Bench gave the orders on a PIL initiated by S. Viswanathan, an advocate, against the authorities. Burning of garbage in Pallikaranai should be stopped immediately, the Madras High Court ordered on Friday.

A major fire broke out in the garbage dumping yard in Pallikaranai last Saturday, and thick smoke emanating from it has affected the environment in Velachery, Perungudi, Madipakkam, Taramani and other areas over the past few days.

GUWAHATI: A survey conducted by a voluntary association called ‘Jeevan Initiative’ has revealed the high presence of microbes in drinking water at various public places, including schools and hospitals in the city.

The association collected samples from drinking water facilities installed at 10 prominent public places in the city and found that all of them failed in the bacteriological test, while four of them failed even in the chemical tests, after it was submitted at the State Public Health Laboratory for analysis.

A two-day national seminar on endosulfan scheduled here from July 14 aims to free the district from all kinds of chemical and hazardous pesticides, P. Karunakaran, MP, has said.

Less than four months ago the world was cheered to learn that India had gone a full year with no new cases of polio - a landmark that left only Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria on the World Health Organization's list of countries where the disease is endemic.

But the battle is far from over, judging by the WHO's latest expressions of alarm. It says that in both Nigeria and Afghanistan the number is creeping up, while budget shortfalls are jeopardising the effort to hold polio at bay in 24 other high-risk countries. Right now the numbers of new infections are small.

A total of 2,566 persons in the State were afflicted with dengue fever and 36 succumbed to the disease, according to the Health Department. Similarly, 204 persons in the State have so far been infected with A (H1N1) and five had so far died of the infection.

The announcement followed a review meeting by Health Minister V.S. Vijay with Health Department officials, including Principal Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan, Director of Public Health Porkai Pandian, Chennai Mayor Saidai S. Doraisamy and Director of Medical Education C. Vamsadhara.

Sixty per cent of people living in India do not have access to toilets, and hence are forced to defecate in the open. In actual numbers, sixty per cent translates to 626 million. This makes India the number one country in the world where open defecation is practised. Indonesia with 63 million is a far second!

At 949 million in 2010 worldwide, vast majority of people practising open defecation live in rural areas. Though the number of rural people practising open defecation has reduced by 234 million in 2010 than in 1990, “those that continue to do so tend to be concentrated in a few countries, including India,” notes the 2012 update report of UNICEF and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

SHILLONG: To control the spread of malaria the State Government proposes to introduce larvivorous fishes popularly known as ‘mosquito fishes’ in a big way. Meghalaya continues to have high incidence of malaria especially in Garo Hills and parts of Khasi Jaintia Hills.

“We will conduct a detailed study on the efficacy of larvivorous fishes to control the spread of malaria since these fish feed on mosquito larvae. If this option proves effective in controlling the spread of malaria then it would provide the Government with an alternative to control the disease,

The $7.8-billion US-based medical technology major Becton Dickinson (BD), is in the final stages of developing a new technology for diagnosing tuberculosis (TB), which kills 300,000 Indians every y

JAIPUR: The medical, health and family welfare department managed to achieve only 85.09% of target set for full immunization of infants against various diseases in the financial year 2011-12.

The latest figures released by the health department shows that nine districts have failed to touch even 80% of the set target.It shows that there are nearly 15% of children left out from fully being vaccinated against various diseases. The vaccination targets were fixed on the basis of birth rate of the district.

Interview with stem cell researcher Shinya Yamanaka.