Hypertension or high blood pressure is a silent killer that affects over 294 million people in the Southeast Asia region, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday, ahead of World Hypertension Day.

World Hypertension Day is observed every year on May 17 to raise awareness of hypertension and its serious medical complications.

The theme this year is "measure your blood pressure accurately, control it, live longer". It emphasises the importance of regular and accurate blood pressure measurements.

“Hypertension continues to be a major public health challenge -- a silent killer that affects over 294 million people across the WHO South-East Asia Region,” said Saima Wazed, Regional Director for WHO South-East Asia.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's southern economic hub, has recorded 7,398 cases of dengue fever from the beginning of 2025 to May 11, a 136 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2024, Vietnam News Agency reported Friday.

Experts warned that the dengue season has arrived earlier this year than usual and may carry a heightened risk of widespread outbreaks, according to the city's Centre for Disease Control.

Ho Chi Minh City and other southern provinces have entered the rainy season, which typically marks the start of the annual rise in dengue infections.

Health authorities are urging residents to remain vigilant and take proactive steps to prevent the spread of the disease, said the centre.

The death toll from the Lassa fever outbreak in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, has risen to 138 since the beginning of this year, public health authorities said.

In a statement on its website, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) said that 717 confirmed cases have been recorded so far.

At least 18 out of the 36 states in the country have been affected by the viral haemorrhagic disease so far this year, with the southern states of Ondo and the northern states of Bauchi and Taraba the worst-hit, accounting for more than 71 per cent of the total confirmed cases, the NCDC said. This development, according to the public health agency, has "signalled persistent hotspots despite nationwide interventions".

With the latest death toll, the case fatality rate has risen to 19.2 per cent, the NCDC said, noting that overall, this rise in the casualties figure remained alarming.

Feeling lonely or older than your age at 40? According to a study, these negative perceptions about ageing could be early signs of frailty, even in your 40s.

Usually associated with older age, frailty is a recognised medical condition, marked by reduced strength, energy, and ability to recover from illness.

Pre-frailty is the reversible transition stage that comes before; however, experts say it's ill-defined and requires more understanding.

The research, published in the journal BMC Public Health, showed that it can begin much earlier with subtle psychological and social cues.

"Many people assume frailty is something that happens when we get much older," said lead author Tom Brennan from Flinders University's Caring Futures Institute in Australia.

The Philippines recorded 5,101 new HIV cases and 145 HIV/AIDS-related deaths from January to March 2025, according to data released by the Department of Health (DOH).

Of the newly reported cases, 4,849, or 95 per cent, were male, while 252, or 5 per cent, were female. Nearly 80 per cent of the cases occurred among individuals aged 15 to 34, underscoring the growing prevalence of HIV infections among younger populations.

The average number of monthly cases during the first quarter of 2025 stood at 1,700, representing a 50 per cent increase compared to the same period last year.

The DOH reported that nearly 96 per cent of new infections in the first quarter were transmitted through sexual contact, with male-to-male sexual contact accounting for the majority of these cases, news agency reported.

Indian pharma market (IPM) has seen a 7.4 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth in April due to a surge in chronic therapies, according to a report.

The monthly report by Motilal Oswal Financial Services showed that the IPM’s growth in April 2024 was 9 per cent. In March 2025 it was 9.3 per cent.

The growth was driven by strong outperformance in cardiac, central Nervous System (CNS), and respiratory therapies.

Notably, respiratory therapies saw a revival in YoY growth in April. Acute therapy growth stood at 6 per cent in April (vs. 6 per cent in April 2024 and 8 per cent in March 2025) owing to seasonality.

A 24-year-old woman tourist died when a tent she was staying in at a resort near Wayanad collapsed.

The deceased was identified as Nishma.

A group of 16 from the neighbouring Malappuram district at Nilambur arrived at the resort at 900 Kandi in Meppadi on Wednesday evening.

The resort, which is accessible only on four-wheelers, is located close to the forests.

The resort houses temporary structures built using traditional materials like wood and has a roof made up of leaves.

With heavy rain hitting the hilltop resort on Wednesday night, one of the tents collapsed, killing Nishma and injuring two others.

A structured online nutrition programme may address India's diabetes epidemic by removing key barriers to dietary adherence, according to a study, led by an Indian-origin researcher.

The study, led by the US-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), showed that participants who followed a physician-led, plant-based nutrition programme experienced measurable improvements in health. This included reduced medication use, body weight, blood sugar, and cholesterol levels.

The findings offer potential insights for India, where diabetes currently affects more than 101 million adults, with an additional 136 million in the prediabetes stage, said the team in the paper, published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine.

A new study on Wednesday said that there is no significant difference in the effectiveness of how autistic and non-autistic people communicate, thus challenging the stereotype that autistic people struggle to connect with others.

Social difficulties often faced by autistic people are more about differences in how autistic and non-autistic people communicate, rather than a lack of social ability in autistic individuals.

Autism is a lifelong neurodivergence and disability, and influences how people experience and interact with the world.

The study, led by experts from the University of Edinburgh and published in Nature Human Behaviour, tested how effectively information was passed between 311 autistic and non-autistic people.

People who develop type 1 diabetes in adulthood have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and death, according to a new research.

However, those diagnosed later in life do not have a better prognosis than those diagnosed earlier, according to the study conducted by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, which pointed to smoking, poor glucose control and obesity as the main risk factors.

Research on adult-onset type 1 diabetes is limited, so the team wanted to investigate the risk of cardiovascular disease and death in this group, particularly for those diagnosed after the age of 40.

The study, published in European Heart Journal, identified 10,184 people diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in adulthood between 2001 and 2020 and compared them to 509,172 matched people in the control group.