Tejah Balantrapu
banner
tejah.bsky.social
Tejah Balantrapu
@tejah.bsky.social
Science Communications, Writing; personal views. “We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” ~ Anaïs Nin
COVID-19 brought along a mucormycosis syndemic in India. Many thousands caught the ‘black fungus.’

The pandemic was 5 years ago. Why are these patients still turning up? Mucor is exploiting a large burden of people with undiagnosed and uncontrolled #diabetes.

www.theindiaforum.in/health/mucor...
Mucormycosis: Lessons for a Diabetic Society
The Covid-19 pandemic exposed India’s growing diabetes crisis and its deadly link to mucormycosis. This preventable event reflected deeper issues—poor urban design, unhealthy diets, and inadequate and...
www.theindiaforum.in
July 10, 2025 at 3:19 AM
‘Goodhart’s law: “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure”.’ Still, the coordination we muster to bend the law is 🤯
A NASA scientist claimed that Indian farmers were burning their fields after the passing of NASA satellites. They were trying to study these fires that raised the AQI every winter in the Indian capital.

Nice The Hindu explainer by @1amnerd.bsky.social.

www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/ene...
November 27, 2024 at 3:35 PM
The Hindu has an op-ed by Dr Gullapalli N Rao and me advocating for a ‘received request’ approach to retrieving #corneas in India.

We argue that a “presumed consent” or an assumed opt-in can be coercive.

#consent #cornea

www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-e...
An ideal way to treat India’s corneal blindness problem
Many citizens in India lead a lifetime of avoidable sight loss, but despite strong support for eye donation in India, an acute shortage of corneas persists
www.thehindu.com
November 27, 2024 at 7:01 AM
“It is important then that the government’s slogan: ‘Netra Daan’ is in synchrony with the motto of ophthalmologists: ‘Pashyantu Sarve Janah,’ bolstered with consent from the family: ‘Sammati Parivarasya.’”

I grew up reading this column (“Speaking of Science”), so it’s surreal… trib.al/PJBwyCC
Eye donation and corneal transplant
World Sight Day on October 14 raises awareness for corneal transplants to combat corneal blindness in India.
trib.al
November 18, 2024 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Tejah Balantrapu
When the choice is between irrigation for farms and water for fisheries, science can present the evidence and then watch. When the choice is between reason and bullshit, still advocating present-and-watch would be bullshit, too rootprivileges.net/2024/11/17/a...
An infuriating editorial in Science
I’m not just disappointed with an editorial published by the journal Science on November 14, I’m angry. Irrespective of whether the Republican Party in the US has shifted more or less r…
rootprivileges.net
November 17, 2024 at 2:24 PM
Ocular burns due to household chemicals* are wholly avoidable. They are a tragic cause of eye injury, especially among children.

*slaked lime, Toilet cleaners, fireworks, superglue. https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/slaked-lime-ocular-burns-children-large-study-findings/article67067052.ece
Poorly packaged paan ingredient a risk to children’s eyes: new study
A new study has found that chuna is a major cause for ocular burns among children, along with household chemicals and fireworks. The study paper was published in the July 2023 edition of the Indian Jo...
www.thehindu.com
July 28, 2023 at 7:52 AM