A couple of days back, my mother walked up to me and said she wanted to share something very important, but I was not to repeat it to anyone else. She swore me to secrecy, and even though we were just two people in the room, she dropped her voice to a whisper—almost as if […]
I am sorry papa. Main is saal bhi nahi kar paaya (I couldn’t do it this time either). A young adult preparing for the Indian national medical entrance exam said this in a note he left behind when he died by suicide last year. Every year more and more young students are dying by suicide in India, […]
Acne. Facial hair. Weight gain. Irregular periods. Infertility. These are the struggles of many women of menstruating age across the world. Many of them have a condition called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS; not be confused with PCOD). With the WHO estimating that 6-13% of reproductive-aged women are affected by PCOS globally, many of us would […]
Earlier this month, the Union Health Minister, Jagat Prakash Nadda, highlighted how India had achieved a milestone that we can all truly be proud of. “Due to the unwavering dedication of our transplant professionals, India achieved a remarkable milestone of performing over 18,900 organ transplants in 2024, the highest ever recorded in a single year. […]
According to the Union Health Ministry, India has made unprecedented progress in the field of organ transplantation — performing over 18,900 organ transplants in 2024 alone, the highest ever recorded in a single year. This is a sharp rise from fewer than 5,000 such surgeries in 2013, placing India third in the world after the […]
Hello, When I was pregnant with my first child a couple of years ago, I thought I had done everything I could do to prepare myself for this beautiful journey. I had researched, I had planned, and I was convinced I was able to determine what is best for my child. One of the first […]
Hello, Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is now quickly transforming our approach to most industries—from media to communications, and from healthcare to transportation. Words like ChatGPT, prompting, and Generative AI have now become part of everyday lexicon for many. However, where many see opportunities, as a journalist, I am trained to look for the potential pitfalls: […]
Hello! One often wonders what is the point of a health literacy training. Can we really change attitudes towards health and health information by a few training sessions? Can we ensure that health misinformation doesn’t spread, by just empowering people with the practical tools needed to differentiate between reliable and unreliable sources of health information […]
Women’s health has been neglected, poorly studied and underfunded for far too long now. It is now well established that historically, women were excluded from most medical studies. They were conducted on men, and the data collected from them were generalized to women. In fact, many studies conducted on rodents too, excluded female rodents, as […]
154 million lives in 50 years. 6 lives. Every minute. Every day. For 5 decades. That is the number of lives saved by vaccines, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Yet even today, there are many who are hesitant and even outright refuse to take the life-saving shots, because misinformation about safety concerns, side […]
According to the World Health Organization six lives have been saved every minute for the last 50 years, because of essential vaccines—that is 15.4 crore lives in five decades. “In these 50 years, vaccination accounts for 40% of the improvement in infant survival, and more children now live to see their first birthday and […]
Hello! As promised in the previous newsletter, the month of March was dedicated to Women’s Health at First Check, where we focused on women centric stories. However, while we had started out to educate our readers and arm them with credible and verified information, it was us who truly learnt something by the end of […]
“Communities and countries and ultimately the world are only as strong as the health of their women.” -Michelle Obama Welcome to another newsletter from First Check– your one-stop shop for all the latest credible, verified, and useful health-related information. This month I wanted to speak to you something that is very close to our hearts […]
Hello! We have some great news for our readers; you can now read selected stories by First Check on THE WEEK as well! THE WEEK, published by the 137-year-old Malayala Manorama group, is India’s bestselling news magazine in English and is known for over 40 years of award-winning journalism. First Check will be providing exclusive […]
Hello! 👋 Welcome to another First Check newsletter! We hope you had a happy, bright and healthy Diwali! 🪔🎉 While you were busy with the festival season, we have also had an eventful couple of months at First Check, with more fact-checks, more stories, and more engaging content and products- all for YOU. 🫵 The […]