As per the latest data released by Transforming Access to Student Outcomes in Higher Education (TASO) and the Policy Institute at King's College London, the number of UK students reporting mental health difficulties tripled. The estimate reveals that around 300,000 students could now be experiencing mental health struggles. Of the total, 18% of students reported some kind of mental health issue in 2024.

As per the reports, this estimate is triple what was reported in 2017, where it was at 6%. Experts also say that Covid-19 pandemic is "often considered to have contributed to this, it does not explain the ongoing rise in mental health difficulties." Another reason could also be the "changing definition and increasing openness about mental health" which has led to a rise in numbers. The report notes, "This trend pre-dates the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis. Although these factors play a part in students' deteriorating mental health, they cannot therefore be the only explanation."

How Did The Report Conclude?

The report drew data collected over the latest Student Academic Experience Survey of 93,212 students. From the survey, it was found that there exist significant disparities between demographic groups, with women being twice as likely to report mental health difficulties, about 22% as compared to men, at 11%.

What Did The Results Reveal?

The results revealed that students who identified as LGBTQ experienced the highest rates of mental health challenges. This has actually lessened the hope that conditions for LGBTQ students are improving, which may not have been a positive case.

Of them, 42% are bisexual and lesbian students, whereas last year it was 35% and 32% respectively. The report also noted that mental health difficulties among lesbian women and gay men rose three times the rate of straight people, and among bisexual and asexual people, it was twice as high. For trans students, the number jumped from 25% in 2023 to 40% in 2024.

Is The LGBTQ+ Prone To Mental Health Crisis?

As per the Child Mind Institute, being LGBTQ+ does not cause mental health problems, but because these kids often face factors like rejection, discrimination and violence, they are at a higher risk of challenges including depression, anxiety, and even attempting suicide.

A UTAH Health study quotes Anna Docherty, PhD, LP, assistant professor of psychiatry at Huntsman Mental Health Institute that, "likely with any identity, feeling different - or worse, unaccepted as you are is a significant risk factor of mental health struggle." The data reveals that LGBTQ+ teens are six times more likely to experience symptoms of depression than non-LGBTQ+ identifying teens. They are also more than twice as likely to feel suicidal and more than four times as likely to attempt suicide. In the US alone, 48% of transgender adults report that they have considered suicide in the last year, compared to 4% of the overall population.

What Do These Findings Mean?

TASO's academic lead and professor of public policy at King's College London, Michael Sanders said, "LGBTQ students and women bear the brunt of the rise in declining mental health and urgent action is needed to understand and address these trends."

India is undergoing a steady but serious public health shift. For decades, obesity was long dismissed as a matter of personal discipline, a “lifestyle choice,” to be managed by sheer willpower.

However, it has emerged as a progressive, chronic disease with complex biological roots that demand sustained medical care, which is no longer confined to urban centers. It now affects smaller towns and rural communities alike. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) reports that nearly one in four Indian adults is overweight or obese.

The situation in children is even more alarming, as UNICEF estimates that by 2030, India could have more than 27 million children and adolescents aged 5-19 years living with obesity, which would account for 11 percent of the world’s burden and put millions at risk of early metabolic disease.

Yet obesity continues to be viewed largely as a lifestyle lapse rather than a chronic, relapsing condition shaped by genetics, environment, and metabolic dysfunction. Like diabetes or hypertension, it progresses over time and requires structured, long-term medical management.

The Pediatric Crisis And The Looming Public Health Debt

The clearest sign of how serious this problem has become is visible among children. Recent findings published in The Lancet estimate that more than 12.5 million Indian children are living with obesity. This is not a distant warning; it is unfolding in clinics across the country.

Longer screen time, easy access to high-calorie packaged food, shrinking playgrounds, and limited physical activity have steadily altered childhood routines. As a result, pediatricians are diagnosing Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and hypertension in teenagers, conditions that were once largely confined to middle age.

When excess weight and metabolic imbalance begin in adolescence, the health impact stretches across decades. These children are likely to carry obesity into adulthood, along with a higher risk of heart disease, kidney disorders, and other chronic illnesses.

The burden is not just medical; it affects education, productivity, and long-term quality of life. Tackling this trend demands more than occasional awareness drives. It calls for consistent screening, early counselling, family-based lifestyle changes, and structured metabolic monitoring from a young age.

The GLP-1 Revolution And The Medical Oversight

The rise of GLP-1 receptor agonists has reshaped the discussion around obesity treatment in India. After the January 2026 patent expiry of semaglutide, more affordable generics have widened access, particularly for middle-income patients.

Clinically, these medications have clear advantages, as they decrease appetite, enhance insulin sensitivity, and have demonstrated durable weight loss and cardiovascular risk reduction in large international trials published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

However, increased availability has also fueled cosmetic and unsupervised use. GLP-1 therapies were developed to treat metabolic disease, not for short-term aesthetic goals. They act on hormonal pathways that regulate hunger and glucose metabolism, making them potent medical agents.

Without proper evaluation, dose monitoring, and long-term planning, patients may experience gastrointestinal side effects, muscle loss, or weight regain after discontinuation.

In a country like India, where obesity often coexists with advanced diabetes and heart disease risk, these medications must remain part of a structured, physician-led plan. They are an important therapeutic option, but not a substitute for sustained lifestyle and metabolic care.

The Inevitable Link to Non-Communicable Diseases

Obesity should be recognized as a chronic disease, as it is the underlying cause for most of the non-communicable diseases in India. According to the Global Burden of Disease report, ischemic heart disease is one of the top causes of death in India, and obesity is a direct contributor to this.

Visceral fat is associated with systemic inflammation, insulin resistance, abnormal lipid levels, and hypertension, which are the major pathways that cause heart attacks, strokes, and kidney diseases.

Visceral fat is also associated with an increased risk of colon cancer and post-menopausal breast cancer, which are being increasingly noticed in young Indians.

Adding to the complexity is the Indian “thin-fat” phenotype, in which individuals with a normal BMI can have high internal fat. Thus, in the treatment of obesity, one has to treat the metabolic problem rather than just the appearance alone.

Recognizing it as a chronic disease shifts focus toward early detection, sustained therapy, and long-term follow-up, which are essential steps to reduce premature cardiovascular deaths in India’s working-age population.

A Path Towards Holistic Intervention

Managing a chronic disease is not just about a prescription; it is about an ecosystem of care." A truly effective solution would have to be multi-modal, which means combining precision nutrition that takes into account the Indian eating habits, as calorie restriction alone would not be effective because it does not address the hormonal regulation, behavioral patterns, psychological triggers, or the metabolic imbalance.

An effective approach combines medical nutrition therapy, supervised physical activity, behavioral counselling, pharmacotherapy when indicated, and metabolic or bariatric surgery for eligible patients. Surgical intervention, supported by long-term data, not only reduces weight but also induces remission of Type 2 diabetes in a significant proportion of patients.

The goal is to transition from "weight loss" to "metabolic restoration." By treating obesity with the same clinical rigor as any other chronic disease, the healthcare industry can finally move beyond the scale and begin saving lives through comprehensive, science-based intervention.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued an immediate recall of contaminated Rosabella brand moringa powder capsules that are tied to an outbreak of drug-resistant Salmonella infections, causing fever, diarrhea (which may be bloody), nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain.

This is the second Salmonella outbreak related to moringa powder in the past six months. However, the two cases are not related, the CDC said.

In its latest alert issued in February 2026, the CDC reported seven cases, including three hospitalizations, from seven states linked to Rosabella brand moringa powder capsules.

The agency noted that the capsules distributed by Ambrosia Brands LLC, which is based in the US, are contaminated with Salmonella Newport and have led to one case each in states including Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee, and Washington.

"CDC, public health and regulatory officials in several states, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are collecting different types of data to investigate a multistate outbreak of multidrug-resistant Salmonella Newport infections,” the CDC said.

"Epidemiologic data show that Rosabella brand moringa powder capsules may be contaminated with Salmonella Newport and may be making people sick,” it added.

What The CDC Investigation Found

The median age of the affected patients is 66 years, and 86 percent are females.

The public health officials also conducted a whole-genome sequencing of the seven samples.

The tests revealed that the Salmonella strain associated with this outbreak is resistant to all first-line and alternative antibiotics commonly recommended for the treatment of Salmonella infections.

"This strain also might be resistant to multiple β-lactam antibiotics, including meropenem and other carbapenems, because it carries an NDM-1 carbapenemase gene," the CDC said.

As Salmonella illnesses may not be treatable with commonly recommended antibiotics, the CDC advised to "tailor antibiotic treatment to antimicrobial susceptibility testing results when possible".

Issuing a recall, the CDC stated the capsules are sold on the company's website, Amazon, TikTok Shop, Shein, and eBay.

"If you have any of these capsules in your home, throw them out or return them. CDC and FDA continue to work to identify if there are other products causing illness in this outbreak,” the regulator said.

In January, the regulator had reported an investigation of a Salmonella outbreak linked to dietary supplements containing moringa leaf powder.

What Is The Salmonella Infection?

Food contamination with Salmonella -- an organism -- can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems.

The CDC noted that in rare cases, the organism can get into the bloodstream and produce more severe illnesses such as arterial infections (i.e., infected aneurysms), endocarditis, and arthritis.

Salmonella Newport, detected in the recent outbreak, is a serious, often multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterium causing human and animal illnesses. It also ranks among the top three Salmonella serotypes in US foodborne outbreaks.

Noida administration has launched a 10-day measles-rubella (MMR) vaccination drive with an aim to cover students from Classes 1 to 5 across government and private schools. UP State Health Department officials noted that the sessions are also being conducted within the school premises under this campaign to ensure a wider vaccination coverage and ease of access for students and parents.

The initiative is part of the state government's ongoing efforts to strengthen immunity against measles and rubella. It is a highly contagious viral disease that primarily affects children.

Under the Measles-Rubella elimination campaign, the Central government aims to reach 100 per cent immunization coverage by ensuring children receive both doses of the vaccine. According to the 2024–25 Health Management Information System, India’s MMR coverage is currently 93.7 per cent for the first dose and 92.2 per cent for the second.

“The objective is to ensure that no eligible child is left out. Children will be administered an additional dose of the MR vaccine during the campaign. The vaccine is safe and is being provided for free of cost,” Dr Narendra Kumar, Chief Medical Officer of Gautam Buddha Nagar, told the media persons.

What Is Measles?

Measles is a highly contagious disease. It spreads by coughs or sneezes or by touching things that someone with measles has coughed or sneezed on.

Measles, also known as rubeola, is an extremely contagious viral illness that typically causes high fever, cough, runny nose, red and watery eyes, and a characteristic rash that begins on the face and spreads downward across the body. It spreads through respiratory droplets and can lead to severe and sometimes fatal complications, including pneumonia and inflammation of the brain known as encephalitis.

Symptoms include high fever, sore or red and watery eyes, coughing, sneezing, and small white spots in the mouth.

What Are The Symptoms Of Measles

Measles has a high transmissibility, and high measles immunity levels are required to prevent sustained measles virus transmission.

This is why herd immunity for measles could be easily breached.

It easily spreads from one infected person to another through breathes, coughs or sneezes and could cause severe disease, complications, and even death.

Symptoms include:

• High fever
• Cough
• Runny Nose
• Rash all over the body

The most unique symptom or the early sign of measles in the Koplik spots. These are tiny white dots that look like grains of salt on red gums inside the cheeks that appear before the red rash starts to appear on a person's face and then the body.

Read: Measles Outbreak In UK: Virus Spreads Among Unvaccinated Children In London

Furthermore, the symptoms of measles are also characterized by the three Cs:

• Cough
• Coryza or runny nose
• Conjunctivitis or red and water eyes

How Long Does The Infection Last?

The progression of the symptom comes in two stages, first is the prodromal stage or Days 1 to 4, where one would notice high fever, cough, runny nose, red and watery eyes, sore throat, fatigue, and Koplik spots.

The second stage is called the rash stage or the days 5 to 10 or even more where rash start to appear on the hairline, and then it runs down the body. It lasts for several days and fades in the same order.

The first symptoms, notes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), appear 7 to 14 days after a measles infection. Often, it could also lead to ear infection, or even diarrhea. Though these complications happen in every 1 in 10 children or individual with measles.