Category: 8. Health

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  • Cardiovascular Comorbidities in Atopic Dermatitis: A Case Report on the Impact of Dupilumab on Skin and Heart Function

    Cardiovascular Comorbidities in Atopic Dermatitis: A Case Report on the Impact of Dupilumab on Skin and Heart Function


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  • Novel hydrogel accelerates infected wound repair with antibacterial properties

    Novel hydrogel accelerates infected wound repair with antibacterial properties

    A novel ε-poly-L-lysine-loaded sodium-alginate/gelatin hydrogel (PSG15) has shown exceptional promise in accelerating the healing of infected wounds. This multifunctional injectable hydrogel delivers robust antibacterial properties while regulating macrophage polarization and stabilizing the skin microbiota.

    It significantly inhibited bacterial growth, including that of E. coli and S. aureus, and promoted tissue regeneration in infected wounds. In animal models, PSG15 enhanced angiogenesis, collagen deposition, and wound closure. These findings demonstrate the potential of PSG15 as an effective treatment for infected wounds, offering both antibacterial action and microbiota stabilization to improve healing outcomes.

    Infected wounds, particularly those caused by Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, pose significant challenges in clinical wound care. Traditional treatments often rely on antibiotics, but increasing bacterial resistance and potential toxicity limit their effectiveness. Hydrogels have emerged as a promising alternative due to their ability to deliver therapeutic agents locally.

    However, most existing hydrogels fail to address the dual challenge of infection and tissue repair effectively. This study explores a novel hydrogel that integrates ε-poly-L-lysine, a potent antimicrobial peptide, into a sodium alginate/gelatin matrix, offering a solution for both infection control and wound healing.

    Researchers from the Chinese PLA General Hospital, the Beijing Institute of Radiation Medicine, Qinghai University, and Peking Union Medical College Hospital have developed a cutting-edge hydrogel, ε-PLL@SA/Gel (PSG15), that not only fights infections but also supports the healing of infected wounds by regulating the skin microbiota.

    Published (DOI: 10.1093/burnst/tkaf037) in Burns & Trauma in May 2025, the study demonstrates the hydrogel’s ability to accelerate wound closure, promote angiogenesis, and reduce inflammation in murine models infected with E. coli and S. aureus. The results suggest PSG15 as a promising candidate for clinical applications in wound management.

    The PSG15 hydrogel was synthesized by incorporating ε-poly-L-lysine (ε-PLL) into sodium alginate/gelatin (SA/Gel) hydrogels using calcium chloride as a crosslinking agent. The hydrogel was tested for mechanical properties, biocompatibility, and antibacterial efficacy in vitro and in vivo. The results showed that PSG15 exhibited excellent injectability, self-adhesiveness, and mechanical strength. The hydrogel significantly reduced the bacterial load of both E. coli and S. aureus by 89.53% and 92.21%, respectively.

    In vivo, PSG15 enhanced wound healing by promoting angiogenesis and collagen deposition. Histological analysis revealed better tissue regeneration in PSG15-treated wounds, with increased formation of new blood vessels and more organized collagen fibers compared to untreated controls.

    Additionally, PSG15 regulated macrophage polarization, increasing the expression of the M2 marker (CD206) while decreasing the M1 marker (CD80), suggesting its role in modulating the inflammatory response. Furthermore, the hydrogel maintained the diversity of the skin microbiota, preventing the overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria.

    The PSG15 hydrogel represents a significant advancement in wound care by integrating both antimicrobial properties and microbiota regulation. This dual approach not only accelerates healing but also minimizes the risk of chronic infections, which are a major challenge in wound management. We are optimistic that PSG15 will provide a safer, more effective treatment option for infected wounds in clinical settings.”


    Dr. Chaoji Huangfu, Study Corresponding Author, Beijing Institute of Radiation Medicine

    The multifunctional PSG15 hydrogel offers a novel solution for managing infected wounds, addressing both infection control and tissue regeneration. With its proven antibacterial effects and ability to modulate the skin microbiota, this hydrogel could reduce the reliance on systemic antibiotics, helping combat the growing issue of antibiotic resistance.

    Furthermore, its biocompatibility and non-toxicity make it a viable candidate for clinical use. Future research should focus on testing the hydrogel’s efficacy in chronic wound models, such as diabetic ulcers, and exploring the underlying mechanisms of its interaction with the skin microbiota to optimize its therapeutic potential.

    Sources:

    Journal reference:

    Zu, X., et al. (2025). A multifunctional injectable ε-poly-L-lysine-loaded sodium-alginate/gelatin hydrogel promotes the healing of infected wounds by regulating macrophage polarization and the skin microbiota. Burns & Trauma. doi.org/10.1093/burnst/tkaf037

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  • Measles warning for parents in East Sussex

    Measles warning for parents in East Sussex

    Mark Norman

    BBC South East Health Correspondent

    Getty Images A close up of the bottom half of a young child's face - there is a blotchy rash on the youngster's face, and a thermometer in their mouthGetty Images

    In East Sussex, more than one in 10 children turning five had not had the necessary two doses of the MMR vaccination according to the latest figures

    Health bosses in East Sussex are urging parents and carers to check their children are up to date with measles vaccinations amid a surge of cases across the country.

    In East Sussex, more than one in 10 children turning five had not had the necessary two doses of the MMR vaccination according to the latest figures from 2023-24, and 10% turning two had not had their first dose.

    UK Health Security Agency figures show more than 520 confirmed cases of measles in England since the beginning of the year, including one which claimed the life of a child in Liverpool.

    Darrell Gale, director of public health in East Sussex, said: “Measles is an extremely infectious virus that spreads very easily.”

    He added that while some people experienced no symptoms, the virus could be “extremely dangerous to others”.

    “The tragic death of a young child from measles in Liverpool highlights the importance of staying up to date with vaccinations,” he said.

    “Two vaccines are needed to be fully protected and, whilst ideally children should receive the MMR vaccine at 13 months and again at three years and four months, it is never too late to catch up.”

    Getty Images A close-up of a child's stomach with a rashGetty Images

    Figures from the UK Health Security Agency show more than 520 confirmed cases of measles in England since the beginning of the year

    In most people, measles can cause a high temperature, cold-like symptoms, sore watery eyes, white spots in the mouth and a rash, but complications can lead to blindness, meningitis, pneumonia and even death, according to the NHS.

    Mr Gale added: “To prevent the virus spreading, vaccination rates need to be around 95%.

    “The rate across England is currently at around 84%.”

    The NHS said anyone experiencing symptoms should stay at home and urgently call their GP or NHS 111.

    To avoid passing on the infection, people should not go to their doctor’s surgery or hospital unless a healthcare professional has asked them to, added the spokesperson.

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  • Friday briefing: What will US funding cuts on mRNA vaccines mean for the health of the world? | Robert F Kennedy Jr

    Friday briefing: What will US funding cuts on mRNA vaccines mean for the health of the world? | Robert F Kennedy Jr

    Good morning. You may have heard a saying along the lines that “when the US sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold”. So when the US health department announced plans to cut half a billion dollars in vaccine research funding on Wednesday, the world took notice.

    The US is the world’s largest funder of biomedical research, but this position has become more precarious with the appointment of Robert F Kennedy Jr, a longtime vaccine sceptic, as US health secretary.

    This week, Kennedy has announced plans to terminate 22 federal contracts for mRNA-based vaccines, casting doubt on the safety of a technology widely credited with helping end the Covid-19 pandemic and saving millions of lives.

    In total the affected projects are worth nearly $500m (£376m), according to the health agency. As for Kennedy, he said: “We reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted.”

    The only problem? The scientific community in the US and around the world has overwhelmingly condemned the decision. To understand why, for today’s newsletter I spoke to Michael Head, a global health researcher at the University of Southampton. That’s after the headlines.

    Five big stories

    1. Israel-Gaza war | Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said his security cabinet had approved a plan to take over Gaza City after the prime minister earlier said Israel planned to take full control of the Palestinian territory. The decision early on Friday marks another escalation of Israel’s offensive in Gaza. Follow developments live

    2. Ukraine | Volodymyr Zelenskyy said ahead of an expected meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin that Europe must participate in the peace process between Ukraine and Russia. As the Kremlin refused a three-way meeting with Zelenskyy and Trump, the Ukrainian president said: “Ukraine is not afraid of meetings and expects the same brave approach from the Russian side.”

    3. Economy | The chancellor and prime minister will begin to foreshadow tax rises and reforms from September to prepare the country for a difficult budget that could be held in November, the Guardian has been told. A rise in gambling levies – advocated by Gordon Brown – is thought to be near-guaranteed as part of the package of tax rises.

    4. UK news | Amnesty International has warned the Met police against arresting participants protesting this Saturday in London in support of Palestine Action.

    5. Labour | The UK homelessness minister, Rushanara Ali, resigned after it emerged she evicted tenants from her east London property before increasing the rent by almost £700 a month.

    In depth: ‘The mRNA vaccines saved about 20 million lives’

    Vaccines were developed rapidly at the height of the Covid pandemic. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

    The first thing to understand is that mRNA vaccines work differently from traditional ones. The latter generally introduce a weakened or inactivated part of a virus to train the immune system to recognise and fight it in the future; whereas mRNA vaccines use a molecule that tells our cells how to make a viral protein, which triggers the body’s immune responses.

    This technology is a scientific gamechanger, to the extent the researchers behind it won the Nobel prize in 2023. But since rising to prominence during the Covid pandemic, mRNA vaccines have been dogged by misinformation (this analysis by my colleague Nicola Davis is well worth a read.)

    Michael Head tells me that mRNA technology offers a very effective and adaptable approach to developing vaccines. “It’s often described as plug-and-play because you can adapt constituents of the vaccine with, for example, the latest Covid variant.”

    For something like a flu vaccine, researchers need to incubate the virus and grow it, which takes weeks, Head explains. “That’s fine to an extent when it comes to producing an annual vaccine like we do for seasonal influenza, but the advantage to mRNA technology is that it can be updated so quickly that it allows us to produce new vaccines or update existing vaccines quicker, which can hopefully then reduce the threat of whatever infectious disease is present.”

    This is crucial during a pandemic such as Covid. “The mRNA vaccines saved about 20 million lives globally in the first year of their rollout,” Head says.

    Why is Kennedy doing this?

    Kennedy once described mRNA Covid vaccines as “the deadliest vaccine ever made”. On Wednesday, he justified the health agency’s decision to terminate research by claiming that data shows mRNA vaccines “fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like Covid and flu”.

    Kennedy offered no scientific evidence to support this – and Head said Kennedy has been spreading vaccine misinformation for years. “He has on at least one or two occasions compared vaccines to being like the Holocaust, a common anti-vaccine trope.”

    He has also recently falsely claimed vaccines such as the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) jab contain “aborted foetus debris”; ordered a sweeping new study on the long-debunked link between vaccines and autism; and dismissed a panel of government vaccine experts, replacing them with his own appointees – who then voted to ban a longstanding vaccine preservative that has been a frequent target of the anti-vaccine movement despite its strong safety record.

    Kennedy claims he is shutting down research on mRNA vaccines and instead shifting funding to “safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate”, and that mRNA vaccines “encourage new mutations and can actually prolong pandemics”.

    It’s just not true, though. Head says variants actually tend to emerge in the absence of vaccinations, and in people with long-term infections – often those who are immunocompromised and can’t get over the virus quickly. That gives the virus more chances to multiply and mutate.

    “Vaccines reduce the risk of transmission and infection,” Head says, which means fewer opportunities for the virus to mutate. “So vaccines will have a protective effect against new variants emerging, rather than as Kennedy suggests.”

    What impact will this have?

    The question of the next pandemic is not if, but when. History shows pandemics happen, Head says, pointing to the 1918 flu pandemic, swine flu, Sars, and of course Covid.

    Head says this is especially true in our era of globalisation and human encroachment into new environments. “If you create enough opportunities, a new virus will enter human beings. There might be a scenario where it runs out of control like we saw with Covid. Or, it might be a bit more like Sars, where we were able to get it under control within a couple of months.

    “But again, globalisation and the mixing of people and animals makes things more challenging. And so a pandemic will happen at some point. We just don’t know when.”

    Technologies like mRNA vaccines, then, are vital. Head added that the potential applications go far beyond infectious disease.

    “There’s quite promising research on skin cancer and the potential for this technology to be applied across different areas of health,” Head says. That is another reason Kennedy’s decision is so damaging, he adds.

    One of Head’s research areas focuses on how funding decisions impact science such as cancer research. “It’s very early days, but we are starting to see a slightly alarming picture. It’ll be very hard for the rest of the world to fill the cancer research gaps that the US is likely to leave.”

    Is this a worrying time for the scientific community?

    There is no way to sugarcoat it; this is a particularly alarming moment for scientists. The World Health Organization coined the term “infodemic” during the pandemic to describe the overwhelming amount of misinformation that spreads during a public health crisis, Head says. Even before Covid, in 2019 the WHO listed vaccine hesitancy as one of the top 10 global health threats.

    “I have huge concerns that if a pandemic happened again tomorrow, whether populations in the UK, US, and around the world would trust public health decision making that would be vital to mitigate the impacts of any new pandemic. So the role of misinformation is significant and it can be very severe,” Head warned.

    “It does not help that some of the most powerful people, like US president Donald Trump and Robert F Kennedy Jr, are making poor quality comments on vaccination because that does have an impact on population level decision making.”

    Some of Head’s research has looked into vaccine uptake in Ghana during the pandemic. The study found that political views played a big role in whether someone agreed to receive a Covid vaccine.

    “​​The government was saying, go and get vaccinated, please, but there was a fair amount of anti-government sentiment at the time. And hesitancy was greater if you voted for the opposition and therefore trusted the government messaging less. So there are lessons to be learned on who delivers the messaging to get your vaccine, and how to address that lack of trust in governance,” Head said.

    For now, the world holds its breath … and hopes no one sneezes.

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    What else we’ve been reading

    A small white butterfly in London this summer. Photograph: Butterfly Conservation/PA

    • Patrick Barkham’s piece about the recent hopeful surge of some wildlife is both a joyous celebration of animals’ resilience and a call for us to give them a helping hand. Lucinda Everett, newsletters

    • I love this ranking of Daniel Day-Lewis films, and to learn that the triple Oscar winner has retired from acting, and returned twice. Aamna

    • We asked our readers to share the strangest things they’ve found in a new home, and they didn’t disappoint. Forgotten placenta, anyone? Lucinda

    • This story by my colleague Mark Townsend is extraordinary: it pieces together, using intelligence reports and witness testimony, how the RSF paramilitary began a massacre described as “genocidal” in Zamzam refugee camp. Aamna

    • Daniel Boffey examines how David Lammy is wooing JD Vance, from inviting the US vice-president to pray with him, to shedding tears over his memoir. Lucinda

    Sport

    Emma Raducanu said she is ‘excited to have aboard so much experience’ after taking on Francisco Roig as her coach. Photograph: Robert Prange/Getty Images

    Tennis | Ahead of the Cincinnati Open, Emma Raducanu told Tumaini Carayol in an exclusive interview that she believes her new coaching partnership with Francisco Roig can help to take her game to the next level.

    Football | Liverpool have agreed a fee of £46.3m plus add-ons with Al-Hilal for Darwin Núñez. The Uruguay international is expected to complete a move to the Saudi Pro League once personal terms have been finalised.

    Cricket | The leader of the Tech Titans consortium that has bought 49% of London Spirit believes the Hundred will become a multibillion-dollar competition to rival the Indian Premier League.

    The front pages

    The Guardian print edition reports “Netanyahu defies warnings over taking military control of all Gaza”. “Minister resigns over rental ‘hypocrisy” – that’s the Telegraph while the i paper expands on that: “UK’s minister for homelessness quits after she’s caught ejecting tenants and hiking rent”. “Minister for hypocrisy is forced to quit” the Mail delights. “Single-sex spaces ‘off limits to trans women’” says the Times. “Weight loss pill ‘on NHS’” and “Pill for weight loss on NHS” – the Mirror and Express both says it’s a possibility. Deep breath needed before reading the FT’s headline aloud: “BoE lowers rates but tight vote forces investors to rein in bets on more cuts”. “He’s our brave little miracle” reports the Metro, about a lifesaving “world-first operation” on a little boy.

    Something for the weekend

    Our critics’ roundup of the best things to watch, read, play and listen to right now

    Deliriously in love with wealth and celebrity …Amaarae. Photograph: Salomé Gomis-Trezise

    Music
    Amaarae: Black Star | ★★★★☆
    Weaving elements of house, trance and EDM into Afrobeats rhythms and spiky rap cadences, the Ghanaian-American singer’s slick take on a club record is deliriously in love with wealth, celebrity and all the power it affords. But there is a difference between Amaarae and the other stars fixated on such topics: for her, glamour is a side quest and love is the motive. Shaad D’Souza

    TV
    Lucy Letby: Beyond Reasonable Doubt? | ★★★★★
    Neonatal nurse Lucy Letby became, in tabloid parlance, “Britain’s worst child serial killer” when she was convicted in 2023 of seven murders and seven attempted murders of infants in her care. This brilliantly cogent documentary, which forces sentiment aside and unpacks the science and statistics around the most contested pieces of evidence, covers more ground more meticulously in an hour than any documentary I’ve seen in recent years, and perhaps ever. Lucy Mangan

    Film
    The Kingdom | ★★★★☆
    Lesia, a moody 15-year-old, is sent to her mob boss father’s luxurious and fortified family compound , and she is thrilled when she quickly becomes lieutenant. There are fierce and overwhelmingly authentic performances from first-time actors in Julien Colonna’s intensely atmospheric, absorbing and exciting drama. Peter Bradshaw

    Games
    Time Flies | ★★★★☆
    This perception-warping bug puzzler reimagines the inevitably short lifespan of a housefly as an absurd tragedy – by providing the soon-to-perish pest with a bucket list. Over the course of roughly a minute, players buzz around minimalist 2D environments trying to make those last wishes come true. By blending this thinky thesis with playful mechanics, it supplies a lighthearted canvas for players to engage with existentialism for an hour or two. Sarah Thwaites

    Today in Focus

    A textile worker in Datang subdistrict, Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China. Photograph: Go Nakamura/Reuters

    Inside China’s fast-fashion factories as a US trade war looms

    The Guardian’s senior China correspondent, Amy Hawkins, visits factories threatened by US tariffs in Guangzhou, south China, as the deadline for a US-China trade agreement approaches with no deal yet in sight.

    Cartoon of the day | Martin Rowson

    Illustration: Martin Rowson/The Guardian

    The Upside

    A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad

    Experts say the return of the lynx would bring many advantages, including hunting overly large populations of deer. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA

    Lynx – shy wild cats no bigger than a Labrador – became extinct in Britain 1,300 years ago thanks to hunting and habitat loss. But a paper published in the Journal of Environmental Management says the animals could thrive in Northumberland’s Kielder Forest area. The paper found that releasing 20 lynx over several years would eventually create a healthy population of about 50 animals, bringing benefits like helping to curb the overpopulation of deer in woodlands. According to the researchers, Kielder Forest is the only area of England and Wales with enough woodland for lynx to thrive. But thankfully locals are keen on the plan, with 72% of people in the project area supporting reintroduction.

    Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday

    Bored at work?

    And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.

    Continue Reading

  • Posthospital Therapy Lowers Risk of Eating Disorder Relapse

    Posthospital Therapy Lowers Risk of Eating Disorder Relapse

    TOPLINE:

    Among young people with eating disorders, receipt of four to seven sessions of outpatient therapy in the 90 days after hospital discharge lowered the risk for rehospitalization during the following 3 months, with a greater reduction in risk among those who received nearly one session per week.

    METHODOLOGY:

    • Researchers analyzed data of youth with eating disorders from California’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, to examine whether outpatient therapy after an initial hospitalization for eating disorder treatment could reduce repeated readmissions.
    • More than 900 individuals aged 7-18 years (82.1% girls) who were diagnosed with at least one eating disorder and were hospitalized at least once between January 2014 and December 2016 were included.
    • The number of outpatient therapy sessions received within 90 days post-hospitalization was analyzed and categorized as low (zero to three sessions), moderate (four to seven sessions), or high (eight or more sessions); rehospitalizations over subsequent 90 days were assessed.

    TAKEAWAY:

    • Compared with individuals receiving zero to three sessions of therapy after discharge, those who received eight or more sessions had the lowest rate of rehospitalization (hazard ratio [HR], 0.04; P = .003), followed by those who received four to seven sessions (HR, 0.46; P = .026).
    • Those who received eight or more sessions of therapy had a significantly lower risk for rehospitalization than those who received four to seven sessions (P = .024).
    • Only 4.5% of participants received eight or more sessions of outpatient therapy.

    IN PRACTICE:

    “[The study] findings suggest that prompt access to regular outpatient therapy may be critical for disrupting cycles of repeated rehospitalizations, supporting recovery, and reducing costs for publicly insured youth,” the authors of the study wrote.

    SOURCE:

    This study was led by Megan E. Mikhail, MA, of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. It was published online on July 25, 2025, in Pediatrics.

    LIMITATIONS:

    Participants were not randomly assigned to receive different levels of therapy after hospitalization. Claims data did not specify whether therapy sessions targeted symptoms of eating disorders, general distress, or followed evidence-based protocols.

    DISCLOSURES:

    This study received support through a donation from the Deb family and a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. One author reported serving as a consultant with Partnership HealthPlan of California.

    This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.

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  • ‘My son’s head size led to doctors spotting rare vein condition’

    ‘My son’s head size led to doctors spotting rare vein condition’

    PA Media Conor holds his little black graduation mortar board hat on his head. Cupboards are behind him in a nursery.PA Media

    Conor’s mum Lucy says doctors at Alder Hey “saved” all the family

    “The consultant was looking at his belly button, and then suddenly wanted to ask me questions about his head.”

    A mother has described how a doctor noticed her son’s “pronounced forehead” during an unrelated appointment which led to his rare diagnosis.

    Conor, now three, was diagnosed with vein of galen malformation (VOGM) – where brain vessels connect abnormally – which affects only about 10 to 12 babies in the UK each year and can lead to serious complications if undetected.

    He was treated with a new surgical technique at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool in March, which involved open surgery.

    “Thank you just doesn’t cut it,” his mum, Lucy, from Bolton, said. “They not only saved his life, they saved ours too.”

    She said she had initially felt “slightly confused” when the doctor started asking about Conor’s head, after going in to check on a potential umbilical hernia.

    “He felt like he had quite a pronounced forehead; it was quite a large head,” she said.

    “And he had very visible veins on his forehead, and his temples, around his eyes.”

    She said an MRI scan showed eight-month-old Conor had a “significant brain issue” that would require surgery.

    “It was only after those scans that they said to us that they think that it’s vein of galen malformation and then started to explain to us a little bit what that meant,” Lucy said.

    “But in reality, they’d never seen it before in Bolton.”

    She said the experience was “terrifying” and the couple felt “helpless” and what followed felt like “a bit of an out of body experience”.

    PA Media Conor, now three, from Bolton, hugging his surgeon Conor Mallucci in his office. The surgeon apts his head as he sits at his desk with a phone and keyboard on it.PA Media

    Conor hugs his surgeon Conor Mallucci, who was part of the operating team

    Conor went on to have three operations at Alder Hey.

    However, he was one of a rare group of patients where veins block off and doctors could no longer get to the malformation.

    It was causing swelling and damage to the brain stem and spinal cord, leading him to deteriorate, according to his surgeon Conor Mallucci.

    He said: “It’s a fight against time, and that happened quite early in Conor, which is why we had to come up with this alternative route.”

    A new surgical technique was used involving access through Conor’s skull to target the affected blood vessels.

    PA Media Group picture of Lucy as she holds her son Conor and is surrounded by some of the hospital medics, who are wearing blue scrubsPA Media

    Conor and his parents with some of the medics who treated him

    Alder Hey is one of only two centres in the UK equipped to carry out this procedure on children.

    The hospital has a state-of-the-art theatre with advanced imaging machinery, giving specialists real-time X-ray pictures of blood vessels during operations and allowing them to combine endovascular and open surgery.

    The technique has never been performed at another hospital.

    Mr Mallucci said: “Exposing these veins that were blocked at the jugular level is high risk.

    “You lose blood. It’s a big operation, and to put a needle directly into one of those is a little bit hair raising, so we had to be very careful about that.”

    Conor was expected to sleep for about a week after the operation and stay in hospital for six weeks, but he woke up soon after and asked his mum for chips.

    “I obviously went into mum mode and said ‘can we get some chips in here please?,” Lucy said.

    He left the hospital 10 days later.

    Now aged three, Conor recovered well and is now considered “99% cured” by Mr Mallucci.

    He has left nursery and will be attending pre-school in September.

    PA Media Conor grins and touch his mouth in front of a dark chair. A backpack with his name is on another dark chair next to him.PA Media

    Conor is set to attend pre-school in September

    Lucy said: “As much as I feel like this is an incredibly unlucky diagnosis, I sometimes have to pull that back and think actually we were incredibly lucky in a lot of ways.”

    She said she was “so proud” of her “resilient” son, adding: “At one point they were saying, ‘we may want to hold him back’ and ‘maybe it might be a bit too much for him’.

    “But they’ve said now that they think he’s doing incredibly well.”

    Continue Reading

  • The Basel ultrasonography protocol for assessing hepatosplenic pathologies in Asian schistosomiasis: report of a WHO expert meeting | Infectious Diseases of Poverty

    The Basel ultrasonography protocol for assessing hepatosplenic pathologies in Asian schistosomiasis: report of a WHO expert meeting | Infectious Diseases of Poverty

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  • What do we know about the West Nile virus spreading in Europe? – Euronews.com

    1. What do we know about the West Nile virus spreading in Europe?  Euronews.com
    2. Italy records 10th death due to West Nile virus  ET HealthWorld
    3. An 83-year-old woman dies in Latina, becoming the sixth victim of West Nile virus in Lazio.  L’Unione Sarda.it
    4. West Nile Fever: Is West Nile Fever Really That Scary? Climate Change Is Blame  firstonline.info
    5. Two more West Nile Virus victims registered in Lazio  ANSA

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  • New Endoscopy Technology Improves Early Detection Of Esophageal Cancer

    New Endoscopy Technology Improves Early Detection Of Esophageal Cancer

    LONDON, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM – 08th Aug, 2025) Researchers from Helmholtz Munich, the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Medical University of Vienna have developed an advanced imaging technique called “O2E” that allows clinics to detect cancerous lesions in the esophagus with unprecedented precision.

    Published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, the study demonstrated that this innovative endoscopy technology reveals even the smallest pathological tissue changes, significantly improving early detection and diagnosis.

    Esophageal cancer ranks among the deadliest cancers: when diagnosed at an advanced stage, the survival rate is only about ten percent. However, if detected early, around 90 percent of patients survive. The new O2E technology could play a crucial role in identifying changes in esophageal tissue at much earlier stages.

    O2E combines two imaging techniques in a new endoscopy technology. While OCT is particularly effective at capturing tissue structures, optoacoustic imaging (OPAM) – a method that stimulates tissue with light pulses and detects ultrasound signals resulting from the illumination – can visualise even the smallest blood vessels in deeper tissue layers.

    By merging these techniques, high-resolution 3D images of tissue structure and function in the esophagus are generated. Both sensors are integrated into an endoscopy capsule that scans the tissue in a full 360-degree angle.

    “Our dual imaging system uncovers critical features of early cancer lesions, including microscopic structural changes beneath the mucosal surface and subtle microvascular alterations within the cancerous tissue, that previous methods were unable to detect,” said Prof. Vasilis Ntziachristos, Director at the Institute of Biological and Medical Imaging at Helmholtz Munich and Chair at TUM.

    In their pilot study, the researchers examined the esophagus of animals and tissue samples from patients with Barrett’s esophagus, a precursor to esophageal cancer. They successfully identified distinct differences between healthy tissue, tissue with abnormal cellular changes, precancerous stages, and malignant tumors.

    Initial proof-of-principle tests were carried out on the inner lip of a volunteer, as it shares similar tissue characteristics with the esophagus.


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