At least one person each second, or 42 million people annually worldwide is estimated to acquire a new genital herpes infection, according to new estimates by the World Health Organization on Wednesday.

It showed that about 846 million people or more than 1 in 5 people aged between 15 and 49 are living with genital herpes infections.

Herpes simplex virus (HSV), known as herpes, is a common infection that can cause painful blisters or ulcers. It primarily spreads by skin-to-skin contact. It is treatable but not curable.

Usually, these infections cause no or few symptoms, in some cases they lead to painful genital sores and blisters that can recur throughout life, causing significant discomfort and often requiring multiple healthcare visits.

The recent heavy rain and water stagnation in Tamil Nadu have led to a significant surge in dengue cases.

According to the Tamil Nadu Health Department, the state has reported 23,815 dengue cases so far this year.

In November alone, there was an increase of 4,144 cases. Public health officials attribute the rise in dengue cases to the proliferation of Aedes mosquitoes, which thrive in stagnant water and are the primary vectors of dengue fever.

Currently, the daily count of dengue cases ranges from 120 to 150, with occasional spikes to 180. A steady increase in cases has been observed since July. A total of 2,766 cases were reported in July, 3994 in August, 4347 in September and 3,662 cases in October.

A large-scale Swedish study on Monday suggested that drinking sweetened drinks can significantly increase your risk of serious cardiovascular diseases like stroke, heart failure, and atrial fibrillation.

The study also showed that eating too much-added sugar can increase the risk of stroke or aneurysm. However, limited consumption of treats can be safe.

“Consuming sweet drinks was worse for your health than any other form of sugar," noted the study published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health.

Suzanne Janzi, a doctoral candidate at Lund University said that the sweetened beverages, which contain liquid sugars, "typically provide less satiety than solid forms"

Adopting a healthy diet can reduce the severity of chronic pain, an Australian research has found.

In a new study, researchers from the University of South Australia found a direct link between greater consumption of food within the federal government's Australian Dietary Guidelines and lower levels of body pain, particularly among women, reports news agency.

"It's common knowledge that eating well is good for your health and well-being. But knowing that simple changes to your diet could offset chronic pain could be life-changing," Sue Ward, a co-author of the study, said.

Previous research has found that over 30 per cent of people globally suffer from chronic pain, with women and people who are overweight or obese more likely to be affected.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is deploying experts to support health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with investigations to determine the cause of a yet undiagnosed disease that has been reported in Panzi, a locality in Kwango Province in the southwest of the country.

The WHO experts are joining the Congo response team and are on their way to Panzi, the WHO regional office for Africa confirmed in a statement on Friday, news agency reported.

An initial local WHO team has been supporting the health authorities in Kwango since the end of November to reinforce disease surveillance and identify cases.

"Our priority is to provide effective support to the affected families and communities. All efforts are underway to identify the cause of the illness, understand its modes of transmission, and ensure appropriate response as swiftly as possible," said WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti.

Eight-hour sleep every night not only rejuvenates the body but also helps brain to store and learn a new language, according to a new study.

A team of international scientists, led by the University of South Australia and published in the Journal of Neuroscience, revealed that the coordination of two electrical events in the sleeping brain significantly improves our ability to remember new words and complex grammatical rules.

In an experiment with 35 native English-speaking adults, researchers tracked the brain activity of participants learning a miniature language called Mini Pinyin that is based on Mandarin but with similar grammatical rules to English.

Mini Pinyin contains 32 verbs and 25 nouns, including 10 human entities, 10 animals and five objects. Overall, the language contains 576 unique sentences.

US state of Mississippi could see the steepest drop off in health insurance coverage if Congress doesn't vote to extend temporary health coverage subsidies at the end of next year, according to a recent report issued by policy think tank The Urban Institute.

Some 112,000 people in the state would lose health insurance, a 43 per cent increase in the state's already-high uninsured rate, the report said.

A decade ago, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) reformed the American healthcare system, offering millions of Americans an affordable health insurance option, reports news agency, quoting The Urban Institute.

A study on Wednesday proved a suspected link between poor sleep and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD).

MASLD (formerly known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease) is the most common liver disorder: it affects 30 per cent of adults and between 7 per cent and 14 per cent of children and adolescents. This prevalence is predicted to rise to more than 55 per cent of adults by 2040.

While previous studies have implicated disturbances in the circadian clock and the sleep cycle in the development of MASLD, the new study by researchers from the University of Basel in Switzerland showed for the first time that the sleep-wake rhythm in patients with MASLD does indeed differ from that in healthy individuals.

In the paper, published in the journal Frontiers in Network Physiology, the team showed that patients with MASLD woke 55 per cent more often at night, and lay 113 per cent longer awake after having first fallen asleep, compared to healthy volunteers.

South Korea's presidential committee on population policy on Tuesday unveiled plans to have up to 70 per cent of fathers take parental leave by 2030 as the government intensifies efforts to tackle the nation's pressing demographic challenges.

The figure would mark a sharp increase from just 6.8 per cent recorded in 2022, according to the Presidential Committee on Ageing Society and Population Policy.

The rate for mothers stood at 70 per cent in the same year.

The data represents the ratio of people who take parental leave among eligible workers with children aged eight or younger.

The latest announcement comes amid anticipated changes in the parental leave policy starting next year.

A team of US scientists has deemed two commonly used antiseizure medications -- lamotrigine and levetiracetam -- safe to use during pregnancy.

Epilepsy -- a chronic neurological condition -- is characterised by sudden numbness, body stiffness, shaking, fainting, speech difficulty, and involuntary urination. While medicines are known to help most women to lead normal lives, in some cases, they can cause harm to the foetus.

To understand, researchers from Stanford University evaluate the drugs’ long-term effects on children born to mothers who took one or both medications for epilepsy while pregnant. They documented outcomes at age 6 from 298 children of women with epilepsy and a comparison group of 89 children of healthy women.