Health

According to a new research, last two decades have seen a rise in the life expectancy in every province of China, but the large inequalities between provinces remain, suggesting that localisation of policies will be crucial to government health reforms Two new studies reveal for the first time how health in different regions of China has changed in recent decades. ...

Federal authorities have confiscated shipments of a lethal-injection chemical that Arizona and Texas tried to bring in from abroad, saying such imports are illegal — a move that compounds the nation’s severe shortage of execution drugs. The Food and Drug Administration said Friday that it impounded orders of sodium thiopental, an anesthetic that has been used in past executions in ...

East London Genes & Health, the world’s largest community based genetics study, is celebrating its first milestone with 4000 local participants taking part so far. The research project has also received a funding boost of £5m from the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE) to build an East London Genes & Health Population Genomic Medicine Centre on Newark Street, Whitechapel. Launched ...

Barts Health NHS Trust is delighted to announce that Alwen Williams has been appointed as its substantive Chief Executive. The appointment follows an open and competitive selection process which included independent external assessment. Commenting on the appointment, Chair of the Trust John Bacon said: “I am personally delighted by this appointment and I would like to congratulate Alwen and wish ...

Everyone dies. The goal is to last as long as possible, and to go peacefully and with dignity. For much of the world, dying well is a challenge. A new report from the Economist, dubbed the Quality of Death Index, ranks nations based on the quality of their palliative and hospice care. The United Kingdom tops the list, with the ...

Australia is making key moves to legalise the growing of cannabis for medicinal and scientific purposes, the government announced. Health Minister Sussan Ley said on Saturday that changes to existing legislation that bans the growing of marijuana will be introduced to parliament, with the aim of providing alternate treatment for people with debilitating illnesses, reports Al Jazeera. “This government is ...

The head of a US pharmaceutical company has defended his company’s decision to raise the price of a 62-year-old medication used by Aids patients by over 5,000%. Turing Pharmaceuticals acquired the rights to Daraprim in August. CEO Martin Shkreli has said that the company will use the money it makes from sales to research new treatments. The drug is used ...

Environmental Health Officers are working with Barts Health Trust to ensure that visitors and employees refrain from smoking outside the Royal London Hospital. The council’s Consumer and Business Regulations Service is assisting the health trust in ensuring that patients, visitors and staff smoke or use electronic cigarettes away from the hospital’s estate. The service’s smoke free officers will help patrol ...

A new study has provided some key insights into aspirin’s disease-fighting abilities. Researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI), in collaboration with colleagues at Rutgers University and San Raffaele University and Research Institute have found that salicylic acid targets the activities of HMGB1, an inflammatory protein associated with a wide variety of diseases, offering hope that more powerful aspirin-like drugs ...

More than 10 percent of rural Bangladeshi adults are unaware of their high blood pressure, and this proportion doubles to one in 5 people aged 60 years and older, says a recent icddr,b study. Even among those taking anti-hypertensive medication, more than 50 percent were ‘uncontrolled’ – unable to maintain a normal blood pressure level, shows the study, led by ...