Jacqui Wise

Variants of sexually transmitted Shigella are spreading more rapidly among sections of gay men in England than variants contracted through traditional routes including travel abroad, a study has found.Shigella is a genus of bacteria that causes shigellosis, bloody or prolonged diarrhoea that can lead to severe dehydration. It is highly contagious and is transmitted through faecal-oral contact.It has historically predominantly affected children in low and middle income countries and been a sporadic travel associated illness in other countries. But sexually transmitted strains have been rising in high income countries since the 2000s.The UK Health Security Agency has warned of a recent “sharp rise “in laboratory diagnoses of Shigella . There were 2560 recorded cases in 2025, up from 2318 in 2024 and 2052 in 2023.1The new study, published in the journal …

Regular movement, no matter how small, can have considerable health benefits, say the four UK chief medical officers, who likened exercise to a “miracle cure.”Updated guidelines on physical activity,1 issued by the chief medical officers of Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and England, highlight the health benefits of light intensity activity, reducing prolonged periods of sitting, and including strength and balance exercises as part of everyday life.For the first time the guidance also emphasises that people taking glucagon-like-peptide 1 (GLP-1) drugs to combat obesity should ensure that they do activities to maintain muscle mass.It says that evidence showing that physical activity has a very positive effect on physical and mental health has become even stronger in women and men, across all ages, since the guidelines were first published in 2019.Launching the update, Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England, said, “Previously we said the evidence in women was weak: it is now strong.”He added, “Evidence continues to show that if physical activity were a drug, we would refer to it as …

Doctors’ lives were put at risk during the covid pandemic because of shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) and a lack of adequate planning, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry has concluded.The inquiry chair, Heather Hallett, also criticised the “vast” waste of taxpayers’ money. Of the £14.9bn spent on PPE by the UK government and devolved administrations during the pandemic, nearly two thirds—almost £10bn—went unused.“These figures demand a fundamental change in how the UK prepares for emergency procurement,” said Hallett.1 Her scathing report, focusing on procurement, found that the plans in place to respond to a pandemic were inadequate, and those that did exist had not been properly stress tested.The existing stockpile of PPE and other equipment for the UK was “inadequate to meet demand,” and the UK government and devolved administrations were “wholly unprepared” to rapidly increase the scale and speed of procurement and distribution operations, said Hallett.The lack of plans and infrastructure meant that officials had been unable to respond with sufficient speed and efficiency …

Young people aged 16 and 17 will face a default overnight social media curfew, the UK government has announced.But teenagers in this age bracket will be able to opt out by changing their account settings.Under the proposals, apps such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube would be set to be unavailable by default to 16 and 17 year olds between midnight and 6 am.1Addictive features such as videos that automatically play one after another and feeds that continually serve up personalised content will also be switched off by default for older teenagers.The first set of regulations on the social media restrictions will be laid before Parliament by the end of this year, with measures expected to come into force in spring 2027.The proposed changes follow the recent announcement of a ban on social media services for under 16s from spring next year.2The government said that the measures looked “to protect the next generation” and ensure that when kids turn 16 “they don’t face a cliff edge” of being exposed to the most addictive features online. …

A national newborn screening programme for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) will be rolled out throughout England, the government has announced.It comes after campaigners complained that existing plans for a more limited testing programme were unfair.The government announced in April that a pilot scheme to include testing for SMA as part of the heel prick test would start in October 2026. Taken when babies are 5 days old, this blood test currently screens for 10 rare but serious conditions such as sickle cell disease and cystic fibrosis.However, the pilot scheme would cover only 72% of newborns in England, prompting criticism that this amounted to a postcode lottery.In response, the government …

Afraid not. It’s about a large outbreak of cyclosporiasis in the United States—an intestinal illness caused by a microscopic parasite called Cyclospora , which causes “watery, explosive diarrhoea.”It’s certainly a large outbreak, with reports of cases in 34 states. Up to 14 July, there had been at least 1645 laboratory confirmed cases of Cyclospora since 1 May, and 145 people had been admitted to hospital. The US Centers for Disease Control and …

Restoring the health of the UK population to 2014 levels would boost GDP by 2% and unlock £72bn in public finances , an analysis indicates.The report, from the Health Foundation, argues for an overhaul of government thinking on health.1Analysts say that, rather than treating ill health as a cost, good health should be seen as a national economic asset.It comes as a new prime minister, Andy Burnham, enters Downing Street and faces economic challenges such as weak growth, stagnant productivity, a sluggish labour market, and pressure on the public finances.The think tank argues that improving health should be treated as core to the government’s economic strategy.“Good …

The risk of trainee doctors experiencing burnout or discrimination has slightly decreased, the latest annual survey from the General Medical Council has suggested.However, there was “a small but real increase” in the number of trainee doctors reporting having experienced regular unwelcome sexual conduct in the workforce.This year’s GMC national training survey was completed by 51 727 doctors in postgraduate medical training and 22 923 trainers.1For trainees, measures relating to workload slightly improved when compared with last year. For example, 22% of trainees reported that their working pattern left them feeling short of sleep on a daily or weekly basis, down from 24% in 2025.By collating responses to seven work related questions, the GMC calculated that 61% of doctors in training were still considered to be at moderate or high risk of …

Complaints about doctors’ fitness to practise have surged 25% in a year to 13 465 in 2025, latest data from the General Medical Council (GMC) show.1This figure is a rise from 10 769 complaints in 2024, and while this continues a three year upward trend, 2025 represents the largest year-on-year increase in 20 years.The regulator said that the reasons behind the increase were not clear but that it may be due to the public being increasingly aware of how to raise concerns through regulatory routes. It added that the public may be uncertain about where to raise concerns about healthcare in general, which could lead to concerns being directed to the GMC instead of other organisations.Members of the public have consistently been the main source of concerns about doctors’ fitness to practise, and this remained true in 2025, accounting for 80% of all concerns received last year.Since 2020, triage decisions—the point …

Last year 43% of patients aged over 80 years old who attended an emergency department waited more than 12 hours from arrival to admission to a ward, an analysis shows.1This made them the age group most likely to experience “corridor care,” data analysed by think tank the Nuffield Trust show.The finding comes as prime minister Andy Burnham has pledged to fix the adult social care system and tackle delayed discharges.2Long emergency department waits were a problem before the covid-19 pandemic in 2020, but the issue has deteriorated further in recent years.In February 2026, over 72 000 patients waited more than 12 hours—a third of all admitted cases, the Nuffield Trust said. This compares to 41 104 patients waiting over 12 hours in December 2019, a statistic considered shocking at the time.The main clinical reasons associated …