass testing and quarantine surging case numbers have raised concerns that new variants could emerge. In the three years since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, the emergence of variant

Planting trees could cut deaths from higher temperatures by third: Study

Planting more trees could decrease deaths from higher summer temperatures in cities by a third, according to a modelling study published in The Lancet journal. The study of 93 European cities found that increasing tree cover up to 30 per cent can help lower the temperature of urban environments by an average of 0.4 degrees Celsius and prevent heat-related deaths. Of the 6,700 premature deaths attributed to higher temperatures in cities during 2015, one third of these (2,644) could have been prevented by increasing urban tree cover up to 30 per cent, the researchers said. These findings highlight the need for more sustainable and climate-resilient strategies to be integrated into local policy decisions to aid climate change adaptation and improve population health, they said. "We already know that high temperatures in urban environments are associated with negative health outcomes, such as cardiorespiratory failure, hospital admission, and premature death," said study lead author, .

Booster dose of Covishield offers best immune response: Lancet study

A booster dose of Covishield offers the best immune response, irrespective of whether the primary doses were of Covishield or Covaxin, according to a new study conducted in India and published in The Lancet Regional Health Southeast Asia journal. According to the study, even though homologous and heterologous boosting with Covishield or Covaxin in Covishield or Covaxin primed individuals are immunogenic and safe, boosting with Covishield produced better binding and functional antibodies, irrespective of whether the primary vaccination series used Covishield or Covaxin. Primary SARS-CoV-2 vaccination has been shown to wane with time and provide lower protection from disease with new viral variants, prompting the World Health Organisation (WHO) to recommend the administration of booster doses. The study, conducted by researchers from Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu and Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, determined the safety and ...

Molnupiravir does not cut deaths in high risk Covid patients: Lancet study

Using the antiviral drug molnupiranir does not decrease deaths or hospital admissions among COVID-19 patients who are vaccinated and at higher risk of mortality, according to a study published in The Lancet journal. The trial with over 25,000 participants, however, suggests that patients taking molnupiravir recovered faster -- on average 4.2 days quicker -- compared to patients in the control group. Previous studies suggested that molnupiravir is effective at reducing hospital admissions in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 and WHO recommends its use for patients with the highest risk of hospital admission. However, studies have so far been conducted in largely unvaccinated populations and prior to the emergence of the Omicron variant. The new study was carried out in a vaccinated population where most COVID-19 infections were the Omicron variant. Molnupiravir is one of the more expensive antivirals used to treat COVID-19, with a seven-day course costing around USD 700 in th

India sees most number of cervical cancer cases, deaths in Asia: Lancet

Lancet report titled, "Global estimates of incidence and mortality of cervical cancer in 2020: a baseline analysis of the WHO Global Cervical Cancer Elimination Initiative," highlights glaring reality

Symptoms of long Covid in children may change over time: Lancet study

Symptoms of long Covid experienced by children and young people may change over time, according to the largest study of its kind published in The Lancet Regional Health - Europe. Researchers asked children aged 11 to 17 about their health six months and 12 months after taking a PCR test between September 2020 and March 2021. They also asked them to recall their symptoms at the time of taking the test. None of the children initially invited to participate in the study had been hospitalised. The researchers examined data from 5,086 children, 2,909 of whom tested positive for Covid-19, and 2,177 of whom tested negative. They asked the children and young people what they had experienced from a list of 21 symptoms, including shortness of breath and tiredness, as well as using validated scales to assess quality of life, mental health, wellbeing and fatigue. The team found that, at time of testing, health issues were more common in children and young people who had tested positive for th

India lacks adequate community level data for hypertension control: Lancet

More than 50 per cent of patients in India are unaware of their high blood pressure, finds a study published in Lancet Regional Health Journal

Heat-related deaths up by 68% between 2000-04 and 2017-21: Lancet Report

Heat-related deaths increased by 68 per cent between 2000-2004 and 2017-2021, while vulnerable populations -- the elderly and children less than a year old -- were exposed to 3.7 billion more heatwave days in 2021 than annually in 1986-2005, according to a global report. The report, brought out by Lancet Countdown, focuses on the health effects of climate change amid the health, social and economic aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic, global energy and cost-of-living crises brought about by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and a persistent overdependence on fossil fuels. While floods in Australia, Brazil, China, Malaysia, Pakistan and other countries have caused thousands of deaths, displaced hundreds of thousands of people and caused billions of dollars in economic losses, wildfires have caused devastation in countries like Greece, Algeria, Italy, Spain and record temperatures have been recorded in many countries, according to the report. According to the report, extreme weather events ...

Symptomatic Covid-19 infection linked with poor mental health: Lancet study

Having symptoms of COVID-19 infection is associated with poorer mental health and lower life satisfaction, according to a study published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal. The team, led by researchers at King's College London and University College London (UCL) in the UK, looked at the impact of COVID-19 infection on subsequent mental health and wellbeing. Data was taken from 11 longitudinal studies between April 2020 and April 2021, in which there were 54,442 participants with and without self-reported COVID-19. Researchers found that rises in psychological distress, depression, anxiety, and lower life satisfaction were associated with prior self-reported COVID-19. The associations with poorer mental health did not lessen over time after infection, highlighting the potential enduring impacts of the disease and the need for a longer follow-up process from healthcare providers. Self-reported COVID-19 was consistently associated with psychological distress, regardless of whether peop

Alzheimer's-related deaths in India increased 5 times in 30 years

Lancet study: Alzheimer's and other dementias claimed 129,000 lives in 2019

India among top 10 countries with most cases of Type 1 diabetes: Study

An estimated 8.4 million people were living with Type 1 Diabetes across the globe in 2021, and India was among the top ten countries with highest prevalence of the disease, according to a modelling study published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal. This number is predicted to increase to 13.5-17.4 million people living with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) by 2040, the resaerchers said. "Given that prevalence of people with T1D is projected to increase in all countries to up to 17.5 million cases in 2040, our results provide a warning for substantial negative implications for societies and healthcare systems," said Professor Graham Ogle, one of the authors of the study, from the University of Sydney, Australia. "There is an opportunity to save millions of lives in the coming decades by raising the standard of care for T1D and increasing awareness of the signs and symptoms of T1D to enable a 100 per cent rate of diagnosis in all countries," Ogle said. Researchers modelled data on

Lancet report highlights 'massive global failures' in Covid-19 response

Widespread, global failures at multiple levels in the COVID-19 response led to millions of preventable deaths and reversed progress made towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in many countries, according to a new Lancet COVID-19 Commission report. The Commission critically considers the global response to the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, citing widespread failures of prevention, transparency, rationality, basic public health practice, and operational cooperation and international solidarity that resulted in an estimated 17.7 million deaths. The report also finds that most national governments were unprepared and too slow in their response, paid too little attention to the most vulnerable groups in their societies, and were hampered by a lack of international cooperation and an epidemic of misinformation. The Commission drew evidence using new epidemiological and financial analyses to outline recommendations that will help hasten the end of the COVID-19 ..

Over 47% antibiotic formulations used by Indians in 2019 unapproved: Study

More than 47 per cent of antibiotic formulations used in India's private sector in 2019 were not approved by the central drug regulator, according to a study published in The Lancet Regional Health-Southeast Asia. The research also found that Azithromycin 500mg tablet was the most consumed antibiotic formulation (7.6 per cent) in India, followed by cefixime 200 mg tablet (6.5 per cent) during the year. The researchers at Boston University, US and Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi, examined the private sector antibiotic use, which contributes to 8590 per cent of the total consumption in India. The data were gathered from a panel of 9,000 stockists who store products from approximately 5,000 pharmaceutical companies. However, these data did not include the drugs dispensed through public facilities, though this is less than 1520 per cent of all drug sales in the country as per studies and national health accounts estimates. The researchers found a lower consumption rate of

Smoking, alcohol, high BMI main causes of global cancer deaths: Lancet

Smoking, alcohol use, high body mass index (BMI), and other known risk factors were responsible for nearly 4.45 million global cancer deaths in 2019, according to study published in The Lancet journal on Friday. The findings can help policymakers and researchers identify key risk factors that could be targeted in efforts to reduce deaths and ill health from cancer regionally, nationally, and globally. "This study illustrates that the burden of cancer remains an important public health challenge that is growing in magnitude around the world," said Christopher Murray, Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, US. "Smoking continues to be the leading risk factor for cancer globally, with other substantial contributors to cancer burden varying," said Murray, a co-senior author of the study. Using results from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors (GBD) 2019 study, the researchers investigated how 34 behaviour

Covid-19 raises dementia, psychosis risk up to 2 years: Lancet study

People infected with Covid-19 infection can be more at risk of psychosis, dementia, seizures and brain fog for up to two years compared to other respiratory infections, finds a study

Smallpox vax protection against monkeypox may not be lasting: Lancet study

Although the smallpox jab has shown to reduce the chance of symptomatic infection and severe illness from monkeypox, protection may decline over time.

People with Covid-19 history likely to develop heart ailments, shows study

The study, which was published on August 11, advises patients with Covid-19 history to pay attention to their cardiovascular health