Research: Avian influenza (influenza A H5N1): risk to human health

Research: Avian influenza (influenza A H5N1): risk to human health A record number of cases of avian influenza virus infections or ‘bird flu’ were confirmed across England, Scotland, and Wales in wild and captive birds last winter (2021 to 2022).

As we head into winter 2022 to 2023 there have been further increases in detections recently, both in wild and captive bird flocks.

Avian influenza virus infections which cause disease in humans are very rare but can cause serious disease and deaths. UK Health Security Agency

Quarter of 17-19-year-olds have probable mental disorder - study

Quarter of 17-19-year-olds have probable mental disorder - study One in four 17- to 19-year-olds in England had a probable mental disorder in 2022 - up from one in six in 2021, according to an NHS Digital report.

Based on an online survey, rates among teenage boys and girls were similar - but twice as high in 17- to 24-year-old women compared with men.

And children affected were more likely to live in a household with money issues or using a food bank.

Charities said the figures were deeply worrying. BBC News

See also:

• Mental Health of Children and Young People in England 2022 - wave 3 follow up to the 2017 survey NHS Digital
• Mental Health Bulletin, 2021-22 Annual report NHS Digital
• Cost of living and Covid lockdowns leave a QUARTER of older teenagers with mental health disorders The Daily Mail
• Quarter of teens who lived through lockdowns now have mental health problems The Daily Telegraph
• Surge in mental health problems among teenagers is ‘national emergency’ Government warned The Independent
• A quarter of older teenagers in England have mental health problems, according to figures from NHS Digital Sky News

Alzheimer's drug lecanemab hailed as momentous breakthrough

Alzheimer's drug lecanemab hailed as momentous breakthrough The first drug to slow the destruction of the brain in Alzheimer's has been heralded as momentous.

The research breakthrough ends decades of failure and shows a new era of drugs to treat Alzheimer's - the most common form of dementia - is possible.

Yet the medicine, lecanemab, has only a small effect and its impact on people's daily lives is debated.

And the drug works in the early stages of the disease, so most would miss out without a revolution in spotting it. BBC News

See also:

• Lecanemab in Early Alzheimer’s Disease (abstract) New England Journal of Medicine
• Everything you need to know about 'breakthrough' Alzheimer's drug lecanemab The Daily Mail
• New Alzheimer´s drug hailed as 'beginning of the end' in search for treatment The Daily Mail
• Drug slows cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s patients, study reveals The Guardian
• NHS ‘nowhere near ready’ to deliver new Alzheimer’s drug, doctors say The Guardian
• Second death linked to potential antibody treatment for Alzheimer’s disease Science
• Lecanemab: New Alzheimer's drug slows decline in memory - fuelling hope doctors will one day cure dementia Sky News

Lack of ethnic diversity among egg and sperm donors

Lack of ethnic diversity among egg and sperm donors A report into the growth of egg and sperm donation in the UK has found a lack of ethnic diversity among donors.

Asian egg and black sperm donors were under-represented by 50% compared with the population, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) found.

The number of babies born from donor eggs, sperm or embryos rose from 2,500 in 1993 to 4,100 in 2019.

Annual donor registrations also rose, from under 1,000 to over 2,300 - but so did the proportion of imported sperm. BBC News

See also:

• Trends in egg, sperm and embryo donation 2020: Statistics on donation and donor treatments in the UK fertility sector Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority

NHS could face biggest maternity scandal ever as Nottingham probe expected to exceed 1500 cases

NHS could face biggest maternity scandal ever as Nottingham probe expected to exceed 1500 cases The NHS could be facing its largest maternity scandal to date as the review into services in Nottingham is now expected to exceed 1,500 cases, The Independent has learned.

Up to 100,000 nurses to strike in December with threat to escalate action

Up to 100,000 nurses to strike in December with threat to escalate action Nurses will begin a series of strikes at dozens of hospitals in December – and will escalate their industrial action if ministers keep refusing to negotiate over pay.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) announced on Tuesday that up to 100,000 nurses will stay off work at many, but not all, of the hospitals and other NHS bodies where members have voted to stop work. The Guardian

See also:

• NHS pay dispute: December strike locations confirmed Royal College of Nursing
• Boost NHS pay to prevent pre-Christmas strikes: Ambulance workers in England to strike UNISON
• Top hospitals targeted by nurse strikes BBC News
• Up to 80,000 paramedics could strike before Christmas amid ongoing pay dispute The Daily Mail
• Will pre-Christmas nursing strikes happen at YOUR hospital?
• Ambulance staff to hold first strike for 30 years The Daily Telegraph
• Ambulance staff could coordinate strikes with other NHS workers The Guardian
• Up to 100,000 nurses to strike in December with threat to escalate action The Guardian
• Ambulance workers across England to strike before Christmas The Guardian
• Up to 100,000 nurses to go on strike before Christmas amid warning over urgent operations The Independent
• More NHS workers announce plans to strike - including paramedics and 999 call handlers ITV News
• Nurses' strikes: Full list of NHS employers affected as up to 100,000 plan to walk out Sky News

NHS England waiting times for gender dysphoria patients unlawful, court hears

NHS England waiting times for gender dysphoria patients unlawful, court hears NHS England has acted unlawfully by making thousands of patients with gender dysphoria wait “extreme” periods of time for treatment, ​the high​ court has heard.

Transgender claimants, who have suffered ​distress as a result of delays, ​want the court to declare that NHSE broke the law by failing to meet a target for 92% of patients to commence treatment within 18 weeks​.​ The Guardian

Twitter quietly drops policy preventing sharing of COVID-19 misinformation

Twitter quietly drops policy preventing sharing of COVID-19 misinformation Twitter has quietly dropped its policy preventing the sharing of false or misleading information about COVID-19.

Under the policy, tweets containing misleading information about the disease could be given a label including corrective information about the claim. Sky News

See also:

• Twitter ends Covid misinformation policy under Musk BBC News
• Musk scraps Twitter’s Covid misinformation policy The Daily Telegraph
• Concern as Twitter stops enforcing policy against Covid-19 misinformation The Guardian

Blunder at COVID lab is linked to deaths of 20 people, investigators say

Blunder at COVID lab is linked to deaths of 20 people, investigators say Twenty patients may have died due to a blunder with PCR tests at a scandal-hit Covid lab, health chiefs ruled today.

Errors at Immensa's Wolverhampton site meant around 39,000 positive PCR swabs were wrongly logged as negative.

As a result, thousands did not self-isolate as they were under the false impression they could carry on as usual — even though they were potentially infectious. The Daily Mail

See also:

• Immensa Health Clinic Limited: serious untoward incident investigation UK Health Security Agency
• Immensa lab errors may have led to 23 Covid-19 deaths BBC News
• Error at UK Covid testing lab might have led to 23 deaths, say experts The Guardian

Number of C-sections being carried out hits decade-high, NHS figures reveal

Number of C-sections being carried out hits decade-high, NHS figures reveal More than a third of babies were delivered by C-section in England last year — the highest level in a decade.

NHS figures today revealed 35 per cent of births between April 2021 and March this year were through a caesarean. This is up from a quarter 10 years ago.

Rising levels of obesity in society and women choosing to give birth later in life are behind the rise. The Daily Mail

Kettering General Hospital gets go-ahead for £38m works to prepare for rebuild

Kettering General Hospital gets go-ahead for £38m works to prepare for rebuild Kettering General Hospital has received the go-ahead to start enabling works to prepare for its multi-million pound rebuild.

The hospital has received written confirmation from the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England that it can begin to access £38m of capital from an initial funding allocation of £46m announced in October 2019. Northamptonshire Telegraph

See also:

• Long-awaited hospital rebuild project due to begin BBC Northampton

East Midlands Ambulance Service faces unprecedented demand - director

East Midlands Ambulance Service faces unprecedented demand - director An ambulance service has experienced "unprecedented" demand this year, a director said.

East Midlands Ambulance Service has been preparing for winter by hiring additional call handlers and bringing in new ambulances.

Divisional director for Northamptonshire, Mick Jones, said he had "never seen such demand" in his 35 years at the service.

He said the past year had been "exceptionally busy". BBC Northampton

Waiting on the waiting list, but what for?

Waiting on the waiting list, but what for? The current waiting list in England makes for grim reading – in September 2022 it was more than 7 million , up by 1.2 million since September last year, and 2.6 million over the past three years (i.e., before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic). But what are these people waiting for? The King's Fund

Will it ever be possible to look out, not up? Learning from past reviews of local and national NHS relationships

Will it ever be possible to look out, not up? Learning from past reviews of local and national NHS relationships The upcoming review into integrated care systems will not in any way be the first time that the relationship between national organisations and local NHS trusts and commissioners has been assessed. Helen Buckingham considers the lessons that need to be learned from the past, and suggests some important questions that the review may want to think about. Nuffield Trust

Increase in number of people in contact with NHS mental health services in England

Increase in number of people in contact with NHS mental health services in England The number of people in contact with1 NHS mental health services in England (including those referred and those seen) has increased by 16.2% in the last year. NHS Digital

Research: Diphtheria: cases among asylum seekers in England, 2022

Research: Diphtheria: cases among asylum seekers in England, 2022 Diphtheria is a rare disease in the UK due to the highly successful routine vaccination programme, with 2 to 11 annual cases reported in England over the past decade.

There has been an increase in cases of toxigenic C. diphtheriae reported among asylum seekers in England during 2022, with similar increase in cases reported in Europe since June 2022. UK Health Security Agency

New measures to improve access to dental care

New measures to improve access to dental care A new package of measures to improve patient access to dental care has been introduced by the government.

From today, NHS dentists will receive fairer payments for delivering complex dental care to incentivise practices to take on high needs patients who require treatment the most. Department of Health and Social Care

Big UK trial to find best drugs to fight flu

Big UK trial to find best drugs to fight flu With flu cases rising, UK Covid scientists are turning their attention to finding the best life-saving drugs to fight the winter virus.

A trial will run across 150 hospitals this year and next, recruiting thousands of patients.

Flu vaccines help prevent infection but each year some people become very sick.

And antiviral tablets - given within a couple of days of symptoms developing - are designed to reduce the severity of these bad infections. BBC News

Monkeypox given new name by global health experts

Monkeypox given new name by global health experts Monkeypox will now be known as mpox, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced, after complaints over racist and stigmatising language linked to the virus's name.

The old term will be used alongside the new one for a year, before being phased out.

Mpox was decided on after lengthy discussions between experts, countries and the general public. BBC News

See also:

• WHO recommends new name for monkeypox disease World Health Organization
• Monkeypox renamed ‘because of racism’ The Independent
• Monkeypox given new name by World Health Organisation - disease will now be called 'mpox' Sky News

Human rights of mental health patients violated amid crisis in care, regulator warns

Human rights of mental health patients violated amid crisis in care, regulator warns The human rights of vulnerable mental health patients are being violated because of the crisis in care, a regulator has warned.

Rob Behrens, the health service ombudsman for England, said urgent action was needed over repeated “tragedies” in NHS mental health services.

His warning comes as the latest NHS figures show there were 9,839 incidents of abuse against mental health patients from April 2021 to March this year – a higher figure than in any other sector. The Independent