Tag • #health

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Hackers obtain patient data from NHS Dumfries and Galloway

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Wednesday, 27 March, 2024 - 13:31

Cyber-attack by Inc Ransom yielded data on at least a ‘small number’ of patients, health board says

A hacker group is in possession of at least a “small number” of patients’ data following a cyber-attack, NHS Dumfries and Galloway has said.

Reports emerged on Wednesday of a post by the group Inc Ransom on its darknet blog, alleging it was in possession of three terabytes of data from NHS Scotland.

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Recruitment of nurses from global south branded ‘new form of colonialism’

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Wednesday, 27 March, 2024 - 07:00

African nurse leaders say poorer nations face severe shortages despite rules intended to stop wealthy countries poaching staff

The UK and other wealthy countries have been accused of adopting a “new form of colonialism” in recruiting huge numbers of nurses from poorer nations to fill their own staffing gaps.

International nursing leaders said the trend was leading to worse patient care in developing nations, which were not properly compensated for the loss of experienced healthcare staff.

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From the archive: ‘Is anybody in there?’ Life on the inside as a locked-in patient – podcast

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Wednesday, 27 March, 2024 - 05:00

We are raiding the Guardian Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.

This week, from 2020: Jake Haendel spent months trapped in his body, silent and unmoving but fully conscious. Most people never emerge from ‘locked-in syndrome’, but as a doctor told him, everything about his case is bizarre. By Josh Wilbur

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‘Everybody has a breaking point’: how the climate crisis affects our brains

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Wednesday, 27 March, 2024 - 05:00 · 1 minute

Are growing rates of anxiety, depression, ADHD, PTSD, Alzheimer’s and motor neurone disease related to rising temperatures and other extreme environmental changes?

In late October 2012, a category 3 hurricane howled into New York City with a force that would etch its name into the annals of history . Superstorm Sandy transformed the city, inflicting more than $60bn in damage, killing dozens, and forcing 6,500 patients to be evacuated from hospitals and nursing homes. Yet in the case of one cognitive neuroscientist, the storm presented, darkly, an opportunity.

Yoko Nomura had found herself at the centre of a natural experiment. Prior to the hurricane’s unexpected visit, Nomura – who teaches in the psychology department at Queens College, CUNY, as well as in the psychiatry department of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai – had meticulously assembled a research cohort of hundreds of expectant New York mothers. Her investigation, the Stress in Pregnancy study , had aimed since 2009 to explore the potential imprint of prenatal stress on the unborn. Drawing on the evolving field of epigenetics, Nomura had sought to understand the ways in which environmental stressors could spur changes in gene expression, the likes of which were already known to influence the risk of specific childhood neurobehavioural outcomes such as autism, schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

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The assisted dying debate: Paola’s story

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Wednesday, 27 March, 2024 - 03:00

Paola Marra ended her life last week in Switzerland after being told by doctors she could not be guaranteed a pain-free death from bowel cancer in the coming months. Robert Booth reports

Last week Paola Marra arrived in Zurich for the last journey she would ever make. She was in the final months of her life with stage-four bowel cancer and had an appointment with Dignitas for an assisted death. She had gone alone, partly because she wanted peace in her final moments, but also because of the legal risk to her friends or family who could be seen to be assisting her.

She spoke several times over the final days of her life to the Guardian’s social affairs editor, Robert Booth . He tells Hannah Moore about Paola’s decision to take control of her death and why she was so disappointed that she didn’t have the option to stay in the UK for it.

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Two nights of broken sleep can make people feel years older, finds study

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Wednesday, 27 March, 2024 - 00:01

Beyond simply feeling decrepit, perception of being older can affect health by encouraging unhealthy eating and reducing exercise

Two nights of broken sleep are enough to make people feel years older, according to researchers, who said consistent, restful slumber was a key factor in helping to stave off feeling one’s true age.

Psychologists in Sweden found that, on average, volunteers felt more than four years older when they were restricted to only four hours of sleep for two consecutive nights, with some claiming the sleepiness made them feel decades older.

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Cows in Texas and Kansas test positive for highly pathogenic bird flu

news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 26 March, 2024 - 22:50

Enlarge (credit: Getty | Peter Cade )

Wild migratory birds likely spread a deadly strain of bird flu to dairy cows in Texas and Kansas, state and federal officials announced this week.

It is believed to be the first time the virus, a highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), has been found in cows in the US. Last week, officials in Minnesota confirmed finding an HPAI case in a young goat , marking the first time the virus has been found in a domestic ruminant in the US.

According to the Associated Press , officials with the Texas Animal Health Commission confirmed the flu virus is the Type A H5N1 strain, which has been ravaging bird populations around the globe for several years . The explosive, ongoing spread of the virus has led to many spillover events into mammals, making epidemiologists anxious that the virus could adapt to spread widely in humans.

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Texas sues Pfizer with COVID anti-vax argument that is pure stupid

news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Monday, 4 December, 2023 - 23:13

Enlarge / Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. (credit: Getty | Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle )

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Pfizer last week, claiming the pharmaceutical giant "deceived the public" by "unlawfully misrepresenting" the effectiveness of its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine and sought to silence critics.

The lawsuit also blames Pfizer for not ending the pandemic after the vaccine's release in December 2020. "Contrary to Pfizer’s public statements, however, the pandemic did not end; it got worse" in 2021, the complaint reads .

"We are pursuing justice for the people of Texas, many of whom were coerced by tyrannical vaccine mandates to take a defective product sold by lies," Paxton said in a press release. "The facts are clear. Pfizer did not tell the truth about their COVID-19 vaccines."

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Severe outbreak tied to cantaloupe sickens 117 in 34 states; half hospitalized

news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Friday, 1 December, 2023 - 15:32

Enlarge / Containers with cut cantaloupe in a cooler case. (credit: Getty | Ben Hasty )

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning everyone in the country to back away from pre-cut cantaloupe unless you're certain the fruit in question is not tied to a large, nationwide Salmonella outbreak that is unusually severe.

So far, 117 cases of infection across 34 states have been identified in the outbreak. The cases are in people ranging from infants to the elderly, including a 100-year-old. Of the cases, 61 (52 percent) have been hospitalized, and two deaths have been reported in Minnesota.

The CDC attributes the unusually high hospitalization rate to the fact that the pre-cut fruit was served at long-term care facilities and childcare centers. The elderly and young children are at higher risk of severe Salmonella illness.

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