The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on Thursday launched a nationwide campaign to end plastic pollution, ahead of World Environment Day.

World Environment Day is observed every year on June 5, and the theme this year is Beat Plastic Pollution. The day serves as the principal platform of the UN for encouraging global awareness and action for environmental protection.

The mass mobilisation campaign ‘One Nation, One Mission: End Plastic Pollution’, highlights India’s unwavering commitment to environmental protection and sustainability. It is also aligned with the country’s flagship initiative -- Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment).

US researchers have identified a widely used antidepressant drug that could shrink the growth of tumour and help the immune system fight cancer.

Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) found that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), best known for the role they play in the brain, can significantly enhance the ability of T cells to fight cancer.

In the study, published in the journal Cell, the researchers tested SSRIs in mouse and human tumour models representing melanoma, breast, prostate, colon, and bladder cancer.

They found that SSRI treatment reduced average tumour size by over 50 per cent and made the cancer-fighting T cells more effective at killing cancer cells.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) has thanked India for its commitment and support to the historic Pandemic Accord.

After three years of negotiations, the Agreement was adopted by consensus by member countries of the WHO at the 78th World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva this week.

India is also a signatory to this treaty, which has been in talks since the Covid-19 outbreak, which killed millions of people worldwide. The treaty aims to bridge global healthcare gaps and inequities in case of future pandemics.

“Namaste, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for joining us virtually at a historic 78th WHA when the Pandemic Accord was adopted. We are grateful for India's commitment and support to the WHO,” the WHO chief said in a post on social media platform X.

Age-related decline in the immune system can have a measurable impact on CAR-T cell therapy -- one of the most advanced forms of cancer immunotherapy, according to a study.

CAR-T therapy works by engineering a patient's T cells to recognise and destroy cancer cells.

The study led by Swiss researchers found that CAR-T cells from aged mice had poor mitochondrial function, lower "stemness," and reduced antitumour activity.

It was due to a drop in levels of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) -- a molecule essential for cellular energy and metabolism of mitochondria, said the team from the University of Lausanne (UNIL), the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) and the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).

Fortis Healthcare, a leading Delhi-Based hospital chain, has reported a 7.4 per cent year-on-year (YoY) drop in its net profit to Rs 188.02 crore for the fourth quarter of financial year 2024–25 (Q4 FY25) -- down from Rs 203.14 crore in the same period last fiscal (Q4 FY24).

The decline in profit was mainly due to a sharp rise in total expenses and impairments in investments.

Fortis said its total expenses rose 13.6 per cent to Rs 1,741.52 crore in Q4 FY25, compared to Rs 1,531.76 crore in the year-ago period.

The company also incurred an exceptional loss of Rs 53.57 crore during the quarter. This was due to impairments on its investment in an associate firm and on some of its assets, including property and equipment.

SK bioscience, a biotech arm of South Korea's SK Group, on Wednesday said it has won a patent lawsuit against global pharmaceutical giant Pfizer over pneumococcal vaccine components.

In 2020, Pfizer filed a lawsuit with a Korean court, claiming that SK bioscience's export of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) components and finished products for research to Russia infringed on the composition patent of its vaccine Prevnar 13, news agency.

South Korea's Supreme Court recently upheld a lower court's ruling that SK bioscience's PCV13 components do not fall within the scope of Pfizer's patent claims.

The court also ruled that the production and export of PCV13 products for research purposes do not constitute patent infringement.

A team of scientists at the Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), has found drugs with potential to treat neurodegenerative disorders -- a major global health challenge.

In the study, published in the Journal Drug Discovery Today, the team highlighted the potential of peptidomimetics to treat neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, by promoting neuronal growth and survival.

Peptidomimetic drugs -- or synthetic molecules that mimic the structure of natural proteins -- can be repurposed to provide an effective therapeutic strategy to treat neurodegenerative diseases by promoting neuronal growth and survival.

Maharashtra has reported two Covid-related deaths since January this year, the state health department has said, adding that the two were patients with comorbidities.

The department, late Tuesday night, stated that both deaths were reported from Mumbai and involved patients with comorbidities (simultaneous presence of two or more medical conditions in a person). One of the deceased had nephrotic syndrome with hypocalcemia seizure, while the other was a cancer patient.

According to the health department, a total of 6,066 swab samples have been examined for coronavirus since January, of which 106 tested positive for the infectious disease. Of these, 101 were from Mumbai and the remaining from Pune, Thane, and Kolhapur. Currently, 52 patients are undergoing treatment for mild symptoms, while 16 are being treated at hospitals.

"A spike in Covid-19 cases is not only being seen in Maharashtra, but also in other states and even other countries," said the health department release.

Amid evolving workplaces, young professionals in India are increasingly experiencing stress and mental well-being, according to a new report on Tuesday.

The report by ADP, a global technology company, highlights the shifting emotional landscape of work, where generational differences in stress levels are increasingly evident.

The report showed that young professionals (aged 27-39) have the highest stress levels, with 11 per cent saying they experience high stress, above the national average of 9 per cent. Just 51 per cent of workers aged 18-26 reported better stress management.

On the other, older workers (aged 55-64) reported better stress management, with 81 per cent saying they feel stress less than once a week.

Work overload was found as the major trigger for younger employees -- 16 per cent of those aged 18-26 report stress due to heavy workloads, twice as many as their older counterparts aged between 55to 64 (8 per cent).

Singapore reported 151 new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cases in 2024, with 78 of them diagnosed at a late stage of infection, according to the latest data released by the Communicable Diseases Agency (CDA).

About 62 per cent of the newly reported cases were detected during medical care, with the majority already in the late stage of HIV infection.

The fact that more than half of the new cases were diagnosed late is a cause for concern, Wong Chen Seong, head of the national programs for HIV, hepatitis C, and sexually transmitted infections under the CDA, told local media.

He said that although both early- and late-stage patients can typically suppress the HIV viral load to undetectable levels after three to six months of treatment, those diagnosed at a late stage often already suffer from serious complications due to weakened immune systems.