Fatal paralysing virus detected in UK for first time – as health officials issue important advice to doctors
A POTENTIALLY fatal virus that can leave victims paralysed has been detected in Britain for the first time, the UK Health Security Agency said.
Health officials said they found West Nile virus, which is usually limited to Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, in mosquitos on UK shores.
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The bug, which mostly spreads to people through critter bites, can cause severe, life-threatening illness in about 1 in 150 people who are infected, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
UKHSA bosses are now racing to contain any potential spread of the virus but insist the risk to the public is low.
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BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Warning over 'dirty secret' of toxic chemicals on farmers fields
Successive governments have failed to deal with the threat posed by spreading sewage sludge containing toxic chemicals on farmers' fields, a former chair of the Environment Agency has told the 3.5 million tonnes of sludge – the solid waste produced from human sewage at treatment plants - is put on fields every year as cheap campaigners have long warned about a lack of regulation and that sludge could be contaminated with cancer-linked chemicals, microplastics, and other industrial Howard Boyd, who led the EA from 2016 to 2022, says the agency had been aware since 2017 that the sludge can be contaminated with substances, including 'forever chemicals'. "Forever chemicals" or PFAS are a group of synthetic chemicals which come from things like non-stick saucepans. They don't degrade quickly in nature and have been linked to seen by BBC News suggest the water industry is now increasingly concerned that farmers could stop accepting the sludge to spread and that water firms have been lobbying regulators and making contingency plans in case rules Howard Boyd says efforts to update rules, which date back to 1989, to include new contaminants were "continually frustrated by the lack of ministerial appetite to deal with this issue." In a public letter signed by more than 20 others she called on the current Environment Minister Steve Reed, to act Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) told the BBC regulations around sludge spreading are being looked at. The water companies trade body Water UK told the BBC they were aware of the concerns but that no legal standards for contaminants had been set by the government. Unlike the cleaned water that is discharged from wastewater treatment plants, the sewage sludge, or biosolid as the industry calls it, is considered "exempted waste".That means the treatment focuses mainly on killing bacteria and testing for heavy metals in the is no routine testing for chemicals, including "forever chemicals", which have been developed over the last three decades and are getting into the sewage network from both from domestic and industrial users."I think the big concern is because these substances (forever chemicals) are so persistent they'll stay around in the soil for hundreds, if not thousands of years," says Alistair Boxall, professor of environmental science at York University."It may be in 10 years' time that we start understanding that these molecules are causing harm," he said. "Then we're going to be in a bit of a mess, because we'll be in a situation where we'll have soils in the UK that will have residues of these molecules in them, and at the moment we have no way of cleaning that up."In 2022, the US state of Maine became the first state to ban the spreading of sludge contaminated with "forever chemicals" after high levels were found in water, soil and crops. Reports and emails shown to the BBC by Greenpeace's Unearthed investigation unit and obtained using Freedom of Information Act requests, reveal the water industry is acutely aware that attitudes are changing and is both lobbying government and making contingency companies are concerned on two fronts: that general rules regarding the spreading of sludge on land (so called Farming Rules for Water) may soon be tightened due to fears that it's polluting watercourses and that farmers' concerns about the chemicals in the sludge might make them unwilling to put it on their water industry has already commissioned reports looking at what might happen if the spreading is of them predicts that the "most likely" scenario is a shortfall of about three million hectares in land needed to spread the sludge. The water industry says that would lead to them either incinerating it or putting it into landfill. Both options would bring extra costs that would be passed on to billpayers."This investigation is yet more proof that we can't trust the privatised water companies to deal with waste responsibly," Reshima Sharma from Greenpeace said."So long as they can get away with it, they will just pass any problems on to our countryside and pocket the money they should be investing in solutions." In 2017 a report commissioned by the Environment Agency found that sludge contained potentially harmful substances, including microplastics and "forever chemicals", at levels that "may present a risk to human health" and may create soil that is "unsuitable for agriculture".It said that "perhaps the biggest risk to the landbank" is from the spreading of physical contaminants such as microplastics into agricultural soil. The report also said it had heard evidence from EA staff indicating that some companies may be using wastewater treatment plants to "mask disposal of individual high risk waste streams not suitable for land spreading"."EA colleagues were continually frustrated by the lack of ministerial appetite to deal with this issue," Ms Howard Boyd, who was chair of the regulator at the time, told the BBC in an email. "EA proposals since 2020 to reform the regulations were treated with a lack of urgency, hampered by delays in passing requests up to the relevant ministers for decision-making, and a consistent failure by successive secretaries of state to take the matter seriously."The letter Ms Howard Boyd has signed jointly signed was organised by campaign group Fighting Dirty. It calls the contents of the sewage sludge a "dirty secret" and demands that Environment Secretary Steve Reed take action. Sewage sludge is cheaper than other fertilisers, and can sometimes be free, though farmers may have to spread it Lewis-Thompson tells me it has "the smell of death"."It lingers in the air for somewhere around two to three weeks," she tells me when I go to visit in her home on Dartmoor in the south-west of gathered together a group of neighbours who've all had direct experience of sewage sludge being spread near their properties. Before we start recording there's a long discussion about whether they should speak out for fear of upsetting nearby farmers and the contractors who spread the sludge, who are often of their concerns are about the smell and about potential contamination of their water sources. One young woman leaves in tears saying it had made her sick."The fact it's spread for free ought to raise a few eyebrows," Richard Smallwood, a local beef and sheep farmer who doesn't use sewage sludge, tells me."If we're starting to produce food on grassland and arable land which is filled up to the ear holes with PFAS compounds and nano and micro-plastics that find their way into the food chain I think my job's over before I begin." With the alternatives to sewage sludge disposal costly, there's broad agreement that the recycling of sludge into fertiliser has to be made to work."In principle, I think using properly treated human sewage to spread on the land, put it back into the ground for growing food in the UK, that's the right thing to do," Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the cook, writer and broadcaster, tells me at his small farm and café in east Devon. He's also signed the protest letter to the environment minister."We know it's happening. Our farmers are rightly worried. We've got to take action. Government's got to take action," Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall says."That means regulations are not voluntary regulations or guidelines, [they should be] legally enforceable regulations that stop these pollutants getting into the sewage and onto our land."Despite the concerns there are still plenty of farmers who see the sludge as a cheap way to fertilise their Oliver is on the National Farmers Union Crops Board. He says he applies about 800 tonnes of sewage sludge every year to fields where he grows maize destined for animal water company provides the sludge for free and Mr Oliver says he's careful how much he uses and trusts the company to make sure it doesn't have chemical contamination."If we can be sensible with how it's used and spread on the land, it can be positive for farmers and for the water companies," he says."I'm doing it because it's adding value. It's improving our organic matter. It's benefitting the crop that I'm growing, and it's reducing my spend on bagged fertilisers." The Department for Environment Fisheries and Agriculture did not contest anything the former chair of the EA Ms Howard Boyd told the BBC."We need to see the safe and sustainable use of sludge in agriculture to help clean up our waterways," a spokesperson said."The Independent Water Commission will explore a range of issues, including the regulatory framework for sludge spreading, and we continue to work closely with the Environment Agency, water companies and farmers in this area."Water UK represents the water companies of England and Wales, said: "Although there are some concerns that some bioresources may contain contaminants, such as microplastics and forever chemicals (PFAS), there are no legal standards for them and, in some cases, no agreed assessment techniques.""Any standards and techniques are a matter for the government and the regulator and need to be based on firm evidence and detailed scientific research."
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Alice Figueiredo: We quit our jobs, sold our home twice and spent 10 years fighting the NHS
WARNING: This article contains upsetting details and reference to suicide There didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary when Jane Figueiredo spoke to her daughter that night on the phone."Alice asked me to bring her some snacks for the next time we visited," Jane says. But that call, at 22:15 on 6 July 2015, was the last conversation they ever three hours later, Jane and her husband, Max, were being driven to hospital in a police car at speed. They had been told their daughter was gravely had got into a communal toilet at Goodmayes Hospital, in Ilford, east London, where she was a mental health patient, and took her own life using a bin liner. She was just months away from her 23rd Monday, almost 10 years later, the North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT), which runs the hospital, and Benjamin Aninakwa, the manager of the ward Alice was on, have been found guilty of health and safety failings over her jury decided not enough was done by NELFT, or Aninakwa, to prevent Alice from killing herself. 'You are not above the law' It's taken a decade of battling by Alice's parents to uncover the truth about how the 22-year-old was able to take her own life in a unit where she was meant to be twice had to sell their home, quit their jobs and have worked full-time on the jury deliberated for 24 days to reach all the verdicts, after which time the Trust was cleared of the more serious charge of corporate manslaughter, while Aninakwa, 53, of Grays, Essex, was cleared of gross negligence the seven-month trial, we sat a few seats away from the family. They've sometimes been overwhelmed, leaving the court angry or in tears, as they felt their voices - and that of Alice - were not being Jane hopes the verdicts will bring major change to psychiatric care providers around the country. "You need to do far, far better to stop failing those people who you have a duty of care to," she said after the verdict. Weeks earlier, in mid-March this year, the Figueiredos were living in a hotel room in central folding their clothes, they spoke to the BBC during a break in the trial, which was already running months longer than had been living out of suitcases since the end of October, when court hearings before the pain of hearing evidence about their daughter's death, they said simply existing like this had been a huge challenge. For the couple, it was important to be at the Old Bailey every day in person - no matter the cost - because they felt this was their only chance to see the Trust held to account for their daughter's death. Sensitive and caring Alice was born in 1992, the second of three daughters. She was a bright and energetic child, and often the centre of attention. She loved music, poetry, reading and, in particular, art. Family and friends say she had a big personality."She had a really deeply thoughtful, sensitive, caring nature. She was really kind. She was really generous," remembers a child, Alice started to develop what became an eating disorder, and by 15 she was showing symptoms of severe depression and was admitted to a mental health the following years she would be hospitalised on many more 2012, then 19, she was admitted to the Hepworth Ward, at Goodmayes Hospital, for the first time. It is an inpatient mental health unit for women, run by NELFT. She was admitted there a total of seven times over the following three years."She needed safety. She was a risk to herself," says Jane. "It was a question of, somehow managing the crisis and trusting the medical profession to make the right decisions," adds Max, Alice's admissions, Alice had long periods when hospital treatment wasn't needed. She had been applying to go to university and was planning a brighter on 13 February 2015, as her mental health took a serious turn for the worse, Alice was admitted to the Hepworth Ward for what would prove to be the final days later, Alice was detained on the unit under section three of the Mental Health Act to undergo treatment for her own safety and could not leave without her consultant's was put on one of the highest observation levels, reserved for patients at most risk of harming themselves. It meant a member of staff had to stay within arm's length of her a letter to staff just over a month into her admission, Max and Jane wrote: "She cannot contain the sense of sheer torment, intense depression and overwhelming despair she is experiencing." The manager for Hepworth Ward at the time was Benjamin Aninakwa. The now 53-year-old had been working on the unit since it opened, in 2011. He was in charge of the unit during each of Alice's previous admissions, so knew her other things on the ward had changed. The nurse and the consultant, who had previously cared for Alice, had both moved on and there was a high level of temporary agency staff filling long-standing gaps in the rota. Her parents say Alice felt unsettled."I think it became clear that there was an element of chaos in the ward," says who was a chaplain to the mental health trust, would visit Alice every day; Max, who worked for the NHS as an accountant, would stop by a few times a week, often with told her parents that staff weren't carrying out observations properly. On one occasion, within the first fortnight of her admission, she said an agency health care assistant who was supposed to be staying close to her, was instead making a phone family later saw an internal email saying Alice had been left alone while the care worker continued this conversation. In that time, Alice attempted to harm herself using her same email said that once the care assistant returned and found Alice she slapped her. "Nothing was done about that. There was no safeguarding," says Jane. During the trial, the court heard that Alice had attempted to harm herself on at least 39 occasions during her admission - many of these involved plastic bags or bin though they were in the dark about many of these incidents, her parents became so concerned they started raising it with staff at the hospital, in person and in several 16 May, three months into Alice's stay, Jane emailed the consultant for Hepworth Ward, Dr Anju Soni, about an incident of self-harm with a plastic bag in which Alice lost consciousness."If it had been a few minutes longer before she was found, the outcome could have been very different - she could have died," she court heard that many of these incidents were not recorded properly by staff, nor communicated to the several months, Alice's depression began to ease. In June, her observation levels were lowered to reflect her progress, and they were eventually reduced to hourly was able to leave the unit for short periods, even going to a Fleetwood Mac concert with her boyfriend her eating disorder remained a serious challenge, and she was still under section. She asked to be moved to a specialist unit to help her recovery. On 30 June, Alice complained of chest pain and was transferred to nearby King George Hospital. When she came back to Hepworth Ward a couple of days later, the court heard she was told she was too frail to go on planned family remember intense fluctuations in her mood around this time. They say she was frustrated that her eating disorder wasn't improving, little progress was being made on her moving to another unit and she was getting bullied by other patients on the 4 July, three days before Alice died, Jane and Max went to visit her. The eating disorder was taking its toll. They could see their daughter was struggling."She sat there almost in silence, tears were rolling down her face," remembers on the night of 6 July, Alice and her boyfriend exchanged messages with each other, talking about their love of Bob Dylan's music. At 23:30 he wrote: "I can't stop thinking about you, x."The court heard that around that time Alice had asked to speak to a care assistant she got on care assistant was called away to an emergency elsewhere in the hospital. When she returned to Hepworth Ward she looked for Alice. She eventually found her slumped in the communal by two nurses on duty on Hepworth Ward slowed the arrival of an on-call doctor and paramedics. Alice was eventually taken to another hospital where she died."It's a moment where your entire life has changed and will never be the same. That's what we have had to learn to live with," says Jane. Still dealing with the devastating shock of losing their daughter, the Figueiredos set about piecing together what had happened to Trust produced a Serious Incident (SI) report. These investigations are meant to help prevent similar incidents the Figueiredos felt it was incomplete and the Trust was avoiding accepting responsibility for Alice's their concerns, the report contained information that was new and troubling. It mentioned 13 incidents in which Alice had used a plastic bag or bin bag to self-harm."I was shocked and horrified when I saw that," says Jane. "I thought, [the Trust] knew this had happened, and [they] still let her carry on doing this, and she died," she family felt the risk of plastic bags for patients on an acute mental health ward, particularly Alice, should have been a previous admission to Hepworth Ward the year before, Alice tried to harm herself using plastic bags on at least three occasions. In November 2015, sensing there was more to uncover, the couple holed themselves up in a hotel in Lindisfarne, off the Northumbria coast, and started piecing together their suspicions."We went very quickly into actually writing our own report and sending it to all the authorities that we knew of," says used their insiders' knowledge from working in the health service, to get their report in front of senior NHS people and regulators. They wrote to Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, then head of London's Metropolitan wrote back and a police investigation into what happened to Alice was launched. The Nursing and Midwifery Council launched inquiries into several of the nurses involved in Alice's with the police involved, the Figueiredos kept digging, getting hold of as much documentation as they possibly could. When they weren't able to get documents through official routes, they'd find other ways to get them, working like seasoned they had them, they'd analyse them and produce detailed reports that they sent to the police and regulators."If I could discover something that would be helpful to their investigation. I would try to do that. We were a parallel investigation," says Jane. All this digging came at a financial cost."We were in our 50s, we both stopped working and actually sold our house and lived off that to be able to do this," says emotional price was even higher. "You can't underestimate or even find the words to say, the toll that that takes on you. It's profoundly re-traumatising," she were further shocks to come in Alice's medical notes, which showed gaps in the hospital's official SI report. They had been told Alice had attempted to self-harm with plastic bags on 13 occasions, in fact it happened at least 18 of these incidents weren't recorded in logs as they should have been."It still shocks us to the core today," says the unit, plastic bags were not used in the bins in patient bedrooms for safety reasons, but they were in a few communal locations, including a toilet that was often left unlocked. Alice used these bags to self-harm on multiple occasions, including the incident that led to her trial heard there was little evidence that ward manager Benjamin Aninakwa made any attempt to restrict access to those bin bags, despite the issue being raised with him, and it appearing in Alice's care did not appear as a witness in court but told police the toilet door was locked and he had been overruled when he tried to remove the bin bags. The court heard there were no emails or evidence in Alice's clinical notes and records to corroborate this.A Care Quality Commission inspection in April 2016, the year after Alice's death, found bin bags still being used on the unit. The bags were eventually court heard that around the time Alice was admitted to the hospital for the final time, the Trust was carrying out a "scoping exercise", which looked at removing all plastic bin bags from the hospital's wards. It was revealed a bin which didn't need a plastic liner had been considered – it would have cost just £1.26."NELFT placed more value on their rubbish bins than they did on my daughter's life," says a statement, the Trust said: "Our thoughts are with Alice's family and loved ones, who lost her at such a young age. We extend our deepest sympathy for the pain and heartbreak they have suffered this past 10 years."We will reflect on the verdict and its implications, both for the trust and mental health provision more broadly as we continue to work to develop services for the communities we serve."Jane and Max Figueiredo say they wanted to hold those at the Trust to account, but that they also wanted change for the future. But there will be no celebration at Monday's verdicts."Nothing will ever bring Alice back to us and we will never stop thinking of her and missing her," says Jane. "There's always one place empty at our table, one very special voice silent that we long to hear in our conversations." If you are suffering distress or despair, details of help and support in the UK are available at BBC Action Line.
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
RFK Jr fires entire US vaccine committee
US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a vaccine sceptic, has removed all 17 members of a committee that issues official government recommendations on the move in an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, Kennedy said that conflicts of interest on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (Acip) were responsible for undermining trust in said he wanted to "ensure the American people receive the safest vaccines possible."Doctors and health experts have criticised Kennedy's longstanding questioning of the safety and efficacy of a number of vaccines, although in his Senate confirmation hearing he said he is "not going to take them away." On Monday he said he was "retiring" all of the Acip panel members. Eight of the 17 panellists were appointed in January 2025, in the last days of President Biden's of the members are practicing doctors and experts attached to major university medical noted that if he did not remove the committee members, President Trump would not have been able to appoint a majority on the panel until 2028."The committee has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine," Kennedy claimed that health authorities and drug companies were responsible for a "crisis of public trust" that some try to explain "by blaming misinformation or antiscience attitudes."In the editorial, Kennedy cited examples from the 1990s and 2000s and alleged that conflicts of interest persist."Most of ACIP's members have received substantial funding from pharmaceutical companies, including those marketing vaccines," he wrote in the Wall Street move appears contrary to assurances Kennedy gave during his confirmation hearings. Bill Cassidy, a Republican Senator from Louisiana who is also a doctor, reported that he received commitments from the health secretary that Acip would be maintained "without changes."On Monday, Cassidy wrote on X: "Of course, now the fear is that the Acip will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion. "I've just spoken with Secretary Kennedy, and I'll continue to talk with him to ensure this is not the case."Acip members are required to disclose conflicts of interest, which are posted online, and to recuse themselves from voting on decisions where they may have a conflict."The problem isn't necessarily that ACIP members are corrupt," Kennedy wrote. "Most likely aim to serve the public interest as they understand it."The problem is their immersion in a system of industry-aligned incentives and paradigms that enforce a narrow pro-industry orthodoxy."Dr Bruce Scott, president of the American Medical Association, a professional organisation for American doctors, said mass sacking "upends a transparent process that has saved countless lives.""With an ongoing measles outbreak and routine child vaccination rates declining, this move will further fuel the spread of vaccine-preventable illnesses," Dr Scott said in a did not say who he would appoint to replace the board members. Acip has a meeting scheduled starting 25 June, at which members are scheduled to vote on recommendations for vaccines for Covid, flu, meningococcal disease, RSV and other BBC contacted the US Department of Health and Human Services and the Acip chair, Dr Helen Keipp Talbot, for comment.
