Health News

on December 6, 2023 at 12:08 am

The awareness messages will be carried on urinal mats as part of efforts to detect male cancers early. […]

on December 5, 2023 at 2:30 pm

Walkouts are planned on three days in the run-up to Christmas and six days in the new year. […]

on December 5, 2023 at 1:38 pm

Campaigners say the government works "at a snails pace" to compensate victims infected with HIV or hepatitis C. […]

by Liam Hoo on December 5, 2023 at 11:00 am

Whether it's Deepavali, Christmas, or New Year's Day, the end of every year ushers in a bevy of celebrations for Singaporeans and of course, a wonderful season for some festive feasting. Even as we indulge ourselves at family gatherings, feasts with friends, or office parties, we should take care to avoid inviting unwelcome guests - indigestion and bloating.  Discover how you can keep indigestion and bloating at bay with our recommendations and tips! What does indigestion feel like? Indigestion, also known as dyspepsia, is often experienced as a stomachache or upset tummy after having a meal. You may feel pain in the upper abdomen, experience a burning sensation, or feel overly satiated after your meal. While indigestion is typically mild and will disappear after some time, it can still cause discomfort, nausea, bloating, and heartburn for a few hours. What can cause indigestion? 1. Acid reflux The most commonly known culprit that causes indigestion is acid reflux. This is when stomach acid flows back up into the oesophagus, causing an uncomfortable burning sensation. This is commonly known as heartburn.&nbs […]

on December 5, 2023 at 10:10 am

MPs were voting on a plan to set up a compensation scheme for infected blood scandal victims. […]

on December 5, 2023 at 1:26 am

A senior doctor gives her first interview since being awarded a record £3.2m payout at a tribunal. […]

on December 5, 2023 at 1:20 am

Four women living with HIV who won a landmark case tell the BBC about how they were sterilised. […]

on December 4, 2023 at 8:31 pm

Many in social care believe overseas staff saved the system from collapse, reports Alison Holt. […]

on December 4, 2023 at 12:45 pm

Addy Clarke's parents are making the most of time with the seven-year-old, who has Batten Disease. […]

on December 3, 2023 at 5:11 pm

New health secretary Victoria Atkins says strikes by medics have delayed 1.1 million appointments. […]

on December 3, 2023 at 1:16 am

SHENZHEN, China - China's surge in respiratory illness is caused by known pathogens and there is no sign of new infectious diseases, a health official said on Saturday (Dec 2) as the country faces its first full winter since lifting strict Covid-19 restrictions. The spike in illness in the country where Covid-19 emerged in late 2019 attracted the spotlight when the World Health Organisation sought information last week, citing a report on clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children. Chinese authorities will open more paediatric outpatient clinics, seek to ensure more elderly people and children receive flu vaccines and encourage people to wear masks and wash their hands, Mi Feng, an official with China's National Health Commission, told a press conference. Doctors in China and experts abroad have not expressed alarm about China's outbreaks, given that many other countries saw similar increases in respiratory diseases after easing pandemic measures, which China did at the end of last year. […]

on December 3, 2023 at 12:26 am

The Radio 5 Live presenter finds out that the answer could help many women like her. […]

on December 2, 2023 at 11:56 pm

Why struggling parents aren't choosing cheaper brands when it comes to infant formula milk. […]

on December 2, 2023 at 12:26 am

What you need to know about the first confirmed case of a new type of flu, found in North Yorkshire. […]

on December 1, 2023 at 4:42 pm

The former health secretary says avoiding action in autumn 2020 led to tougher lockdowns later on. […]

on December 1, 2023 at 11:01 am

The dancer, 33, says her "nightmare seems to be never ending" after a blood clot on her lung. […]

on December 1, 2023 at 10:19 am

The largest ever real-world study found PrEP to work extremely well as a preventative treatment. […]

on December 1, 2023 at 9:18 am

SHANGHAI — A request by the World Health Organisation for more information on a surge in respiratory illnesses and clusters of pneumonia in children in China has attracted global attention. Health authorities have not detected any unusual or novel pathogens, the WHO later said, and doctors and public health researchers say there is no evidence for international alarm. Authorities in Taiwan, however, this week advised the elderly, very young and those with poor immunity to avoid travel to China. The following is what we know about the surge in illness in the world's second most populous country so far, and why experts think there is no need to panic. What is happening on the ground? The rise in respiratory illnesses comes as China braces for its first full winter season since it lifted strict Covid-19 restrictions in December last year. The spike in illness came into the spotlight when the WHO asked China for more information last week, citing a report by the Programme for Monitoring Emerging Diseases (ProMED) on clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children. […]

on December 1, 2023 at 6:08 am

A hospital in north-east England has become the first outside London to offer the pioneering surgery. […]

on December 1, 2023 at 2:26 am

The world is in danger of losing the fight against malaria, as cases of the disease rose by around five million year-on-year in 2022, exceeding global targets to contain it, a new World Health Organisation report showed on Thursday (Nov 30). Pandemic-related disruptions and extreme weather events linked to climate change have hindered the fight against malaria in recent years. But progress, since 2015, had already stalled due to rising drug and insecticide resistance and conflict, the WHO's annual World Malaria Report said. "More than ever, we are at risk of losing our fight against this disease," Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said. "The report reveals that progress has ground to a halt, and in some places is reversing. Unless we take action now, malaria could resurge dramatically, wiping out the hard-won gains of the last two decades." In 2022, there were an estimated 249 million cases of malaria. At the same time, the global malaria case incidence was 58.4 cases per 1,000 people who are deemed to be at risk, versus the WHO's target of 26.2 cases by 2025. […]

on December 1, 2023 at 1:24 am

Isaac Uzoegbu was hit by a car when he ran from home. His head teacher says it could have been prevented. […]

on November 30, 2023 at 8:24 pm

The ex-health secretary also said a "toxic culture", driven by Dominic Cummings, hindered the Covid response. […]

on November 30, 2023 at 11:43 am

Hundreds of people are now in hospital with norovirus, the latest NHS England figures show. […]

on November 30, 2023 at 10:32 am

Elfbar and Lost Mary call for tighter restrictions on vape sales ahead of government clampdown. […]

by Khoo Yi-Hang on November 30, 2023 at 9:55 am

[UPDATE: DEC 1] A close friend of Queenzy Cheng spoke to the Malaysian media on Dec 1 on behalf of the family, clarifying that there wasn't a hair dryer among her belongings the day she died. There was instead a curling iron.  She also denied rumours that Queenzy was overworked, saying the latter valued work-life balance.  Malaysian singer-actress Queenzy Cheng's sudden death might have been caused by her usage of a hair dryer, according to a doctor interviewed by China Press yesterday (Nov 29). Queenzy, 37, suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm while filming in Damansara, Selangor on Nov 28 and died some 40 minutes after feeling unwell. […]

on November 30, 2023 at 2:39 am

LONDON — Singer Elton John addressed British lawmakers on Wednesday (Nov 29) as the government announced plans to expand an HIV testing programme as part of its aim to end new transmissions of the virus in England by 2030. John, 76, one of the biggest selling artists of all time, spoke at a private reception in the Houses of Parliament to honour his work in the fight against HIV and Aids as part of celebrations ahead of World Aids Day on Friday. The BBC reported he would urge ministers to do more to ensure new cases of HIV are eliminated. The British government said it planned to roll out to 46 further locations a screening programme, initiated by the Elton John Aids Foundation, under which people having blood tests in some English hospitals are tested for HIV unless they opt out. "The more people we can diagnose, the more chance we have of ending new transmissions of the virus and the stigma wrongly attached to it," health minister Victoria Atkins said. The government said the existing programme in high prevalence areas had been highly effective in identifying HIV in people unaware they had the virus.  […]

on November 30, 2023 at 12:34 am

Safety watchdog highlights case as it warns a lack of continuity of care in England puts people at risk. […]

on November 29, 2023 at 5:02 pm

Children with speech problems could not access therapy during Covid - but now some are getting expert help. […]

on November 29, 2023 at 6:38 am

A decade since disaster struck a busy Glasgow pub, survivor Michael Byrne speaks of the impact the tragedy had on him. […]

on November 29, 2023 at 6:27 am

Christopher Hart, 50, was found dead in his Suffolk home while waiting eight hours for an ambulance. […]

by Judith Tan on November 29, 2023 at 2:29 am

SINGAPORE — Sam Subian, 49, was a competitive jockey for 25 years until his horse Silver Spoon stumbled during training in June 2017, flinging him onto the track. "Silver Spoon died and I fractured my spine. I could not sense anything below my chest. I was told I would never stand or walk again," Sam said. It took him a few years to come to terms with not being able to walk, let alone compete, and he was worried about who would care for his mother. But for the past seven months, Sam has been able to walk unassisted, thanks to an implant that helps overcome the damage to the nerve pathways in his spinal cord — and lots of hard work. He was the first of three participants in a new clinical trial here, called Restores (restoration of rehabilitative function with epidural spinal stimulation), which may spell hope for people who would otherwise never walk again. Spinal cord damage disrupts the transmission of electric impulses or signals that control movement and sensation from the brain to parts of the body like the arms and legs, depending on where the damage is. These signals travel over nerve pathways. […]

on November 28, 2023 at 11:39 am

The second round of public hearings is examining how ministers made decisions during the pandemic. […]

on November 28, 2023 at 7:26 am

LONDON — Health and tobacco campaigners said on Monday (Nov 27) that New Zealand's plan to repeal laws that would ban tobacco sales for future generations threatened lives and put international efforts to kerb smoking at risk. The country's new centre-right coalition will scrap the laws introduced by the previous Labour-led government, according to coalition agreements published on Friday. The package of measures would have seen bans on selling tobacco to anyone born after Jan 1, 2009, reduced the amount of nicotine allowed in smoked tobacco products and cut the number of retailers able to sell tobacco by over 90per cent. They marked some of the toughest anti-tobacco rules in the world. A ban on smoking for future generations was subsequently proposed in the United Kingdom, with other countries also considering similar rules. "This is major loss for public health, and a huge win for the tobacco industry – whose profits will be boosted at the expense of Kiwi lives," said Boyd Swinburn, co-chair of Health Coalition Aotearoa in New Zealand. […]

on November 28, 2023 at 6:05 am

The BBC spends time with an air ambulance crew to find out more about what they do. […]

on November 28, 2023 at 1:45 am

LONDON — UK said on Monday (Nov 27) it had detected a first human case of flu strain A(H1N2)v, which is similar to a virus currently circulating in pigs, and that the individual concerned had experienced a mild illness and fully recovered. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said that the case was detected as part of routine national flu surveillance and the source of infection was not known. "This is the first time we have detected this virus in humans in the UK, though it is very similar to viruses that have been detected in pigs," UKHSA incident director Meera Chand said. Close contacts of the case are being followed up by the authorities, the statement said, adding that the situation was being monitored with increased surveillance in surgeries and hospitals in North Yorkshire, a region of northern England. In 2009, the swine flu pandemic in humans infected millions of people. It was caused by a virus which contained genetic material from viruses that were circulating in pigs, birds and humans. […]

on November 27, 2023 at 11:06 am

Hughie was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2020, and has gone on to raise thousands with best friend Freddie. […]

on November 27, 2023 at 8:26 am

SHANGHAI — The spike in respiratory illnesses that China is currently going through is not as high as before the Covid-19 pandemic, a World Health Organisation official said, reiterating that no new or unusual pathogens had been found in the recent cases. Maria Van Kerkhove, acting director of the WHO's department of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, said the increase appeared to be driven by a rise in the number of children contracting pathogens that two years of Covid restrictions have kept them away from. "We asked about comparisons prior to the pandemic. And the waves that they’re seeing now, the peak is not as high as what they saw in 2018-2019," Van Kerkhove told health news outlet STAT in an interview on Friday. […]

on November 27, 2023 at 1:39 am

Elle Gorman and George Cooper explain how they were told their post-long Covid illness didn't exist. […]

on November 21, 2023 at 6:14 pm

Sir Patrick Vallance's "brain dumps" morphed into damning public critiques - but are diaries therapeutic? […]

on November 21, 2023 at 9:39 am

Sir Patrick Vallance tells of threats to him and his family, as he criticises a "lack of leadership". […]

on November 15, 2023 at 11:48 am

Doctors warn drugs from unregulated sources could contain potentially toxic ingredients. […]

on November 9, 2023 at 9:37 pm

A team of more than 140 surgeons in New York successfully performed the procedure on Aaron James. […]

on November 7, 2023 at 8:37 pm

How much money did Captain Tom raise and why is his family under the spotlight? […]

on October 27, 2023 at 9:09 am

The six sets of siblings were all treated at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. […]

on October 26, 2023 at 9:59 pm

Emily Power said her life has improved in every way since she stopped drinking. […]

on October 6, 2023 at 2:09 pm

The ex-children's commissioner in England says most senior officials did not put children first. […]

on September 23, 2023 at 11:15 pm

Hospital admissions have risen since the summer and a new variant is spreading. Should we be concerned? […]

on September 19, 2023 at 10:12 am

No Covid restrictions are in place across the UK, so how should you manage having it? […]

on August 30, 2023 at 5:11 pm

Vaccines for the most vulnerable will start being given in September instead of October in England. […]

on August 17, 2023 at 5:20 am

Experts are not too concerned about a new variant of Covid but say monitoring should continue. […]