Deadly ‘sloth virus' detected in UK for first time as health watchdog issues urgent warning
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) data has revealed there were three cases of Oropouche virus reported in Britain between January and June this year.
The tropical disease is usually found in South America and can cause fevers, headaches, pain behind the eyes, and in rare instances lead to meningitis and death, the watchdog warned.
'If a person becomes unwell with symptoms such as high fever, chills, headache, joint pain and muscle aches following travel to affected areas, they should seek urgent medical advice,' the UKHSA warned.
All three cases were people who had returned to the UK after travelling abroad to Brazil after a surge of virus infections across the region.
The lesser-known infection is spread through bites from small midges and some mosquitos, and can also be transmitted through sexual activity.
It is also feared the disease can be spread from mothers to babies during pregnancy, which can cause congenital or developmental abnormalities, according to the watchdog.
Symptoms usually show up four to eight days after being bitten and can last up to a week, but in nearly two thirds of cases they can return days or weeks later.
The onset of the illness is sudden and can include joint pain, muscle aches, dizziness, rashes, nausea and vomiting, chills and sensitivity to light.
The first ever deaths linked to the virus were reported in Brazil in July 2024, where two people died from the disease.
There is no cure, but there are preventative measures travellers can take like wearing long-sleeved clothing and using insect repellent to ward off midges.
These insect repellents need to be 50 per cent DEET—the active ingredient which repels pests like midges and mosquitos.
Other measures include staying in places with air conditioning or window screens with fine mesh to keep out midges and using insecticide-treated fine mesh bed nets.
So far this year, globally, there have been over 12,000 confirmed cases of the virus, with the majority (11,888) in Brazil.
The disease was first discovered in the 1950s in Trinidad and Tobago, and is endemic to the Amazon region according to the UKHSA.
Since then, it has been found in countries across Central and South America, including Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, and Panama.
In 2024 a number of outbreaks occurred in these countries, as well as in Cuba and Barbados. In 2025, cases were identified in Venezuela for the first time.
Signs and symptoms of Oropouche virus disease
fever
headache
joint pain
muscle aches
chills
nausea and vomiting
rash
sensitivity to light
dizziness
pain behind the eyes
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The Sun
18 minutes ago
- The Sun
The eight foods that will keep you cool this summer including surprising hot drink and spicy dish
WITH temperatures soaring across the UK, Tesco has reported a surge of thirsty customers buying hydrating fruit. The supermarket chain has reported a ten per cent increase in sales of berries, melons, grapes and other varieties as people scoff healthy snacks to help them cool off in the sun. 7 7 But some of the best food and drinks for warm weather sustenance might surprise you. Here, Laura Stott reveals the perfect menu to eat in the heat. CURRY: Tucking into a spicy vindaloo can provide perfect nourishment in warm weather. Many popular Asian dishes contain coconut milk, which aids electrolyte balance. Ingredients such as turmeric and ginger boost circulation, helping you cool. Coriander helps with heat tolerance, while chili fires up our cooling mechanisms. CUP OF TEA: A hot brew when it's boiling can be surprisingly refreshing and helps to keep you hydrated. University of Cambridge boffins proved that – whether it's builders', Earl Grey or green tea – when a drink is warmer than the body, it activates heat receptors on your tongue which tell the body to sweat, cooling you. ONIONS: Eating an onion has many heat-busting benefits. Cooked or raw, the root veggies contain sulphur compounds that encourage perspiration to help lower your body temperature. They are also packed full of a cooling flavonoid called quercetin, which helps the body absorb hot-weather stresses. And circulation- boosting benefits lower body temperature further. Each hydrating allium also consists of around 90 per cent water. STEW: A hearty stew might sound like it belongs on a winter menu. But whether you simmer meat, chicken or veggies, the fluids in your pot are great for hydration levels. Seasonings like salt are ideal for balancing electrolyte levels, and mixed vegetables provide vital hot weather handy minerals such as magnesium and potassium. To give it a summer twist, opt for a lighter stew with a broth base. 7 TOMATO SOUP: A bowl of soup might make you feel warmer initially – but sweating means your body will quickly begin to cool down. Any variety will boost your hydration, but this classic soup is a superb summer pick as tomatoes are 94 per cent water. They are also high in antioxidant lycopene, which can help protect your skin from the sun. You can even enjoy it chilled, as a Spanish-style gazpacho. PINEAPPLE: This tropical treat is packed with powerful anti-inflammatory bromelain, known to help the body combat the effects of heat and inflammation. It's also handy for aiding digestion, if the warm weather has upset your tum. With 86 per cent water, pineapple keeps you hydrated and will regulate your body temperature, too. Scoff in chilled slices or add to smoothies. MINT: Fresh mint contains menthol, which activates cold receptors in the mouth to help you cool naturally – as well as tasting refreshing. Plant a pot of peppermint or spearmint on the windowsill for garnishes or add a dried sprinkle from the freezer to dishes. It can also help with heat-induced headaches. ICE CREAM: Perhaps not the most nutritious warm-weather food but licking a cone on a scorching day will still help cool you down temporarily as the frozen treat hits your tongue. For longer- lasting benefits, a lighter fruit sorbet or lolly from the freezer will replenish more fluids. But both should raise a smile while it's scorching. 7
Times
34 minutes ago
- Times
Mariella Frostrup on menopause: A man I met was repulsed
It's a cloudy afternoon in Somerset, where — just a few miles from Bruton, dubbed by this paper no less 'the UK's Montecito' — I'm sitting at a long wooden table in an extremely tasteful kitchen surrounded by lush garden, tucking in to a turmeric cauliflower, chickpea and spinach lunch pot prepared by my hostess, the broadcaster, author, campaigner and journalist Mariella Frostrup. Beside me is Belles Berry, until now best known as daughter of the former Bake Off queen, Dame Mary Berry. 'Is it good?' Frostrup asks in her unmistakable drawl, once voted the sexiest on telly. 'Yeah,' says Berry. 'Good! I always get nervous when Belles is eating my version. Normally I can get the taste right, but my presentation lacks finesse.' The recipe is from the cookbook the women have co-authored, a first for both — Menolicious: Eat Your Way to a Better Menopause. For Frostrup, 62, it's another part in her decade-long campaign to destigmatise the menopause. For cordon bleu-trained Berry, 53, it's the first step in a post-menopausal attempt to establish herself as a cookery writer in her own right, after a lifetime being known as Mary's daughter. 'I was always waiting till Mum retired to write my first book. That didn't happen,' she says. 'Two years ago, I asked her, 'So when are you going to retire?' She basically said, 'Never, while the BBC still wants me.' I thought, 'I'd better get on with it.' She's 90. I've wasted a lot of time.' More on Berry, who is a taller version of her mother, later. First it's time to talk menopause, about which Frostrup has been the nation's chief flag-waver for a decade, chairing the Menopause Matters campaign and being made, as of last year, the government ambassador for menopause employment. It's the latest, somewhat unlikely metamorphosis in a 40 year-plus career that began when she arrived in London from Dublin aged 16, reeling from the death of her father, an alcoholic Norwegian journalist, and unable to stay with her Scottish mother and her abusive partner, to live in a squat in Shepherds Bush. • Menolicious: six easy recipes that boost your health in the menopause She worked as a music manager, and was a PR for Live Aid. Since then, she's variously hosted — among others — The Film Programme and the Sky Arts books show, and judged the Booker and Orange prizes. All the while, gossip columns buzzed about her friendships with Mick Jagger and George Clooney. In 2003, she married the human rights lawyer Jason McCue, who's 56. Molly, now 19, and Dan, 18, were born in quick succession and the family left their Notting Hill home for the countryside. Her campaigning zeal was sparked aged 48 after she suddenly began experiencing terrible, unexplained insomnia and anxiety. Her GP was unhelpful. Eventually — 'When I'd really fallen apart' — she saw a private gynaecologist, who immediately pronounced her perimenopausal and prescribed HRT. Frostrup was horrified. 'I was full of the injustice of it. Actually, it was more than that — it was incredulity. I couldn't believe millions of women — 13 million women in the UK — were going through menopause and how ignorant we were about it. How we've suffered in private and been gaslit into just putting up with it. It's crazy: this is something that's going to happen to every single one of us, yet the medical profession isn't geared up for it. It felt like the world's biggest conspiracy — the silencing of half the population when they hit a certain point and most need support.' • The app for GPs promising to revolutionise menopause care Frostrup was on a mission, yet many didn't want to know. 'I was at a dinner party and started talking to the man next to me about it. You could see in his eyes he was repulsed. He turned his back on me. It certainly wasn't the Mariella Frostrup he'd been expecting — he wanted someone drinking neat whisky, maybe smoking a cigar and talking about hanging out with Mick Jagger. More importantly, his wife, who was my age, was like, 'Eurgh!' ' Over to Berry, about whom we know so much less. She grew up in Buckinghamshire with her two older brothers. Their father, Paul Hunnings, worked for Harvey's of Bristol, the sherry brand, and dealt antique books. Far from the phenomenon she would become, Mary was the food editor of Housewife and Ideal Home magazines. Mary Berry once admitted she used occasionally to slap her children with a wooden spoon. 'She would chase us with butter pats. We all were naughty. Once we were all rusticated [sent home] from school at the same time. Mum was filming in a big BBC tent and didn't know what to do with us. We had an absolute ball.' Berry was sent to an all-girls boarding school where she was miserable and acted up. 'I wanted to be with my brothers at Gordonstoun and I wasn't allowed because I was a lady.' But Gordonstoun is co-ed. 'I know,' she shrugs. 'But that was my parents. Anyway, I ended up being asked to leave a few schools.' The last time she was asked, she was 15 and hadn't yet taken GCSEs. 'Which I think is illegal,' she says, laughing. 'But Mum only has one O-level in home economics.' After a stint in 'a survival school for rebels' in Montana, she took her cordon bleu course, then went to secretarial college. She was a student there, aged 17, when she and her brother William, then 19 and at Bristol Polytechnic, climbed into their parents' car one morning to go to buy the Sunday papers, with William at the wheel. 'The car flipped and we skidded down a hill in an open-top MG on our heads. I blacked out. When I came round, the car was the right side up and the ambulance and fire brigade people got me out.' William died. She received no counselling. 'I was left in a room in the hospital, with a cup of tea, which I poured all over myself. You just had to battle it out by yourself, which is a dangerous place for a teenager — you're very alone. I went back to college the next day in shock. It was a brutal time.' Mary subsequently became a patron of Child Bereavement UK. Did Berry feel survivor's guilt? 'No, because I wasn't driving. But your life's never the same after that. What it did give me, however, was an incredible lust for life. Once you've had a near-death experience, you realise how precious life is. So I really have been going for it ever since.' Still, for a while she was 'lost'. She tried various jobs including interning at Vogue, until she mislaid some photographs of the royal family after biking them to the wrong address. 'I couldn't remember the name of the courier and there were no negatives. They told me I'd lost them £3 million.' She then found work through an employment agency but ended up being fired from five jobs in five days. Her 'beacon of light' came at 21 when she won a grant from the Prince's Trust (now the King's Trust) to start a company making candles. She went on to establish Mary Berry & Daughter selling her mother's dressings and sauces and building the brand. Mary hit the big time aged 75, when she got the Bake Off gig. 'That was pretty weird and wonderful.' The company was subsequently sold in 2014 for £2.5 million. 'Mum and I are two peas in a pod; we respect each other. I don't know who's more excited about my book — her or me. She loves my recipes.' Mother and daughter live six miles from each other in Oxfordshire, where the senior Berrys downsized just before Covid. Berry has three children, aged 20, 19 and 14, with her builder husband Dan Bosher, whose business collapsed eight years ago. So she's the breadwinner? 'Yes, and I've worked very, very hard for it. Now this is a new chapter. I always knew I had to do something on my own and now I'm going for it. I've got nothing to lose.' When Berry had her first hot flush at nearly 51, she became very socially anxious — 'and I absolutely love going to parties'. She remembered how her mother had been affected at the same age. 'I don't think Mum noticed at first, but her accountant said, 'I'm not coming back to work until you get HRT.' So Mum got the patches and loved them — and the accountant came back. I remember seeing the patches — I just thought she had lots of stickers on her. Anyway, I went straight to the doctor and got HRT.' Berry searched for a cookbook featuring ingredients to help her with the physical and psychological changes she was undergoing, but couldn't find anything. Then two years ago, she was introduced to Frostrup and asked her if she'd like to collaborate. 'I'd always wanted to do a menopause cookbook,' Frostrup says. 'In fact, I'd been begging Yotam [Ottolenghi] to do one and he was like, 'Yeah, we'll do it together,' and it never… It was infuriating. There were a couple out there but they were very lavender, all misty and gentle adzuki beans. We had a vision of what we wanted this to be, which was easy and fun and reflected women's lives at this point.' They've succeeded — the book's packed with straightforward, delicious-sounding recipes, including the cauliflower we've just eaten, along with Frostrup's very tasty 'guilt-free' porridge bread made with yoghurt and no flour, not to mention their women's energy balls. ('In the photograph they look like testicles,' Frostrup says, not wrongly.) I'm not sure the book needs its menopause tag, since the recipes appeal to everyone. Frostrup grins. 'Jason cooked the coconut black bean chicken stew from the book and said, 'I'm not going to catch the menopause from this, am I?' So I'd say levels of understanding need a bit of work in this house.' It's hard to imagine now, but before Frostrup (along with the likes of Davina McCall) began banging the drum, menopause was a taboo subject. I'd never have dreamt of bringing up the subject in an interview, yet now virtually every 40-plus woman I meet falls over herself with tales of diminishing oestrogen. At least, most do. When I recently interviewed the Britain's Got Talent judge Amanda Holden, 54, who was promoting a supplement that's marketed (among others) at menopausal women, she shut down my questions. 'Move on. I'm not one of those women. I just don't talk about it. Seriously. It's just not… no!' Frostrup frowns. 'Not to talk about [Holden] at all, but to me that just screams of fear of ageing and the assumptions that come with it. But the whole menopause awareness thing is a kind of emperor's new clothes. Menopause has become a word that's bandied around everywhere among the chattering classes, but more widely there's still incredible stigma attached to it. The health service is still not up to speed.' All the same, Frostrup's made some tangible differences. Largely thanks to her campaigning, for example, HRT is now available with a prepayment certificate that costs £19.80 for a year's supply (roughly the price of two prescriptions, when many women actually need significantly more). 'It's nice to feel you've effected change. But it certainly comes at a price. I'm a good example of why some women are afraid to own menopause. I do it because I've always been gobby — if something seems wrong, I have to speak up. But it makes people think all you're about is menopause and you couldn't possibly do anything else. I know that from the calls I get from my agent. When I suggest I could do something else apart from menopause now, there's a rebuff: 'Oh, but you must be so busy campaigning.' ' Frostrup's equally ambivalent about being seen as a cheerleader for the middle-aged women (such as Holden, not to mention Claudia Winkleman, Gabby Logan, Cat Deeley and so on) who increasingly dominate our prime time. • Read more expert advice on healthy living, fitness and wellbeing 'I'm very conscious the glam ones float to the top… I'm sure that's been the case for me as well,' she shrugs. In fact, she's wary about bigging up midlife. 'I found turning 60 particularly hard, because you couldn't even pretend you were middle-aged any more. It's going into twilight. I'm not old yet, but I feel older. Things ache. Glastonbury takes a week of recovery, rather than a day. Even in my fifties, there were waypoints when you thought, 'Oh, OK.' I used to get discounts from fabulous places because I was on television; by 54 I don't think any of them were in place any more. I used to get my hair done at John Frieda — suddenly, boof, gone. Prada was the last to go. You think, 'OK, once you thought of me as an ambassador. Now you think of me as an embarrassment.' 'There's so much more you've got to push against. I'm not as energetic as I was, and it feels like a lot to keep on and not just go quiet and work on my dahlias. But I can't envisage that. At 90, I aspire to be Mary Berry. Still working.' Just keep munching on those cauliflower pots. Eat Your Way to a Better Menopause by Mariella Frostrup and Belles Berry is published on August 28 (DK Red, £22). Buy from or call 020 3176 2935. Free UK P&P on online orders over £25. Discount available for Times+ members
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Facing past trauma and ADHD after becoming homeless
Stephanie and Rob have never met but have several things in common - both have lived through trauma, are neurodivergent and have experienced suggests 94% of people facing homelessness have experienced one or more traits are over-represented in homeless people, according to separate Williams, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and is being tested for autism, became homeless in December following a suicide attempt and the breakdown of her marriage. "It can happen to just anybody, a lot of us are actually only three pay checks away from being homeless ourselves... especially if you haven't got savings behind you," she said. Experts have said neurodivergent people appear to have a higher risk of becoming homeless as they may have fewer friends and family they can turn to for support and find it hard to stay on top of the things they need to to keep their housing, such as bill-paying and said through her life she had struggled to maintain relationships. "I've lost quite a lot of people through them not understanding how I've meant something or if they've said something I've taken it very, very literally," she added. "When you've got autism or ADHD, a lot of the time you're looking at how other people are in a situation, you're mimicking but it creates this massive distance between you because you're trying to fit into something that you're really not understanding what it is that you're trying to fit into." She said she had never understood how other people were able to make friends and maintain friendships. Initially after moving out of the home she had rented with her wife she was able to stay on a friend's a few weeks she contacted Citizen's Advice and was moved into a hotel that was being used to house others experiencing now has a permanent home in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, is a Scout leader, volunteers with homelessness charity The Wallich and plans to start her training to become a support worker next was only recently diagnosed with ADHD and is on medication for that, she still sees a psychiatrist and is about to start psychodynamic therapy, to explore traumas she has faced in her life, including being "outed" as gay when she was growing up. Rob Thomas is a private practice clinical psychotherapist and counsellor in Swansea, who works with people experiencing homelessness. He experienced homelessness himself in his 20s, which he believes was in part down to living with childhood trauma and undiagnosed ADHD. Rob was born with a heart condition and spent long periods of time away from his family while being treated in hospital."What I realise now is that I was taken away from my family and what that embedded in me was a sense of it's just me, I'm on my own with this, so then asking for help became impossible," he began unravelling after he finished his degree in biomedical science in Preston - and he found he could not ask for help. "My landlord wasn't happy with me because I wasn't maintaining the property to his satisfaction... I hadn't paid council tax, I hadn't been paying my electricity," he said. Missed appointments at the Job Centre meant his benefits were stopped. "Someone who is neurotypical would encounter a problem and they'd go 'all right I'll make that phone call to the electricity company and sort that out' but the level of anxiety that I would experience would be overwhelming, the idea of making that phone call I'd be getting sweats, I'd go into panic, I'd have problems sleeping," he said. "I would not respond to letters. I wouldn't answer the phone."Rob said he found himself with nowhere to go and was forced to sleep rough, often in bus stops. "You're sleeping for like an hour, two hours, and then you're awake again. You're constantly on guard - who's going to come asking for money? Who's going to try taking shoes?," he said. After being on the streets for a few weeks his friend's mother took him in."She basically dragged me by the scruff of the neck, kicking and screaming to her house," recalled Rob. He stayed for several months before moving back to his parents' in took many years but he eventually returned to education and became a support worker for The Wallich before becoming a psychotherapist. But even 30 years on from losing a grip on his bills he gets a rush of panic when his phone rings."Everybody's expected to be the same but neurodiverse people are just people who think differently," he added systems were only set up with neurotypical people in mind. "If you don't fill out the form the system doesn't ask you 'why didn't you fill out the form? Is there anything we can help with?' It's 'you didn't fill out the form, you have your money stopped' or 'you didn't fill out the form so we're not giving you any more appointments'." Sean Stillman, who founded Zac's Place that provides support to the homeless in Swansea, said people often make assumptions about people who are homeless but almost everyone his project supports has experienced trauma."When you truly try and engage with somebody's story, you start to lift the lid, you discover that there are often multiple traumas," he said. "You might think someone has ended up sleeping rough or they're homeless because they've got an addiction but then if you ask the question why you discover there's so many layers, there might be broken relationships, issues of abuse, you might find that they've fallen out of the care system but once you get caught in a destructive pattern which involves sleeping rough, your health and mental health can quickly deteriorate, and all of a sudden you end up being somebody quite different."Anthony Vaughan is a trauma-informed specialist at The Wallich, which runs an in-house counselling service, the Reflections said the people they work with who have not dealt with their trauma found it harder to move out of homelessness. "We know that people don't have 'something' wrong with them - they are people who've had 'something happen to them'," he said."They are survivors of trauma."
