Killer bug strikes Sydney: One dead, six sick in Potts Point Legionnaires' outbreak
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The Independent
29 minutes ago
- The Independent
NHS issues vaccination warning for pregnant women over dangerous virus currently surging in Australia
Expectant mothers and people over 75 are being urged to get vaccinated against a potentially deadly virus following a record number of cases in Australia. Health chiefs say the Australian winter often predicts how viruses will spread in the UK, and already this year cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) have steadily risen in many areas. The virus, which is a common cause of coughs and colds, may also cause a chest infection called bronchiolitis. Some people have a high risk of becoming seriously ill with it, including babies and adults over 75. According to NHS England, RSV is a leading cause of infant deaths worldwide and a main cause of children being taken into hospital. Last winter, almost 7,000 bed days in England were taken up by children with RSV. NHS England is encouraging pregnant women to get a jab that protects against RSV so their babies are protected after birth. Kate Brintworth, chief midwifery officer for NHS England, said: 'While for most adults RSV only causes mild, cold-like symptoms, for older adults and young children it can lead to serious breathing problems that can end up in hospitalisation. 'Getting vaccinated while pregnant is the best way to protect your baby from the moment they are born, and now is the time for mums to act, to make sure their babies are protected ahead of their first few months this winter, when there tends to be more bugs circulating.' Yusra Osman says that when her son, Zakariya, was three months old, he developed bronchiolitis from the virus. He had a fever and was gasping for breath. The 34-year-old, from north London, said: 'Everything was a blur, but I remember his chest was caving in and out and he was really struggling to catch his breath.' Nurses found her son's oxygen levels were dangerously low. Ms Osman, a student midwife, said: 'That was one of those things you don't want to hear as a mum. He was crying, and we kept trying to put an oxygen mask on, but he was fighting to get it off and didn't want to be touched.' Zakariya, who is now seven, needed oxygen and a feeding tube in hospital. 'It's a mum's worst nightmare. Had the RSV vaccine been available then, I'd definitely have had it,' Ms Osman said. The RSV vaccine was offered to pregnant women in England for the first time last September and health officials say it has since helped to protect more than 300,000 mothers and babies. Pregnant mothers from 28 weeks onwards are eligible, as are adults aged 75 to 79. In the coming weeks, NHS England is set to invite more than a million people to have a jab, before the season for infections, which starts in October. Greta Hayward, consultant midwife at the UK Health Security Agency, said babies born in late summer or the autumn are most likely to be admitted to hospital with the virus. 'Hundreds of babies attend emergency departments each day for bronchiolitis through most of November and December,' she said.
Medical News Today
44 minutes ago
- Medical News Today
Popular artificial sweetener may negatively affect cancer immunotherapy
Non-sugar, or artificial, sweeteners are widely used to reduce the energy in sweetened foods and drinks, particularly those marketed as diet, or low or no concerns about their possible health effects include links to gastrointestinal problems, metabolic effects, and even increased cancer a study has found that one of the most widely used artificial sweeteners, sucralose, could adversely affect cancer researchers suggest that by changing the gut microbiome, sucralose decreases the effectiveness of immunotherapy for several cancers. Health concerns regarding sucralose have mainly centered around its potential to cause systemic inflammation, metabolic diseases, disruptions in gut microbiota, liver damage, and toxic effects at the cellular a study suggests that people whose diet includes large amounts of sucralose, e.g., from diet drinks, respond less well to cancer immunotherapy than those who consume less or none of the research, which is published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association of Cancer Research, found that sucralose changed the gut microbiota so bacteria degraded an amino acid, arginine, that immune cells need to be able to destroy cancer are experts worried about sucralose?Sucralose is one of six non-sugar sweeteners approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use as additives in the food and drinks industry — the others are aspartame, advantame, neotame, saccharin, and acesulfame potassium (Ace-K).It is made by replacing 3 hydroxyl (oxygen and hydrogen) groups in sucrose (table sugar) molecules with chloride resulting sucralose is up to 650 times sweeter than sucrose and, because people cannot digest it, contains no accessible energy. Therefore, it is widely used to sweeten foods and drinks, as well as being sold as an alternative to sugar for those trying to decrease their energy intake. However, there are concerns, both about its health effects and its efficacy for helping weight loss. In 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) advised that non-sugar sweeteners should not be used for weight control, saying that: 'Replacing free sugars with NSS [non-sugar sweeteners] does not help with weight control in the long term. […] NSS are not essential dietary factors and have no nutritional value. People should reduce the sweetness of the diet altogether, starting early in life, to improve their health.'Investigating the sucralose-cancer linkDiwakar Davar, MD, associate professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and a medical oncologist and hematologist at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, senior author of the study, told Medical News Today:'We think this finding is highly significant as it could have immediate positive impacts on cancer patients receiving immunotherapy. The fact that we not only identified sucralose as a potential problem for those receiving immunotherapy, but that we also found a way to fix this problem through arginine supplementation is exciting and something that could be put into clinical practice easily.'According to Jack Jacoub, MD, a board certified medical oncologist and medical director of MemorialCare Cancer Institute at Orange Coast and Saddleback Medical Centers in Orange County, CA, who was not involved in this research, the findings were significant.'Frankly, this is a superb piece of scientific work,' Jacoub told MNT. 'The authors were able to study preclinical models (mice) and draw conclusions related to the effect of high sucralose intake on T-cell function tumor response to immunotherapy.''They then took this understanding and later tested it in prospective enrolled patients with lung cancer and melanoma. They showed that patients consuming sucralose greater than 0.16 mg/kg/d [milligram per kilogram per day] had inferior response to immunotherapy,' he explained.'Recognizing the significance of arginine on T cell functions they then went back to the mouse model and proved giving it restored T cell function and benefit to immunotherapy in mice. In my opinion, this is high quality evidence suggesting this absolutely needs more exploration,' added decreased immune responseIn their study, the researchers included 132 patients who had undergone immunotherapy or chemoimmunotherapy for advanced/metastatic melanoma or advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). They also included 25 patients who had high-risk resectable melanoma. All participants had completed a Diet History Questionnaire III (DHQ III), had received at least 3 months of treatment, had at least one post-treatment imaging study evaluable for response and had been followed up for at least 6 months from the start of the diet questionnaire, researchers calculated each patient's non-nutritive sugar (NNS) intake (mg/day) and divided it by their weight in kg to get a weight-normalized average daily intake of mg/kg/ with melanoma or non-small cell lung cancer who consumed high levels of sucralose (more than 0.16mg/kg/day) had a worse response to immunotherapy, and poorer survival rates, than those with diets low in the artificial whether people undergoing cancer immunotherapy should try to avoid sucralose in their diets, lead author Abby Overacre, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Immunology at the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, told MNT:'We are working on future prospective clinical trials to ask these sorts of questions for patients undergoing immunotherapy. Based on what we know so far, we would recommend that patients minimize intake of non-nutritive sweeteners, particularly sucralose.'Jacoub agreed with this assessment, saying that: 'This is enough information for me to recommend this to my patients. Frankly, we are talking about cancer and giving up diet soda, etc. is not difficult and directly goes to the question patients and their family commonly ask every day when I see them which is 'What can I do to help treat my cancer?'.'It is important to note that the research is still in the early stages, and this may not apply to all cancer microbiota changes reduced T-cell activityThe researchers then carried out tests in two mouse models of cancer to determine how high sucralose consumption reduced the immunotherapy found that mice fed sucralose were resistant to immunotherapy, had significantly increased tumor growth, less CD8+ T cell infiltration, and were more likely to T-cells are immune cells that produce the most powerful anti-cancer response, so their reduced function meant the immunotherapy was less effective. In the sucralose-fed mice, the researchers discovered changes in the gut microbiota, with greater numbers of gram positive bacteria that degraded arginine, an amino acid that is essential for T-cell production.'Gram positive bacteria have been associated with poorer immunotherapy efficacy in previous studies. However, we are very focused and interested in the function of these bacteria in hopes to better understand how they may directly contribute to cancer growth and immunotherapy response.'— Abby Overacre, PhDArginine supplements may counteract sucralose's effectsWhen researchers fed arginine or citrulline (which is metabolized in the body to arginine) to the mice, immunotherapy became effective again. They suggest that arginine or citrulline supplements could be given to people undergoing cancer immunotherapy to counteract the effect of sucralose in their diet. But could people undergoing cancer immunotherapy get enough arginine from their diet?'While there are certainly foods that are higher in arginine, especially in diets associated with better immunotherapy responses (nuts/seeds, poultry, lentils, fruits), a supplement may help those who struggle to achieve a high amount or arginine from diet alone,' Overacre told addition to continuing their research into sucralose and immunotherapy, the researchers hope to investigate whether other non-nutritive sweeteners have similar effects.'We hope that this study can help patients currently receiving immunotherapy. Importantly, this gives patients something they can do themselves or alongside their physicians to potentially improve their overall care.'— Abby Overacre, PhD
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
What to know about Legionnaires' disease, which has sickened dozens in New York City
An outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in New York City has killed two people and sickened 58 since late July. City health officials link the Central Harlem outbreak to cooling towers, structures containing water and a fan that are used to cool buildings. They said 11 of these towers initially tested positive for a type of bacteria that causes Legionnaires' disease, but the problem has been remedied. They urged people in the area with flu-like symptoms to contact a health care provider as soon as possible, especially if they are 50 or older, smoke or have chronic lung conditions. Here's what to know. What is Legionnaires' disease? It's a type of pneumonia caused by Legionella bacteria, which grow in warm water and spread in building water systems. They can be found in places such as showerheads, hot tubs and cooling towers. People often get the disease by inhaling aerosols from contaminated water. Hospital patients can also contract it through contaminated water or ice, and babies can be exposed during water births, health officials said. People don't get it from each other. Symptoms usually develop two days to two weeks after exposure and include cough, fever, headaches, muscle aches and shortness of breath, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. How does Legionnaires' disease hurt you and how can you treat it? It's important to be diagnosed quickly and treated with the appropriate antibiotics, health officials said. If untreated, the disease usually worsens during the first week, the World Health Organization said. Complications can include respiratory failure, shock and kidney or multi-organ failure. How can Legionnaires' disease be prevented? People responsible for the safety of buildings and water systems can reduce the threat by taking steps to minimize the growth of the bacteria, the WHO said. For example, they should regularly clean and disinfect cooling towers, maintain an adequate level of chlorine in spa pools and flush unused taps in buildings weekly. There are also steps people can take to reduce the risk of Legionnaires ' disease at home. New York state health officials suggest draining garden hoses; following manufacturers' instructions for cleaning and replacing water filters; checking chlorine levels in pools and hot tubs regularly and flushing hot water heaters twice a year. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
