Prostock-studio/Shutterstock The world changed for all of us when we were suddenly plunged into a pandemic in 2020. COVID sent us into a series of lockdowns in a bid to control the spread of the virus until a vaccine could be developed. Most of us knew that a vaccine wouldContinue Reading
Rido/Shutterstock At the heights of the pandemic, particularly since 2021, many children and teenagers admitted to hospital had COVID. However, it was never clear what proportion of them were in hospital because of COVID, indicating quite severe illness, or for a different reason (such as an injury), but just happenedContinue Reading
stockpexel/Shutterstock The COVID pandemic has disrupted many areas of routine healthcare including, importantly, childhood vaccination. The pandemic saw levels of essential childhood immunisations decline in more than 100 countries around the world, leading to outbreaks of infectious diseases such as yellow fever, cholera, diphtheria and polio. There are many reasonsContinue Reading
Egor Kulinich/Shutterstock The UK is set to roll out a national lung cancer screening programme for people aged 55 to 74 with a history of smoking. The idea is to catch lung cancer at an early stage when it is more treatable. Quoting NHS England data, the health secretary, SteveContinue Reading
Loveandrock/Shutterstock Matt Hancock, the former health secretary, has told the recently opened COVID-19 Inquiry that the UK’s pandemic planning was “completely wrong”. According to Hancock, the doctrine was “to plan for the consequences of a disaster” rather than stopping or containing the virus in the first place. While there isContinue Reading
triocean/Shutterstock If you look up at the sky on a clear day, you might notice little cobweb-like structures drifting across your field of vision. They are known as floaters or, more formally, muscae volitantes – Latin for flying flies. Like regular flies, muscae volitantes are rather pesky, so it’s notContinue Reading
MRI brain scan. SpeedKingz/Shutterstock People often jokingly say they’ve “got a bit of OCD” (obsessive-compulsive disorder) if they are overly organised or tidy. But OCD is actually a severe and disabling disorder characterised by obsessions – recurrent intrusive thoughts, impulses or images that are unwanted and anxiety provoking. This isContinue Reading
BMI has many limitations. Rawpixel.com/ Shutterstock Body mass index has long been used by doctors as the standard method for measuring health – and often still is. But earlier this month, the American Medical Association (AMA) adopted a new policy that cautions medical professionals from using the body mass indexContinue Reading
Pheelings media/Shutterstock There’s one animal that ruins summer evenings: the mosquito. While mosquitoes don’t carry any diseases in the UK, their itchy bites are far from fun. Everyone has a friend who gets covered in mosquito bites and a friend who doesn’t get a single one. That’s because mosquitoes useContinue Reading
Yep, when you've finished, both of those need to go in the wash. pexels/karolina grabowska Kitchens can harbour all sorts of germs and bacteria. These can arrive via humans, pets, uncooked food or even plants, meaning that a high proportion of foodborne infections are acquired directly within the home. AnContinue Reading
