Fresh Covid fears as Asia case surge shows no sign of slowing
Several Asian countries, including India, Thailand, and Indonesia, are experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases, raising concerns about more infectious variants.
Health authorities are monitoring Omicron subvariants LF.7 and NB.1.8.1 as potential drivers of the surge, though they are not yet designated as variants of concern.
The NB.1.8.1 subvariant, found in multiple countries, exhibits a strong ability to bind to human cell receptors, potentially increasing its infectiousness.
Common symptoms of the new strains include fatigue, sore throat, nasal congestion, and gut discomfort, with current vaccines expected to protect against severe symptoms.
While most infections result in mild symptoms, vulnerable groups are advised to seek medical attention for severe symptoms like shortness of breath or low blood oxygen levels.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
43 minutes ago
- BBC News
Doctors use poo pills to flush out dangerous superbugs
UK doctors are attempting to clear dangerous superbug infections using "poo pills" containing freeze-dried stool samples come from healthy donors and are packed with good data suggests superbugs can be flushed out of the dark murky depths of the bowel and replaced with a mix of healthy gut is a new approach to tackling infections that resist antibiotics, which are thought to kill a million people each year. The focus is on the bowels which are "the biggest reservoir of antibiotic resistance in humans" says Dr Blair Merrick, who has been testing the pills at Guys and St Thomas' superbugs can escape their intestinal home and cause trouble elsewhere in the body – such as urinary tract or bloodstream infections."So there's a lot of interest in 'can you get rid of them from the gut?'," says Dr idea of poo-pills isn't as far-fetched as it might seem. Faecal transplants – also known as a trans-poo-tion - are already approved for treating severe diarrhoea caused by Clostridium difficile scientists noticed hints that faecal transplants for C. difficile also seemed to get rid of superbugs. New research has focused on patients who had an infection caused by drug-resistant bacteria in the past six were given pills made from faeces which people had donated to a stool stool sample is tested to ensure it does not contain any harmful bugs, undigested food is removed and then it is freeze dried into a is stored inside a pill that can pass through the stomach unscathed and reach the intestines where it dissolves to release its poopy powdery payload. The trial has taken place on 41 patients at Guy's and St Thomas' hospitals in London to lay the groundwork for a large-scale study. It showed patients were up for taking a poo pill and the donated bacteria were still being detected in the bowels at least a month Merrick says there are "really promising signals" that poo pills could help tackle the rising scourge of superbugs and that donor bacteria could be going to microbial war with the superbugs as they compete over food and space on the lining of the gut and either rid the body of them completely or "reduce them down to a level that doesn't cause problems".The study also suggests the array of gut bacteria becomes more varied after the therapy. This is a sign of good health and "may well be promoting colonisation resistance" so it is harder for new infectious bugs to get in."It's very exciting. There's a real shift from 20 years ago where all bacteria and viruses were assumed to do you harm; to now where we realise they are completely necessary to our overall health," says Dr this week scientists showed the good bacteria our bodies meet – in the hours after we are born – seem to halve the risk of young children being admitted to hospital with lung infections. Our body's own human cells are outnumbered by the bacteria, fungi and others that live inside us - known as the has led to research implicating the microbiome in everything from Crohn's disease to cancer to mental health. If poo pills are proven to work against superbugs in larger studies then the researchers think they could be used for both treatment and prevention in people at risk. Medical procedures that suppress the immune system - including cancer therapies and organ transplants - can make the body more vulnerable."A lot of these individuals come to a lot of harm from drug resistant organisms," Dr UK's drugs regulator – the Medicines and Healthcare Products Agency – said there were more than 450 microbiome medicines currently in development."Some of them will success, so I do think we will seem them coming through quite soon," said Dr Chrysi Sergaki, the head of microbiome research at the MHRA."We could potentially, in the future, replace antibiotics with microbiome [therapies] - that's the big picture, so there's a lot of potential."
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: A serious outbreak of old-fashioned class war hits the NHS
When a child needs medical help in an advanced wealthy country with a comprehensive health service, it ought to be a simple matter. The help will be provided. The child will be treated. So how can it be that the parent of such a child in a London suburb was told by her GP that the boy is not eligible for important therapy – because he does not attend a state school? Despite the rather ridiculous wriggling of the local NHS authorities, when confronted with this fact, we know beyond doubt that this was the reason given. Surely this is the most blatant discrimination against a social group, the significant minority, many of them far from rich, who pay school fees? Why should they not qualify for the NHS? They pay the same taxes as everyone else, and indeed reduce the burden on the state by allowing it to maintain fewer school places. After all, we are always told that the NHS is our proudest achievement, open to all, free at the point of use. It now has a 'constitution' in England, a document which proclaims that the service 'has a duty every individual that it serves and must respect their human rights'. Similarly, a Charter of Patient Rights in Scotland pledges that all will be 'treated fairly and equally and will not be discriminated against'. Look carefully at these documents and you will find them especially concerned with the 'protected rights' which preoccupy modern Left-wingers, listed in England as 'gender, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion, belief, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity or marital or civil partnership status' – though the pledge about age is perhaps less honoured than the others. The original sin of British discrimination, social class, does not even get a mention. Perhaps it is time it was included, even though the old-fashioned sort, top-down snobbery, is now very much in retreat. For we are seeing a growth in anti-private-school sentiment across the public and charitable sector. This begins to look very much like an outbreak of old-fashioned class war, especially since the VAT raid on private schools. This is quite obviously aimed at hurting the fee-paying classes. The large numbers of children who have since switched to state schools will surely have wiped out any notional gain. The class war goes wider and deeper. Few now seriously doubt that private school students face discrimination at the hands of Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Not long ago, the anti-bullying charity named after Princess Diana amazed fee-paying schools when it told them that it would no longer allow them to take part in events or host them – because of 'newly defined funding priorities'. Even more recently, sick children who attended private schools, including cancer patients, were refused a free education on the wards of one of Scotland's leading children's hospitals. Their parents were told to pay for the tutoring that state-school children received free. The authorities were quite unashamed and replied bossily to protests, telling one family 'as you have chosen to privately educate your son, he cannot be supported by this team, you have effectively opted out of state-funded education and supports'. Why would that be so? It is not as if parents who go private are given back the taxes they have paid, which support state schools. What we are seeing here is a revival of the anti-middle-class loathing and discrimination that used to be practised by Communist states in eastern Europe. It has no place in a free country and the Government should put a stop to it, now.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Boy, 8, turned away by NHS because he is a private school pupil, amid claims by MPs that Labour's raid on fee-paying schools has triggered 'class war' and 'discrimination' in our public services
An outraged mother has accused the NHS of 'shocking discrimination' after her eight-year-old son was denied vital treatment – just because he goes to private school. Tory MPs described the move as 'morally indefensible' and a symptom of Labour's 'vile class war', while the parent attacked the unfair 'two-tier' decision as a blatant breach of the health service ethos of offering equal treatment for all. Yet her case is just one example of private pupils being refused access to NHS services unearthed by The Mail on Sunday. The mother of the eight-year-old blamed Labour's war on private schools for emboldening NHS managers to deny her child help with his crippling joint condition. 'If you discriminate against children because of the school they went to, where does it end?,' she asked. Her son was referred to a paediatrician at Kingston Hospital in south-west London after she noticed he was 'struggling to hold the pen well enough to write properly', along with other mobility issues. At the hospital appointment she was asked to fill in a form which asked: 'Where does your child go to school?' And days later, she received a text message saying the child had been 'declined' the crucial next appointment with occupational health therapists. She then discovered that the specialist unit had written a letter to her GP saying: 'We are unable to see this child as we do not provide a service to school age children who attend an independent schools [sic]. We are only commissioned to provide a service to the mainstream schools.' The boy's older brother – who has the same condition, hypermobility syndrome – had been treated without issue several years earlier. Their mother, who wishes to remain anonymous while her son's case is 'in limbo', said: 'I have never been refused treatment for my children – until now. There is clearly a two-tier system at play. 'I have complained bitterly and asked who created these eligibility criteria and where it says in the NHS constitution that it's OK to discriminate against independent schoolchildren.' The mother of an autistic girl in Somerset told this newspaper her daughter was denied access to NHS mental health services, and was told: 'If you can afford the school fees, you should pay privately. If you had kept your child at the local authority primary school, she would have been supported.' It is understood that in Norfolk a child was refused a much-needed standing frame by the NHS because he went to private school. And last month we revealed how young cancer patients from private schools had to pay £115 an hour for tutoring in an Edinburgh hospital's wards, while it is provided free to state school pupils by the city council. Shadow schools minister Neil O'Brien said last night that the cases 'seem like incredibly unfair discrimination'. Citing Chancellor Rachel Reeves' decision to slap VAT on school fees, he said: 'Labour are already piling extra taxes on independent school parents. For their children to then be denied vital NHS services, which parents already paid for through their taxes, seems completely unfair. How can it be right that children with disabilities are denied services by the NHS because they attend a certain school?' Shadow equalities minister Saqib Bhatti said: 'This is shocking. No child should be penalised based on what school they go to. 'Ultimately, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson's vindictive attack on independent schools has legitimised this kind of pernicious discrimination and triggered a class war against our children. 'Now it falls to the Health Secretary to urgently review NHS policies to ensure nobody is denied access to healthcare, no matter what their background. 'We must not allow this quasi-Marxist class war to take root in our public institutions and certainly not in our NHS.' Shadow paymaster general Richard Holden added: 'The effect of front-rank Labour politicians targeting their vile class war on children who attend independent schools is brought into sharp relief by actions like this – where kids who need help are denied local NHS services. 'This culture of hate that Labour stoke out of perverse class envy has profound consequences for those in both state and independent schools but it'll always be the most vulnerable who suffer the most.' And Tory MP Greg Stafford, a member of the Commons' health and social care committee, said: 'Denying NHS treatment to a child because of the school they attend is morally indefensible and completely at odds with the founding principles of the health service. Care should be based on clinical need, not a postcode or a parent's school choice. This decision must be reversed – and fast!' The Mail on Sunday understands that other NHS trusts have also refused occupational therapy treatment to children because they attend independent schools. The eight-year-old, who attends a prep school in Kew, was denied an appointment with Richmond children's occupational therapy service that would have been the 'most important stage' of his assessment. It would have pinpointed the severity of symptoms – which include painful and easily dislocated joints and even problems with internal organs – and determined his future care. At its most debilitating, hypermobility syndrome can be classed as a disability, and experts say a specialist assessment is vital for children with the condition to prevent more serious issues. Physiotherapist Deepa Subramaniyan, a specialist in hypermobility at Adelaide Children's Physio clinic in London said long-term effects 'can include such severe mobility issues that a child can end up in a wheelchair. 'It's precisely for this reason that they need specialist assessment to determine how they should be treated. The earlier therapy starts, the better it will be in the long run.' When the mother received the notice that her son would not be seen by therapists at the unit – based at Ham Clinic and part of Kingston and Richmond NHS Foundation Trust – she said: 'I knew straight away something wasn't right because we have used this service before. 'At the hospital I was asked "Where does your child go to school?" I've never been asked that before. It was never relevant so why is it relevant now? The only thing that has changed is a new government. It is Orwellian.' The woman, who runs a small business with her husband, says the denial of an appointment was part of an 'anti-private school zeitgeist'. Branding her son's treatment as 'shocking and blatant discrimination', she added: 'Labour's dislike of independent schools is filtering down into the NHS and that is very damaging. 'The NHS has always been such a beacon of treatment for all. If you discriminate against children because of the school they went to, where does it end? 'In cases like my son's, they are effectively discriminating against children who are disabled and against some of the most vulnerable members of society. This is going to affect a lot of children if it is a new NHS protocol. Many people will not want to send their children to independent schools if it means foregoing NHS treatment.' Such an exodus would follow the record 11,000 pupils who have left the sector since Labour introduced VAT on fees in January. The woman added: 'I genuinely despair at what is happening. It's the demolition of the British private school system It feels like an ideological battle is going on.' The website of her local NHS Trust says children's occupational therapy services are offered to 'all school aged children who are residents in the Richmond or Kingston boroughs and attend a state-maintained Richmond school.' A spokesman declined to address specific claims that private pupils had been discriminated against but 'apologised if the wording in our correspondence caused upset. We are in the process of revising it to ensure greater clarity.' He added: 'Occupational therapy services are available to all school-age children who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) either through the NHS or the local authority. For children without an EHCP, advice may be available through existing NHS services provided in state school.'
