The Health News United Kingdom October 28 2017

• Patients needing emergency medical attention at Harrogate District Hospital have rated the care they received as the best in the UK. The latest Care Quality Commission national Emergency Department Patient Survey results show that patients rank Harrogate District Hospital joint first out of 136 participating trusts.
• New research has revealed that a superbug resistant to antibiotics is spreading outside hospitals – having left its usual breeding grounds.  The MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) bacterium is affecting the population in Britain at large – raising fears it could claim more lives. Earlier this year the WHO warned antibiotic-resistant superbugs pose an enormous threat to human health.
• Volunteers are being sought to take a pill called PrEP that mimics the effect of HIV to see if antibodies that fight the virus can be created in the most “at risk” parts of the body. About 60 volunteers are being recruited by Imperial’s clinical research facility at Hammersmith hospital. They will receive three vaccination pills over a year, and receive £1,350 for taking part. The project is funded by almost £2 million from the Medical Research Council.

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 28th of  October 2017. Read by Tabetha Moreto. Health News

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/health/harrogate-hospital-rated-among-best-in-england-for-a-e-and-cancer-care-1-8823701

Patients needing emergency medical attention at Harrogate District Hospital have rated the care they received as the best in the country. The latest Care Quality Commission national Emergency Department Patient Survey results show that patients rank Harrogate District Hospital joint first out of one hundred thirty six participating trusts.  Asked to rate their overall experience in the Emergency Department, on average Harrogate patients rated the Trust eight point six out of ten, seeing a zero point four increase on last year’s result. Doctor Matt Shepherd, Lead Consultant in the Emergency Department, said: “I’m delighted that patients’ views and experiences with us in the Emergency Department mean we are ranked joint highest in the country.’’ The survey found that patients felt more reassured and involved in their care and treatment, with an increase in scores in the majority of questions compared to results from the previous year.

The best performing area for the Trust was care with ‘respect and dignity’ where staff scored nine point three, while the most improved area in the survey was ‘tests’, where the Trust scored nine point one this year. But the fantastic work by the Trust doesn’t stop there. For the two thousand sixteen Cancer Care Survey, Harrogate District Hospital landed joint forth out of one hundred forty eight  Trusts which took part, achieving an average score of eighty point four. But what’s more, excluding the cancer specialist centres from the results, Harrogate was placed joint first, along with Yeovil Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/health/deadly-superbug-mrsa-resistant-antibiotics-11408377

New research has revealed that a superbug resistant to antibiotics is spreading outside hospitals – having left its usual breeding grounds.  The MRSA or Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacterium is affecting the population in Britain at large – raising fears it could claim more lives. In the first study of its kind it was tracked across the East of England for a year and found being transmitted in the community – after going unrecognised by doctors.
Contrary to the assumption infection usually only occurs in hospitals with outbreaks confined to single wards the UK team observed a different pattern. This centred around specific individuals who passed on MRSA as they moved through the healthcare system.
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Earlier this year the World Health Organisation warned antibiotic-resistant superbugs pose an enormous threat to human health.

The researchers detected one hundred seventy three different outbreaks in hospitals, in the community, general practitioner surgeries, homes – and in between these places. Most – but not all – had been spotted previously. They applied epidemiological data like hospital admissions, ward transfers and areas of residence to link cases.
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Apocalypse of antibiotic resistant superbugs will kill ten million people a year, experts fear.
The researchers said the study published in Science Translational Medicine shows routine genomic surveillance of MRSA can detect unsuspected outbreaks. MRSA is incredibly hard to treat and can be fatal because it is resistant to widely-used antibiotics. Even when the infection is treated it doubles the average length of hospital stays and increase healthcare costs. The WHO recently classified MRSA as high priority on list for Research and Development of new drugs.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/health/london-scientists-launch-pioneering-trial-for-drugs-that-could-lead-to-vaccine-for-hiv-a3667186.html

Volunteers are being sought to take a pill that mimics the effect of HIV to see if antibodies that fight the virus can be created in the most “at risk” parts of the body. The research team at Imperial College hope the pioneering trial will be an “important step” towards cracking one of the greatest biological challenges facing scientists.  Attempts to find a HIV vaccine have been made for more than thirty years. According to the World Health Organisation, there were one point eight million new cases of HIV last year and one million Aids-related deaths. A total of thirty six point seven million people were living with HIV. Professor Robin Shattock, who is leading the research, said the aim was to develop a vaccine that would be given at puberty and provide years of protection. At present, the best preventative treatment is PrEP, a pill that is taken daily and which offers a high degree of protection against HIV. The NHS is this month launching trials offering PrEP free to ten thousand high-risk people.
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About sixty volunteers are being recruited by Imperial’s clinical research facility at Hammersmith hospital. They will receive three vaccination pills over a year, and receive one thousand three hundred fifty pounds for taking part. The project is funded by almost twenty two million pounds from the Medical Research Council. The pills, manufactured by the US pharmaceutical company PaxVax, do not contain the HIV virus but a small amount of adenovirus 4, which has been engineered to express the HIV protein.

Participants have to be between eighteen and forty five, healthy and not at high risk of HIV. If the trial is successful, the team will look for additional funding to increase the number of participants and develop this line of research.