(In the weekly Health Matters newsletter, Ramya Kannan writes about getting to good health, and staying there. You can subscribe here to get the newsletter in your inbox.)
It is what we have criticised time and again in our columns, but things came to a head with the complete withdrawal of the United States from the World Health Organization. It’s not the clean break as its President thought it might be when he announced the withdrawal a year earlier, as soon as he stepped into office.
“The U.S. owes more than $130 million to the global health agency,” according to WHO. And the Trump administration officials acknowledge that they haven’t finished working out some issues, such as lost access to data from other countries that could give America an early warning of a new pandemic. Dr. Ronald Nahass, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, called the U.S. withdrawal “shortsighted and misguided” and “scientifically reckless.”
The U.S. has ceased official participation in WHO-sponsored committees, leadership bodies, governance structures and technical working groups. That would seem to include the WHO group that assesses what flu strains are circulating and makes critical decisions about updating flu shots. Already, the State of California has opted to join the WHO, unwilling to lose out on early pandemic, epidemic and outbreak news, which America will now no longer have access to.
Perhaps, as Canadian premier Mark Carney said at Davos, earlier this month, this will also herald a new world order in health care. Mr. Carney argued that the old system reliant on American hegemony will not return, and he urged middle powers to form new, value-driven coalitions to avoid being sidelined. While disruptions will ensue, it should be possible for the comity of nations to rally together and ensure that U.S. exiting the WHO will be a loss for the latter alone, over a period of time.
We now move on to yet another sector where America remains blind – climate change. Climate change fuels disasters, but deaths don’t add up argues this article. While climate change is turbocharging extreme heat events, floods and intensifying winter, the calculation of the impact on human health is rather a complex issue, the authors reason.
The math is apparently not simple. Overall, apparently, mortality from extreme weather disasters has fallen over recent decades. More than 2.3 million people died from weather-related events between 1970 and 2025, according to an AFP analysis of EM-DAT, a global disaster database run by the Belgium-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED). The death toll between 2015 and 2025 reached 305,156, down from 354,428 in the previous decade, the analysis showed.
“It’s not because the events haven’t become more dangerous. It’s because we have become a lot better at coping with them,” Marina Romanello, executive director of the Lancet Countdown, a climate-health monitoring programme,has said. For more interesting insights on the subject, do hit on the the link above.
Further on this, the world is not ready for rise in extreme heat. As per this article, nearly 3.8 billion people could face extreme heat by 2050 and while tropical countries will bear the brunt, cooler regions will also need to adapt, scientists said. Demand for cooling will “drastically” increase in giant countries like Brazil, Indonesia and Nigeria, where hundreds of millions of people lack air-conditioning or other means of beating the heat. But even a moderate increase in hotter days could have a “severe impact” in nations not used to such conditions – Canada, Russia and Finland, said scientists from the University of Oxford.
Moving on from climate change, but not entirely away. Remember the horrific water contamination deaths in Indore: here’s a follow up. Mehul Malpani reports that even as a high-level State govt. panel has been set up to probe the Indore water tragedy, it is a case of action without accountability. Unfortunately, again in Madhya Pradesh, there were reports last week that nine persons had fallen ill due to water contamination in Madhya Pradesh’s Mhow. The borewell was found contaminated and further investigation on the pipelines continues as eight people remain in hospital drinking the contaminated water.
At this juncture, it will probably be prudent to insert the latest expert call for a citizen-centric health care delivery and use of technology. Jacob Koshy reports on The Lancet commission’s recent message for India: experts call for a ‘citizen-centric’ healthcare delivery and use of technology.
In mental health, we had Yajur Krishnamoorthy’s piece on rethinking disability and mental health law in India seeking to study the gaps between legislative intent and stakeholder experience, when it comes to implementation of the Mental Healthcare Act (MHA), 2017 and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016. Ideally, over the last two decades, we ought to have moved the policy from charity to rights, from institutional care to community inclusion, and yet, they remain a dream.
Anirban Mukhopadhyay reports on a large genetic study that finds overlaps between schizophrenia and bone health. Compared to the general population, people with schizophrenia are more likely to have weaker bones and to suffer fractures, in part because of disruptions in metabolic processes involved in bone health.
In our tail piece for the week, we decided to focus on Bacillus subtilis, simply because Kerala had declared it the State microbe. We have heard of the State animal and bird and even flora that represents a State, but this is probably the first time a microbe has found its way to such a list. Bacillus subtilis, a type of probiotic or “good” bacteria found widely in the environment and naturally in the gut of humans as well as in fermented foods, will now be the State Microbe. Long live the State Microbe!
Our explainers, this week, have been more than robust, and we have possibly overdone it. Do check them out below:
Athira Elssa Johnson brings clarity on the thyroid; consult your doctor before going in for tests, she says. If you have asked why your knees produce sounds here’s her explanation.
Dr. Sireesha Reddy talks about why regular pap smears still matter despite the fact that there is a vaccine against HPV.
Dr. Kurien Thomas and Dr. Pranita Vanjare explain why Vitamin D deficiency is a real thing with Indians.
Dr. Dilip Mathai stresses on the importance of immunising India’s older population.
At a time when we have just come past Glaucoma awareness day, Afshan Yasmeen writes on how steroid misuse has emerged as major trigger for secondary glaucoma
In case you missed this earlier, Dr. M. Bhaskaran gives us tips on eye examination for glaucoma in this interview.
Dr. Backiaraj D. and Dr. Boopesh Pugazhendi give very good advice to keep your spine healthy.
Heart attacks during pregnancy are rare, but are on the rise now due to factors such as increased age, diabetes and obesity, says Dr. P. Manokar, while Dr. Vinayak Shukla and Dr. Ray George in their article, address stress as the silent killer of the heart.
Dr. Ashok Chacko and Dr. E. Rabindranath provide a primer on MASLD: a silent liver disease on the rise in India
If you have a few moments, do also read:
A total of 167 drug samples flagged as ‘not of standard quality’ in December 2025: Health Ministry
Researchers develop tool to simplify nutritional tracking of Indian meals
Shingles vaccine may also slow down biological ageing in older adults, study finds
Indian drugmakers get regulatory nod to sell generic Wegovy, heating obesity‑drug race
The Hindu’s edit on the financial burden of India’s ageing population
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