Watch: Govt's sugar and oil board mandate, patient-friendly health tech, brain vs mind and liver health
In this episode of The Health Wrap by The Hindu, Senior journalists Ramya Kannan and Zubeda Hamid unpack the Health Ministry's new directive on displaying sugar and oil content in public institutions, explore patient-first innovations like IIT Madras's lightweight wheelchair and a redesigned speculum, and discuss the enduring puzzle of brain vs mind.
Dr. Vivek Shanmugam joins for a detailed conversation on liver health --why it matters, what to watch for and how to protect it.
Bindu Shajan Perappadan , Senior Assistant Editor at The Hindu, joins in our Reporter on Call segment.
Don't miss the fun fact at the end!
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News18
3 hours ago
- News18
Latest child to starve to death in Gaza weighed less than when she was born
Agency: Khan Younis(Gaza Strip) Jul 26 (AP) A mother pressed a final kiss to what remained of her five-month-old daughter and wept. Esraa Abu Halib's baby now weighed less than when she was born. On a sunny street in shattered Gaza, the bundle containing Zainab Abu Halib represented the latest death from starvation after 21 months of war and Israeli restrictions on aid. The baby was brought to the pediatric department of Nasser Hospital on Friday. She was already dead. A worker at the morgue carefully removed her Mickey Mouse-printed shirt, pulling it over her sunken, open eyes. He pulled up the hems of her pants to show her knobby knees. His thumb was wider than her ankle. He could count the bones of her chest. The girl had weighed over 3 kilograms when she was born, her mother said. When she died, she weighed less than 2 kilograms. A doctor said it was a case of 'severe, severe starvation." She was wrapped in a white sheet for burial and placed on the sandy ground for prayers. The bundle was barely wider than the imam's stance. He raised his open hands and invoked Allah once more. She needed special formula Zainab was one of 85 children to die of malnutrition-related causes in Gaza in the past three weeks, according to the latest toll released by the territory's Health Ministry on Saturday. Another 42 adults died of malnutrition-related causes in the same period, it said. 'She needed a special baby formula which did not exist in Gaza," Zainab's father, Ahmed Abu Halib, told The Associated Press as he prepared for her funeral prayers in the hospital's courtyard in the southern city of Khan Younis. Dr Ahmed al-Farah, head of the pediatric department, said the girl had needed a special type of formula that helps with babies allergic to cow's milk. He said she hadn't suffered from any diseases, but the lack of the formula led to chronic diarrhea and vomiting. She wasn't able to swallow as her weakened immune system led to a bacterial infection and sepsis, and quickly lost more weight. (AP) RD RD PTI) view comments First Published: July 26, 2025, 22:00 IST Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Indian Express
3 hours ago
- Indian Express
‘Hungry treating the hungry': Gaza's doctors are collapsing as famine reaches hospitals
Inside Gaza's Nasser Hospital, Dr Mohammad Saqer was midway through a shift when his vision blurred and his knees buckled. He hadn't eaten in nearly a day. 'My fellow doctors caught me before I collapsed,' he told CNN. 'They gave me IV fluids and sugar.' The only food around? A foreign doctor's small carton of juice. That was all it took to bring him back — a reminder of just how little sustains Gaza's doctors now. Most are surviving on one plate of rice a day, even as they labour through 24-hour shifts surrounded by patients suffering from the same thing: hunger. 'We are physically drained,' Saqer said. 'The hungry treating the hungry. The weak treating the weak.' This is not just a crisis behind hospital doors. It's a collapse — one unfolding in plain sight, one that is hollowing out Gaza's medical staff even as they fight to keep the dying alive. In Nasser's paediatric wing, entire rows of babies lie quietly in cribs, their tiny bodies reduced to bone and skin. 'The bones in their faces, spines, and ribcages appear to be protruding,' CNN reported. 'Their limbs resemble limp noodles.' Formula is scarce. Breastfeeding mothers can't produce milk without food. 'She needs fruits. She needs vegetables,' said Yasmin Abu Sultan, trying to feed her baby Mona through a syringe. 'But there's nothing.' At Al-Tahrir Hospital, Dr Ahmad Al-Farra said the situation is so dire, staff are starting to mentally unravel. 'Most of them are now suffering from depression, general weakness, inability to concentrate, and memory loss,' he said. 'They've lost their passion for life.' It's the kind of crisis that distorts a child's sense of the world. Dr Al-Farra recounted the moment he heard a little girl, too young to understand war, whisper to her mother after learning potassium comes from bananas — a fruit long gone from Gaza shelves. 'The girl asked her mother if there were bananas in paradise and she answered yes. The girl said 'then let's become martyrs so I can eat bananas and get better,'' Dr Al-Farra recalled. 'Can you imagine a child wishing for death just to get food?' Outside the hospital, the desperation is no different. In Gaza City, Hidaya Al Mtawwaq watches her three-year-old son wither. Mohammad weighs just six kilograms. 'He can't even stand on his feet,' she told CNN. 'All because of the famine.' Her husband is dead. She can barely afford a bottle of milk. 'I'm truly exhausted,' she said. 'Exhausted, exhausted.' More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed while trying to access aid since May, according to the UN. Aid convoys are still being blocked or looted. Food prices are astronomical: flour now costs $92 (Rs 7,953.93) for just two kilograms, Dr Saqer said. The UN says every one of Gaza's 2.1 million people is now food insecure. Gaza's Health Ministry estimates 900,000 children are going hungry. In just two weeks, Doctors Without Borders has seen severe malnutrition in children under five triple. In northern Gaza, Al-Ahli Al-Arabi Hospital director Dr Fadel Naim said some of his colleagues have collapsed while operating. 'If we have one meal a day, we are lucky,' he told CNN. 'Most people are working 24/7. Their energy is gone.' Doctors say the hunger is no accident. 'As peaceful Palestinian people, we are being collectively punished,' Dr Naim said. 'President Trump must take a strong stance.' Meanwhile, Israel denies accusations that it is restricting aid, despite widespread warnings from the UN, WHO, and other agencies that the conditions amount to man-made famine. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organisation, has called it 'mass starvation.' Despite the exhaustion, Dr Saqer, who hasn't seen his family in three months, says he will not abandon his duty. 'This profession is rooted in humanity,' he told CNN. 'And under no circumstances can we abandon our duty or the oath we took.'
The Hindu
a day ago
- The Hindu
Watch: Govt's sugar and oil board mandate, patient-friendly health tech, brain vs mind and liver health
Watch: Govt's sugar and oil board mandate, patient-friendly health tech, brain vs mind and liver health | Health Wrap by The Hindu In this episode of The Health Wrap by The Hindu, Senior journalists Ramya Kannan and Zubeda Hamid unpack the Health Ministry's new directive on displaying sugar and oil content in public institutions, explore patient-first innovations like IIT Madras's lightweight wheelchair and a redesigned speculum, and discuss the enduring puzzle of brain vs mind. Dr. Vivek Shanmugam joins for a detailed conversation on liver health --why it matters, what to watch for and how to protect it. Bindu Shajan Perappadan , Senior Assistant Editor at The Hindu, joins in our Reporter on Call segment. Don't miss the fun fact at the end!
