Banstead man cycles length of Britain in memory of his late wife
She also lived with arthritis, and helped the charity Versus Arthritis by reviewing research proposals.Sepsis, a condition in which the immune system reacts so violently to an infection it begins to damage its own body, is thought to be responsible for the deaths of five people an hour in the UK.
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The Independent
28 minutes ago
- The Independent
Deadly ‘sloth virus' detected in UK for first time as health watchdog issues urgent warning
A deadly malaria-like 'sloth virus' has been detected in Britain for the first time, triggering a warning from the UK 's health watchdog to those with symptoms to seek urgent medical help. 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
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
Patients warned not to turn to fake weight loss jabs after UK Mounjaro price hike
Medical experts have warned Britons not to turn to fake weight loss jabs after fears the Mounjaro price hike could make it unaffordable for people 'already struggling to pay for it'. The cost of the drug, dubbed the 'King Kong' of weight loss medicine, is set to triple in the UK after its US -owned company equalised costs in markets across the globe. A month's supply of the highest doses of the jab will rise from £122 to £330 - an increase of 170 per cent. Though this will not affect patients prescribed the jab on the NHS, it will affect thousands of people who are currently buying the medicine privately. Professor Claire Anderson, president of the Royal Pharmacist Society (RPS), said the price hike risks rendering the jabs out of reach for people already struggling to afford them. 'It's reassuring that NHS patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes will continue to access Mounjaro,' she told The Independent. 'However, rising private prescription costs may make Mounjaro unaffordable for people in deprived areas already struggling to pay for it.' She said the RPS urges anyone considering obtaining Mounjaro to do so only from a UK pharmacy that is registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council and with a valid prescription. She warned fakes could be harmful or non-effective and said: 'Counterfeit medicines from unregulated sources pose serious health risks—they can contain incorrect doses, harmful substances or no active ingredient at all.' She added that if patients If buying online, check the site displays the official green GPhC logo linking to the GPhC register. Professor Kamila Hawthorne, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, also urged patients to only use reputable outlets and to speak with their private provider if they are concerned about potential price increases to the drug. She said: 'If they are accessing medication through dubious online sources, or without a prescription, it can be a genuine threat to a patient's safety. In some cases, people may not be buying what they think they are, which is really dangerous.' Fake jabs for sale in the UK are already a huge concern, with thousands of fraudulent online pharmacies selling such products having been uncovered. Fake versions of Ozempic, another popular brand of weight loss jab, have been found being sold for as little as £13.70 per dose, along with counterfeit versions of other brands, including Rybelsus and Metformin pills, being offered from 24p. Researchers from Avast, a cybersecurity brand of the company Gen, who conducted the investigation, warned of the 'dangerous' threat of the global scam involving more than 5,000 fake pharmacy sites this year, which they say are being run by criminal networks. It comes amid the rapid rise of weight-loss medication in the UK – with around 1.5 million people, 4 per cent of households, currently using them. These weight-loss injections, also known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, work by mimicking the natural hormone which regulates blood sugar, appetite and digestion. In June, the NHS offered Mounjaro to obese patients with a BMI of over 40 and at least four clinical conditions related to their weight, such as heart disease or type 2 diabetes. Over the next three years, about 240,000 patients are expected to be eligible for the treatment. Mounjaro's owner Eli Lily said it would not raise the price paid by the NHS, and it was working with private healthcare providers to maintain access to the jab. The move reflects how the pharmaceutical industry is navigating policy changes in the US, by far its most lucrative market.
Times
5 hours ago
- Times
England's first ‘inland bathing water' could lose status after poor ratings
At Becky Malby's home in one of Britain's prettiest towns, powerful figures in the water industry and politicians met four years ago to talk about the country's first official swimming river. Held in the campaigner's garden in the market town of Ilkley, West Yorkshire, Jonson Cox, the Ofwat chair, Liz Barber, Yorkshire Water chief executive, the local Tory MP Robbie Moore and officials had to observe the pandemic's two-metre social distancing rules. Instead of a PowerPoint presentation, they gathered around enormous, data-laden boards showing the state of the River Wharfe. Just six months earlier there had been jubilation when a section of it at Ilkley was designated England's first inland bathing water. The problem, Malby explained to her guests, was that the status hadn't galvanised action to make the river reliably safe to swim in. 'We were just struggling to get anybody to pay attention to the fact that this level of pollution was happening in the river and no one was taking responsibility for it,' she said. The meeting appeared to be a turning point. In a letter to the campaigner afterwards, Cox wrote of the garden chat: 'It was encouraging that all parties want to make this a success'. Everyone present, he said, by 'common acceptance' saw the bathing water at Ilkley 'as an opportunity to act pragmatically'. Barber could not have given Malby a 'higher assurance' that she was going to act, he said. However, four years later there remains a warning sign up near the pebbled edge of the bathing water. Like every year since 2021, it reads: 'Bathing is not advised'. For four years in a row, the spot has been rated poor by the Environment Agency — below sufficient, good and excellent — meaning swimmers risk illness from bacteria. Initial samples taken this summer suggest it will be classed as poor again in 2025. If it wasn't for Labour changing the rules, the river would almost certainly lose its bathing water status this November when 2025's classification is published. Poor water for five years running used to mean automatic de-designation, but decisions will now be made on a case-by-case basis. What went wrong for this flagship plan? Can the Wharfe still prove a pioneering model other communities can copy, or is it just a costly mistake that may never make the river safe for swimming? Bathing water status has been around for decades for hundreds of beaches. It is no guarantee a site is safe to swim, but ensures regular testing for E. coli and intestinal enterococci, which could make a swimmer sick. The idea of an inland bathing water was new when Malby and locals publicly launched a campaign for one at the Wharfe in 2018. The spot she had in mind, known as Cromwheel at Ilkley, seemed perfect. 'It's much like you'd expect a beautiful British river. It's a fast-flowing wide river. It ebbs and flows a lot, it's peaty, so the water's always a little bit smooth to feel. We get hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people here in the holidays. They all bring their picnics from all walks of life, from all cultures and backgrounds, all race, creed and colour. You see a lot of people in the river,' she said. So why bother making it a bathing water? 'It was the only way you could hold the water companies and the regulators to account for the fact that there's loads of shit in the rivers,' said the 61-year old, who swims in the Wharfe several times a week. So many academics are now testing the river, she calls it an 'innovation lab' that will give people elsewhere in the country an idea of how much it might cost to 'fix' their waterway. For Yorkshire Water, that cost looks to eventually be a total of £60 million. Around £55 million will have been spent by next April, on curbing sewage spills from outfalls and treating sewage using an aerated bed of rushes and wetland. Adam Ashman, head of strategic planning at the firm, said of Ilkley's designation: 'It's been a good thing in terms of creating a debate and it's obviously led to lots of bathing waters [on other rivers].' But some insiders question whether it's the best place to spend the money. 'All the funding that has been going into Ilkley would have been much better spent in areas that really needed it, where the population don't have the economic and educational advantages of knowing how to get things done,' one staffer at Yorkshire Water said. Alan Smith, who used to work for Yorkshire Water and now runs the Water People consultancy, argued the investment was misguided. 'Political PR over science is costly. We all want cleaner rivers but not where the hapless billpayer shoulders the burden for over-zealous, well-connected lobbying,' he said. The average Yorkshire Water bill is expected to rise 41 per cent to £607 by 2030. Jo Bradley, a former EA official who leads the charity Stormwater Shepherds, said she feared river bathing waters were skewing investment. 'It's a bit of a mess. Yorkshire Water is spending millions dealing with storm overflows [relief valves that spill sewage] to try and make it [the Wharfe] swimmable. They will never make it sterile so that it's safe to swim in. There's a bloody Lido in Ilkley. Swim in the bloody Lido,' she said. Malby, who is a visiting professor at the University of York, rejected the accusation that the bathing water was elitist. She said 'masses of people who cannot afford to use public swimming pools,' including many from Bradford, used the Ilkley swimming spot. Private septic tanks, campsites and fish farms are among the reasons for Ilkley's poor status, but sewage and agricultural pollution are the two big ones. When it is dry there are similar levels of bacteria from humans as there are from cows and sheep upstream in the catchment, the EA has said. But following rainfall, the contribution from livestock is much more significant than from people, keeping bacteria levels high in the river for 48 hours after it rains. There are some indicators that farming is the bigger polluter. DNA analysis of 42 water samples taken at the bathing water found 66 per cent of one type of bacteria were from ruminants, and 34 per cent from humans, an unpublished EA study seen by The Times shows. However, the report said the comparison remains uncertain. Some groups, such as the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust, have been working with farmers and landowners in the upper Wharfe to curb run-off from fields. The EA said it continues 'to work closely with local farmers and groups on slurry and manure management'. But it's clear farming's role in the poor bathing water has not seen the sort of the spotlight directed at Yorkshire Water. Since the Wharfe's splash in 2020, dozens of rivers have been designated. More are expected to follow after applications for new ones were reopened in May. The Times' Clean it Up campaign has urged a big expansion of them, while the government said it will cut pollution with its upcoming reforms. Yorkshire Water's anti-pollution efforts at Ilkley ramp up next year. Ashman expects the benefits to be felt there when the bathing season starts in May 2026. However, he fears the background level of agricultural pollution could be enough to 'keep it at poor'. Malby admits farming pressures means the Ilkley bathing water is unlikely to ever be rated good, but she is confident it can get to sufficient. 'When we started this, we were told by the EA it would be 30 years before we could get anything done,' she said. 'It won't be 30 years, it'll be ten years, which is still ridiculous. I can't believe it's ten years. But we should see an impact.'
