LONDON (Reuters) – More than 10,000 ambulance workers across England and Wales will strike later this month over pay and conditions, the GMB union said on Tuesday, adding to widespread industrial action across Britain’s health service over the Christmas period. The union said its members, including paramedics, emergency care assistants and call handlers, at nine regional ambulance services would walk out […]

(Reuters) – Price increases spread among seven of the 10 drugs in 2021 behind an $805 million increase in U.S. spending from the prior year were not supported by clinical evidence, an influential U.S. pricing research firm said on Tuesday. The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) said the spending increase in 2021 was still less than the $1.67 […]

When Cindy, a three-year-old mixed-breed dog, stopped eating and began vomiting, her pet parent, Elmerlinda C., was alarmed. Elmerlinda and Cindy had just returned from a three-month visit to Puerto Rico, where Elmerlinda had adopted Cindy when she was six weeks old.  “I thought maybe she picked up something on our trip,” says Elmerlinda.  Having visited the ASPCA Animal Hospital the previous […]

Patients with localized, hormone receptor-positive, HER2-low breast cancer treated with trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd, Enhertu) in the neoadjuvant setting had an overall response rate of 75 percent in the absence of anastrozole and 63 percent in combination with anastrozole, according to results from the phase II TRIO-US B-12 TALENT trial presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held December 6-10, […]

There have been significant improvements in care for patients undergoing hip and knee surgery through the NHS over the past 10 years, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The study, published in BMJ Open, set out to evaluate the impact of Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT), a national NHS improvement program which started in 2012. Initially established […]

This year’s version of the influenza vaccine appears to be effective against the widely circulating strains of the virus, the CDC said on Monday. “We look in real time as to how well we think the influenza match is to what’s circulating. And right now, the good news is that it looks like it is a very good match,” CDC […]

Researchers from the University of Maine and University of Massachusetts Amherst have designed new liquid-coated air filters that allow for improved early detection and analysis of airborne bacteria and viruses, including the one that causes COVID-19. While conventional air filters help control the spread of disease in public spaces like hospitals and travel hubs, they struggle to keep the pathogens […]

Parathyroid hormone can stimulate bone formation, and analogs of the hormone are often prescribed to patients with osteoporosis; however, these medications are only effective when administered by daily injection. A team led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) recently identified a promising compound that influences components of the parathyroid hormone signaling pathway and that, when given orally to mice, […]

Due to public health issues like the opioid crisis and the global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, innovative cities have turned to new technologies to better understand the risks to their communities. One of these technologies is wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), an emerging field that can track the types of chemicals and viruses in sewers as a public data tool for municipality-wide public health […]

A mum who was told she wouldn’t have any more children after developing leukaemia, has not only beaten the disease but had a ‘miracle baby’ too. Mother-of-two Ann Hope, 42, always dreamt of having three children to ‘complete’ her family. Sadly, that seemed impossible when she was diagnosed with blood cancer in March 2016. Doctors told Ann she would need […]