Vital Statistics: The good, the bad and the drug-resistant

1. Cholesterol Crisis

Nearly 87.3 per cent of Indian adults have at least one abnormal lipid marker, based on lipid profiles of 23,665 people nationwide—abdominal obesity, not age or smoking, was the strongest predictor.

(ICMR-INDIAB study, Journal of Clinical Lipidology, July 2026)

2. Blood Sugar and Weight

Among Indian women, overweight/obesity rose from 24.0 per cent (2019–21) to 30.7 per cent (2023–24), alongside a sharp national rise in diabetes and hypertension prevalence.

(NFHS-6, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, released May 2026)

3. Maternal Mortality Down

India’s MMR fell from 130 to 93 per lakh live births between 2014–16 and 2019–21, a 37-point drop.

(SRS Special Bulletin on Maternal Mortality, Registrar General of India, released May 2025)

4. Tuberculosis Decline

India’s tuberculosis (TB) incidence fell 21 per cent between 2015 and 2024, nearly double the 12 per cent global average decline; mortality dropped 28 per cent, and treatment coverage rose from 53 per cent to over 92 per cent. India still accounts for roughly one in four TB cases worldwide.

(WHO Global TB Report 2025; Ministry of Health, March 2026)

5. Plastic in Heart

84 per cent of heart attack patients had detectable micro/nanoplastics in coronary blood, versus 32 per cent with normal arteries (small study, 61 patients).

(European Heart Journal, July 2026)

6. Drug-Resistant Infections

A WHO analysis of 23 million infections across 104 countries found one in six bacterial infections in 2023 involved antibiotic resistance, rising to one in three for UTIs.

(WHO GLASS Report, October 2025)

7. Hidden Dementia Toll

Air pollution caused an estimated 7.9 million deaths worldwide in 2023; for the first time, researchers linked it to over 625,000 dementia-related deaths in a single year.

(State of Global Air 2025, HEI with IHME’s GBD project, October 2025)

8. Cancer Deaths Decline

The age-adjusted US cancer death rate has dropped 34 per cent since 1991, averting an estimated 4.8 million deaths.

(American Cancer Society, Cancer Facts & Figures 2026, January 2026)

9. AIDS Deaths Dip

Global AIDS-related deaths fell 57 per cent between 2010 and 2025 (1.3 million to 570,000/year)—though a later 2025 report warned funding cuts now threaten this progress.

(UNAIDS, July 2025 & November 2025)

10. The GLP-1 Shift

US adults currently using GLP-1 weight-loss drugs rose to 11 per cent in 2026, up from 3 per cent two years earlier—a rapid adoption trend whose long-term health impact is still being studied.

(Gallup, July 2026)