The Health News United Kingdom January 20 2018

• The potentially deadly Australian flu is spreading in the UK, with health bodies reporting a large rise in cases. GPs in Wales said on January 11 that the number of flu cases had more than doubled in a week. In Ireland, the Irish Health Service Executive says a number of people have died from Australian flu. And Public Health England says a growing numbers of cases is being reported by GPs and hospitals.
• According to major public health public, taking part in sport protects children who are abused or neglected from developing mental health problems in later life, according to a major public health study. The study found that people who had adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) but regularly played sports as children were less likely to have a mental illness as an adult. People who had traumatic childhoods were also more likely to be mentally healthy if they took part in sport as adults.
• The U.K. has appointed a minister of loneliness to tackle what Prime Minister Theresa May calls a “sad reality of modern life” for many U.K. citizens. May announced the position Wednesday, appointing current Minister for Sport and Civil Society Tracey Crouch. According to government figures, more than 9 million people in the U.K. “always or often feel lonely” and “around 200,000 older people have not had a conversation with a friend or relative in more than a month.”

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 20th of January 2018. Read by Tabetha Moreto.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health/australian-flu-symptoms-how-treat-14101923

The potentially deadly Australian flu is spreading in the UK, with health bodies reporting a large rise in cases. General practitioners in Wales said on January eleven that the number of flu cases had more than doubled in a week. In Ireland, the Irish Health Service Executive says a number of people have died from Australian flu. And Public Health England says a growing number of cases is being reported by GPs and hospitals.

Doctor Jillian Johnston of England’s Public Health Agency says: “The Australian experience showed that older people were more susceptible to the A HthreeNtwo strain of virus, so with families spending a lot of time together at this time of year, getting kids vaccinated can help reduce the spread of flu to older people.”
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The strain, known as HthreeNtwo, was linked to hundreds of deaths in Australia during their winter. People are being urged to get a flu jab to protect themselves, though it has been warned that the flu vaccine offered ‘no significant protection’ for elderly people last year. The flu is a subtype of influenza A and mainly affects pregnant women, the elderly and children.
Those with health conditions are also at risk of the bug which can lead to pneumonia and other health complications.

The NHS says flu symptoms come on very quickly and can include: a sudden fever – a temperature of thirty eight Celsus or above; aching body; feeling tired or exhausted; chesty cough sore throat; headache; difficulty sleeping; loss of appetite; diarrhea or tummy pain;  nausea and being sick. The symptoms are similar for children, but they can also get pain in their ear and appear less active.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/18/sport-protects-mental-health-children-experience-trauma

According to a major public health study, taking part in sport protects children who are abused or neglected from developing mental health problems in later life. The study found that people who had adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) but regularly played sports as children were less likely to have a mental illness as an adult. People who had traumatic childhoods were also more likely to be mentally healthy if they took part in sports as adults.

The study confirmed a strong link between ACEs, which include sexual and physical abuse, parental separation and living with domestic violence, and mental illness as an adult. It said people who had four or more ACEs were four times more likely to be receiving treatment for current mental illnesses and ten times more likely to have self-harmed or felt suicidal than those who had experienced none.

The study from Public Health Wales (PHW) and Bangor University looked at what could help people with troubled upbringings.

The report found that adults who were members of clubs and community groups were also more likely to be mentally well. It found that playing sport also helped adults, with the proportion of people being treated for a mental illness if they played sport almost half that of those who did not.
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Children with four or more ACEs were more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with a chronic disease in later life than those who had experienced none, the report said. They are four times more likely to develop type two diabetes, three times more likely to develop heart disease and three times more likely to develop respiratory disease.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/17/578645954/u-k-now-has-a-minister-for-loneliness

The U.K. has appointed a minister of loneliness to tackle what Prime Minister Theresa May calls a “sad reality of modern life” for many U.K. citizens. May announced the position Wednesday, appointing current Minister for Sport and Civil Society Tracey Crouch. May sad: “I want to confront this challenge for our society and for all of us to take action to address the loneliness endured by the elderly, by carers, by those who have lost loved ones — people who have no one to talk to or share their thoughts and experiences with.”

According to government figures, more than nine million people in the U.K. “always or often feel lonely” and “around two hundred thousand older people have not had a conversation with a friend or relative in more than a month.” An increasing body of research has found that feelings of social isolation can have profound health effects; according to a government commission, loneliness is as bad for people’s health as smoking fifteen cigarettes daily.
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A commission on loneliness, which was set up by former Member of Parliament Jo Cox before she was murdered, had called for a minister to be appointed to spearhead the government’s strategy. Cox was forty one years old when she was killed by a white supremacist in two thousand sixteen, in the lead-up to the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union.