Heart attacks and strokes are among the leading causes of death globally, with millions suffering from cardiovascular diseases (CVD) every year. There are more than seven million people in the UK alone, with about 100,000 patients experiencing heart attacks annually. However, a group of researchers at University College London (UCL) estimate that one 'polypill' taken daily day could eliminate a majority of these cases dramatically lowering death tolls.

The proposed polypill, a combination of a statin and three blood pressure-lowering drugs, has been under study for over two decades. Experts argue that introducing this pill universally for individuals aged 50 and above could be more effective than the current NHS Health Check, which assesses risk factors every five years for those aged between 40 and 74.

Studies have repeatedly proven the effectiveness of the polypill in preventing CVD. A groundbreaking 2019 study in The Lancet found that five years' use of the polypill cut the risk of heart attack and stroke by a third. In addition, previous modelling analyses have estimated that if given universally to people over 55, the polypill might be able to prevent 80% of heart attacks and strokes.

Today, the NHS Health Check follows a risk-based model in which patients are tested for CVD risk factors and treated with drugs accordingly. Yet, as per UCL's study, this system has serious flaws:

Low Uptake: Just 40% of those eligible for the NHS Health Check choose to have it, leaving a considerable number of at-risk patients undiagnosed and untreated.

Ineffective Prediction of Risk: The majority of heart attacks and strokes happen to people at average risk levels, thus making it challenging to identify the need for intervention effectively.

Limited Effectiveness: Even at maximum take-up, the NHS Health Check programme is predicted to have fewer health impacts compared to a polypill initiative applied to the whole population.

Simplicity and Affordability of the Polypill Strategy

One of the big benefits of the polypill is that it is so easy. In contrast to the existing screening-based model, the polypill scheme would not involve complicated medical tests or lengthy risk assessments. Instead, people reaching 50 would just have to fill out a few questions to determine possible side effects before they were prescribed.

Professor Aroon Hingorani of the UCL Institute of Cardiovascular Science, one of the strongest proponents of this scheme, says:

"Finally, the time is now to do much better on prevention. A population approach would prevent a lot more heart attacks and strokes than is done today with a strategy of trying to target a smaller group only."

Aside from the possible health implications, the polypill is also an economic solution. The drugs used are off-patent, thus cheap to produce and distribute. With the vast economic cost of managing CVD-related illnesses, a preventive model could result in substantial cost-saving for the NHS in the future.

The polypill has been proven to be effective by numerous international trials. In 2019, a randomised trial in rural Iran discovered that participants who took the polypill for five years had a 34% reduced risk of having a heart attack or stroke compared to non-participants.

Likewise, modelling research has indicated that even if only 8% of people aged over 50 took up the polypill regimen, it would still be more beneficial to their health than the NHS Health Check programme.

Is This a Case of Over-Medicalisation?

One of the main objections to the polypill strategy is the suggestion that it might result in the unnecessary medicalisation of a significant proportion of the population. But, it is argued, it should be considered as a preventative measure, not as mass medication.

Professor Sir Nicholas Wald of UCL's Institute of Health Informatics explains:

"Instead of being a 'medicalisation' of a significant proportion of the population, a polypill programme is a prevention measure to prevent an individual from becoming a patient."

He compares it with public health measures like water fluoridation or compulsory seatbelts—interventions that have been shown to have a significant impact in reducing public health danger at low individual cost.

With the evidence in favour of the polypill's effectiveness and viability overwhelming, experts are calling on the NHS to act now. It is their belief that substituting the NHS Health Check with a polypill-based prevention program could be the UK government's flagship policy under its pledge to put disease prevention ahead of cure.

As Professor Hingorani points out, "The status quo is not a justifiable option." With CVD still a major cause of death globally, taking a population-wide polypill approach could be a turning point for preventative medicine, potentially saving thousands of lives annually. The question now is whether the NHS will take up this call and establish a policy with the potential to transform the prevention of cardiovascular disease on a national level.

From polio to measles, vaccines have remained one of the most powerful tools in public health, saving six lives every minute, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), as it marked World Immunization Week today.

World Immunization Week is observed every year from April 24 to April 30 to raise awareness about the importance of vaccines for saving lives.

According to the WHO, vaccines have saved more than 150 million lives over the past 50 years.

"That’s 6 lives every minute, every day, for more than 5 decades," the WHO said.

These lives were saved "not by accident, but because ordinary people made the decision to protect themselves, their children, and their communities from diseases like measles, diphtheria, pertussis, polio, and rotavirus".

Currently, more than 30 life-threatening diseases and infections are prevented by vaccines.

However, 20 million children missed at least one vaccine dose in 2024, leaving far too many at risk of preventable disease.

"Today, newer vaccines against malaria, HPV, cholera, dengue, meningitis, RSV, Ebola, and mpox are saving even more lives, and helping people at every stage of life live longer and healthier thanks to scientific advancements," the WHO added.

World Immunization Week: Origin

World Immunization Week was officially endorsed by the World Health Assembly in May 2012 to unify regional vaccination efforts into a single global campaign. Before 2012, it was observed on different days in different countries.

World Immunization Week 2026: Theme

The theme this year is “For every generation, vaccines work”. It promotes how vaccines have safely protected people, families, and communities for generations.

It also calls on countries to sustain and expand vaccination coverage at every age, to safeguard the future.

As the world is at the midpoint of the Immunization Agenda 2030, the priority remains reaching zero-dose children and advancing equity in the hardest-to-reach communities, particularly in countries grappling with conflict, instability, or fragile health systems, the WHO said.

World Immunization Week: The Big Catch-Up

The Big Catch-Up, a campaign launched during World Immunization Week 2023, has been a multi-country effort to address vaccination declines driven largely by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The campaign has delivered over 100 million vaccine doses to an estimated 18.3 million children aged 1 to 5 across 36 countries.

Around 12.3 million were “zero-dose children” who had not previously received any vaccines, and 15 million who had never received a measles vaccine.

The initiative concluded in March 2026 and is on track to meet its target of vaccinating up to 21 million children.

However, agencies like Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi), WHO, and UNICEF warn that many infants still miss out on lifesaving vaccines through routine immunization every year.

"By protecting children who missed out on vaccinations because of disruptions to health services caused by COVID-19, the Big Catch-Up has helped to undo one of the pandemic's major negative consequences," said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization.

In 2024, an estimated 14.3 million infants under the age of one globally failed to receive a single vaccine through routine immunization programmes.

The WHO noted that the global resurgence of measles is a consequence of chronic gaps in routine immunisation.

Measles outbreaks are rising across continents — from Europe to Africa to North America to Australia.

"This surge is driven by persistent gaps in measles vaccination through routine immunization programmes, compounded by declining vaccine confidence in some previously high-coverage communities," the WHO said.

Delhi-NCR locals woke up to the hottest day of the year so far on Thursday - 43 degrees - and it seems that temperatures are likely to rise further over the weekend. The India Meteorological Department has issued a heatwave alert across the country, especially in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, warning that intense summer conditions are approaching.

Heatwave alert in India

India is at present struggling with intense heat due to soaring temperatures in parts of the country. At the same time, mild weather activity like gusty winds and light showers has been observed in some regions, marking the onset of the pre-monsoon phase. Amid this, the IMD has predicted heatwave conditions over north-west India and central India during the next four to five days. East India will also experience the same in the next two to three days.

The IMD predicts that heatwave conditions started over Haryana on April 18 and then gradually reached Uttarakhand, Delhi, and Madhya Pradesh. There is also a chance that people residing in these areas might get some relief from extreme heat in the next two weeks, but the temperature is likely to remain above normal in most parts of the country. In north-eastern states, despite rainfall, the plains are still unlikely to experience a drop in temperature in the coming weeks.

IMD Heatwave Alert

Heatwave warnings have been issued by the IMD for Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. Kerala, Bihar, and Vidarbha have also received the alert. Maximum temperatures are likely to be higher than normal across India, and heatwave conditions will likely continue next week in Punjab, Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Vidarbha. Night temperatures are also likely to increase in Punjab, Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh. Minimum temperatures are also likely to be above normal in these areas.

Rain forecast

Heavy rainfall has also been predicted in the north-eastern region - Meghalaya and Assam are likely to experience strong winds of 50 to 60 km per hour, along with heavy rain, between April 25 and April 27. Similar warnings have been issued for Sikkim and West Bengal. Jammu and Kashmir are also likely to witness light rainfall.

Tips to survive an extreme heatwave

In order to survive a heatwave, doctors recommend some simple tips to help you beat the heat. These are:

1. Avoid going out between 12 noon and 4 pm
2. Avoid stepping out unless it is necessary
3. Drink plenty of water
4. Avoid strenuous activities
5. Close the blinds and avoid sun-facing windows
6. Avoid alcohol
7. Wear light-coloured and lightweight clothing
8. Use sunscreen
9. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables like watermelon and cucumbers
10. Drink coconut water, buttermilk, or other refreshing summer beverages

An international team of researchers has identified a new way by which coronaviruses carried by bats can enter human cells.

Their study, published in the journal Nature, targeted the spike proteins of coronaviruses carried by heart-nosed bats in Kenya.

The team, including those from the universities of Cambridge and York, along with those from the National Museums of Kenya, found that a coronavirus, dubbed CcCoV-KY43, has evolved a new way of binding to human cells. It is different from the mechanism used by SARS-COV-2, the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.

The virus - Cardioderma cor coronavirus (CcCoV) KY43, or CcCoV-KY43 - can bind to a receptor cell found in the human lung, but testing in Kenya suggests it has not spilled over into the local human population.

“Viral spike proteins are keys that fit into locks (host receptors) to open the door and enter a cell. So far, we have identified one alphaCov receptor. The challenge now is to find the others,” said Professor Stephen Graham in the Department of Pathology at the University of Cambridge, joint senior author of the paper.

CcCoV-KY43 is found in heart-nosed bats, Cardioderma cor, an ecologically important species found mainly in eastern Africa, including in eastern Sudan and northern Tanzania.

The researchers say the zoonotic (animal-to-human) and pandemic potential of alphaCoVs has remained relatively uncharted - to date, only two cellular receptors have been characterized for alphaCoVs.

Read: US CDC Study Showcasing COVID Vaccine Benefits Blocked From Publication

How Did The Researchers Identify The New Mechanism

Rather than work on ‘live’ viruses, the scientists used a public database of known genetic sequences, Genbank, to select and synthesise alphacoronavirus ‘spike’ proteins, including 27 viruses originally isolated in bats, and screened these against a library of coronavirus receptors found in human cells.

Spike proteins protrude from the surface of coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, and bind to specific receptors on human cells, triggering infection.

They showed that CcCoV-KY43 binds to the human glycoprotein CEACAM6.

“Before our study, it was assumed all alphacoronaviruses used just one of two possible receptors to enter their host, and the only difference was which species they could enter. We now know alphaCovs might use a whole variety of different receptors to open cells,” said Dr Dalan Bailey, Group Leader at the Pirbright Institute and joint senior author of the paper.

“Not only did we find the new coronavirus receptor in human cells ahead of any virus spillover into the human population, but the study was performed using just a piece of the virus (the spike) rather than the whole pathogen, negating the need to import a live virus into the UK," added Dr Giulia Gallo, lead author of the paper.

Also read: Bangladesh Measles Outbreak: Meghalaya, Tripura To Ramp Up Vaccination, Boost Surveillance

The study stressed the need for further study in East Africa to better understand the risk from the family of viruses that can use this receptor to enter human cells.

This will help scientists to be better prepared for any spillover of the virus into humans in the future, and potentially begin to develop human vaccines and antivirals.

“We hope our findings will help better understand the risk from the family of viruses we identified that can use the human receptor: for example, by mapping the prevalence of the virus in bats and looking to see if it has already spilled over in at-risk populations,” Graham said.