Health
- STAT+: Ultragenyx drug to treat Angelman syndrome, a rare disease, fails late-stage trial
The biotech company Ultragenyx said Wednesday that its experimental therapy for Angelman syndrome, a rare disease that causes severe intellectual disabilities and developmental delays, showed no benefit compared to a sham treatment in a large Phase 3 trial. The drug, GTX-102, had shown powerful results in early trials,…
- An autism or ADHD diagnosis without access to treatment is a hollow outcome | Letter
Helen Macdonald responds to a report by the parliamentary and health service ombudsman The parliamentary and health service ombudsman’s findings are stark and sadly familiar ( Autism and ADHD care complaints more than triple in five years in England, 26 August ). A more than 200% rise in complaints, years-long waits, p…
- Banning nuts from the skies would not keep people with allergies safe | Letters
Alison Smith says food bans do not improve compliance, they create a false sense of security in patients As the mother of a child with anaphylactic allergies, I am sympathetic to the terror that Lucy Pasha-Robinson describes ( Food allergies when flying are no joke. That’s why nuts should be banned on planes, 27 August…
- US medical groups urge people to get flu and Covid shots in counter to Trump guidance
Top medical groups band together to ease confusion from Trump administration’s changing immunization advice Leading US medical groups are urging people to get updated flu and Covid-19 vaccinations this fall, banding together on Wednesday to issue shot guidelines – and highlight the science behind them – saying they hop…
- Doctors groups release vaccination guidelines ahead of respiratory illness season
Professional organizations representing pediatricians, family physicians, obstetricians, and other medical professionals jointly released guidelines Wednesday for who should get vaccines aimed at staving off influenza, Covid-19, and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, this coming winter. The combined effort, undertake…
- STAT+: ARPA-H funds biotechs working on custom RNA therapies
Want to stay on top of the science and politics driving biotech today? Sign up to get our biotech newsletter in your inbox. Good morning. I was extremely confused when I saw a Spirit Halloween pop-up yesterday, but then realized October is indeed next month. Very spooky. The need-to-know this morning UniQure submitted…
- STAT+: How a former ARPA-H director’s startup is tackling AI’s ‘dumb problems’
Y ou’re reading the web edition of STAT’s AI Prognosis newsletter, our subscriber-exclusive guide to artificial intelligence in health care and medicine. Sign up to get it delivered in your inbox every Wednesday. Your assignment for today: Forward this email to a friend! Hi, friend — STAT is running a Labor Day promo w…
- STAT+: Pharmalittle: We’re reading about a Huntington’s gene therapy, Novo’s challenges, and more
Hello there again from STAT’s London outpost, with Andrew Joseph here filling in for Mr. Pharmalot. Typing that out, I just misspelled my own last name, so it does in fact appear to be Wednesday. Let’s just get to the headlines … The drug pricing deals the White House signed with drug companies this week might not amou…
- Children as young as six going to A&E in mental health crisis
NHS emergency departments are seeing more cases of self-harm, eating disorders and emotional distress in young people.
- HHS spins a tale of a would-be content creator child
Get your daily dose of health and medicine every weekday with STAT’s free newsletter Morning Rounds. Sign up here . Good morning. The art for the Trump administration’s new publication, “The Magic Tablet,” has a very uncanny valley feel. Read Isa’s report below and let me know what you think. Read the rest…
- Flu vaccine rollout begins as NHS regroups from 'busiest summer'
This year's jab has a few tweaks, including changes to better combat last year's Super-K strain.
- Opinion: The next DSM should address the algorithm’s role in eating disorders
This fall, clinicians and researchers around the world will gather at conferences to discuss the future of psychiatric care, including the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), expected in 2030. It will be the first revision since 2013, when TikTok didn’t exist and generative…
- STAT+: The Ig Nobel Prizes, long held in the U.S., head to Europe due to Trump policies
It usually takes 10 minutes for Marc Abrahams, founder of the Ig Nobel Prizes, to walk from his home in Cambridge, Mass., to the annual award ceremony — a world-renowned spectacle celebrating quirky scientific achievements . But this year, Abrahams’s trip involves an international flight. For the first time since the a…
- STAT+: How Trump’s latest pharma deals may undermine efforts to rein in drug costs
WASHINGTON — The White House announced more drug pricing deals on Monday, this time with midsize biotechnology companies. In doing so, President Trump once again grabbed headlines on a topic he believes will benefit Republicans in the midterm elections. But the voluntary deals might not amount to much, at least not imm…
- Free cholesterol tests on the NHS are great – but here’s the five-point health MOT I’d really like to see | Devi Sridhar
You could be walking around symptom-free and not know you’re pre-diabetic, living with hypertension or at a high risk of a heart attack Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” Benjamin Franklin’s adage goes. Yet that simple pre…
- Almost half of world’s farmers poisoned by pesticides every year, experts find
Study reveals that pesticide poisoning kills 11,000 people each year, with India accounting for nearly 60% of fatalities Almost half of the world’s farmers are poisoned by pesticides every single year, a study has found. Using publicly available data from 2006-2023, the study, which was commissioned by Pesticide Action…
- A moment that changed me: I had a panic attack on public transport – and it led me to a horrifying secret
For a decade I lived with a fear so bad that I once tried to climb out of a tube carriage while it was in motion. Then a hypnotherapist told me to ask my parents one very important question In 2000, I had been living in London for just over a decade and working at EMI Records for five years. I had moved to Brixton from…
- Heart trial after breast cancer has 'improved my life'
Lucy Shepherd is one of 90 women to take part in a trial helping cancer survivors come off medication.
- ‘I want to live’: the disabled people unable to go abroad because of care funding refusal
Campaigners say care users face a postcode lottery for support overseas – despite no extra cost to taxpayer Disabled people are being blocked from travelling abroad by NHS care boards and local councils that refuse to let them use their care funding outside the UK, the Guardian has learned. Campaigners warn of a “postc…
- It’s not easy to show my scars. But I am proud to break the deadly silence around breast cancer in Nigeria | Gloria Chinyere Okwu
I was told to keep my diagnosis private but I am determined to show the reality of breast cancer and reject the stigma that prevents women seeking treatment ‘Madam, this looks like breast cancer, and if it is, we will chop off your breast.” That was how the doctor welcomed me into the chaotic world of cancer in 2017 wh…
- Menopausal women pose as men to buy testosterone online after prescription difficulties
One menopause specialist says she has seen women with up to 12 times the safe level of the hormone.
- Families hit by long waits for dementia diagnosis
Hundreds of families say they have had to wait months or even years for a dementia diagnosis for a loved one.
- Urine test can spot more than nine in 10 bladder cancers
The NHS has been trialling the test and says the results so far are truly promising.
- STAT+: ADA review of members’ expulsion denies group censored opinions, called in police
Almost three months after five members of the American Diabetes Association were ejected from the group’s scientific sessions in New Orleans for handing out an editorial criticizing federal funding cuts, an internal review has rejected claims of silencing protest and involving local police. The findings from a five-per…
- Opinion: Diabetes association CEO: What an independent review says happened at the ADA’s controversial June conference
On June 5, at the American Diabetes Association’s Scientific Sessions in New Orleans, several attendees were removed after repeated disruptions. I apologized soon after — to the individuals directly involved and to the broader diabetes community — for the distress that day caused, and I meant it. I also promised a full…
- STAT+: House votes to temporarily block Trump plan to politicize federal grants
WASHINGTON — The House voted Tuesday to pass a stopgap government-funding bill that temporarily blocks the White House’s proposal to give political appointees more control over federal research grants. The vote was 370-48 in favor. The Senate passed the same bill a month ago, so it now goes to the president for his sig…
- Opinion: I’m a reproductive psychiatrist. The Lindsay Clancy trial will cause terrible damage to my field
After a grueling five-week trial, the Massachusetts jury attempting to determine whether Lindsay Clancy is criminally responsible for killing her three children is deadlocked . Her defense argued that the health care system failed her. The prosecution argued that the murders were premeditated. For now, the judge has as…
- Assisted dying, palliative care and patient choice | Letters
Readers respond to an article by Dr Zubir Ahmed, who argued that better palliative care should be prioritised before assisted dying is legalised I work as a renal physician, including on a transplant ward, so I will have had many of the same experiences as Zubir Ahmed, but I do not share his opinion about assisted dyin…
- We must do more to save care leavers’ lives | Letters
Readers respond to a report on the tragic consequences of the ‘care cliff’, when vital support is taken away at age 18 Your article draws attention to a landmark review that describes the “care cliff” for young people leaving care at 18 leading to tragic outcomes ( ‘He was left on his own’: the care-leaver lives lost t…
- Full-blown adulthood: does it actually start at 50?
According to a new survey, that’s the age when people feel most confident and in control of their lives. In other words, they no longer have a chairdrobe ... Name: 50 (and thriving). Age: You can work this one out. Continue reading...
- Forget T-maxxing – the manosphere’s obsession with testosterone is just fear-maxxing | Donna Lu
Testosterone replacement therapy comes with serious and potentially irreversible health risks including infertility and early heart disease Read more in the Antiviral series Are you tired? Feeling flat and irritable? Finding it difficult to concentrate? Maybe you’re experiencing the seemingly ubiquitous symptoms of mod…
- Jury in Lindsay Clancy trial allowed to go home after deliberating for 23 hours
Jurors had initially struggled to reach a unanimous verdict and in note to court, said they were deadlocked The jury in the Lindsay Clancy trial has been allowed to go home and will now continue its deliberations on Wednesday after earlier admitting it was unable to come to a unanimous decision in the case of the mothe…
- STAT+: 5 burning questions on Trump’s latest deals with drugmakers
The Trump administration on Monday announced a second group of pharmaceutical companies had pledged to lower drug prices to levels comparable to those in other nations. But the details of the deals, which President Trump has touted from the White House as one of the most important breakthroughs in health care, aren’t p…
- Dyson launches £420 toothbrush that films ‘live cleaning footage’ inside your mouth
James Dyson says ‘complete dental system’ will also include toothpaste and mouth rinse that each cost £8.50 It is the live stream you never wanted to see but may find impossible to resist: rolling footage beamed live from inside your mouth while you are cleaning your teeth. Dyson, the home appliance maker that made its…
- STAT+: Novartis gets multiple sclerosis win with BTK inhibitor
Want to stay on top of the science and politics driving biotech today? Sign up to get our biotech newsletter in your inbox. Good morning. I know this week probably feels extra long as we approach Labor Day weekend, but we will get through it together. The need-to-know this morning Alumis said its experimental treatment…
- STAT+: Pharmalittle: We’re reading about Novartis and Bristol pausing cell therapy trials, a $480K cancer drug, and more
Hello there from STAT’s London outpost, with Andrew Joseph here filling in for Mr. Pharmalot for a couple of days. The calendar may say September, but just remember, a combination of stubbornness, denial, and determination can keep the summer feeling alive for yet a few more weeks. One thing certainly not on summer bre…
- STAT+: FDA clears Stryker’s ‘surgical cockpit’ that uses Apple’s VR headset, Vision Pro
Y ou’re reading the web edition of STAT’s Health Tech newsletter, our guide to how technology is transforming the life sciences. Sign up to get it delivered in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday. Good morning health tech readers! Happy September! Are you ready to get busy or are you waiting until after Labor Day? Co…
- Paxlovid did not help long Covid, study finds
Get your daily dose of health and medicine every weekday with STAT’s free newsletter Morning Rounds. Sign up here . Good morning and happy Allston Christmas to everyone in the Boston area. Below we’ve got all the news you need outside of Storrow Drive . Read the rest…
- Gaps in NHS end-of-life care ‘denying ill children chance to die at home’
Campaigners say some care boards in England flouting their legal duty, resulting in ‘cruel’ postcode lottery Seriously ill children are being denied the chance to die at home because the NHS in many parts of England is flouting its legal duty to provide the care needed to make that happen, critics say. The widespread f…
- STAT+: Will House delay Trump plan to politicize NIH grants?
You’re reading the web edition of D.C. Diagnosis, STAT’s twice-weekly newsletter about the politics and policy of health and medicine. Sign up here to receive it in your inbox on Tuesdays and Thursdays. A New York bar sells a spritz in a Hermès-esque glass purse, while in Baltimore you can get a spritz made with Miller…
- Baby Tommy's our 'light', says grieving family of newborn whose mum died in childbirth
Chelsea McGillivray, from Rutherglen, South Lanarkshire, fell into cardiac arrest during labour after what was believed to be a textbook pregnancy.
- STAT+: NIH proposal to cap research grants draws mixed reception, agency says
Under the Trump administration, competition for government funding for biomedical research has reached new heights . In June, the National Institutes of Health proposed one solution : limiting the number of grants each individual scientist can have at a given moment. The agency recently released the anonymized 3,307 re…
- Number of young people with no close friends has soared since 2014 in England
Data paints sobering picture of 11- to 24-year-olds growing up in ‘bleak world’ shaped by pandemic and social media The number of young people with no close friends has risen fivefold since 2014 as a result of growing up in a “bleak world” dominated by austerity, the pandemic and social media. New research paints a sob…
- 'I'm on a mission to convince people to work less'
Jo Hooper spent her 20s chasing career success, but had two work-related breakdowns before she was 31.
- US health officials exclude measles-related deaths in Pennsylvania from counts
RFK Jr, the health secretary, has suggested the deaths were ‘fabricated’ while the CDC claimed it was reviewing them Top US health officials and government agencies are currently not including the two recent measles-associated deaths in Pennsylvania in their counts. “This is highly unusual,” said Debra Houry, former ch…
- Caregiver creep: how helping elderly relatives can snowball into a full-time job
Assisting an ageing loved one can start with small tasks but may lead to full-time caregiving that requires more support Helping an ageing parent or loved one often begins with easy-to-field requests: Pick up a prescription. Drive them to a doctor’s appointment. Grab groceries. However, light tasks – just “helping out”…
- ‘Superhuman’ AI tool spots heart disease in less than 2 seconds
Technology trained on millions of routine ECGs could fast-track high-risk patients for treatment Doctors have developed a “superhuman” AI tool that can spot heart disease in less than two seconds. The groundbreaking technology has been trained on millions of patients and works by extracting more information from a rout…
- A pediatrician is running for Senate. Can doctors change the political debate over health and science?
After Lindsey Graham’s death, Democrat Annie Andrews finds herself in a closely watched race as she seeks to flip his Republican seat Annie Andrews was a dark horse Democrat challenging a five-term Republican in the US Senate when 314 Action, a political action fund devoted to electing scientists and doctors, first bac…
- New home means 'big ambitions' for wood enterprise
Wolverhampton Wood Recycling's bigger premises will bring more volunteers together, its founders say.
- NHS bosses warn of chaos in ADHD and autism care
Costs are spiralling out of control as unregulated private providers capitalise on demand, say managers.
- Hypermobility - the little-known 'bendy disease' that causes pain and fatigue
The disorder may affect hundreds of thousands in the UK, but many face delays in getting a diagnosis.
- Salmonella outbreak: What we know so far
Hundreds have fallen ill with salmonella infections in an outbreak linked to imported eggs.
- UK salmonella cases nearing 500 as egg investigations continue
Close to 500 people have become ill with salmonella linked to imported eggs, say UK authorities who are investigating more clusters.
- Off to Reading or Leeds? Here's your guide to festival make-up (without the toxins)
Neon is on trend, but some make-up products pose a serious risk to your health. Here's what to check for, and how to dazzle.
- PMOS clinics 'good start, but more can be done'
Jersey's government launches a three-month trial clinic to help women with the ovarian syndrome.
- Treatment involving patient's family cuts mental health hospital admissions, study finds
The approach focuses on the patient priorities, seeing the same clinicians, and involving people close to them.
- World's first patient to undergo live AI-assisted brain surgery has tumour removed
Without brain surgery guided by live AI assistance, Rhys Hibbert could have lost his sight to a tumour.
- HPV home-testing kits now available in England
Over the next year, nearly four million will receive invites on the NHS App or via text message, email or letter to order a free kit to use at home.
- NHS failing child sexual abuse victims in adulthood, say psychiatrists
There have been decades of mistreatment and mismanagement of those who seek help later in life, say experts in a new, damning report.
- Nicotine vapes best chance to quit smoking, major review finds
They work better than patches, gum or pills, the most up-to-date evidence suggests.
- HPV home-testing kits available for women in England who have missed cervical screening
Nearly four million women in England can order a self-testing kits to check for high-risk HPV.
- The 'hidden gem' offering a place to grow, connect and heal
Annadale Community Garden Group is one of four groups or individuals in the running for this year's Make a Difference Awards NI.
- Wellness habits you can start now - at no (or little) cost
Living a healthy life doesn't have to just be about pricey studio classes and luxury retreats.
- What's driving men to get penis fillers, despite the risks?
Men who have had the procedure can expect 10-20% more girth for the next six to nine months - but it can go wrong.
- I went for a full body MOT and the results came as a shock
The private body scan industry is booming, but is it doing more harm than good?
- Obesity rates have doubled in England since 1993 - what's going on?
Around seven million more adults are living with obesity than would have been if obesity rates had stayed the same as 1993.
- National Trust expands park by 32 hectares
Former agricultural land is turned into a public park in Plymouth, the National Trust says.
- There's a reason child vaccination rates are falling - and it's not social media
As child immunisation rates fall across the UK, one clinic in west Yorkshire is taking aggressive steps to boost immunisations
- Starting uni? What to know about the free NHS meningitis B jab in England
It follows the UK's largest and fastest growing meningitis B outbreak to date in Kent earlier this year.
- What are the symptoms of meningitis and how is it spread?
Some people can carry bacteria in their nose or throat without getting sick, but can spread it to others.
- Covid inquiry PPE report - key findings
What went wrong with the government's planning and buying of vital items like gloves and gowns that cost taxpayers billions of pounds.
- UK wasted £10bn on PPE that left NHS staff poorly protected, Covid inquiry finds
Healthcare staff were unable to properly protect themselves, or those in their care, from dangerous infections, says the latest inquiry report.
- UK begins trials of Ebola vaccine developed in just eight weeks
The UK medicines regulator has given approval for an experimental vaccine to be tested on healthy adults.
- More protein or less? The foods to get you through a heatwave
When turning on the oven is a no-no and you're bored of salads, these foods (and drinks) will help to beat the heat.
- Doctors vote to take strike action in row over pay
The British Medical Association is in dispute with Manx Care over "pay erosion since 2008".
- Resident doctors take strike action over pay
The BMA said there will "undoubtedly be cancellation of operations, outpatient appointments and elective care" but "patient safety will still be prioritised".
- What does hot weather do to the body?
Hot weather during the summer can affect anyone, but some people run a greater risk of serious harm.
- What are UV levels and how can you protect yourself?
Some UV exposure is essential for our wellbeing, but too much is damaging and can cause skin cancer.
- 'World-first' vaccine designed by artificial intelligence
Cambridge scientists say they have, for the first time, tested a vaccine designed by AI.
- Bird flu vaccine trial against potential pandemic strain begins
The jab targets the H5N1 flu strain which has caused devastating infections in bird populations worldwide, but has yet to spread between humans.