Health & Medical

Jazz is using exercise to help her recovery Excessive use of painkillers is on the rise. Now the NHS in Sunderland, which has one of the highest prescribing rates, is running a campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of long-term use. Jazmine Allen, 23, who already has a 10-year history of using prescription painkillers, is taking part in the 'Painkillers Don't Exist' campaign - which aims to raise awareness that the medications can simply be masking the pain rather than "killing" it - and encouraging patients to seek support from their GPs. Jazz began taking opioids as a teenager, after surgery for hip dysplasia brought her serious, chronic pain. But when she went to university, she realised the pain medication was becoming more of a problem than the pain itself. And it was consuming her life. "I was a child. I was put on this through no fault of my own, and coming off it was a million times harder than any of the surgery stuff", she says. ...

A virus causing severe lung disease that started in China has spread to 27 other countries, including the UK. The coronavirus had infected 77,234 people in China as of 24 February, with 2,594 of them dying. It seems to start with a fever, followed by a dry cough. After a week, it leads to shortness of breath and some patients require hospital treatment. Notably, the infection rarely seems to cause a runny nose or sneezing. The incubation period - between infection and showing any symptoms - lasts up to 14 days, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). But some researchers say it may be as long as 24 days. And Chinese scientists say some people may be infectious even before their symptoms appear. Based on data from 44,000 patients with this coronavirus, the WHO says: The proportion dying from the disease, which has been named Covid-19, appears low (between 1% and 2%) - but the figures are unreliable. Thousands are still being treated but may go on to die - so the death...

Madeline Wallace died from sepsis in January 2018 A coroner said GPs' knowledge of eating disorders was "woeful and inadequate" after an inquest into the death of a severely anorexic woman. Madeline Wallace, from Peterborough, died in January 2018 from sepsis. Coroner Sean Horstead told the inquest at Huntingdon Law Courts "different clinical decisions" would not have prevented her death. He delivered a narrative conclusion saying Miss Wallace died of natural causes caused by severe anorexia. But Mr Horstead said he would write a Prevention of Future Deaths Report and send it to NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens and Health Secretary Matt Hancock. Miss Wallace's parents, Christine Reid and Stuart Wallace, said changes were needed to overcome what they called "NHS staff's limited experience and understanding of anorexia, and poor safety-net systems". In a statement, they said: "These need to be implemented as soon as possi...

The training guidelines are effective immediately but do not recommend a heading ban during matches Children aged 11 and under will no longer be taught to head footballs during training in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The new football association guidelines for coaches also puts limits on how much heading older children should do. It follows Glasgow University research that showed former footballers were three-and-a-half times more likely to die from brain disease. The guidance, which will not yet apply in Wales, will affect training only. The Football Association of Wales said its guidance for coaches on children heading the ball was currently under review with the findings being made available later this year. In a joint announcement from the FA, Scottish FA and Irish FA, coaches were advised that there should be "no heading in training in the foundation phase" - which covers primary school children, or under-11 teams and below. There are also new rules fo...

Heidi Crowter with her mother Liz A law allowing parents to terminate pregnancies where the foetus has Down's syndrome at any time up until its birth should be changed, campaigners say. They have written to Health Secretary Matt Hancock saying all non-fatal disabilities should be subject to the standard 24-week abortion limit. Heidi Crowter, who has the condition, said the law was "deeply offensive". The government said any decision to terminate "must rest on the judgement of the woman and her doctors". The Down's Syndrome Association estimates about 40,000 people in the UK live with the condition - which is caused by the presence of an extra chromosome in a baby's cells. Ms Crowter told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme the current law, contained within the 1967 Abortion Act, made her feel "unloved and unwanted". She said her life was as valuable as someone who does not have Down's syndrome. Her mother, Liz Crowter, calle...

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said Britons returning from quarantined Italian towns must self-isolate, even if they have no symptoms. In addition, those with flu-like symptoms coming back from areas of Italy north of Pisa should stay at home for 14 days. Italy has put several towns in Lombardy and Veneto into lockdown because of the coronavirus. Workers who are ill are entitled to statutory sick pay. But the law says if you aren't sick, you may not get paid. If you can work from home, you may be able to carry on as normal, says Sarah Evans, employment law partner at JMW Solicitors. But shop and factory workers probably won't have that option. The independent arbitration service, Acas, says it's "good practice" for your employer to treat it as sick leave or agree for the time to be taken as holiday. "Otherwise there's a risk the employee will come to work because they want to get paid," it says. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Deve...

There has been an increase in the number of food banks across the UK in recent years Life expectancy among women living in the poorest communities in England has declined since 2011, says a report warning of growing health inequalities. Overall, life expectancy growth has stalled over the past decade - for the first time in 100 years. The largest decreases were seen in the most deprived areas of north-east England, while the biggest increases were in the richest parts of London. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said there was "still much more to do". The report, by Prof Sir Michael Marmot, one of the country's leading experts on health inequalities, comes 10 years after he first published data on the growing gap between rich and poor, and between north and south, in England. "England has lost a decade," Prof Marmot said, calling the damage to the nation's health "shocking". "If health has stopped improving, that means society has stopped i...

New coronavirus has now reached more than 20 countries from China, where the epidemic or disease outbreak began over a month ago. Experts are worried about how much further it could spread and how many people will get sick. A truly global outbreak or pandemic has not been declared yet. But officials are preparing for the possibility that this could be the next pandemic that the world will have to face. The description is reserved for an infectious disease threatening lots of people all over the world simultaneously. A recent example was the 2009 swine flu pandemic, which experts think killed hundreds of thousands of people. Pandemics are more likely if a virus is brand new, able to infect people easily and can spread from person to person in an efficient and sustained way. Coronavirus appears to tick all of those boxes. With no vaccine or treatment that can prevent it yet, containing its spread is vital. According to the World Health Organization's (WHO) description of pan...

There are deep concerns laboratory tests are incorrectly telling people they are free of the coronavirus. Stories in several countries suggest people are having up to six negative results before finally being diagnosed. Meanwhile, officials in the epicentre of the epidemic, Hubei province, China, have started counting people with symptoms rather than using the tests for final confirmation. As a result, nearly 15,000 new cases were reported on a single day - a quarter of all cases in this epidemic. They work by looking for the genetic code of the virus. A sample is taken from the patient. Then, in the laboratory, the virus's genetic code (if it's there) is extracted and repeatedly copied, making tiny quantities vast and detectable. These "RT-PCR" tests, widely used in medicine to diagnose viruses such as HIV and influenza, are normally highly reliable. "They are very robust tests generally, with a low false-positive and a low false-negative rate," Dr N...

Fighting the new coronavirus has been a battle against the unknown for doctors. How does it attack the body? What are the full range of symptoms? Who is more likely to be seriously ill or die? How do you treat it? Now, an account by medics on the front line of this epidemic, at the Jinyintan Hospital, in Wuhan, is starting to provide answers. A detailed analysis of the first 99 patients treated there has been published in the Lancet medical journal. All of the 99 patients taken to the hospital had pneumonia - their lungs were inflamed and the tiny sacs where oxygen moves from the air to the blood were filling with water. The first two patients to die were seemingly healthy, although they were long-term smokers and that would have weakened their lungs. The first, a 61-year-old man, had severe pneumonia when he arrived at hospital. He was in acute respiratory distress, meaning his lungs were unable to provide enough oxygen to his organs to keep his body alive. Despite being put o...

People might be asked to stay at home for two weeks if they have close contact with a coronavirus carrier Many more people may be asked to self-isolate to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the UK, the NHS has warned. But what do you have to do if you might be at risk? More than 80 people who spent two weeks in quarantine were hailed as setting an "important example" by NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens, as he said people may increasingly be asked to isolate themselves. There are no official figures on the numbers of people advised to self-isolate, but the approach is seen as a crucial way of minimising the spread of the virus. But what does self-isolation mean and how do you ensure it works? You only need to isolate yourself if you've been told to by Public Health England (PHE) or the Department for Health and Social Care. They're tracing people who have been in "close and sustained" contact with individuals confirmed to have the vir...

There are 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK An ambitious project to develop a wearable device to detect early signs of Alzheimer's disease has been launched. The Early Detection of Neurodegenerative diseases (Edon) is being spearheaded by charity Alzheimer's Research UK. It will initially analyse data from continuing studies into the disease, using artificial intelligence. And this data will be used to design a prototype device within three years. Wearables collect a variety of data including gait, heart rate and sleep patterns and the hope is by analysing this data, researchers can begin to map signs of the disease years before symptoms develop. The global initiative has already won funding from tech founder turned philanthropist Bill Gates. But it also forms part of the UK government's wider ambition to use artificial intelligence and data to help better understand and prevent chronic diseases. Initially, EDoN will work with the UK's national insti...

A virus causing severe lung disease that started in China has spread to other countries, including the UK. The coronavirus had infected 70,620 people in China as of 16 February, with 1,770 of them dying. It seems to start with a fever, followed by a dry cough. After a week, it leads to shortness of breath and some patients require hospital treatment. Notably, the infection rarely seems to cause a runny nose or sneezing. The incubation period - between infection and showing any symptoms - lasts up to 14 days, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). But some researchers say it may be as long as 24 days. And Chinese scientists say some people may be infectious even before their symptoms appear. Based on data from 17,000 patients with this coronavirus, the WHO says: The proportion dying from the disease, which has been named Covid-19, appears low (between 1% and 2%) - but the figures are unreliable. Thousands are still being treated but may go on to die - so the death ra...

Student Olly Finch had mumps despite being vaccinated Health officials are urging people to have both parts of the MMR vaccine after cases of mumps in England reached their highest level in a decade. Outbreaks in universities and colleges raised the number of cases of the painful viral illness to 5,042 in 2019 - four times the number in 2018. Most were in young adults who missed out on the MMR jab. Public Health England said the full two doses of the vaccination were needed to maximise protection. The vaccine prevents most cases of mumps - but not all, and so some young people are still getting the illness. There were also increases in mumps cases in Wales and Scotland in 2019. It is a viral infection that used to be very common in children before the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine was introduced in the UK in 1988. A classic sign is puffy cheeks under the ears. Mumps is contagious and spread through infected droplets of saliva breathed in through the mouth or nose. ...

The fertility expert, Lord Robert Winston, appeared on BBC Radio 4's Today programme to discuss the campaign to relax the current ten-year limit on freezing eggs. Lord Winston, who is professor of fertility studies at Imperial College London, warned that it was "a very unsuccessful technology" and said: "The number of eggs that actually result in a pregnancy after freezing is about 1%." He later clarified he was referring to live births. But the body which regulates fertility treatment in the UK - the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) - puts the success rate at closer to one in five - a far better chance than the one in a hundred Lord Winston suggests. It's because the two are measuring the success rate based on different stages of fertility treatment. An IVF cycle involving frozen eggs goes something like this: Lord Winston's 1% figure was referring to the proportion of all frozen eggs thawed for use in fertility treatment which r...

One person is still receiving treatment in Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital All but one of the nine people being treated for the coronavirus in the UK have been discharged from hospital. They were discharged after twice testing negative for the virus, NHS England said on Saturday. Meanwhile, all 94 people who were being quarantined at Arrowe Park hospital on the Wirral have left the site. The patients were among the first British coronavirus evacuees flown back to the UK from Wuhan, China, which is the centre of the outbreak. More than 100 people are still in quarantine in a Milton Keynes hotel after arriving from China last weekend. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: "I want to stress that any individuals who are discharged from hospital are now well and do not pose any public health risk to the public." Among those to have been discharged are five members of the ski group who were treated at the Royal Free and Guy's and St Thomas', both in London. Four...

A doctor who worked at the same private healthcare firm as rogue breast surgeon Ian Paterson has been suspended, it has emerged. Spire Healthcare said Mike Walsh - a specialist in trauma and orthopaedic surgery - was suspended in April 2018 over concerns about patient treatment. Almost 50 of his patients from its Leeds hospital had been recalled. The details emerged following an independent inquiry into Paterson, who is serving a 20-year jail sentence. Paterson was found guilty in 2017 of intentionally wounding his patients. Earlier this month, an inquiry into the breast surgeon found that a culture of "avoidance and denial" had allowed him to perform botched and unnecessary operations on hundreds of women. Spire said in a statement that it acted after concerns were raised about Mr Walsh's work at its hospital in Leeds in 2018. The company, which contacted the Royal College of Surgeons to assist with its investigation, said it had reviewed the notes of fewer than 2...

New HIV tests that provide results in minutes have been introduced in Glasgow to help tackle the worst outbreak of the infection in decades. Drug users sharing needles are in the group most affected by the surge of HIV cases in Scotland's biggest city. Previously, test results could take up to two weeks to come back from the laboratory and it could be difficult to trace people to tell them the outcome. The finger-prick blood tests will be available at needle exchanges. About 170 people in Glasgow are believed to have contracted HIV in the current outbreak, but it is feared the actual number may be much higher as many drug users do not engage with needle exchange services. Experts say with each new case of HIV the potential for harm grows because of the vulnerable nature of those involved, many of whom are homeless. John Campbell, of the Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership, said getting results in minutes means those with positive results "can link into treatm...

People who steal, bully and lie throughout their lives may have smaller brains, researchers say. MRI scans suggested 45-year-olds who had shown antisocial behaviour from childhood had reduced surface area and a thinner cortex in parts of the brain previously linked to such behaviour. But it is unclear if this was inherited or due to factors such as substance abuse, low IQ or poor mental health. The researchers scanned nearly 700 volunteers they had studied from birth. They were divided into three groups, those who: They found the 80 people in the last group, which included people who had committed violent crimes, had significant structural differences in their brains. The authors said their findings - published in Lancet Psychiatry - provided the first robust evidence to suggest people who offended throughout their lives had underlying neuropsychological differences. Adolescents showing antisocial behaviour that began in childhood, who were at an increased risk of incarceration ...

Hft runs services in Milton, near Didcot A care charity that provides services for about 90 adults in Oxfordshire says it will shut them by the end of May. Hft, which runs several services in Milton, near Didcot, said running them was leaving it with a £5,000 shortfall every week. Its chief executive said that was the result of "chronic underfunding of adult social care". Relatives of people who use the services said their imminent closure left them feeling "absolutely shocked". Steve White, Hft's chief executive, said underfunding in social care nationally was a "disgrace". He said: "These are very vulnerable people and they deserve great care, great accommodation and great support and that requires adequate funding." Mr White added: "The shortfall between the cost of running the services each week is nearly £5,000 on the ground. "That is just unacceptable and charities just cannot bear those costs." Graham Williams s...