'Horrific' illness spreading with symptoms that last up to six weeks
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Metro
an hour ago
- Metro
Chikungunya virus: How bad is the China outbreak and could it spread to the UK?
Soldiers in protective equipment spraying plumes of disinfectant into the air. Drones roaring overhead. Quarantine-style measures creeping back into daily life. Across China, the battle against the mosquito-borne Chikungunya virus is an unsettling deja vu of the Covid-19 pandemic. This time – alongside human intervention – a force of 'elephant mosquitos' is also being rolled out to prevent a repeat of an epidemic that swept the globe two decades ago. So far, more than 7,000 people have been infected, a few weeks after the World Health Organization issued an urgent call for action. Chikungunya, for which there is no specific treatment and which is spread primarily by Aedes mosquito species, including the 'tiger mosquito' which also transmits dengue, and Zika. The virus is not spread from person-to-person and not through coughing, sneezing, or touching. But spread can also happen through blood transfusions and the handling of infected blood in the laboratory. It causes fever and severe joint pain among other severe symptoms. The name, derived from a Kimakonde language, means 'that which bends up,' reflecting the stooped posture of those suffering with joint pain. While most recover within a week, some can develop chronic arthritis lasting months or even years. In some rare cases, Chikungunya can be fatal. It was first identified in Tanzania in 1952 and later in Africa and Asia. Urban outbreaks were first recorded in Asia in the 1970s. Since then, outbreaks have been recorded in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Symptoms of the virus appear between four and eight days after a patient has been bitten by the infected mosquito. Most symptoms are generally self-limiting and last for a couple of days. People often suffer from a fever, which is frequently accompanied by joint pain. Other common signs and symptoms include muscle pain, headache, nausea, fatigue and rash. The joint pain is often debilitating and usually lasts for a few days but may be prolonged. Diana Rojas Alvarez, a medical officer at WHO, told reporters in Geneva last month that an estimated 5.6 billion people live in areas across 119 nations at risk from the virus. 'We are seeing history repeating itself,' she added, drawing parallels to the 2004-2005 epidemic, which affected nearly half a million people, primarily in small island territories, before spreading around the world. The current surge began in early 2025, with major outbreaks in the same Indian Ocean islands which were previously hit, including La Reunion, Mayotte and Mauritius. An estimated one-third of La Reunion's population has been infected, Rojas Alvarez said. The virus is now spreading to countries such as Madagascar, Somalia and Kenya, and has shown epidemic transmission in Southeast Asia, including India. In China, the city of Foshan city, in the central Guangdong Province, has been hit the hardest. Another 12 cities in the Guangdong province have reported infections. Nearly 3,000 cases were reported in the last week alone. Chikungunya poses a major threat to public health and Chinese authorities have been quick to introduce a plethora of measures. Some of these include the clearing of stagnant water to prevent the spread of mosquitos and the installation of screens on doors and windows to stop the insects from entering homes. More Trending Perhaps the most fascinating measure has been the introduction of the 'elephant mosquitoes' – whose larvae prey on the virus-carrying enemies. The risk of chikungunya spreading in the UK is currently low, as there is no evidence of local transmission. Outbreaks have occurred in in France and Italy, but these have been small. After the rise in cases in La Réunion, the UK government confirmed that the presence of the mosquitoes in European countries, and importations from infected travellers returning from endemic countries, means that the likelihood of it spreading in mainland Europe is high. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: When the world 'likely' ends you can blame these three people, expert says MORE: Chinese students at UK universities are being 'pressured to spy on classmates' MORE: Children left in pools of blood after knifeman rampages through school in Hunan, China
Scottish Sun
2 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
My sister choked to death on tumours after conspiracy mum told her to refuse treatment – she must be banned
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) WHEN devastated Gabriel Shemirani heard his twin sister Paloma had died, he could not believe it. He had been told months ago that the 23-year-old Cambridge graduate's cancer was curable — but she had refused life-saving chemotherapy after going to live with their anti-vaxxer mum. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 7 Paloma Shemirani refused to have chemotherapy after going to live with her anti-vaxxer mum Credit: Facebook 7 Paloma's grieving brother Gabriel is campaigning to ensure there is proper regulation for alternative medicine - like that dispensed by his mother Credit: Louis Wood 7 Paloma's mum Kate fed her daughter a bogus coffee-based treatment promoted by the Australian cancer faker Belle Gibson Credit: Camera Press In a doomed attempt to cure her non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Paloma, from Uckfield, East Sussex, had followed a bogus coffee-based treatment promoted by the Australian cancer faker Belle Gibson. Recalling the heartbreaking moment a friend told him his sister had died after choking on her tumours, Gabriel tells The Sun: 'That's the most difficult part, because you're trying to do everything in your brain to think it's not real, it's not true. 'And every time you utter the words to someone else, that 'Paloma is dead' it feels like you're being burned alive.' At an inquest in Maidstone, Kent, last week, Gabriel blamed his mother Kate Shemirani — a former NHS nurse — for the death of his sister. 'People are dying. This needs to stop' Kate, 59, was struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council in May 2021 after claiming that the Covid virus was a hoax. She wrote that 'the NHS is the new Auschwitz' and regularly posted messages on social media opposing chemotherapy. Now she is advertising herself as a 'natural nurse' on her website. Gabriel, 24, wants a change in the law to protect patients from medical misinformation. The economics and maths student says: 'I couldn't save my sister, but there's still time to save others. 'People are dying. This needs to stop. Mum sacrificed my sister for anti-vax views, says twin of woman who died after refusing chemo for 'treatable' cancer 'The law is so out-of-date that we can have a woman that's killed her daughter still claiming to be a nurse. 'I believe my sister was being coerced. It's conspiratorial coercion when you convince her the elites are going to kill them, big pharma's going to kill them, even the doctors at the hospital are going to kill them.' Gabriel's mother has been banned from Facebook, Instagram and TikTok but was reinstated on X after billionaire Elon Musk took over. She denies responsibility — and blames the paramedics who tried to save her daughter's life. A year after Paloma's death, Gabriel is still feeling the loss of his sister. He says: 'With a twin they've always been there by your side. 'There's so much that doesn't need to be said because you already understand it, — it's almost like you have your own language. We were incredibly close — at no point did we ever fall out.' Growing up together with two other siblings in a troubled household also strengthened their bond. I wasn't able to have any meaningful conversation with my sister because she was out of it. That was the last time I saw Paloma. Gabriel on sister Paloma Their Iranian father Faramarz believed in conspiracy theories, such as the idea that the US government blew up the Twin Towers in New York on 9/11. From the age of nine, his mother told him to stop using suncream, and a couple of years later banned the kids from drinking tap water. At the inquest, Gabriel also claimed that she had been 'emotionally distant' and physically abusive during his childhood. In 2012, Kate was diagnosed with cancer, which she survived after having a double mastectomy. But she credits her survival to alternative treatments, including the controversial Gerson therapy which involves taking coffee enemas. Belle Gibson, who was the subject of the Netflix drama Apple Cider Vinegar, promoted the fake Gerson 'cure' before it was revealed she did not have terminal brain cancer. Like Gibson, Kate became a wellness guru — and Gabriel says: 'I think she saw her way to get that attention she'd always craved.' When the pandemic began in 2020, Gabriel was the last sibling living at the family home, with his father having moved back to Iran after separating from Kate six years earlier. But he moved out, preferring to 'sofa surf' over being locked down with his mother — and he says he 'wasn't surprised' when her extreme views made headlines. During a protest in London's Trafalgar Square in 2021, Kate asked for the names of doctors and nurses to be sent to her, before warning: 'At the Nuremberg Trials, the doctors and nurses stood trial and they hung.' 7 Neither Gabriel nor his brother Sebastian were told about Paloma's funeral which took place in August last year Credit: Supplied 7 When Gabriel heard his twin sister Paloma had died, he could not believe it Credit: Supplied Gabriel thought his sister was free of his mum's influence — but that all changed when Paloma was told she had cancer in late December 2023 and went to live back at home. Fearing that his sister wasn't going to accept the cancer treatment recommended by the NHS, Gabriel went to visit her on Christmas Day. He says he argued with his mum, adding: 'I wasn't able to have any meaningful conversation with my sister because she was out of it. That was the last time I saw Paloma.' Blocked from visiting, Gabriel sent messages begging Paloma to try chemotherapy. He received no response, so he took the extraordinary measure of trying to take his mum to the High Court, arguing that his sister was being 'coerced' by her. 'I don't talk to her, I have no feelings for her' Gabriel also asked social services to investigate, but claims they only spoke to Paloma on the phone while her mum was in the room. He says: 'For four or five months, I was living in constant fear that I was gonna get that phone call from someone saying my sister had died.' Unknown to him, his sister's condition was deteriorating rapidly. After collapsing at her mother's home on July 19 last year, Paloma was flown by air ambulance to the Royal Sussex County Hospital. Osteopath Nick Gosset, who assessed Paloma that day, told the inquest she was 'a young lady who was in the last stages of a very difficult disease, and she had declined to engage with conventional treatment.' The doctor 'had never seen anything like' the amount of growths going from her right shoulder to her neck during his 43 years in medicine. Five days later Paloma's life support machine was shut off, she had a heart attack as a result of the cancer. It would be another six days before Gabriel learned his sister had died. I think people like my mum should be regulated like a doctor should be regulated. If you are making medical claims, health claims, you should be held to account. Gabriel on his mother Kate Neither he nor his brother Sebastian were told about the funeral which took place in August last year. Gabriel says: 'She was cremated without our knowledge.' Now he no longer wants to have anything to do with 'that woman.' Gabriel, who calls his mum by her real name Kay, says: 'We're complete strangers. I don't talk to her — I have no feelings for her.' Kate's version of events is very different to the medical practitioners who treated Paloma. She claims on her blog that her daughter 'did not die of cancer' and was instead the victim of medical negligence. Kate says that paramedics should not have given Paloma adrenaline. On her website, she accuses the coroner of attempting to 'harass' her and 'acting unlawfully.' The former nurse also says that 'viruses and their transmission was invented' and that 5G masts were responsible for Covid. She offers one-hour consultations and branded vitamins for £75 a bottle through her website. The inquest is set to resume next week and take three days to conclude. Whatever verdict the coroner gives, this battle is not over for Gabriel. He is on a mission to properly regulate the ever-growing alternative medicine industry. Gabriel wants to prevent others relying on unproven treatments and has spoken out on the BBC's Panorama documentary Cancer Conspiracy Theories. He says: 'I think people like my mum should be regulated like a doctor should be regulated. 'If you are making medical claims, health claims, you should be held to account.' The global wellness industry is valued at over £5trillion and the authorities are struggling to challenge the countless over-inflated claims being made for natural remedies. Vitamins and a healthier diet can help cancer patients, but there is no scientific basis for claims that they are alternatives to proven treatments such as chemotherapy. Gabriel wants the Online Safety Act — designed to prevent children accessing harmful material and adults seeing illegal content — to also be used to stop medical misinformation. He says: 'Harmful but legal is still allowed for adults. These laws around promotion of treatments for cancer need to be changed.' Until then, 'natural nurse' Kate will continue to try to influence vulnerable patients hoping for a miracle cure. 7 Anti-vaxxer Kate protesting outside Parliament during the pandemic Credit: Alamy
STV News
7 hours ago
- STV News
'Extreme' waits at A&E 'unacceptable and dangerous', say emergency doctors
The number of people facing 'extreme long waits' at Scottish A&E departments is 'unacceptable and dangerous', emergency doctors have said. Despite the number of people attending accident and emergency going down, the number of patients waiting 12 hours or more increased in June. According to Public Health Scotland (PHS), more than 13,300 (9.7%) patients in Scotland waited more than eight hours, and 5,354 people waited more than 12 hours (3.9%). Overall, 70.8% of Scots were seen within the four-hour target, compared to 71.8% the month before. These figures are above the 68.4% average for last year. 'Yes, we have been able to move some patients through our departments efficiently, but thousands of others – who are most likely to be the most unwell and with multiple and more complex needs – have been forced to endure longer stays,' said Dr Fiona Hunter, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine's vice president for Scotland. 'A fact that is unacceptable, and dangerous. 'We know that the crisis in A&E is something our communities are deeply worried about. Politicians should respond to those concerns now and address these issues. 'Otherwise, in a few short months, we will be staring down the barrel of another awful winter where patient safety will again be put at risk.' According to PHS, the proportion of people waiting at A&E for more than eight hours or more than 12 hours has increased since May. Scottish Labour health spokesperson Jackie Baillie agreed that 'lives are being put at risk by the constant crisis in A&E'. 'Patients are suffering dangerously long waits for urgent care and staff are exhausted from trying to paper over the cracks of SNP failure,' she said. Health secretary Neil Gray said Scotland's core A&E departments have consistently been the best-performing in the UK over the past decade. 'We are determined to drive improvements and remain in close contact with health boards to ensure they have the support they need to deal with the sustained pressure we are seeing,' he said. 'We are investing £200m to reduce waiting times, improve hospital flow, and minimise delayed discharges. Building on success already seen last year, we expect the additional funding committed to result in more than 300,000 appointments and procedures this year. 'To help relieve pressure on teams we will deliver direct access to specialist Frailty teams in every Emergency Department by summer 2025 and expand Hospital at Home to at least 2,000 beds by the end of 2026. These are just some of the measures we are undertaking to shift the balance of care from acute to community.' Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
