Health news

• UK ministers move to allay Brexit fears over access to medicines

  04-07-2017 10:26 via theguardian.com
  
  Jeremy Hunt and Greg Clark say they want to continue to work closely with European Medicines AgencyThe government has moved to dampen fears in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry that Brexit will mean patients and the NHS will wait longer and pay more for drugs and treatment. The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, and the business secretary, Greg Clark, have said they want to continue to “work closely” with the European Medicines Agency, the EU regulatory authority currently ba
  
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• Coronavirus: Wearing TWO masks block 20% more particles than one

  15-01-2021 20:59 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  Wearing a thicker fabric mask over a surgical one may act like a double-filter and improve the fit of face coverings, University of California, San Francisco, scientists advise.
  
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• Questions will be asked over timing of closing UK travel corridors

  15-01-2021 20:51 via theguardian.com
  
  Analysis: poor implementation ends another week of shifting Covid policy by the governmentCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe announced closure of all international travel corridors to the UK marks the end of another week of changing policy, with the timing and implementation dismaying many.Travel corridors will be axed in effect from Monday morning. The corridors, which exempted inbound travellers from the requirement to quarantine for 10 days, may make little
  
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• Wearing TWO masks could help in the fight against coronavirus

  15-01-2021 20:38 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  Wearing a thicker fabric mask over a surgical one may act like a double-filter and improve the fit of face coverings, University of California, San Francisco, scientists advise.
  
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• 'At the coalface': what the Australian expert in WHO's Covid mission in China hopes to find

  15-01-2021 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Prof Dominic Dwyer says he expects interesting answers even if they never find how and where the virus first infected humansThe medical virologist Prof Dominic Dwyer has barely been in China for 24 hours, but he has already joined several Zoom calls from his room in hotel quarantine planning the logistics of an ambitious investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.The World Health Organization selected Dwyer, a director at New South Wales Health Pathology in Australia, for the comple
  
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• Covid: Brazilian 'super strain' already in the UK, scientist reveals

  15-01-2021 19:20 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  Professor Wendy Barclay,from Imperial College London, said: 'There are two different types of Brazilian variants. One of them has been detected [in the UK] and one of them has not.'
  
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• UK 'nowhere near' looking at lifting Covid lockdown restrictions

  15-01-2021 19:04 via theguardian.com
  
  Ministers waiting for results of vaccine research before laying out timetable, sources sayCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageMinisters are awaiting evidence on whether the Covid-19 vaccines prevent transmission of the virus before they can even consider laying out a timetable for lifting lockdown restrictions, government sources say.With early data suggesting the tide may be beginning to turn in some parts of the country, Boris Johnson has come under pressure from
  
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• UK shuts travel corridors and requires negative Covid tests to enter

  15-01-2021 18:35 via theguardian.com
  
  All foreign arrivals will also have to quarantine in toughening of measures in response to new strainsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe UK is to close all access to the UK for overseas travellers without proof of a recent negative coronavirus test and 10 days of quarantine, shutting all travel corridors, Boris Johnson has announced.At a Downing Street press conference, the prime minister said the border regime was being toughened up in response to new versions
  
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• UK closes Covid travel corridors and requires foreign arrivals to isolate

  15-01-2021 18:35 via theguardian.com
  
  Negative tests also required in toughening of measures in response to new coronavirus strainsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe UK is to close all access to the UK for overseas travellers without proof of a recent negative coronavirus test and 10 days of quarantine, shutting all travel corridors, Boris Johnson has announced.At a Downing Street press conference, the prime minister said the border regime was being toughened up in response to new versions of coron
  
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• Vaccine passports: what are they and do they pose a danger to privacy?

  15-01-2021 18:15 via theguardian.com
  
  Race to build app for people to demonstrate Covid jab or a negative test, but rights groups worry about ‘identity checks’ Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageVaccine passports, which would allow people with immunity to Covid to prove they were at low risk of spreading the disease, are being investigated by companies and countries around the world. But the proposals have also raised fears among critics that they could underpin an oppressive digital ID sys
  
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• Symptom-tracking app says cases dropped 23% last week with 54,000 new infections each day 

  15-01-2021 17:40 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  SAGE said that the rate of spread of the virus appears to have started falling in regions of England that were pushed into Tier 4 before Christmas but it's still rising elsewhere.
  
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• The hospitals where Covid admissions are FALLING

  15-01-2021 17:13 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  Some 20 of 138 acute NHS trusts recorded a dip in beds occupied by Covid-19 patients in the seven days to January 12 compared to the previous week.
  
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• Two-thirds of NHS trusts in England treated more Covid patients last week than at peak of first wave

  15-01-2021 17:11 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: number of Covid patients could be twice that of April 2020 peak within weeksNHS crisis in charts: how Covid has increased strain on health serviceSee all our coronavirus coverageTwo-thirds of all NHS trusts across England were treating more coronavirus patients last week than they did at the peak of the first wave of the pandemic, a Guardian analysis reveals.Figures show that in 18 trusts the number of people suffering from coronavirus outnumbered all other patients.Six trusts, in Lon
  
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• NHS crisis in charts: how Covid has increased strain on health service

  15-01-2021 17:11 via theguardian.com
  
  There has been high demand for healthcare in England this winter. These charts show where the pressure points areThe NHS is in the grips of a winter crisis like no other. Friday was the ninth day in a row in which the number of people being treated in hospital for Covid hit a new high, with 32,975 patients now on wards across England.Eighteen NHS trusts are treating more coronavirus patients than non-Covid patients and six have more than 50% of beds taken up by Covid patients. One in five Englis
  
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• 65% of English NHS trusts exceeded first wave peak for Covid patients last week

  15-01-2021 17:11 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: number of Covid patients could be twice that of April 2020 peak within weeksNHS crisis in charts: how Covid has increased strain on health serviceSee all our coronavirus coverageTwo-thirds of all NHS trusts across England were treating more coronavirus patients last week than they did at the peak of the first wave of the pandemic, a Guardian analysis reveals.Figures show that in 18 trusts the number of people suffering from coronavirus outnumbered all other patients.Six trusts, in Lon
  
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• Covid infection numbers levelling off in parts of England

  15-01-2021 16:42 via theguardian.com
  
  Data suggests tide of cases may be starting to turn, say experts, stressing need to stay vigilantCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe number of people testing positive for coronavirus has begun to level off in some parts of England, but restrictions must remain in place, experts have said.There are now more Covid patients in hospital in the UK, and more on mechanical ventilation, than in the first wave of the pandemic. However, new data suggests the tide may be b
  
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• 'I cry a lot on the train home': London medics fight to save Covid patients

  15-01-2021 16:35 via theguardian.com
  
  Photojournalist Tom Pilston was granted access to the intensive care ward at University College Hospital last week. We hear from a consultant, nurses and a physiotherapist, who explain how the pandemic is taking a huge toll on hospital staffCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageAs you approach the imposing tower of University College hospital on Euston Road in London, bathed in low winter sun, all seems normal. Except, possibly, the road itself is a little quieter, fe
  
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• Care home Covid cases TRIPLE in a month: MOST outbreaks are among elderly residents

  15-01-2021 15:29 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  Date from Public Health England (PHE) reveals that in the week to January 14, there were 977 outbreaks of respiratory conditions in care homes with 739 confirmed as Covid.
  
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• Schools demand No 10 explain unauthorised use of rapid Covid tests

  15-01-2021 15:03 via theguardian.com
  
  MPs and scientists also push for answers after it emerged MHRA has not approved use of rapid tests Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageSchool leaders, MPs and scientists have demanded the government urgently explain its strategy of carrying out daily coronavirus tests on pupils despite the policy not being approved by the UK’s medicines regulator.Headteachers said they were “alarmed” after the Guardian revealed that the Medicines and Healthcare pro
  
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• Global immunisation: low-income countries rush to access Covid vaccine supply

  15-01-2021 13:23 via theguardian.com
  
  Despite efforts to procure Covid vaccine, some nations will only vaccinate 20% of populationCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThere are triumphant scenes as lorries leave a vaccine plant in Pune, India, loaded with boxes that will prevent thousands of deaths. Adar Poonawalla, the owner and chief executive of the Serum Institute of India, poses on the tailgate of a truck, making the most of his company’s “proud and historic” moment as the potentia
  
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• Covid infections may have peaked in parts of England, experts say

  15-01-2021 11:48 via theguardian.com
  
  Infection rates appear to be levelling off in Midlands and falling in London and south-eastCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe number of people testing positive for coronavirus has begun to level off in some parts of England and may have peaked in others, experts have said.There are now more Covid patients in hospital in the UK, and more on mechanical ventilation, than in the first wave of the pandemic. However, experts say the tide might be beginning to turn on
  
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• Interactive tool reveals how many patients are in NHS Trusts across the country

  15-01-2021 11:15 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  Some 27 of 140 major NHS hospitals had no space on critical care wards last Sunday and 12 didn't have a single bed free all week, averaging 100 per cent occupancy.
  
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• Grant Shapps indicates lorry drivers can enter France with rapid Covid test

  15-01-2021 11:11 via theguardian.com
  
  Transport secretary plays down reports that France will demand PCR test, which can take daysCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageBritish lorry drivers crossing the Channel to France will be exempt from requiring a PCR coronavirus test, the transport secretary has indicated.Grant Shapps said PCR tests would be required for passengers but hauliers could use the lateral flow system. Concern had been raised that chaos could be caused by France demanding truck drivers hav
  
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• Global surge of cases is fueling more chances for the virus to mutate to beat immune system

  15-01-2021 10:59 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  Professor Trevor Bedford warned that a higher number of severe infections would lead to more super-strains as it gives the virus additional chances to mutate to evade the immune system.
  
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• Black women in the UK four times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth

  15-01-2021 10:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Disparity with white women shows need for action, doctors say, despite slight improvement in mortality rate Black women are still four times more likely than white women to die in pregnancy or childbirth in the UK, and women from Asian ethnic backgrounds face twice the risk, according to a new report.The data shows a slight narrowing of the divide – last year’s report found black women were five times more likely to die – but experts say that is statistically insignificant and
  
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• New year, new outbreak: China rushes to vaccinate 50 million as holiday looms

  15-01-2021 04:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Drive to immunise 3.5% of the population in weeks comes ahead of the lunar new year festival and as three major cities are locked downCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageAt a Shenzhen hospital, 21-year-old airport worker Wang Shuyue lines up to receive his second shot.“I feel it’s safe because so many people around the country have taken the vaccine so there shouldn’t be any major problems,” he tells the Guardian. “I think it should be
  
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• Two babies 'caught' cancer from their mothers during childbirth

  15-01-2021 01:47 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  They likely inhaled cervical cancer cells that had mixed with amniotic fluid in their mothers' birth canals, and the cancer took hold in their lungs. Only 20 cases have been reported.
  
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• Just how ‘normal’ 2021 will be hinges on Australia’s Covid vaccination uptake | Greg Dore

  15-01-2021 00:51 via theguardian.com
  
  The proportion of the population vaccinated will determine whether we can move away from an elimination-type strategy, and associated restrictions on life and travel During 2020, there was some debate about whether Australia should pursue a Covid-19 suppression or elimination strategy, with much of the focus on what was feasible and sustainable. Having boarded the elimination bus, I hope to alight at some stage in 2021 to take a seat on the protection bus. The goal of 2021, as we move from a max
  
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• Is THIS what causes IBS? Food poisoning can trigger an 'allergy' - and antihistamines can stop pain 

  15-01-2021 00:43 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  A new study from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, in Belgium, found that IBS can be triggered like an 'allergy,' releasing a compound called histamine that causes abdominal pain.
  
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• MORE 'super-covid' variants are coming, scientists warn

  14-01-2021 23:09 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  In less than 24 hours, US scientists have reported three homegrown 'super-covid' variants - and experts say the world should brace for many more,
  
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