by Christianez Ratna Kiruba | 15 Sep 2025 | Asia, Health and Wellness
Globally, rates of smoking are in decline. But in Indonesia, a cigarette is a measure of masculinity and hospitality. That makes it habit hard to break. A hand holds a lit cigarette. (Credit: Geri Tech, Pexels) To see blue fire that flames up as high as five meters...
by Christianez Ratna Kiruba | 6 Aug 2025 | Health and Wellness, India
In India, a private ambulance service is filling a need in a country with a dire shortage of emergency medical services. But should there be profit in that? An ambulance in Old Goa, India 8 July 2023. Credit: Radosław Botev for Wikimedia Commons Quick-commerce service...
by Christianez Ratna Kiruba | 10 Jun 2025 | Health and Wellness, India
In India, traditional medicine seems to cure most snake bites. But most snakes there aren’t venomous. When they are, that’s a different story. A non-venomous Burmese python coils around a tree branch. The snake is common in the Northeast of India. (Credit:...
by Christianez Ratna Kiruba | 27 Jan 2025 | Environment, Health and Wellness, India, University of Toronto Journalism Fellows, World
Almost 60,000 die from snakebite each year in India, but only one facility is producing the venom needed to make the antivenom. A herpetologist milks the venom out of a snake at Kenya Snakebite Research and Intervention Centre (KSRIC) in Nairobi, Kenya, 5 April 2024....
by Christianez Ratna Kiruba | 28 Nov 2024 | Health and Wellness, India, Sports, University of Toronto Journalism Fellows
Weight lifting has all kinds of health benefits. But many woman in India find going to the gym takes an inner strength they didn’t think they had. Mirabai Chanu Saikhom of India competes during the women’s 49kg weightlifting event at the 2024 Summer...