Health

The global situation has escalated since then with the Zika virus now being reported from 33 countries mostly in Latin America. The Zika virus may be particularly adept at entrenching itself in parts of the body that are shielded from the immune system, making it harder to fight off and possibly lengthening the timeframe in which it can be transmitted, ...

Just nine weekly sessions of personalised acupuncture for 20 minutes each may lessen perceived pain intensity in people suffering from chronic pain condition called fibromyalgia, says a study. Fibromyalgia affects one in 20 people globally and is primarily characterised by chronic widespread pain that is associated with fatigue, disordered sleep patterns and/or depression. According to the researchers, tailored acupuncture improves ...

The Zika virus is likely to spread across nearly all of the Americas, the World Health Organization has warned. The infection, which causes symptoms including mild fever, conjunctivitis and headache, has already been found in 21 countries in the Caribbean, North and South America. It has been linked to thousands of babies being born with underdeveloped brains and some countries ...

Chancellor George Osborne and philanthropist Bill Gates have announced £3bn in funding over the next five years to tackle malaria. Britain will give £500m a year from its overseas aid budget. And The Gates Foundation will give $200m (£140m) this year, with other donations of at least £110m to follow in the next five years. The aim is to eradicate ...

Now, a revolutionary technique exists that can help older women desperate to become mothers by rejuvenating their eggs. The scientists said that one of three treatments being developed by Massachusetts-based OvaScience, Augment can effectively make older eggs young again by adding a fresh set of “batteries” transferred from more youthful cells in the ovaries identified by a scientific process pioneered ...

A glass of clean drinking water contains 10 million ‘good’ bacteria, which may help purify the water and keep it safe, a new study has claimed. Researchers have found that our drinking water is to a large extent purified by millions of “good bacteria” found in water pipes and purification plants. So far, the knowledge about them has been practically ...

Opting for a vaginal birth can make your baby healthier as researchers have found that this practice is beneficial for inter-generational transfer of the microbiome from mother to infant, which is crucial for the newborn to build strong immunity. Perturbation of the microbiome environment in the gut during pregnancy, delivery and early infancy could impact the developing baby’s early microbiome ...

The 48-hour junior doctors’ strike due to start next Tuesday in England has been called off by the British Medical Association The decision comes as talks continue this week between the doctors’ union and the government about the disputed junior doctor contract in England. The BMA said the move did not mean a deal had been reached. A planned strike ...

The Vaccine Alliance, Gavi, has signed a $5m (£3.5m) deal for an Ebola vaccine, to protect against future outbreaks of the deadly disease. The deal commits pharmaceutical company Merck to keeping 300,000 vaccines ready for emergency use or further clinical trials. It will also submit an application to license the vaccine by the end of 2017, which would the next ...

Having an irregular heartbeat poses a greater health risk to women than men, a review of 30 studies, involving more than four million patients, suggests. The women with atrial fibrillation (AF) were almost twice as likely to have fatal heart disease and strokes. Women may respond less well to AF drugs or are being diagnosed later than men. “One possibility ...