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  • Pakistani Fans to Get Their Own Stand at MCG in Upcoming Big Bash

    Pakistani Fans to Get Their Own Stand at MCG in Upcoming Big Bash

    The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) will once again introduce a dedicated stand for Pakistani fans during the upcoming Big Bash League (BBL) season, continuing a tradition that has brought colour and energy to the tournament.

    The stand, officially named the “House of Rauf,” will be a centrepiece at Melbourne Stars home fixtures, designed to attract Pakistani and South Asian cricket fans to cheer for the team. The initiative follows last season’s Pakistan Stand, which proved a hit with the community.

    Melbourne Stars general manager Max Abbott explained the thinking behind the move:

    “We want to make sure our Pakistani fans feel at home. The ‘House of Rauf’ is about giving them a space to celebrate, enjoy the matches, and showcase their culture. With Haris Rauf as one of our biggest ambassadors, we’re excited to welcome the passion and energy of Pakistan’s cricket-loving crowd.”

    Haris Rauf, a fan favourite at the Stars, continues to play a central role in the franchise’s efforts to engage the Pakistani diaspora in Australia. Abbott noted that the presence of Pakistani supporters has consistently elevated the MCG atmosphere, creating a unique environment whenever South Asian players take the field.

    The move also aligns with Cricket Australia’s Multicultural Action Plan, aimed at strengthening ties with diverse communities and recognising the vital role they play in the country’s sporting landscape.

    For Pakistani fans in Melbourne, the dedicated stand at the MCG promises not only a chance to support their cricketing heroes but also an opportunity to celebrate their identity in one of the world’s most iconic stadiums.

    The upcoming BBL season will feature not only some of the biggest names from Pakistan, but also passionate, die‑hard cricket fans in the stands.


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  • Machine learning and SHAP values explain the association between social determinants of health and post-stroke depression | BMC Public Health

    Machine learning and SHAP values explain the association between social determinants of health and post-stroke depression | BMC Public Health

    This study aimed to explore the association between SDoH and PSD. By analyzing clinical data from 1,112 stroke patients, we found that SDoH was significantly associated with the prevalence of PSD, and this relationship was validated in multiple subgroup analyses. Additionally, we developed a ML model to further demonstrate the clinical value of SDoH as a significant predictor of PSD occurrence.

    The results of this study revealed a significant correlation between increasing SDoH and PSD. These findings align with current literature, underscoring the significant influence of social determinants, including socioeconomic position, educational attainment, and housing circumstances, on mental health. For instance, a systematic review has identified a significant association between reduced social networks and post-stroke depression [9], while meta-analyses have shown that social support can reduce the risk of PSD [23]. A cohort study also found that stroke patients with lower educational levels were more likely to develop PSD symptoms [10, 11]. These results suggest that adverse social environments may be associated with an increased occurrence of post-stroke depression through various mechanisms. Poor socioeconomic status, lower educational attainment, limited social support, and poor living conditions may all contribute as risk factors for stroke patients experiencing mental health challenges during recovery.

    Our study found that younger individuals exhibited a higher propensity for developing PSD. Younger patients may experience greater socially adaptive problems, including employment constraints, family commitments, and insufficient social support, which could heighten their vulnerability to depression symptoms during stroke recovery. In contrast, while older patients may encounter more health problems, they may exhibit greater psychological resilience in coping with major illnesses. Additionally, our study revealed a relatively higher proportion of women with PSD; however, this difference was not statistically significant. A separate systematic evaluation also found no consistent relationship between depression and gender [24]. Furthermore, gender did not show a significant interaction in the analyses, as both male and female groups demonstrated a significant relationship between SDoH and PSD.

    Although BMI is commonly used as an indicator of physical health in medical studies, our analyses revealed a strong association between BMI and depressive symptoms. This suggests a potential relationship between obesity and mental health. Obesity may not only cause physical discomfort but also exacerbate depressive symptoms by affecting an individual’s self-image and social interactions. A similar study identified a correlation between obesity and post-stroke anxiety [25].

    In this study, we used the Boruta algorithm for feature selection while excluding known risk factors for PSD, such as race, smoking, and marital status. Although these factors have been widely recognized as risk factors for PSD, they demonstrated weak correlations with other selected features in our model and did not notably enhance predictive accuracy during model training. Specifically, the Boruta algorithm assesses the contribution of each feature to predictive performance using a random forest approach, and features are excluded if their importance is lower than that of randomly generated features. This selection method facilitates the enhancement of the model’s simplicity and generalizability, but we understand that this exclusion decision may lead to concerns regarding the validity of the model. Therefore, we plan to further investigate the potential role of these factors, especially in different subgroups, in future studies. Additionally, we will explore alternative feature selection methods and consider incorporating additional clinical variables to enhance the model’s predictive power.

    Among the machine learning models for predicting PSD, the CatBoost model demonstrated the best overall predictive performance with an AUC value of 0.966, significantly outperforming the other models. Compared to traditional logistic regression, CatBoost excels at handling complex non-linear relationships, particularly in the analysis of multivariate medical data, demonstrating significant advantages [26]. Logistic regression, as a classical statistical model, provides good interpretability in cases with simple feature relationships. However, in the presence of multidimensional, non-linear data, machine learning methods can capture more potential patterns and relationships, thereby improving prediction accuracy [27].

    Furthermore, DCA and calibration curves validate the potential clinical applications of the CatBoost model. Although the ‘black-box’ nature of machine learning models is often criticized, this study improved model interpretability by incorporating SHAP values. This allowed clinicians to visualize the role of each variable, thereby enhancing the model’s clinical applicability [28].

    The use of SHAP values enabled a quantitative assessment of the role of individual characteristics in predicting PSD. In the CatBoost model, age, gender, SDoHQ, education, and BMI emerged as the most important predictors. The effects of age and gender are likely linked to known physiological and psychological mechanisms underlying post-stroke depression. The SDoHQ is a comprehensive measure of social health status that emphasizes the correlation between socioeconomic status and mental health [29]. This finding aligns with sociological theory, indicating a strong link between social factors and health outcomes [30].

    The model proposed in this study offers a novel approach to PSD risk assessment in clinical settings. First, by quantifying the relationship between SDoH and PSD, clinicians can more precisely identify individuals at risk for early intervention. For patients with high SDoH scores, particularly those with low income, limited education, and insufficient social support, personalized mental health monitoring and intervention plans can be developed to help mitigate the onset and progression of depression. Second, the clinical application of this model may help reduce inequalities in PSD diagnosis and outcomes. By integrating SDoH factors, the models can elucidate the relationship between socioeconomic status and mental health, thereby aiding in identifying groups that are vulnerable to PSD due to poorer social conditions. Existing tools, such as the PHQ-9 and BDI, typically focus on assessing symptoms of depression, but they often overlook external factors such as social determinants of health. In contrast, our model can integrate these social and economic contextual factors to offer a more holistic risk assessment.

    Although this study provides valuable evidence regarding the relationship between SDoH and PSD, several limitations remain. First, given that NHANES is a cross-sectional survey, and although we ascertained that subjects had a history of stroke based on self-reported data and classified depressive status using a PHQ-9 score ≥ 10, we could not definitively determine whether depressive symptoms manifested after the stroke. The diagnosis of new-onset post-stroke depression, in the strictest sense, requires validation through longitudinal cohort studies. Second, the CatBoost model demonstrated strong performance in this study (AUC = 0.966), but we recognize that its validation was restricted to internal ten-fold cross-validation, which may carry a risk of overfitting. Currently, no independent stroke-related datasets are available for external validation; thus, the generalizability of the model requires further evaluation, particularly across diverse populations and national datasets. Third, this study employed a PHQ-9 score ≥ 10 as the diagnostic criterion for PSD, which has been widely used in epidemiologic investigations. However, we acknowledge that some depressive symptoms (e.g., malaise, sleep disturbance) could result from somatic conditions in stroke patients, posing a risk of misclassification. Future studies could improve diagnostic accuracy through clinical interviews or detailed assessment of symptom onset timing. Fourth, this study employed a cross-sectional study design, which enabled us to identify only the correlation between SDoH and PSD, but precluded inferring a causal relationship between the two. Furthermore, although the NHANES database provides a wide range of representative data, there may be differences in socio-cultural backgrounds, healthcare systems, and economic conditions in different countries and regions, and these factors may affect the relationship between SDoH and PSD. Therefore, future studies should consider cross-national or cross-cultural samples to validate the generalizability and cross-regional applicability of the model and to ensure that it can be effectively applied to a wider population. Additionally, although this study combined machine learning models and SHAP values, there is room for further improvement, and future research should include additional factors related to PSD, such as a history of depression [31], stroke severity [32], and stroke location [33].

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  • Rugby player forced to retire after suffering 13 concussions

    Rugby player forced to retire after suffering 13 concussions

    Kit Taylor

    BBC News, Yorkshire

    Provided A man in front of a crowd of runners smiling and wearing a blue exercise shirt that says "York Mind" with a matching blue hat. Provided

    Mr Stephen played rugby for nearly 20 years before being forced to stop

    A former rugby player who was forced to give up the sport after suffering repeated concussions has spoken about his struggle with his mental health.

    Nick Stephen, 30, started playing rugby in York aged eight, but had to walk away from the game aged 25 after his 13th concussion in three seasons.

    He said leaving the sport behind “felt like my whole life had caved in” and he began suffering with migraines, tinnitus, nausea and panic attacks, and was later diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome.

    Now he is raising money and awareness for the York Mind charity as well as encouraging others struggling with their mental health to seek help.

    Mr Stephen, from York, was playing for Edinburgh Academical when he was given the news he could no longer play contact sports as a result of his repeated head injuries

    “The last thing you remember was being happy, playing the sport that you love,” he said.

    “The next thing you’re aware of are bright lights above your head, paramedics are fussing over you, you’re strapped to the headboard and you have no idea what’s happened.”

    He said he had “no idea” about the effects of concussion and would rush back to playing “as soon as I could”.

    However he said his final concussion resulted in him suffering a seizure on the pitch.

    “I couldn’t remember that whole day, but being shown footage of the injury and how severe the incident really started to take a toll on me.”

    Provided A man lying on a stretcher with a head board to keep his neck straight, covered in a white sheet. Provided

    Mr Stephen said he had no memory of the incident which led to his final concussion

    He said being told he could no longer play rugby came as a huge blow and had become “the catalyst for things starting to go wrong”.

    “You work so hard to get to a certain level of playing the sport that you love, and you’re in your prime,” he said.

    “To have that removed in an instant had a real severe impact on me mentally.

    “My migraines started to get so bad I couldn’t get out of bed, I had severe tinnitus and nausea every day.

    “I had panic attacks and I’d put on weight, and I was getting three to four hours of sleep maximum.

    “I still wanted to be the Nick that people knew, but I was no longer that person.”

    It was at this point that Mr Stephen’s parents called for an ambulance and he was taken into hospital for crisis care.

    “I was given a diagnosis of post-concussion syndrome, which means that the concussion can last for years. And then it all clicked, it all made sense,” he said.

    “The doctor said to me, it’s like breaking your leg 13 times and expecting it to be the same.”

    • If you have been affected by any of the issues in this story you can seek help and support via the BBC’s Action line pages
    Provided A man sat with a can of beer, his shirt is open to show his stomach. Provided

    Mr Stephen said he went into a “gradual decline” after he was told to quit rugby

    Nathan Garbutt-Moore from Wakefield-based charity Second Chance Headway, which supports people with brain injuries, said: “We find that concussion can significantly impact on mental health, leading to a number of problems such as anxiety, depression and PTSD.

    “It is a life changing event. For some people they’ll go on to recover within a matter of weeks or months.

    “But for others, they can be left with damage for the rest of their life, so it’s important they have the right support in place.”

    Mr Stephen is now aiming to complete a series of three endurance challenges – a 50km ultramarathon, 24 hours of weightlifting and the national three peaks – all within ten days to raise money for York Mind.

    He also said he wants to use his experience to encourage others to seek support for their mental health, especially men.

    “Had I sought help a little bit earlier, that intervention could have happened sooner, and things would have never got as bad as they did.

    “I had this image as a bit of a rugby lad, and I didn’t really understand it.

    “If someone told me they were struggling, I’d say ‘crack on, you’ll be fine’, and tell them to run it off.

    “But now, I would just encourage young men to come forward, it’s the bravest thing you can do.”

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  • Billionaire Ambani Becomes Collateral Damage in Trump Trade Fury

    Billionaire Ambani Becomes Collateral Damage in Trump Trade Fury

    Back in January, India’s richest man and his wife were in Washington, attending a pre-inauguration dinner thrown for Donald Trump. In a photograph of the event shared by Reliance Industries Ltd., all three beam for the camera.

    Seven months on, the US President is locked in a bitter trade skirmish with India, and Reliance boss Mukesh Ambani is caught in the crossfire.

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  • Novel PLA-Henna composite for sustainable tertiary enhanced oil recovery

    Novel PLA-Henna composite for sustainable tertiary enhanced oil recovery

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  • Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum resume buying Russian oil for September, sources say

    Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum resume buying Russian oil for September, sources say

    NEW DELHI: India’s state-run refiners Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum have bought Russian oil for September and October delivery, resuming purchases after discounts widened, two company officials aware of the matter said on Wednesday.

    The resumption in Russian oil imports by Indian state refiners could reduce supplies for top buyer China which had stepped up purchases during their absence.

    The refiners halted purchases in July due to narrower discounts and after India was criticised by Washington for its purchases of Russian oil. President Donald Trump also threatened an additional 25% levy on Indian goods, effective August 27, to penalize New Delhi for its continued buying of the oil.

    Discounts for Russian flagship Urals crude have widened to about $3 per barrel, making the oil attractive for Indian refiners, while China has stepped up purchases, the officials said.

    In addition to Urals, IOC has also bought other Russian crude oil grades including Varandey and Siberian Light, they said.

    Indian companies do not comment on their crude imports.

    On Monday, IOC, the country’s top refiner, told analysts that it would continue to buy Russian oil depending on economics.

    In recent weeks, Chinese refineries bought 15 cargoes of Russian oil for October and November delivery, according to two analysts and one trader.

    On the other hand, Russia also expects to continue supplying oil to India despite warnings from the United States, Russian embassy officials in New Delhi said on Wednesday, adding that Moscow hopes trilateral talks will soon take place with India and China.

    “I want to highlight that despite the political situation, we can predict the same level of oil import (by India),” Roman Babushkin, the charge d’affaires at the Russian embassy in India, told a press briefing.

    He predicted India and Russia would find ways to overcome Trump’s latest tariffs in their “national interests”.

    Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov said separately that Russia saw scope for supplies of liquefied natural gas to India.

    “We continue to ship fuel, including crude oil and oil products, thermal and coking coal. We see potential for the export of Russian LNG,” Manturov was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.

    He also said, according to the RIA news agency, that Russia was counting on expanding nuclear energy cooperation with India.

    Trade talks between India and the U.S. broke down over the opening up of India’s vast farm and dairy sectors, as well as its purchases of Russian oil. The total tariff announced on Indian goods entering the U.S. is 50%.

    The Indian foreign ministry did not immediately reply to an emailed request for comment.

    It has previously said the U.S. decision to single out India for Russian purchases was “extremely unfortunate”.

    Russia’s Deputy Trade Commissioner Evgeny Griva on Wednesday said buying oil from Russia is “very profitable” for India, which will not want to change its supplier.

    On average Russia gives a 5%-7% discount to Indian buyers, he said, adding that Russia has a “very, very special mechanism” to continue oil supplies to India.

    In addition, he said Russia had started accepting Indian rupee payments for its goods after the resolution of issues that had trapped billions of dollars worth of funds in Indian banks.

    As tensions between Washington and New Delhi rise, high-profile visits from New Delhi and Beijing in recent weeks have raised hopes on the part of the Asian neighbours that ties damaged by a 2020 border clash can be repaired.

    Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi plans to visit China for the first time in over seven years later this month.

    The planned visit was reported by Reuters last week, even as other high profile exchanges, including Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s two-day visit to New Delhi, concluded.

    At the same time, Russia is trying to revive long-standing plans for a trilateral meeting with India and China to help them forge a “greater Eurasian partnership”.

    “As far as the trilateral is concerned, we are quite hopeful that this format will be resumed sooner rather than later because its importance is not questioned,” Babushkin said.

    “This is closely linked to the Russian initiative of the establishment of the greater Eurasian partnership,” Babushkin said.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Modi in New Delhi by the end of year, he said. Putin, Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are also expected to all attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation starting August 31.


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  • Funding Delay Forces PHF to Ask FIH for Another Pro League Extension

    Funding Delay Forces PHF to Ask FIH for Another Pro League Extension

    The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has yet to decide on the team’s participation in the upcoming Pro League, forcing the governing body to ask the International Hockey Federation (FIH) for another extension.

    According to local sources, the PHF has sought more time after failing to raise the necessary funds, with the final decision still hinging on the release of government support.

    Pakistan was handed a lifeline this year when New Zealand, citing financial constraints, pulled out of the nine‑nation league scheduled from December 2025 to June 2026. As runners‑up at the Nations Cup in Kuala Lumpur, Pakistan was next in line for a spot. The FIH initially asked for confirmation by August 12, later extending the deadline to August 20 at the PHF’s request—which also came and went.

    With financial discussions still unresolved, PHF secretary Rana Mujahid revealed on Wednesday that another extension has now been sought.

    “We have written to the FIH for additional time, as some details regarding the funding are still being worked out with the federal government,” Mujahid told reporters in Lahore. “The process is moving in the right direction, and we are hopeful that in the coming days Pakistan will be able to confirm its participation.”

    The PHF has estimated that around Rs350 million will be required to cover travel, accommodation, and training expenses for players participating in the FIH Pro League.

    Mujahid clarified that the federation has agreed the funds will not go directly into PHF accounts. Instead, the government would directly manage logistics such as airfare, camps, and accommodation, while any expenses for PHF officials traveling with the team would be borne by the federation itself, as the Pakistan Sports Board continues to keep a close watch on the PHF’s spending.

    This approach comes against the backdrop of past controversies, after the Auditor General of Pakistan flagged irregularities in how government funds were utilized by the PHF between 2008 and 2022.

    Failure to arrange funds in 2019 had already cost Pakistan dearly: the team missed the Pro League that year and was slapped with a hefty fine by the FIH, leading to a sharp decline in global rankings. The PHF is eager to avoid a repeat, knowing that the Pro League offers Pakistan’s players vital experience against top‑ranked nations.

    Pakistan hockey’s immediate future now rests with financial backers and the FIH’s stance—with the whole country waiting for a positive development soon.


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  • Tencent Games Debuts AI Creation Tool, VISVISE, Redefining Game Art Production

    Tencent Games Debuts AI Creation Tool, VISVISE, Redefining Game Art Production

    COLOGNE, Germany, Aug. 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Tencent Games at gamescom 2025 announced the global debut of VISVISE, an end-to-end AI game creation suite, which can dramatically cut down game art design time from days or even months, down to minutes. With capabilities spanning animation and modeling to the creation of intelligent NPCs, or managing digital assets, VISVISE provides game developers and designers with a complete AIGC-powered toolset to accelerate workflows.

    Unlocking the Power of AI-Enabled Productivity for Game Art Design




    Developers experiencing VISVISE at the booth






    Developers experiencing VISVISE at the booth




    Zeng Zijiao presenting VISVISE applications and results at Devcom






    Zeng Zijiao presenting VISVISE applications and results at Devcom

    Debuting internationally today and being demonstrated for the first time at gamescom 2025, VISVISE’s platform rapidly streamlines the game art design workflow across the entire art creation pipeline, enabling developers to rapidly skin and animate characters within just minutes. 

    In fact, according to industry averages, rigging and skinning a single game character will take designers between 1 and 3.5 days, while a skeletal animation might normally require between 3 and 7 days. However, this process can be reduced to just 10 seconds with VISVISE. This results in an eightfold improvement in character skinning throughput and transforms animation into a fully automated process of “keyframe generation + intelligent in-betweening.”

    VISVISE’s AI-Driven 3D Character Animation: From Challenges to Scaled Deployment

    Revealing the mechanics of VISVISE during the Devcom Game Developer Conference, held alongside gamescom in Cologne, Tencent Games VISVISE expert Zijiao Zeng, delivered a keynote titled AI Redefining 3D Animation Production — End-to-End Innovation in Character Animation.”

    During the presentation, Zeng revealed two key core technologies, VISVISE GoSkinning and VISVISE MotionBlink, which collectively make up VISVISE’s tools for game art developers.

    • VISVISE GoSkinning – leverages a universal AI model to automatically adapt to different skeletal structures. Achieving around 85% automation, GoSkinning uses a two-step process of bone chain prediction and weight refinement, while its proprietary “Skirt AI” addresses complex garment deformation issues.
    • VISVISE MotionBlink – Part of the animation production pipeline, VISVISE MotionBlink uses a self-regressive diffusion architecture to rapidly generate keyframes. Combined with a pre-trained CVAE and contrastive learning to produce smooth motion transitions that rival optical motion capture, common issues such as foot sliding and jitter are eliminated.

    Notably, these AIGC tools’ mark on game development pipelines is clear and undeniable. GoSkinning reduces full outfit skinning to minutes, a process that traditionally requires days, while MotionBlink generates 10 seconds of animations in seconds, compressing production timelines significantly.

    Validated by Research, VISVISE is Leaving its Mark on Future of Game Art Production

    With more than 20 papers accepted at conferences like the prestigious SIGGRAPH, VISVISE’s research foundations and peer recognition has been validated at premier academic institutions and underscores its technical rigor and global applicability.

    And its mark is indelible even at gamescom, where developers lauded VISVISE’s plug-in architecture, enabling AI tools to be integrated into existing pipelines without workflow disruption. This seamless compatibility directly answers the industry’s need for both high-quality assets and rapid iteration.

    “VISVISE fundamentally reshapes how we approach animation,” observed a German game artist after testing the MotionBlink system at gamescom. “It liberates us from technical execution to focus purely on creative vision.“

    Not surprisingly, VISVISE’s tools have already been adopted for games including PUBG MOBILE, and Wuthering Waves, while GoSkinning has already been implemented in the development of more than 90 games.

    VISVISE channels Tencent’s more than 20 years of game expertise into an industrial-grade pipeline. With new AI tools rolling out progressively to global studios, developers gain an optimized framework for creative innovation.

    SOURCE Tencent Games

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  • Europe’s New Front Line in Hepatitis Fight

    Europe’s New Front Line in Hepatitis Fight

    The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA) launched a new toolkit on August 7, 2025, ahead of Prisoners’ Justice Day on 10 August.

    The launch of the European Toolkit for the Elimination of Viral Hepatitis in Prisons (EuroHePP) aims to support local efforts to eliminate viral hepatitis in prison settings in accordance with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal on Good Health and Well-Being.

    The EuroHePP provides practical guidance on preventing, evaluating, and treating hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) in prisons. Tackling viral hepatitis in these prison settings is essential to reach the UN target of eliminating hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030.

    Individuals in prison experience a higher incidence of viral hepatitis than the general population, making them a key group for targeted prevention and treatment of the disease. In Europe, individuals entering prisons are also more likely to have a history of injecting drug use, a major risk factor for HBV and HCV transmission.

    Sharing of injecting equipment and other risk factors, such as unsafe tattooing or body piercing practices, sharing of razors, and unprotected sex, make prisons a priority setting for targeted viral hepatitis prevention and treatment interventions.

    The toolkit was developed in collaboration with European experts and practitioners.

    The toolkit comprises four key sections: background, strategy development, strategy implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.

    It includes links to relevant public health guidance and practical tools to understand the context and define and implement an elimination strategy in prisons. Examples from prisons in Germany, Spain, France, Italy, and Luxembourg are provided to illustrate the models of care.

    Using this toolkit, the EUDA and ECDC provide practical, evidence-based information for those working in prison healthcare on how to establish interventions to prevent and control viral hepatitis in these settings.

    The information is also likely to be relevant to other audiences, including policymakers, security staff, people living in prisons, peer support workers, and voluntary workers.

    Further support for people working in prison healthcare will be available in the form of dedicated training sessions provided by the EUDA and ECDC in the coming months to facilitate the effective implementation of the toolkit and scaling up of services.

    Addressing Inequity

    The project highlights the principle of equivalence of care recognised in European and international law, which states that individuals in prison should receive the same healthcare as those in the community. As the ECDC stated: “People deprived of their liberty must not also be deprived of their right to health.”

    A dossier titled Invisible Populations in Epidemiologia & Prevenzione, the journal of the Italian Association of Epidemiology, shows that infectious diseases remain a leading cause of preventable death in prisons.

    This research, led by Erica De Vita, MD, a resident in Hygiene and Preventive Medicine at the University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy, highlights how prison conditions, such as overcrowding, poor sanitation, rapid turnover, and fragile health, make inmates particularly vulnerable. These factors create a high-risk setting for the spread of infections, including hepatitis B, influenza, human papillomavirus, COVID-19, and pneumococcal disease.

    The article describes the RISE-Vac project, Reaching the hard-to-reach: increasing access and vaccine uptake among prison populations in Europe, coordinated by the University of Pisa. The project ended in November 2024 after working in six countries: Italy, the UK, France, Germany, Cyprus, and Moldova.

    Key outcomes included the establishment of vaccination clinics in prisons, such as in Milan, combined with awareness campaigns and health empowerment programs.

    The project also studied vaccine hesitancy among inmates and staff, showing that health literacy is crucial for improving vaccine acceptance and vaccination coverage.

    Public Health Impact

    The scope of the new European “toolbox” goes beyond the prison walls. Short sentences and repeated incarcerations mean that the same group of people often move between prison and the community.

    Therefore, addressing health problems, such as viral hepatitis, in prison settings can also deliver health benefits to the wider community by reducing the overall disease burden and preventing future transmission of infections.

    According to ECDC experts in Stockholm, Sweden, the new toolkit is well-structured, adaptable, and evidence-based. They emphasised the need for political and organisational courage to make it central to public health efforts to fight viral hepatitis in prisons.

    This story was translated from Univadis Italy.

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  • Hull Royal Infirmary epilepsy nurses see their work go nationwide

    Hull Royal Infirmary epilepsy nurses see their work go nationwide

    Work by a team of nurses at Hull Royal Infirmary has been adopted by a national epilepsy charity to help young people.

    Epilepsy Action has published a series of leaflets aimed at teenagers, parents of children with additional needs and people who require documents that are easy to read.

    The content is based on booklets created by children’s epilepsy nurses Fiona Lead, Nicky Heenan, Carys Amies and Chris Bennett, who are all based at the Hull hospital.

    “The content for the booklets took us about a year to develop [and] another year to tweak, and we’ve been using them for the past three years to provide structure and consistency [in our] epilepsy clinics,” said Ms Lead.

    The leaflets are intended to support young people as they make the move from child-focused, paediatric care to adult neurology or epilepsy services.

    Ms Lead said studies showed the move from children’s services to adult services could be very challenging for young people with a long-term health condition.

    “It’s common to see a big dip in their overall health and for young people and their families to feel like they’ve been abandoned, but providing a structured transition programme is widely acknowledged to help avoid some of these issues,” she said.

    “To have our content form the basis of nationwide resources for families and young people, we jumped at the chance.

    “It was a real compliment, and it’s great to know that the work we have done here in Hull, influenced by the many children, families and young people that we care for, is now helping to inform and support thousands of other families across the country who are living with epilepsy.”

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