Health News Roundup: Syrians rely on doctors in trucks and tents; India's top court orders investigation into 'brain fever' child deaths

In border camps, Syrians rely on doctors in trucks and tents

The Syrian war has inflicted all kinds of hardships on Najwa Abdelaziz but she still manages to make light of one of them. "The uprising ruined my teeth," she jokes while getting dental care for the first time in years in the back of a truck. The 33-year-old could not find help for her toothache even after she fled the Islamic State rule and took refuge in northwest Syria. But a dentist in a mobile clinic has now arrived at the Rayyan camp where she lives with her husband and four children in a tent among the trees.

India's top court orders investigation into 'brain fever' child deaths

India's top court on Monday ordered an investigation into an outbreak of "brain fever" that has killed at least 122 children, after hearing a petition in which the state and central governments were accused of negligence. The disease, Acute Encephalitis Syndrome, believed to be caused by dehydration and malnutrition, has reached endemic proportions in Muzaffarpur, a dirt-poor district of the eastern state of Bihar, which has some of the worst child health statistics anywhere in the world.

Medical cannabis group EMMAC forms research partnership with Hyris Ltd

European medical cannabis company EMMAC announced on Monday a research partnership with UK biotechnology company Hyris Limited to develop a library of genetic profiles of existing cannabis varieties. Earlier this month, EMMAC bought French hemp-based and cannabis healthcare company, Greenleaf, as the legal use of cannabis for medicinal purposes steadily increases.