Overview
- Female staff were groped and forced to give sexual favours for promotions at a scandal hit ambulance trust, a damning report has revealed. Women at South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust told investigators that ‘sexual predators’ within the organisation ‘groomed’ young workers while managers propositioned staff for sex.
- Up to 200 mothers across Northern Ireland are hoping to set a new record for breastfeeding.They will be feeding their children together as part of the Global Big Latch On. It’s a feature of Breastival – a celebration of breastfeeding which aims to normalise the issue. Northern Ireland has the lowest rate of breastfeeding in the UK and one of the lowest in Europe.
- Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman warns that overcautious health and safety procedures in schools are denying children the chance to develop “resilience and grit”. Spielman said the culture of wrapping children “in cotton wool” was damaging for pupils, as it makes it difficult for them to learn to cope with “normal everyday risk”.
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- On Monday the White House commission examining the nation’s opioid epidemic, headed by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, released its interim report that says President Donald Trump should declare an emergency because “our citizens are dying.” The recommendation that Trump declare a national public health emergency over the growing opioid crisis is long overdue and a welcome relief, according to medical professionals and those battling the epidemic on the front lines.
- A specialized court has been established in Pinal County to give defendants with mental problems an alternative path and keep them out of the criminal justice system. Establishing a mental health court increases public safety, reduces recidivism rates and improves access to mental health programs.
- Federal health officials reported on Friday that a deadly salmonella outbreak linked to papayas imported from Mexico sickened an additional 64 people and expanded to 16 U.S. states. According to the CDC, people were first sickened after eating the fruit beginning on May 17. The people infected were between ages less than 1 to 95.
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- The NHS in England has announced it will finally give people a drug to dramatically reduce the risk of being infected with HIV, from next month. The health service had previously fought against paying for Prep and even took the issue to court, unsuccessfully, last year. Prep (pre-exposure prophylaxis) is a daily pill that disables HIV before it gets a stranglehold in the body.
- From October 1, Brussels is abolishing quotas which control how much sugar can be produced across Europe and scrapping the system which keeps prices high. The EU produces half the world’s beet sugar. Across Europe farmers and sugar producers have been ramping up for the October free-for-all.
- A legal dispute over who pays for nurses delivering social care in residential homes in Wales has been won by Welsh councils. Health boards and 21 councils could not agree over who should pay when a person needs certain healthcare – but not around the clock.
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- A new study by a team of researchers from Stanford University sheds light on chronic fatigue syndrome, which is estimated to affect over 836,000 Americans and has no known cure or cause. Chronic fatigue syndrome or also know as ME/CFS is a debilitating illness characterized by overwhelming fatigue that is not improved by rest.
- A new study published in the journal Menopause suggests that women exposed to more estrogen over their lifetime including those who use hormonal birth control for many years may be somewhat protected from that increased risk of experiencing depression during and after menopause.
- Until 1993 there was no treatment available for multiple sclerosis, with doctors turning to steroids to manage patients’ symptoms. But over the past several years, there’s been an influx of new disease-modifying agents for MS, which affects more than 2 million people worldwide. Ocrevus is the first treatment approved for MS.
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- The innovative myOwn is a first-of-its-kind product in the Australian insurance market, offering customers a health insurance policy bundled with the AIA Vitality health and wellness program. The brand is the product of an alliance between the life insurance company AIA Australia and health fund GMHBA.
- Australia’s first standalone heart hospital could cost almost double the original estimate, but the Victorian Government denies it has bungled the project and says the facility could be bigger and better than first planned. The Victorian Government argues the standalone model is best practice.
- A national report on the spread of antimicrobial resistance has highlighted specific types of bacteria as major emerging problems for Australian hospitals. A bacteria that commonly causes infection among vulnerable surgical and cancer patients is becoming a growing problem for Australian hospitals.
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- According to researchers the number of blind people across the world is set to triple within the next 4 decades. Researchers predict the number of people with sight problems will soar in the coming decades. Analysis of data from 188 countries suggests there are more than 200 million people with moderate to severe vision impairment.
- Experts say that Britons’ attitudes to breastfeeding prevent mothers in the UK from nursing their babies for more than a few weeks. According to Unicef and the WHO, the UK has one of the lowest rates of breastfeeding in the world.
- Sexual health services in England are “at a tipping point”, according to local councils in England, who say visits to clinics have increased while funding has been cut. The Local Government Association warns that patients could face longer waiting times. But the latest data shows diagnoses of sexually transmitted infections have fallen in the past year.
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- When media mogul Oprah Winfrey weighed more than two hundred pounds, she wanted to lean on the body positivity movement to feel comfortable about her weight but she couldn’t do it without risking her health. She purchased a 10% stake in Weight Watchers in October 2015 before starting the program herself.
- The Justice Department will dispatch 12 federal prosecutors to cities ravaged by addiction who will focus exclusively on investigating health care fraud and opioid scams that are fueling the nation’s drug abuse epidemic. The Health Department says opioid-related overdoses killed 3,050 people in Ohio in 2015.
- Democratic and Republican U.S. governors urged the Trump administration and Congress to continue funding payments to health insurance companies that make Obamacare plans affordable, calling it critical to stabilizing the insurance marketplace.
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- SA Health has said that a childcare centre and a school in Adelaide have “sent out alarmist and inaccurate information” about meningococcal after a two-year-old girl was admitted to hospital with the disease. SA Health said 9 people who had direct contact with the child, who was admitted to hospital in a critical condition, had received clearance antibiotics.
- High street retailer Next is recalling a pair of children’s shoes after they were found to contain a potentially harmful substance called benzidine which might cause cancer. The ACCC on Wednesday confirmed that the hazard referred to by Next is benzidine, a man-made chemical used in fabric and leather dyes. According to the NHS, exposure to benzidine is thought to increase the risk of bladder cancer.
- Debate has erupted over whether morbidly obese models should be banned from fashion runways after doctors warned “drastically overweight” super models send health messages that are just as dangerous as those who are underweight. Doctor Frankum, the Australia Medical Association New South Wales president, told The Daily Telegraph there was a “fine line” between “being confident” and promoting unhealthy messages.
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- In a surprising discovery, a research team led by Oregon Health and & Science University (OHSU) reported embryos can help fix themselves if scientists jump-start the process early enough. It is laboratory research only nowhere near ready to be tried in a pregnancy but it suggests scientists might alter DNA in a way that protects not just one baby from a disease that runs in the family, but his or her offspring as well.
- Authorities in the US warned Australia 17 years ago that a toxic chemical called perfluorooctane sulfonate (Pfos) that was using at defence bases, fire stations, and airports, risked “severe, long-term consequences” to human health and the environment. Australia’s decades-long use of the chemical, which shares a probable link with cancer, has now prompted investigations at about one hundred sites across the country, including two where residents have launched class actions against the federal government.
- Hunter Valley health officials say an internal investigation is underway after another suicide at a Newcastle mental health centre. The ABC has been told a woman is the latest Mater Mental Health Centre patient to take their own life.
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- The official data shows the number of drug poisoning deaths reached record levels in England and Wales. Deaths involving cocaine rose by 16% to 371, while overall there were 3,743 deaths from legal and illegal drugs.
- Scientists have discovered that women who have children after the age of 30 face a greater risk of their offspring developing cancer. Experts warn that women who leave it late to have children are at a much greater risk of severe complications.
- Research suggests that up to 3,000 elderly people will not be able to get beds in UK care homes by the end of next year. Increasing demand from an ageing population could see that grow to more than 7,000 beds in 9 years’ time.
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