“India has recorded steep declines in malaria, tuberculosis, and child deaths…

Incidence of malaria has dropped by over 80%, with deaths down 78%, shifting India from a high-burden to a high-impact phase.

Incidence of tuberculosis has fallen from 237 cases per lakh population in 2015 to 187 per lakh — a 21% decline, nearly double the global average. Maternal mortality has reduced from 130 per lakh live births in 2014 to 88 in 2025, while infant mortality has declined from 39 to 27 per 1,000 live births.”

From Times of India.

“U.S. overdose deaths fell through most of last year, suggesting a lasting improvement in an epidemic that had been worsening for decades.

Federal data released Wednesday showed that overdose deaths have been falling for more than two years — the longest drop in decades — but also that the decline was slowing.

Deaths began steadily climbing in the 1990s with overdoses involving opioid painkillers, followed by waves of deaths from heroin and — more recently — illicit fentanyl. Deaths peaked at nearly 110,000 in 2022, fell a little in 2023 and then plummeted 27% in 2024, to around 80,000. That was the largest one-year decline ever recorded…

The new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data run through August 2025 and represents the first update of monthly provisional drug overdose deaths since the federal government shutdown.

An estimated 73,000 people died from overdoses in the 12-month period that ended August 2025, down about 21% from the 92,000 in the previous 12-month period.

CDC officials reported that deaths were down in all states except Arizona, Hawaii, Kansas, New Mexico and North Dakota. But they noted it’s likely that not all overdose deaths have been reported yet in every state, and additional data in the future might affect that state count.”

From Los Angeles Times.

“Sinai Health researchers have shown a blood test that can predict Crohn’s disease years before symptoms appear, opening the doors to early diagnosis and potentially prevention.

The test measures a person’s immune response to flagellin, a protein found on gut bacteria. This response is elevated in individuals long before they develop Crohn’s Disease, a team led by Dr. Ken Croitoru, a clinician scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, part of Sinai Health, has found…

This study followed 381 first-degree relatives of Crohn’s patients, 77 of whom went on to develop the disease. Among them, 28 individuals – more than a third – had elevated antibody responses. The responses were strongest in siblings, highlighting the role of shared environmental exposure, as previously shown by Dr. Croitoru.

The researchers also confirmed that this pre-disease response to the Lachnospiraceae flagellin was associated with intestinal inflammation and gut barrier dysfunction, both of which are characteristics of Crohn’s disease. The typical timeline from blood sample collection to the pre-disease individuals being diagnosed with Crohn’s was nearly two and a half years.”

From News Medical.

“The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday told Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to remove warnings about the risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior from the labels of their blockbuster GLP-1 weight-loss drugs.

Why it matters: The action caps more than a year of studies into reported side effects in people taking the injectable drugs. It covers Novo Nordisk’s Saxenda and Wegovy and Lilly’s Zepbound.

Some research has focused on patients with psychiatric disorders, since certain antipsychotics or antidepressants are associated with weight gain and could make the patients possible candidates for GLP-1 treatment.

Driving the news: Regulators said a comprehensive review found no increased risk of suicidal ideation or behavior associated with the use of GLP-1s.”

From Axios.