Tag • #health

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‘Real hope’ for cancer cure as personal mRNA vaccine for melanoma trialled

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 04:00

Excitement among patients and researchers as custom-built jabs enter phase 3 trial

Doctors have begun trialling in hundreds of patients the world’s first personalised mRNA cancer vaccine for melanoma, as experts hailed its “gamechanging” potential to permanently cure cancer.

Melanoma affects about 132,000 people a year globally and is the biggest skin cancer killer. Currently, surgery is the main treatment although radiotherapy, medicines and chemotherapy are also sometimes used.

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‘Unsustainable’: UK predicted to see 50% spike in strokes by 2035

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Yesterday - 23:01

Stark new projections suggest annual admissions will rise to 151,000, costing the NHS and economy £75bn

The number of people in the UK experiencing a stroke will increase more than 50% to 151,000 a year by 2035, costing the NHS and the economy £75bn in healthcare and lost productivity, stark new projections suggest.

Worsening physical health, rising alcohol consumption and low exercise levels among an ageing population as well as a failure by ministers and the health service to do more to prevent ill health are blamed for the predicted spike in strokes.

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Three women contract HIV from dirty “vampire facials” at unlicensed spa

news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Yesterday - 21:37 · 1 minute

Enlarge / Drops of the blood going onto an HIV quick test. (credit: Getty | BRITTA PEDERSEN )

Trendy, unproven "vampire facials" performed at an unlicensed spa in New Mexico left at least three women with HIV infections. This marks the first time that cosmetic procedures have been associated with an HIV outbreak, according to a detailed report of the outbreak investigation published today.

Ars reported on the cluster last year when state health officials announced they were still identifying cases linked to the spa despite it being shut down in September 2018. But today's investigation report offers more insight into the unprecedented outbreak, which linked five people with HIV infections to the spa and spurred investigators to contact and test nearly 200 other spa clients. The report appears in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The investigation began when a woman between the ages of 40 and 50 turned up positive on a rapid HIV test taken while she was traveling abroad in the summer of 2018. She had a stage 1 acute infection . It was a result that was as dumbfounding as it was likely distressing. The woman had no clear risk factors for acquiring the infection: no injection drug use, no blood transfusions, and her current and only recent sexual partner tested negative. But, she did report getting a vampire facial in the spring of 2018 at a spa in Albuquerque called VIP Spa.

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Nurses in England took an average of one week off sick for stress last year, data shows

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Yesterday - 17:47

Chronic workforce shortages have put nursing staff under unbearable pressure, says union chief

Nurses in England took an average of a week off sick last year because of stress, anxiety or depression, NHS figures reveal.

The disclosure has prompted concern that the intense strains nurses face in their jobs, including low pay and understaffing, are damaging their mental health and causing many to quit.

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Rishi Sunak is punishing the sick to cover up his own failures | Letters

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Yesterday - 17:31

Readers respond to the prime minister’s claim that the UK is suffering from a ‘sicknote culture’

As a retired GP who spent 35 years looking after people with anxiety and depression in primary care, I find Rishi Sunak’s recent comments about GPs “over-medicalising the everyday challenges and worries of life” offensive ( Sunak to cite Britain’s ‘sicknote culture’ in bid to overhaul fit note system, 19 April ). These disabling problems constitute around 40% of all those attending a GP practice.

He clearly has no idea what is going on in his country. People are suffering from multiple stresses, including huge financial pressures largely brought about by his own party’s total incompetence over the past 14 years. People are pretty resilient when dealing with stressful adverse events such as bereavement or job loss or debt in their lives, but when they encounter one more bad thing, they “hit a wall” and become unable to continue. It seems like a hard-wired mechanism that renders them incapable of carrying on.

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Decline of gender stereotypes could be factor in drinking and smoking among girls in Great Britain

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Yesterday - 16:30

Higher rate of 15-year-old girls drinking than in other countries plus rise in 15-year-olds smoking contrasts with fewer boys drinking

In 2000, about 19% of children under 16 in England smoked, according to Action on Smoking and Health. By 2018, this had declined to 5%.

But, according to a major report by the World Health Organization released on Thursday , a third of 11-year-olds and over half of 13-year-olds had drunk alcohol, the highest number of any country worldwide. Girls were found to be more likely than boys to have drunk at 15.

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About 2m people have long Covid in England and Scotland, figures show

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Yesterday - 14:56

Many report symptoms lasting two years or longer and about 1.5m say disease affects day-to-day activities

About 2 million people in England and Scotland say they are experiencing long Covid, figures reveal, with many reporting their symptoms have lasted two years or longer.

The findings were released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and cover the period from November 2023 to March 2024, revealing of those who reported having long Covid, about 1.5 million people – about three-quarters– felt their day-to-day activities were affected, while 381,000 people – about a fifth – said their ability to undertake such activities had been “limited a lot”.

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Grey wave of walkers spearhead record activity levels among England’s over-55s

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Yesterday - 12:19

Increase in walking sees activity return to pre-Covid levels
Active Lives research shows two million moving more since 2016

A silver surge in walking has led to record levels of physical activity among the over-55s in England, the latest edition of the authoritative Active Lives adult survey has revealed.

Figures covering November 2022 to 2023, showed that 62.3% of 55-74-year-olds did at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week, up from 57% in 2016 when the survey was first commissioned. More striking still was the rise in activity in the over-75s, with 42.8% considered active, up from 33.4% seven years ago.

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Cost of developing new drugs may be far lower than industry claims, trial reveals

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Yesterday - 10:10

Exclusive: MSF calls for transparency after its bill for a trial of TB treatment came to a fraction of the billions claimed by pharmaceutical companies

Doctors have for the first time released details of their spending on a major clinical trial, demonstrating that the true cost of developing a medicine may be far less than the billions of dollars claimed by the pharmaceutical industry.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is challenging drug companies to be transparent about the cost of trials, which has always been shrouded in secrecy. Its own bill for landmark trials of a four-drug combination treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis came to €34m (£29m).