New Parkinson's Pump therapy introduced at King's College Hospital London in Dubai
Diagnosed with Parkinson's disease at the age of only 30, the patient lived with the disorder for 14 years and had been entirely dependent on three caregivers for assistance. This treatment marks a giant breakthrough in the care of Parkinson's patients, granting them new prospective enhancements to the patient's quality of life.
The Foslevodopa pump therapy was introduced to the Middle East by King's College Hospital Dubai. The continuous delivery of levodopa through the patient's skin via this pump resembles that of an insulin pump for diabetes. Dosing of the drug is individualized, according to the needs of that particular patient. The specialists, namely Dr. Vinod Metta and Prof. Ray Chaudhuri, ensure that the therapy suits the condition of the patient. With the foslevodopa pump, patients can regain some of their independence and carry out daily tasks — never mind fasting during Ramadan — that previously, due to their condition, would have posed quite a challenge.
"Personalized care and individualized dosing are critical in Parkinson's treatment," commented Dr. Vinod Metta, Consultant Interventional Neurologist and Parkinson's Specialist at King's College Hospital London in Dubai. "With the Foslevodopa pump, patients can take back control of the disease, regain their independence, and improve upon their quality of life."
The procedure was performed at the Parkinson's Center of Excellence in King's College Hospital, Dubai, a regional center of excellence for movement disorders. The center offers world-class diagnostic and treatment innovations and multidisciplinary support to Parkinson's patients and their families while ensuring patient-centered care.
Prof. Ray Chaudhuri, who is the professor of neurology and movement disorders at King's College Hospital London, said: "This is a defining moment for Parkinson's care in the area. Foslevodopa is a major step forward in personalized therapy, allowing patients to receive the best possible care."
King's Parkinson's Centre of Excellence: Leading the future of Parkinson's care
King's Parkinson's Centre of Excellence in Dubai is under the aegis of UK-trained Parkinson's specialists, including Dr. Vinod Metta and Prof. Ray Chaudhuri. The center operates via personalized treatment plans supported by a multidisciplinary team that includes nurses, physiotherapists, speech therapists, dieticians, neuroradiologists, and occupational therapists.
Since its founding under Dr. Metta, King's Parkinson's Centre of Excellence has treated over 1,000 patients with Parkinson's across the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
For more information about the foslevodopa/foscarbidopa pump treatment, please contact King's Parkinson's Centre of Excellence:
Ms. Therese Masagnay : Therese.Masagnay@kch.ae
Ms. Clarissa Sanglian : Clarissa.Sanglian@kch.ae
Research Studies & Clinical Trials Coordinator: Afsal.Nalarakettil@kch.ae
This breakthrough treatment offers new hope for Parkinson's patients in the UAE and beyond.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
a day ago
- Arab News
How the UK's ‘apartheid apologists' use ‘disingenuous' antisemitism claims to suppress Israel's critics
LONDON: In the initial weeks of the war in Gaza, Ghassan Abu-Sitta, a British-Palestinian plastic and reconstructive surgeon, worked day and night at Al-Shifa Hospital as part of a team from the medical charity Medecins sans Frontieres. During that time, Abu-Sitta regularly posted updates on X about the injuries he was treating. On returning to London, he held a press conference at which journalists were shown some of the footage he had deemed too distressing to post online. He also shared photographs of some of the children he had treated who had been left with life-changing injuries. Underscoring the scale of suffering, Abu-Sitta said he had performed six amputations on child patients in one night alone. Israel mounted its military campaign in Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, which saw 1,200 killed — the majority of them civilians — and 250 taken hostage. Twenty-two months later, Israeli operations have destroyed much of Gaza's infrastructure, created famine conditions, and left about 60,000 Palestinians dead, according to Gazan health authorities. After returning to the UK, Abu-Sitta gave evidence to London's Metropolitan Police Service, which had appealed for anyone who had been to Israel or Palestine to come forward if they had 'witnessed or been a victim of terrorism, war crimes, or crimes against humanity.' That was the cue for an organization called UK Lawyers for Israel, or UKLFI, to act. It reported Abu-Sitta to the UK health care regulator, the General Medical Council, seeking to have him suspended. At the same time, according to a new report from CAGE International exposing the activities of two influential pro-Israel lobby groups in the UK, Abu-Sitta 'became the target of an online campaign to malign his work, resulting in his entry to France, Germany, and the Netherlands being barred when invited to deliver lectures.' The GMC tribunal threw out the complaint, finding there was 'no evidence that there was any potential risk to patients … arising from the concerns about Dr. Abu-Sitta's social media posts.' It also rejected the submission that he would discriminate against Jewish or Israeli patients 'because the only evidence before the Tribunal on this point suggested the contrary — that Dr. Abu-Sitta did not discriminate against any particular group of patients.' The tribunal acknowledged 'the long history of humanitarian overseas work by Dr. Abu-Sitta,' adding 'it was not in the public interest to be deprived of a competent doctor.' But the campaign against Abu-Sitta is just one of dozens of examples of what CAGE International called a flood of 'disingenuous and dishonest complaints of antisemitism, seeking to suppress and criminalize support for Palestine in the UK,' perpetuated by UKLFI and the Campaign Against Antisemitism, or CAA. In a new report, 'Britain's Apartheid Apologists,' CAGE focuses on the organizations as just two among 'the constellation of efforts to provide cover to Zionism' which, it says, 'regularly support the apartheid state of Israel.' UKLFI is a limited company with a separate charitable wing. The CAA, a registered charity, 'ostensibly seeks to highlight acts of antisemitism in the UK, but much of its activities are geared toward reporting on those who criticize or oppose Israel.' CAGE has reported both organizations to the UK's Charity Commission for allegedly breaching the commission's code of conduct, 'which prohibits support for policies that violate fundamental human rights, and have misused their platforms to shield Israel from accountability.' Both groups, it says, 'regularly instrumentalize regulatory authorities to attack and harass those who criticize and protest against Zionist apartheid and its settler colonial and genocidal activity. 'Through the conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism, they seek to inhibit and disrupt genuine criticism of Israeli crimes under international law.' A spokesperson for the Charity Commission confirmed it had 'ongoing compliance cases into Campaign Against Antisemitism and UK Lawyers for Israel Charitable Trust. We will assess any issues raised to determine what, if any, role there is for us as regulator.' The CAGE report accuses UKLFI of 'bad-faith lawfare, opacity of finances and governance, and institutional racism.' The organization, it says, 'has become adept at weaponizing professional regulation, bombarding regulators like the General Medical Council, Solicitors' Regulation Authority, Bar Standards Board, and Charity Commission with vexatious complaints designed to harass and silence Palestinian rights advocates.' CAGE also questions the source of UKLFI's funding. 'Despite clear evidence of coordination with the Israeli state and its objectives, UKLFI continues to conceal its funding sources, refusing to disclose the financial backers driving its campaign of professional harassment.' The report labels the CAA as 'UKLFI's less respectable twin, exploiting legitimate concerns about antisemitism to silence criticism of Israel and Zionism through strategic deployment of the dysfunctional, and arguably now totally broken, IHRA working definition.' The definition of antisemitism framed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, widely adopted by global organizations, has been criticized as a shield to protect Israel. The report says the CAA's 'relentless pressure on universities, local councils, and public bodies has created a climate of fear in British public life and particularly in academia, where scholars now routinely self-censor Palestine-related research to avoid being smeared as antisemites.' Like UKLFI, 'CAA maintains close ties to both Labour and Conservative Party figures and pro-Israel lobby groups while refusing to come clean about its funding — a glaring lack of transparency for an organization that demands accountability from others.' The report includes a long list of organizations and individuals targeted by both groups, and that in many cases, 'the reactions of the organizations concerned has highlighted the pervasive fear of being labelled antisemitic.' In February 2023, UKLFI claimed Jewish patients visiting Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London had been left feeling 'vulnerable, harassed and victimized' by an exhibition of artwork made by Palestinian children in Gaza. The decorated plates, part of a collaborative project with the hospital's community school, were removed after UKLFI wrote to the hospital trust. Later, a freedom of information request by Jewish Voice for Labour found that the hospital had received no complaints from patients about the artwork. The CAA, says the report, operates in much the same way as UKLFI, 'regularly … complaining to public and private bodies with claims of antisemitism — complaints which quite frequently amount to a criticism of Israel.' This 'conflation of antisemitism with criticism of Zionism has not only produced a chilling effect on freedom of speech, but in many cases has had devastating consequences on the lives of those who have been impacted by such spurious complaints.' The CAA made unfavorable headlines in the UK in August 2024 when its chair, Gideon Falter, confronted police officers marshalling a pro-Palestine demonstration and released a video in which an officer described him as 'openly Jewish.' The meaning of the exchange became clear when an edited version of the video revealed the officer was simply trying to prevent Falter provoking marchers, for his own safety. 'The stunt,' says CAGE, was 'an attempt to bring down (Metropolitan Police chief Mark) Rowley, following his failure to rein in and/or ban the national Palestine demonstrations, as Falter and the CAA had been calling for since at least November 2023.' CAGE says the evidence in its report 'underscores the profound and systemic role played by UK Lawyers for Israel and the Campaign Against Antisemitism in perpetuating a climate of censorship and institutional complicity with Israel's apartheid regime.' London-based CAGE International was founded during Ramadan 2003 as CagePrisoners, highlighting 'the status and whereabouts of prisoners seized under the war on terror.' It describes itself as 'an independent advocacy organization that aspires to a just world.' Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, said 'there is a coordinated, long-term campaign to prevent proper and free discussion of the situation facing Palestinians so that it becomes harder to discuss and stand up for Palestinian rights, to talk about the crimes committed against them, the violations of international law, and even the genocide. 'Even carrying a Palestinian flag or expressing solidarity with Palestinians becomes subject to attack.' Groups such as UKLFI, he said, were 'trying to shut down the debate' and there were 'widespread false accusations of antisemitism, whether it's calling the UN antisemitic, the pope antisemitic, or the BBC antisemitic — that is all part of this campaign of intimidation.' It was, he added, 'thoroughly scurrilous, but it also undermines the very legitimate campaign against actual antisemitism.' Caroline Turner, director of UKLFI, told Arab News the organization received messages from 'hundreds of worried and frightened informants in many fields including education, local government, medical, legal, the arts, travel, sport and retail, who are intimidated and distressed by various antisemitic or anti-Israel actions.' UKLFI, she added, 'do not make frivolous or malicious complaints to suppress pro-Palestine voices. We believe in freedom of speech if it is lawful and avoids antisemitism and harassment. 'Unfortunately, there have been many examples of professionals who have potentially committed criminal offenses by expressing views supportive of proscribed terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah, or expressed antisemitic views on social media.' The CAA did not respond to a request for comment.
Arab News
4 days ago
- Arab News
Palestinian boy arrives in UK for vital medical treatment
LONDON: A 15-year-old Palestinian has spoken of his happiness after being taken to the UK for medical treatment from Gaza. Majd Alshagnobi suffered severe injuries in February 2024 after an Israeli tank shell exploded near him, causing him to lose much of his face, including all of his jaw and teeth. His mother Islam told Sky News: 'When Majd first got to the hospital, they thought he was dead because of the severities of the injuries on his face and leg, but when he raised his arm, they realized he was still alive. 'All the operating rooms were busy, so they carried out the operation in the kitchen to save him. 'It was very difficult for him to breathe, and they had to feed him through tubes and syringes through his nose. He really suffered.' He was greeted with flowers, gifts and banners by well-wishers when he, his mother and two of his sisters arrived at London's Heathrow Airport. 'Thank God I have the opportunity to receive treatment here … That's the reason I've come, to get treatment,' he told Sky. 'Since I arrived, I've felt so much happier. We've been greeted in such a nice way, with gifts and things to help us.' His mother said: 'Right now my family in Gaza live in tents. We've lost our home, we've lost our memories, we've lost our dreams. Nothing is left in Gaza. 'My two children who are still in Gaza with their father, every day I wake up in fear that they've been killed. Anything could happen to them in Gaza.' He is the third Gazan child to be medically evacuated to the UK since the outbreak of the war in October 2023, with the assistance of the Project Pure Hope charity. So far, more than 5,000 children have been taken from Gaza for medical treatment abroad, most of them heading to Egypt and the Gulf. Omar Din, co-founder of Project Pure Hope, said the UK government needs to do more to help children in Gaza in need of medical assistance. Last week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was 'accelerating efforts' to bring more to the UK. 'We're hoping following the prime minister's announcement last Friday, that in the coming days we'll have some concrete actions,' Din said. 'The more we wait, the more children die who we could be saving. 'We've done this privately because there was no other option available, but myself and members of my founding team have done lots of this work for Ukrainian refugees previously. There's no reason we shouldn't be doing that for Gazans.'
Al Arabiya
26-07-2025
- Al Arabiya
David Nabarro, British physician who led UN response to Ebola and COVID-19, dies
Dr. David Nabarro, a British physician who led the UN response to some of the biggest health crises in recent years – including bird flu, Ebola, and the coronavirus pandemic – has died. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, confirmed Nabarro's death on social media platform X. 'David was a great champion of global health and health equity and a wise, generous mentor to countless individuals,' Tedros wrote Saturday. 'His work touched and impacted so many lives across the world.' King Charles knighted Nabarro in 2023 for his contributions to global health after he served as one of six special envoys to the WHO on COVID-19. He won the 2018 World Food Prize for his work on health and hunger issues. He also was a candidate for the top job at the WHO in 2017 but lost out to Tedros in the final round of voting. Nabarro left the UN later that year. The 4SD Foundation, a social enterprise in Switzerland focused on mentoring the next generation of leaders in global sustainable development, said its strategic director died at his home Friday in a sudden passing. Other details were not immediately available. 'David's generosity and unwavering commitment to improve the lives of others will be sorely missed,' the foundation wrote on its website Saturday. Survivors include his wife, Flo, as well as his five children and seven grandchildren.
