Australian research has linked stroke to immediate and accelerated long-term cognitive decline.

In a study published on Thursday, researchers from the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA) at the University of New South Wales Sydney found that older adults who have a stroke for the first time experience substantial immediate cognitive decline.

Stroke occurs when blood flow to the brain is blocked or reduced, damaging brain cells. According to the World Health Organization, 15 million people worldwide suffer a stroke every year -- 10 million of whom either die or are left permanently disabled,news agency reported.

The CHeBA team analysed data from 14 studies spanning 11 countries that tracked the health and cognitive abilities of 20,860 community-dwelling adults -- with an average of 73 years -- who did not have a history of dementia or stroke.

Amid rising cases of dengue and other Aedes-borne arboviruses such as Zika and chikungunya, the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday launched a global plan to reduce the burden of disease, suffering and deaths.

The Global Strategic Preparedness, Readiness, and Response Plan (SPRP) looks to foster a global coordinated response with actions to control transmission. It also offers recommendations to affected countries across various sectors, including disease surveillance, laboratory activities, vector control, community engagement, clinical management, and research and development, through a whole-of-society and regional approach.

“The rapid spread of dengue and other arboviral diseases in recent years is an alarming trend that demands a coordinated response across sectors and across borders,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.

The WHO said that an estimated four billion people are at risk of infection from arboviruses around the world, and this number is estimated to increase to five billion by 2050.

An estimated four billion people globally are at risk for dengue, and the disease is now endemic in more than 130 countries. The number of dengue cases has approximately doubled each year since 2021, with over 12.3 million cases as of the end of August this year -- almost double the 6.5 million cases reported in all of 2023.

Diabetes and obesity can fuel the relapse of liver cancer -- the sixth most common cancer worldwide, according to a study.

The study led by Osaka Metropolitan University, focussed on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) -- a type of liver cancer associated with hepatitis infections -- known to have a high recurrence rate after cancer removal. It is also the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths globally.

Obesity and diabetes, which are closely associated with metabolic syndrome development, are well known to induce steatotic liver diseases, potentially causing liver cirrhosis and HCC development.

However, obesity and diabetes’ effects on patient survival and cancer recurrence have been unclear.

Banning the purchase of cigarettes and other tobacco products for youth can significantly prevent 12 lakh lung cancer deaths in the young population, according to a study, published in The Lancet Public Health journal on Thursday.

The findings aim to secure future generations from the risks of smoking, which is the biggest risk factor for lung cancer. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death worldwide and is estimated to cause more than two-thirds of the 18 lakh deaths every year.

In the first-of-its-kind simulation study, researchers from the University of Santiago de Compostela, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), called for creating a generation of people who never smoke.

As screen addiction among children becomes a nightmare for parents and teachers, allowing students to use smartphones for a very brief amount of time can actually enhance classroom performance and reduce phone use, researchers said on Wednesday.

A team of US researchers conducted a term-long experiment that showed that allowing college students to use their phones for just one minute could result in less phone use during class and higher test scores.

“We show that technology breaks may be helpful for reducing cell phone use in the college classroom,” said Professor Ryan Redner, a researcher at Southern Illinois University and first author of the study published in the journal Frontiers in Education. “To our knowledge, this is the first evaluation of technology breaks in a college classroom.”

While India continues to face a deficit in blood donation, making Nucleic Acid Testing (NAT) mandatory may ward off the risk of infections to those requiring regular blood transfusions, said experts here on Tuesday.

National Voluntary Blood Donation is celebrated on October 1 every year to raise awareness about the importance of blood and the need for voluntary blood donation.

India has consistently fallen short of the World Health Organization's recommendation that 1 per cent of the population donate blood. This is despite having a potential donor base of 402 million people.

While the country needs 14.6 million units of blood annually, it faces a deficit of around one million units.

Myths and misconceptions about contracting infections like HIV, and lack of awareness, are the major reasons for the lack of volunteer blood donations in India, said the experts.

In a first, public spending on health has overtaken the out-of-pocket expenditure in India, according to the Union Health Ministry’s National Health Account (NHA) estimates for India 2020-21 and 2021-22.

The report, recently released by NITI Aayog, showed that the share of out-of-pocket expenditure out of total health expenditure declined to 39.4 per cent in 2021-22. It was 64.2 per cent in 2013-14.

At the same time, the share of Government Health Expenditure (GHE) in the overall GDP of the country surged significantly to 48 per cent in 2021-22, from 28.6 per cent in 2013-14.

The historic shift in health policy is driven by increased public spending. It will ease the financial burden on families, the report said.

This will also "ensure financial protection and boost universal health coverage for citizens", it added.

Paediatricians must prescribe opioids for pain to children when necessary, with recommended precautions to increase safety, according to a new clinical practice guideline released by the American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday.

The first clinical practice guideline for opioid prescriptions in kids also includes explicit instructions on how and when to prescribe these medications for pain while reducing the long-term risk of addiction.

The guideline, published in the journal Pediatrics online, called on Paediatricians always to start non-opioid medications and treatment, for a patient with mild to moderate pain. It also marked a shift in clinical practice by recommending a routine prescription for naloxone -- a medication used to reverse overdoses -- alongside every opioid prescription.

High cholesterol and microplastics are emerging as extremely dangerous risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, like heart attack and stroke, said experts on Saturday.

While cholesterol has traditionally been linked to an older population, recent years have shown a marked increase in cholesterol among youngsters.

This silent health concern often goes unnoticed, as high cholesterol typically does not show clear symptoms until serious damage has been done.

Dr. Preeti Gupta, Professor of Cardiology at Safdarjung Hospital, Delhi said that early screenings, and keeping cholesterol and LDL-C levels (bad cholesterol) in check, can make a big difference.

Regular lipid profile testing and staying on top of your health can help catch any warning signs before they become serious problems.

Kenya's Ministry of Health confirmed another mpox case, bringing the total number of infections to eight as the government stepped up community awareness to curb the stigma surrounding it.

Mary Muthoni, the principal secretary in the Ministry of Health, said in a statement issued in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, that the case had been confirmed in Bungoma, western Kenya.

"Sixty-one contacts have been followed up and released. Only one tested positive for mpox," she said, news agency reported.

Muthoni added that Kenya had cumulatively screened 1.05 million travellers at 26 points of entry and no deaths have been reported so far.