Nutrition & Public Health

A suspected plague incident in Russia’s Irkutsk region prompted an international investigation, but no plague outbreak had been confirmed by 14 October 2026.

American physician-scientist whose career linked immunology research, HIV/AIDS programs, and federal responses to infectious diseases.

The 2020–2023 global outbreak of COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, which killed millions and reshaped public health, economies and societies.

A death certificate is an official record of a person’s death, used for legal administration and the compilation of mortality statistics.

Dietary fat comprises food-derived lipids that supply energy, essential fatty acids, and components needed for normal physiological functions.

Dietary fiber comprises food components resistant to digestion in the small intestine, with effects on bowel function, nutrient absorption, and microbial fermentation.

Disease prevention comprises measures that reduce the occurrence, progression and burden of disease, from population-wide health promotion to clinical screening and rehabilitation.

Epidemiology studies the distribution and determinants of health-related events in populations and applies this knowledge to preventing and controlling health problems.

An amino acid that an organism must obtain from its diet because it cannot synthesize enough to meet its physiological needs.

Folate (vitamin B9) is a water-soluble B vitamin found in natural foods, essential for DNA synthesis and cell division, and critical in pregnancy for preventing neural tube defects, distinct from synthetic folic acid.

Health is a multidimensional condition involving physical and mental functioning, well-being, and the social and environmental circumstances that shape them.

Health promotion enables people and communities to improve health by strengthening their capabilities and changing the social, economic, and environmental conditions that shape well-being.

A health system comprises the people, institutions, resources, and activities organized to promote, maintain, and restore population health.

Incidence measures the occurrence of new cases of a disease or other health event in a defined population over a specified period.

The incubation period is the interval between infection and the onset of symptoms, distinct from the time until an infected person becomes infectious.

A World Health Organization classification that standardizes the recording and comparison of diseases, related health conditions, and causes of death.

Life expectancy is the average number of additional years a person would live under a specified pattern of age-specific mortality.

Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, shaped by individual circumstances, relationships, and wider social conditions.

A mortality rate measures the frequency of deaths in a defined population over a specified period, with interpretation depending on the denominator, population structure, and data quality.

Nutrition is the acquisition and use of nutrients for growth, maintenance, and health, and the scientific study of these processes.

Prevalence is the proportion of a defined population that has a disease, condition, or characteristic at a specified time or during a specified period.

Primary health care is a whole-of-society approach combining integrated health services, action on health determinants, and community participation.

Public health is the organized effort to prevent disease, protect health, and improve well-being across populations through research, services, policy, and collective action.

Public health surveillance is the systematic collection, analysis, interpretation, and communication of health data to inform population-level prevention and response.

Social determinants of health are the social, economic, and environmental conditions that shape health outcomes and their distribution across populations.

Universal health coverage means access to needed, quality health services for everyone without financial hardship.

Vitamins are organic micronutrients that the body needs in small amounts, mostly for enzyme cofactors, antioxidant protection, and hormone-like regulation. Deficiency and excess both cause disease.

Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) is a water-soluble micronutrient that serves as a coenzyme in DNA synthesis, methylation, and mitochondrial metabolism, and its deficiency affects blood and nerves.

A water-soluble vitamin essential for human collagen synthesis, enzyme cofactor function and antioxidant defense; its deficiency causes scurvy.

A cereal or pseudocereal grain retaining its bran, germ, and endosperm in their original relative proportions.