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Expanding the control strategy for intestinal worms to treating adults as well as children could improve the health of millions of people worldwide who are infected or reinfected by these parasites every year.

These intestinal worms – soil-transmitted helminths – are responsible for the most common parasitic disease of humans worldwide. A staggering 1.45 billion people – that’s nearly a fifth of the global population – are affected and at risk of the long-term consequences of this largely preventable infection.

Neglected diseases

Soil-transmitted helminthiasis is one of 17 “neglected tropical diseases”, a grouping that also includes dengue and chikungunya, rabies, and leprosy. These infectious diseases largely affect the world’s most impoverished people, causing a high human and economic toll through chronic disability.

As their name suggests, they have historically received little global interest or research funding when compared to the “big three” diseases on the global health agen…

A milestone crossed in the making of a new cryogenic rocket engine set the stage for the first flight of the country’s most powerful satellite launcher to date, the GSLV-Mark III. The cryogenic stage and the entire launch vehicle’s readiness is closer to fruition after the engine, technically called CE20, passed the ‘high altitude flight acceptance test’ lasting about 25 seconds at Mahendragiri in mid-December.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to fly its new launch vehicle powered by this new engine around March, and send the 3,200 kg GSAT-19 communication satellite to space on it. The launch was earlier slated for December 2016. MkIII, when it completes trials and commences functioning in the coming years, will double ISRO’s lifting power for communications satellites to 4,000 kilos.

Vital stage

In a few days from now, the rocket’s complete cryogenic third stage, replete with fuel tanks and systems built around the engine, will undergo its qualifying test, S. Som…