Category Archives: Medical research

Number of UK children suffering from hepatitis rises to 145

Posted on by

Concerns rise about surge as scientists say lack of exposure to viruses during Covid restrictions could be factor

The number of children in the UK suffering from severe hepatitis has risen to 145 as concerns mount about the mysterious surge in cases.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced an increase of 34 cases but said most children have recovered and no children have died. There has been no increase from the 10 children who have required a liver transplant, reported on Monday.

Continue reading...

More than half of Americans have had Covid, including three of four children

Posted on by

A CDC report showed a striking increase in those with coronavirus antibodies between December and February

More than half of Americans show signs of a previous Covid-19 infection, including three out of every four children, according to a new report released on Tuesday.

The findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) come after researchers examined blood samples from more than 200,000 Americans and looked for virus-fighting antibodies made from infections, not vaccines. They found that signs of past infection rose dramatically between December and February, when the more contagious Omicron variant surged through the US.

Continue reading...

Only 29% of UK Covid hospital patients recover within a year

Posted on by

Of the 750,000 hospitalised, many still report fatigue, muscle pain, insomnia and breathlessness, with women worst affected

Fewer than one in three people who have been hospitalised with Covid-19 have fully recovered a year after they succumbed to infection.

That is the shock finding of a survey into the impact of long Covid in the UK. The team of scientists and doctors at Leicester University also found that women had poorer recovery rates than men after hospitalisation, while obesity was also likely to hinder a person’s prospects of health improvements.

Continue reading...

Pigs can pass deadly superbugs to people, study reveals

Posted on by

Research into C difficile found antibiotic resistance is growing as a result of overuse on farm stock

Scientists have uncovered evidence that dangerous versions of superbugs can spread from pigs to humans. The discovery underlines fears that intensive use of antibiotics on farms is leading to the spread of microbes resistant to them.

The discovery of the link has been made by Semeh Bejaoui and Dorte Frees of Copenhagen University and Soren Persson at Denmark’s Statens Serum Institute and focuses on the superbug Clostridioides difficile, which is considered one of the world’s major antibiotic resistance threats.

Continue reading...

First person to have Covid infection for more than a year identified in UK

Posted on by

Researchers at London hospitals call for urgent new treatments for persistent infections

Doctors in the UK have called for urgent new treatments to clear persistent Covid infections after identifying the first person in the world known to have harboured the virus for more than a year.

The patient, who had a weakened immune system, caught the virus in 2020 and tested positive for Covid for 505 days before they died. Previously, the longest known PCR-confirmed case of Covid was a US cancer survivor in her 40s who tested positive for 335 days.

Continue reading...

Lifelong excess weight can nearly double risk of womb cancer – study

Posted on by

Bristol study finds that for every five extra BMI units a woman’s risk of endometrial cancer increases by 88%

Lifelong excess weight may almost double a woman’s risk of developing womb cancer, research suggests.

Scientists and doctors have known for some time that being overweight or obese increases the risk of the disease. About one in three cases in the UK (34%) are linked to excess weight.

Continue reading...

Lessons from Covid can start a health revolution, says lab chief

Posted on by

Director of network that processed millions of tests says smart diagnostics could tackle other major diseases

Two years of mass Covid testing have paved the way for a revolution in how we diagnose other diseases, the founding director of the Lighthouse labs network has said.

In his first interview since the pandemic began, Prof Chris Molloy said that people’s familiarity with using swabs for Covid tests meant that they could also discover and monitor their risk of other conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease.

Continue reading...

Omicron variant does cause different symptoms from Delta, study finds

Posted on by

Data from UK’s Zoe Covid study confirms reports Omicron patients recover more quickly and are less likely to lose sense of smell or taste

People who have the Omicron Covid variant tend to have symptoms for a shorter period, a lower risk of being admitted to hospital and a different set of symptoms from those who have Delta, research has suggested.

As the highly transmissible Omicron variant shot to dominance towards the end of last year, it emerged that, while it is better at dodging the body’s immune responses than Delta, it also produces less severe disease.

Continue reading...

Hundreds fitted with artificial pancreas in NHS type 1 diabetes trial

Posted on by

Adults and children wear device that monitors glucose level and adjusts amount of insulin delivered

Hundreds of adults and children with type 1 diabetes in England have been fitted with an artificial pancreas that experts say could become the “holy grail” for managing the disease, in a world-first trial on the NHS.

The groundbreaking device uses an algorithm to determine the amount of insulin that should be administered and reads blood sugar levels to keep them steady. The NHS trial has so far found the technology more effective at managing diabetes than current devices and that it requires far less input from patients.

Continue reading...

China shuts down city of 17.5m people in bid to halt Covid outbreak

Posted on by

Authorities adopt a zero tolerance policy in Shenzhen, imposing a lockdown and testing every resident three times

China’s government has locked down Shenzhen, a city of 17.5 million people, as it tries to contain its worst ever Covid-19 outbreak across multiple provinces, with case numbers tripling from Saturday to Sunday.

A government notice on Sunday said all residential communities were now under “closed management”, meaning they would be locked down. Every resident would undergo three rounds of testing, for which they were allowed to leave their homes, and all buses and subways were suspended.

Continue reading...

Sports concussion expert who resigned amid plagiarism claims accused of copying more articles

Posted on by

Analysis of 10 pieces by neurologist Dr Paul McCrory, who quit the Concussion in Sport Group, suggests he may have copied other work without proper attribution

A neurologist who resigned from a global sports concussion organisation amid allegations of plagiarism in a medical journal editorial has been accused of copying material in other articles without attribution.

Dr Paul McCrory, who in 2016 described concussion among NFL players as “overblown” and has advised the AFL on the issue, stood down as chair of Concussion in Sport Group (CISG) this week after the British Journal of Sports Medicine retracted the 2005 editorial, citing an “unlawful and indefensible breach of copyright” of the work of Prof Steve Haake.

Continue reading...

Higher levels of PFAS exposure may increase chance of Covid, studies say

Posted on by

Four studies are first to support theory PFAS could hinder body’s ability to fight virus, but authors say more is research needed

Higher levels of exposure to toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” may increase the likelihood of Covid-19 infection, more serious symptoms and death, a group of recent studies have found.

Public health advocates and researchers have feared since the coronavirus pandemic’s onset that PFAS, which are known to be immunotoxic, could hinder the body’s ability to fight Covid-19, and the four studies represent the first bit of research supporting the theory. However, the authors caution that more research is needed.

Continue reading...

First person to receive heart transplant from pig dies, says Maryland hospital

Posted on by
  • David Bennett dies two months after groundbreaking surgery
  • His condition began deteriorating several days earlier

Two months after a pioneering operation, the first person to receive a heart transplant from a pig has died, the US hospital that performed the surgery announced on Wednesday.

A handyman by trade, David Bennett, 57, had undergone the experimental procedure in Baltimore, Maryland, after suffering from heart failure and being out of other options.

Continue reading...

Covid can shrink brain and damage its tissue, finds research

Posted on by

Worst effect on region linked to smell, while infected people typically scored lower on mental skills test

The first major study to compare brain scans of people before and after they catch Covid has revealed shrinkage and tissue damage in regions linked to smell and mental capacities months after subjects tested positive.

It comes as the largest study to date of the genetics of Covid-19 identified 16 new genetic variants associated with severe illness, and named a number of existing drugs that could be repurposed to prevent patients from getting severely ill, some of which are already in clinical trials.

Continue reading...

Cutting back on final drink of day ‘could improve brain health’

Posted on by

Study of UK adults shows negative effects of alcohol consumption grow stronger with each additional drink

Cutting back on the final drink of the evening could substantially improve brain health, scientists have said.

A major study of more than 36,000 adults suggests that the negative effects of alcohol consumption grow stronger with each additional drink. So those who drink several units each day potentially have the most to gain by reducing their drinking.

Continue reading...

Arthritis drug could help save Covid patients – study

Posted on by

Rheumatoid arthritis drug baricitinib can reduce risk of death from severe Covid by about a fifth

A drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis could help to save the lives of patients with severe Covid, researchers have found, and they say its benefits can be seen even when it is used on top of other medications.

Experts involved in the Randomised Evaluation of Covid-19 Therapy (Recovery) trial say baricitinib, an anti-inflammatory drug taken as a tablet, can reduce the risk of death from severe Covid by about a fifth.

Continue reading...

Scientists seek to solve mystery of why some people do not catch Covid

Posted on by

Experts hope research can lead to development of drugs that stop people catching Covid or passing it on

Phoebe Garrett has attended university lectures without catching Covid; she even hosted a party where everyone subsequently tested positive except her. “I think I’ve knowingly been exposed about four times,” the 22-year-old from High Wycombe said.

In March 2021, she participated in the world’s first Covid-19 challenge trial, which involved dripping live virus into her nose and pegging her nostrils shut for several hours, in a deliberate effort to infect her. Still her body resisted.

Continue reading...

Concussion in sport: CTE found in more than half of sportspeople who donated brains

Posted on by

Groundbreaking findings by Australian Sports Brain Bank reveal prevalence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, including in younger players

Groundbreaking research into the long-term ramifications of concussion in sport has found chronic traumatic encephalopathy in the brains of more than half of a cohort of donors, including three under the age of 35.

The Australian Sports Brain Bank on Monday reported its preliminary findings after examining the 21 brains posthumously donated by sportspeople since the centre’s inception in 2018.

Continue reading...

Explainer: when will Covid vaccines be available for children under five?

Posted on by

Making sure adults and older children are vaccinated is the best thing to do if worried about under-fives not being eligible, expert says

Children under the age of five are not yet able to be vaccinated against Covid leaving some parents worried their younger children could catch the virus from older siblings who have returned to school.

Less than 50% of children aged five to 11 have received their first vaccine dose. But it is hoped child vaccination rates will be bolstered by Australia becoming the first country to approve the Moderna vaccine for children aged six and over. Pfizer continues to be available to children aged five and over.

Continue reading...

Will we get a single, variant-proof vaccine for Covid?

Posted on by

The goal of a universal vaccine would have seemed a fantasy only a few years ago. But not now…

This week the government announced additional vaccine booster jabs for the over-75s and suggested a further shot is likely to be needed in the autumn. But imagine if the next Covid vaccine jab you have were the last you would ever need. That’s a dream being actively pursued now by researchers, who feel it could be possible to make a “universal” vaccine against the Sars-CoV-2 virus that would work well not only against all existing variants but any that the virus could plausibly mutate into in the future.

Some are thinking even bigger. In January, Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, and two other experts called for more research into “universal coronavirus vaccines” that would work not only against Sars-CoV-2 but against the many other coronaviruses in animal populations that have the potential to spill over into humans and cause future pandemics. “We need a research approach that can characterise the global ‘coronaviral universe’ in multiple species,” Fauci and colleagues wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine, “and apply this information in developing broadly protective ‘universal’ vaccines against all [coronaviruses].”

Continue reading...