Latest news with #EuronewsHealth
Euronews
15 hours ago
- Health
- Euronews
Hospitals try to waste less laughing gas in bid to curb climate impact
An Irish hospital is trying to prevent unused laughing gas from escaping into the atmosphere, in a bid to curb waste and go green in healthcare. Nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, has long been used to relieve pain and relax patients ahead of surgery – but outdated hospital infrastructure means much of the anaesthetic gas is actually wasted and released into the atmosphere, where it remains for around 120 years. That's prompted concerns among health experts across Europe, who say leaks and other efficiency problems are worsening the environmental impact of a sector that is already among the heaviest polluters worldwide. This is 'the most important issue for us to look at by quite some distance,' Dr Paul Southall, sustainability lead for the UK's Royal College of Anaesthetists, told Euronews Health. Now, St John's Hospital in Limerick has become one of the first hospitals in Ireland to stop using nitrous oxide as an anaesthetic on a large scale after deactivating the extensive network of pipes that fed the gas directly to the hospital's operating rooms. 'Nitrous oxide is safe to use, but the infrastructure used to deliver it inevitably results in waste,' said Dr Hugh O'Callaghan, a consultant anaesthetist involved with the St John's project. In a statement, he added that modern methods to deliver anaesthesia are making laughing gas increasingly 'obsolete'. St John's will now rely on mobile equipment to bring anaesthetic cylinders directly into the operating room, according to Ireland's health services agency. Other Irish hospitals in the region are expected to follow suit in the coming months as part of a plan to reduce carbon emissions from anaesthetic gases by 50 per cent by 2030, the agency said. Other European hospitals are also phasing out piped-in methods of delivering laughing gas, including those in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. In the UK, for example, two hospitals replaced their large centralised nitrous oxide containers with small portable cylinders that could be wheeled into the operating room. This led to a 55 per cent reduction in monthly nitrous oxide emissions, from 333 tonnes to 150 tonnes, according to the National Health Service (NHS) in England. 'It's not about restricting clinical use, it's about creating a less wasteful system,' said Dr Cliff Shelton, a UK-based anaesthetist, professor, and co-chair of the safety, standards, and environmental sustainability committee at the Association of Anaesthetists, a professional group focused on the UK and Ireland. Last year, the group said UK and Irish hospitals should decommission their nitrous oxide pipelines 'as soon as possible,' ideally by 2027. In recent years, the health trust in Manchester, where Shelton works, has switched to a mobile-canister approach for nitrous oxide that he said has reduced the organisation's overall carbon footprint by about three per cent to five per cent. 'We've made it cheaper and greener, and people are still getting the same [anaesthetic] care they always got,' he told Euronews Health. These efforts are part of a broader reckoning among medical workers about how their field is exacerbating climate change, which is linked to a host of health issues, such as asthma, stroke, and mosquito-borne diseases. Globally, the health sector causes 4.4 per cent of net emissions, with the European Union contributing 248 million metric tons of carbon dioxide – behind only the United States and China, according to a 2019 report from the advocacy group Health Care Without Harm. When used as anaesthesia, laughing gas adds an additional one per cent to the EU health sector's carbon footprint, the group found. Other commonly used anaesthetic gases, such as sevoflurane, isoflurane, and desflurane, also contribute. But the vast majority of the health sector's carbon emissions are related to its supply chain – the production, transport, use, and disposal of medicines, medical kits, and other resources. That means minimising waste of nitrous oxide and other gas-based anaesthetics won't be enough for hospitals to offset their climate impact. Even so, sustainability-minded doctors believe it is a good start. 'When we looked into this, we found we were buying 100 times more nitrous oxide than we were actually using,' Shelton said. 'It's a moral imperative, really, to get on top of that [degree of waste],' he added. Organ transplantation, which is often the only way to save a life, is directly dependent on donors. But their sometimes unreliable availability often leads to patients dying before receiving a donated organ. There are two types of organ donations: from a living donor and cadaveric transplants. While options for a living donor are generally restricted to just the kidney and liver, in Kazakhstan it tends to save more lives than a posthumous donation. "Around the world, 80-90% of donations are posthumous, but the same cannot be said about Kazakhstan and the countries in Central Asia. In our country, 80-90% of donors are living relatives of the patients," said Aidar Sitkazinov, Director of the Republican Centre for Coordination of Transplantation and High-Tech Services in Kazakhstan. According to him, the reason many people refuse to donate their organs after death is a lack of trust in the healthcare system. The belief that corruption is everywhere makes them fear that donated organs will be misused or illegally sold, or that doctors will not treat the patients to get to their organs. Sitkazinov notes that selling organs is punishable by law in Kazakhstan. At the same time, dozens of people and several organisations are involved in the procedure for organ transplantation, and hospitals do not benefit monetarily or otherwise if a patient becomes a donor after death. Still, he understands that scandals surrounding organ transplantation often deter people from signing the donation form. Last year alone, there were 15 cases where people attempted to sell donated organs. Religion also plays a role. Many believe Islam or Orthodox Christianity - the two main religions in Central Asia - do not allow posthumous donation. Religious authorities in Kazakhstan all support posthumous donation as a charitable act, but that still has not swayed many people. The religious question is not unique to Kazakhstan or Central Asia. Studies have shown that a reluctance to donate organs after death is a long-standing trend in Islamic countries where living donations prevail. In contrast, in Europe organ donation after death is an established practice, covering up to 50% of the need for organs. Unlike in other parts of the world, Europe also uses organs of donors who died due to heart failure. As of May 2025, 4,226 people in Kazakhstan are on the waiting list for some kind of organ donation, 128 of whom are children. Of the total number of patients, 3,828 are waiting for a kidney, but in the worst case scenario that a donor is not found, those patients also have the option of haemodialysis, which can keep them alive for between 10 and 15 years. "Not everyone who needs an organ transplant is on this list. This category has no other alternative, only an organ transplant can save their lives," highlighted the director of the transplantation coordination body. According to him, on average 300 people die because there simply are not enough organ donors. "I'll give you a simple example – in 2024, we had 86 deceased donors who were diagnosed with brain death. All relatives were approached and only 10 families gave their consent," said Sitkazinov, noting that one deceased person can save seven lives. Kazakhstan has an opt-in consent system, where each citizen has to officially agree to donate their organs after death. However, even if the person gives consent, their relatives must also agree. This system came into place in 2020, after several lawsuits from the relatives of deceased persons, who were outraged that organs were extracted without their consent. In 2024, there were 260 transplantations, of which 237 were from a living donor. "The main problem is refusal of relatives. We also have a very low expression of will. As of January 2025, with an adult population of 11 million, 115,000 people have expressed their will to opt out, and only 8,000 opted in," noted Sitkazinov. All Central Asian countries share similar problems when it comes to posthumous donation; lack of trust in the system and misconceptions about the donations themselves. Until public awareness increases and systems prove to be more transparent and secure the number of organ donations from deceased people is unlikely to grow significantly.
Euronews
4 days ago
- Health
- Euronews
Data-sharing gives rare disease patients another chance at diagnosis
Arne Cavents was four years old when he was misdiagnosed. Growing up in a small city in Belgium, Cavents knew he was different from other children. He'd had surgery to correct his inward-turning legs, and had difficulty tying his shoes and riding a bicycle. Due to his symptoms, he was believed to have Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT), a progressive hereditary condition that causes muscle weakness in the feet, ankles, legs, and hands. His mother, sister, and grandmother suffered the same issues. It wasn't until 2017, when Cavents and his wife started thinking about having children, that he decided to get genetic testing to confirm the diagnosis. But five years and three hospital visits later, the tests had only ruled out CMT – until he received a call in 2022 from a doctor in Antwerp who had detected an unusual mutation in one of his genes. Cavents was eventually diagnosed with distal myopathy with early childhood onset, a rare condition that, like CMT, causes weakness in the feet. His doctor estimates it affects one in one million people. 'Finally, we know what is going on,' Cavents, a 32-year-old health insurance agent, told Euronews Health. He said the diagnosis was 'a great relief' after years of 'uncertainty, sadness, hope, [and] disappointment'. Cavents is one of hundreds of patients with previously unknown genetic conditions who got answers as a result of a European programme to give them a second chance at diagnosis. By definition, these conditions affect fewer than five people per 10,000, and about 80 per cent have genetic origins. On average, patients wait 4.7 years before they are diagnosed, with younger people facing longer delays that can make it harder to find the right treatment, according to a 2022 survey of more than 10,000 rare disease patients across Europe. Diagnosis 'is really the first step,' Roseline Favresse, head of research policy and initiatives at the advocacy group European Organisation for Rare Diseases, told Euronews Health. As part of a study published in the journal Nature Medicine this year, researchers from 37 medical centres across Europe pooled their data and reexamined the records of about 6,500 rare disease patients who did not have a genetic confirmation of their diagnosis, as well as 3,200 relatives. This data-sharing partnership, known as Solve-RD, allowed researchers to analyse more recent studies on gene mutations, use cutting-edge technology to identify potential variants, and consult experts in other countries – a key component because these conditions are so rare that many diagnosticians lack expertise in any one particular disease. 'By having novel software tools to mine the data, with existing data you can make a new genetic diagnosis,' said Richarda de Voer, an associate professor of cancer genomics at Radboud University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, who worked with Solve-RD to diagnose rare hereditary cancers. As part of the Solve-RD programme, more than 500 people were diagnosed with rare neurological disorders, severe intellectual disabilities, muscle diseases, hereditary gastrointestinal cancer, and other conditions. For about 15 per cent of them, diagnosis led directly to new treatment options or other medical support. For the rest, it offered clarity and hope that new treatments could become available in the future. 'These disorders are rare, they are genetic, and in the past, we would say they are not curable,' Dr Jonathan De Winter, a rare disease researcher at the University of Antwerp and Cavents' doctor, told Euronews Health. 'But that's really changing in the past years,' he added. For Cavents, his diagnosis opened the door to fatherhood after years spent worrying he could pass his condition on to his children. He and his wife will now have the option to monitor for the genetic variant through prenatal diagnostics or during in vitro fertilisation (IVF), in which embryos would be tested for the mutation before being implanted into his wife's uterus. Despite the lack of treatment options for Cavents at present, his diagnosis has been so life-changing that he and his wife sometimes joke about naming their future child after De Winter. 'It's been a long road. In the end, it is a positive outcome for me,' he said. The Solve-RD programme ended in 2024, but its early findings are central to a new international project that aims to improve prevention, diagnosis, and treatment for Europe's 30 million rare disease patients. Through the new project, known as the European Rare Disease Research Alliance (ERDERA), researchers are working with bigger genetic datasets and incorporating more advanced genome sequencing technology that should help them detect complex mutations. 'We use the lessons learned from Solve-RD for ERDERA,' Alexander Hoischen, a geneticist and professor at Radboud University who co-led the Solve-RD project, told Euronews Health. 'We are now already more efficient in making diagnoses,' he added. As a result, clinicians should be able to share some potential new insights with patients within the next year, according to Holm Graessner, a rare disease researcher in Germany who worked with Solve-RD and now co-leads ERDERA's clinical research network. 'We now have the chance to… scale it up, to further develop it, and to include further countries,' Graessner told Euronews Health. As researchers take those steps, patient advocates want the programme to move beyond academic settings to make genetic reanalysis available in all clinics that treat rare disease patients. 'What we hope to see is a significant increase in the percentage of cases solved after reanalysis,' Favresse said, as well as 'equal opportunities for everyone to benefit from a second chance at being diagnosed'. A new artificial intelligence (AI) tool could boost health outcomes for some men with prostate cancer by identifying whether they would benefit from a promising treatment. The drug abiraterone works by blocking testosterone production throughout the body, including in the tumour. It's been shown to slash the risk of death by nearly half for about one in four men with prostate cancer – but it can be costly and have side effects, making health authorities wary of prescribing it too readily. That means getting abiraterone to the right patients at the right time could help improve their prognosis, while also avoiding over-treating patients who might not benefit from the drug, according to the study led by UK institutions. 'This research shows that we can pick out the people who will respond best to abiraterone, and those who will do well from standard treatment alone – hormone therapy and radiotherapy,' Nick James, the study's co-lead and a professor of prostate and bladder cancer research at the UK's Institute of Cancer Research, said in a statement. The findings were presented this week at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting in Chicago. Scientists used AI to study images of tumour samples and identify biomarkers that could have otherwise gone undetected, and then applied the test to biopsy images from more than 1,000 men who had participated in another clinical trial on prostate cancer treatments. Among patients with biomarker-positive tumours, abiraterone slashed the risk of death from 17 per cent to 9 per cent within five years. For those with biomarker-negative tumours, abiraterone did not significantly reduce their mortality risks – meaning these patients should receive standard treatment, the study concluded. Researchers noted that abiraterone can cause side effects such as high blood pressure, liver problems, and diabetes, meaning the AI tool could help direct prostate cancer patients to the best treatment for them. 'This study shows, in a very large cohort of patients, that novel algorithms can be used to extract information from routinely available pathology slides to tailor these treatments to specific patients and minimise over treatment whilst maximising the chance of cure,' Gert Attard, the study's co-lead and a professor of medical oncology at the University College London Cancer Institute, said in a statement. In the United Kingdom, abiraterone has been approved in Scotland and Wales to treat newly-diagnosed, high-risk prostate cancer that has not yet spread, but in England, it is only available through the National Health Service (NHS) for men whose cancer has metastasised. The researchers called on the NHS to reassess this decision, saying 8,400 men per year could potentially benefit from the drug. 'Access to this life-extending drug is currently a postcode lottery – with those living in Scotland and Wales able to receive the treatment for free,' James said. Prostate cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer for men, with nearly 336,000 new cases diagnosed every year in the European Union.
Euronews
26-05-2025
- Health
- Euronews
Is Europe doing enough to prepare for bird flu risks to humans?
As bird flu spreads across Europe and jumps to more animal species, health experts warn that gaps in surveillance and preparedness could leave the region vulnerable to future threats to human health. Avian influenza has been spreading at elevated levels worldwide over the past five years, including in wild and farm birds in the European Union. Hungary has reported the most outbreaks since last autumn, followed by Germany, the Netherlands, and poultry giant Poland. But in recent years, bird flu has also spread to mink, cats, a captive bear, and other mammals, raising the risk that the virus will eventually reach people. Tens of millions of birds and other animals have been culled to keep that from happening, but gaps in surveillance systems increase the likelihood that the virus could circulate undetected and become harder to control. Since 2003, about half of the nearly 1,000 people infected with H5N1 bird flu globally have died. Now, EU health officials say public health risks remain low, and there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission. But preparations are already underway: the European Commission recently clinched a deal to secure more than 27 million influenza vaccines in case of a pandemic. Officials are also eyeing an outbreak among dairy cows in the United States – which has spread to people, infecting 70 and killing one – as a reminder to monitor animals beyond birds and mink, which are more prone to infection. "It's not a time to really sit back and relax and say, 'oh well, this is just business as usual,'" Marion Koopmans, who directs the centre of excellence at the Global Virus Network and leads the viroscience department at Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands, told Euronews Health. "It has really changed compared with just a few years ago," she added. "It's not a good situation to have". EU countries actively monitor wild birds and poultry for avian influenza. When they find infections, they must take steps to stamp out the virus, such as culling birds and imposing farm restrictions. Now, with the US cattle outbreak in mind, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is working with member states to boost surveillance in cows and other mammals, according to Alessandro Broglia, one of the agency's senior scientists. "There is a kind of reactivity and enhanced preparedness in Europe, also to prevent the infection in cattle and other farm animals," Broglia told Euronews Health. Vaccination is also playing a bigger role. In 2023, France began immunising birds, a move it says has helped its poultry industry recover after outbreaks ravaged its farms and annihilated tens of millions of birds. And last summer, Finland became the first EU country to offer bird flu vaccines to people, doling out jabs to 10,000 workers who were at higher risk of infection. Even so, EU audits have identified gaps in these systems that could be just large enough for the virus to slip through undetected. Over the past two years, they have found delays in setting up restriction zones to prevent the virus from spreading in Poland; "limited effectiveness" in Portugal's early warning system for poultry infections; shortcomings in investigations of suspected cases in Spain; and poor risk assessment, a lack of surveillance, and inadequately trained staff in Hungary that constitute "crucial weaknesses" that have not been rectified since the country was last audited in 2020. A Commission spokesperson told Euronews Health that Spain and Portugal have taken steps to fix these issues, but that it is 'seeking additional commitments' from Hungary and Poland, which suspended poultry exports last month due to outbreaks. Alexandre Fediaevsky, acting head of preparedness and resilience at the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), said that 'in all countries, Europe included, there is still some room for improving biosecurity and early warning systems'. But there has been some resistance from some farmers and poultry industry groups, who fear new rules and restrictions could threaten their businesses. "We need to have some strategic dialogue with the industry," Fediaevsky told Euronews Health, but "it will be a long process to really transform the production systems". The EU and the US are not the only places grappling with elevated bird flu risks. Last week, the Commission said poultry and meat imports from Brazil had been halted after the country confirmed its first bird flu outbreak on a farm. For now, bird flu appears to pose a greater risk to the EU's food supply than to public health. However, Koopmans warned that without stronger measures to curb the virus' spread among birds, the bloc could be caught off guard if human infections begin to emerge. "Let's also not become negligent," she said, "because this is how these viruses eventually trigger pandemics".
Euronews
26-05-2025
- Health
- Euronews
Is Europe doing enough to prepare for bird flu risks?
As bird flu spreads across Europe and jumps to more animal species, health experts warn that gaps in surveillance and preparedness could leave the region vulnerable to future threats to human health. Avian influenza has been spreading at elevated levels worldwide over the past five years, including in wild and farm birds in the European Union. Hungary has reported the most outbreaks since last autumn, followed by Germany, the Netherlands, and poultry giant Poland. But in recent years, bird flu has also spread to mink, cats, a captive bear, and other mammals, raising the risk that the virus will eventually reach people. Tens of millions of birds and other animals have been culled to keep that from happening, but gaps in surveillance systems increase the likelihood that the virus could circulate undetected and become harder to control. Since 2003, about half of the nearly 1,000 people infected with H5N1 bird flu globally have died. Now, EU health officials say public health risks remain low, and there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission. But preparations are already underway: the European Commission recently clinched a deal to secure more than 27 million influenza vaccines in case of a pandemic. Officials are also eyeing an outbreak among dairy cows in the United States – which has spread to people, infecting 70 and killing one – as a reminder to monitor animals beyond birds and mink, which are more prone to infection. 'It's not a time to really sit back and relax and say, 'oh well, this is just business as usual,'' Marion Koopmans, who directs the centre of excellence at the Global Virus Network and leads the viroscience department at Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands, told Euronews Health. 'It has really changed compared with just a few years ago,' she added. 'It's not a good situation to have'. EU countries actively monitor wild birds and poultry for avian influenza. When they find infections, they must take steps to stamp out the virus, such as culling birds and imposing farm restrictions. Now, with the US cattle outbreak in mind, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is working with member states to boost surveillance in cows and other mammals, according to Alessandro Broglia, one of the agency's senior scientists. 'There is a kind of reactivity and enhanced preparedness in Europe, also to prevent the infection in cattle and other farm animals,' Broglia told Euronews Health. Vaccination is also playing a bigger role. In 2023, France began immunising birds, a move it says has helped its poultry industry recover after outbreaks ravaged its farms and annihilated tens of millions of birds. And last summer, Finland became the first EU country to offer bird flu vaccines to people, doling out jabs to 10,000 workers who were at higher risk of infection. Even so, EU audits have identified gaps in these systems that could be just large enough for the virus to slip through undetected. Over the past two years, they have found delays in setting up restriction zones to prevent the virus from spreading in Poland; 'limited effectiveness' in Portugal's early warning system for poultry infections; shortcomings in investigations of suspected cases in Spain; and poor risk assessment, a lack of surveillance, and inadequately trained staff in Hungary that constitute 'crucial weaknesses' that have not been rectified since the country was last audited in 2020. A Commission spokesperson told Euronews Health that Spain and Portugal have taken steps to fix these issues, but that it is 'seeking additional commitments' from Hungary and Poland, which suspended poultry exports last month due to outbreaks. Alexandre Fediaevsky, acting head of preparedness and resilience at the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), said that 'in all countries, Europe included, there is still some room for improving biosecurity and early warning systems'. But there has been some resistance from some farmers and poultry industry groups, who fear new rules and restrictions could threaten their businesses. 'We need to have some strategic dialogue with the industry,' Fediaevsky told Euronews Health, but 'it will be a long process to really transform the production systems'. The EU and the US are not the only places grappling with elevated bird flu risks. Last week, the Commission said poultry and meat imports from Brazil had been halted after the country confirmed its first bird flu outbreak on a farm. For now, bird flu appears to pose a greater risk to the EU's food supply than to public health. However, Koopmans warned that without stronger measures to curb the virus' spread among birds, the bloc could be caught off guard if human infections begin to emerge. 'Let's also not become negligent,' she said, 'because this is how these viruses eventually trigger pandemics'. Bird flu instances affecting mammals doubled in 2024 compared to the previous year - up to 1,022 outbreaks compared to 459 - and are having greater impacts, according to a new report on the global state of animal health by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH). During the same period, 943 outbreaks were reported in poultry, alongside 2,570 outbreaks in non-poultry species, including 1,548 among wild birds. These incidents led to the loss of over 82.1 million poultry. Over the past two decades, more than 633 million birds have been lost either through infection or culling as part of efforts to contain the virus. 'A notable development in 2024 was the increase in HPAI outbreaks in mammals,' the report notes. It also highlights that avian influenza is no longer a seasonal or regional issue, as cases have been reported globally since 2022. The virus has affected new species of wild birds, domestic poultry, and an increasing number of mammal species, including livestock and pets. WOAH warns that avian influenza has evolved beyond an animal health crisis into a global emergency, threatening agriculture, food security, trade, and ecosystems. In some cases, the virus has spilled over into humans, raising concerns about its potential to develop into a broader public health crisis. The situation is particularly worrying in the United States, where a bird flu outbreak among poultry and dairy cattle has led to 67 confirmed human cases and one death. In Europe, there have been no human infections and no reports of the virus in cattle. The genotype currently circulating in the US has not been detected in Europe, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). While the risk of human infection remains low, the WOAH warns that as more mammalian species become infected, the likelihood of the virus adapting to enable mammal-to-mammal and potentially human transmission increases. In addition to the devastating impact on poultry, bird flu is causing unprecedented mass die-offs in wild bird populations, disrupting ecosystems and threatening biodiversity, the report shows. 'As integral components of ecosystem stability, the loss of biodiversity causes cascading effects that compromise environmental resilience and global wildlife conservation,' it reads, adding that biodiversity alteration at this scale also affects migration patterns and food chains. According to the animal health organisation, seabirds, raptors and waterfowl have suffered catastrophic losses, with entire breeding colonies wiped out. Further consequences of the global spread of avian flu include disruption to international trade, as outbreaks often trigger strict commercial restrictions. One example is the current suspension of Brazil's poultry exports to the European Union after the country notified the WOAH of a bird flu outbreak. As of 19 May, the country lost its status of 'free of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI)' which means Brazilian authorities are unable to sign the animal health certificates required for exports to the EU. The WOAH's report states that 'the scale and complexity of this ongoing epizootic require urgent action beyond traditional control measures'. What are these traditional measures? Strict biosecurity and active surveillance have been the main strategies to date. While these have been effective to some extent, the organisation warns that the virus's relentless spread demands additional efforts. Vaccination may offer a solution or at least serve as a valuable complement to traditional measures, as vaccines can reduce not only the spread of outbreaks but also the severity of infections. In October 2023, France became the first EU country to roll out a nationwide vaccination campaign against bird flu in ducks, due to their key role in disease transmission. According to the report, this initiative helped reduce the number of outbreaks from a projected 700 to just 10. In addition to animal vaccines, some countries have started vaccination among people at risk of contracting bird flu, such as poultry farm workers. Last year, the European Commission, purchased 665,000 pre-pandemic vaccine doses targeting avian influenza and took an option for 40 million doses over the next four years, in preparation for a potential future spread to humans. Finland was the first country to receive the shipment after reporting becoming the first country in the world to start vaccinating humans.
Euronews
22-05-2025
- Health
- Euronews
Where in Europe do teens have the best and worst mental health?
About two in five teenagers in Europe are struggling with their mental well-being, a new analysis has found, with girls faring worse than boys in each of the 37 countries included. Young people today face a host of stressors, including social isolation and disruptions to their schooling caused by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as socioeconomic instability and the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, according to the report, known as the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD). The study, which has been following teens' alcohol, smoking, and drug habits for 30 years, included nearly 114,000 students aged 15 and 16 across 37 European countries. For the first time in 2024, the report assessed their mental health as well. To track teens' mental well-being, the survey asked students how their lives have been going lately; for example, how often they feel cheerful, wake up feeling fresh, and how interested they are in their daily lives. The researchers converted those answers into an index score; students who scored above 50 out of 100 on the index were considered to have good mental well-being. Overall, 59 per cent of teenagers met that threshold. But there were major regional differences across Europe, with teens in Nordic countries doing fairly well and those in Central and Eastern Europe faring worse. Teenagers in the Danish territory of the Faroe Islands were the most likely to report good mental well-being (77 per cent), followed by Iceland (75 per cent), and Denmark (72 per cent). Meanwhile, teenagers in Ukraine reported the worst mental health, with just 43 per cent classified as doing well. Ukrainian adolescents have limited access to mental health care, the report noted, leaving them to grapple with war-related trauma largely on their own. The next-lowest rates of mental well-being were recorded in the Czech Republic (46 per cent), Hungary (47 per cent), Cyprus and Poland (49 per cent each). 'Mental health is deeply connected to the broader social environments in which young people grow up,' Kadri Soova, director of the advocacy group Mental Health Europe, told Euronews Health. She was not involved with the study. Girls were worse off than boys in each of the 37 countries studied. Across Europe, 49 per cent of girls and 69 per cent of boys report good mental health. The gender gaps were even more stark in some countries. In Italy and Poland, for example, about two-thirds of boys report good mental health, compared with one-third of girls. In Sweden, the relatively high rate of teenage well-being overall (62 per cent) masks gender differences. About four in five boys had good mental well-being, compared with less than half of girls. The poorer outcomes among girls 'signals the urgent need for targeted, context-sensitive responses,' Soova said. Europe is not the only region grappling with a rising toll of mental health problems among youth. Over the past decade, the rate of young people with mental health disorders has risen in every part of the world, according to a recent analysis from the Lancet medical journal. Soova called on policymakers to invest in mental health education and accessible support for young people. 'By addressing both traditional and emerging challenges from substance use to online risks, we can build environments where all adolescents have the opportunity to thrive in dignity and well-being,' she said. If you are contemplating suicide and need to talk, please reach out to Befrienders Worldwide, an international organisation with helplines in 32 countries. Visit to find the telephone number for your location. West Nile virus has been detected in mosquitoes in the United Kingdom for the first time, as rising temperatures raise the risk that vector-borne diseases will become more common in Europe. There have been no human infections in the UK so far, and the risk to the general public is "very low," according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). But the agency is ramping up surveillance and advising doctors to test certain patients whose health issues could be linked to the virus. Fragments of West Nile virus were found in two groups of mosquitoes collected in wetlands in Nottinghamshire in July 2023, the agency said. Another 198 pools of mosquito samples collected in the same area tested negative for the virus. "While this is the first detection of West Nile virus in mosquitoes in the UK so far, it is not unexpected as the virus is already widespread in Europe," Dr Meera Chand, UKHSA's deputy director for travel health, zoonoses, emerging infections, respiratory and tuberculosis, said in a statement. West Nile, which is in the same family of viruses as dengue and yellow fever, is often found in birds and spreads through mosquito bites. People can also be infected, though about 80 per cent will have no symptoms. The virus was first identified in Uganda in 1937, and it's commonly found in Africa, the Middle East, North America, and West Asia. It has appeared more frequently in northern and western Europe in recent years as warmer weather tied to climate change makes the region more hospitable for mosquitoes. "The detection of West Nile virus in the UK is part of a wider changing landscape, where, in the wake of climate change mosquito-borne diseases are expanding to new areas," Dr Arran Folly, an arbovirologist at the UK's Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), said in a statement. In places where West Nile virus is more common, people tend to be infected in the summer months. Most people either have no or mild, flu-like symptoms, but in rare cases it can lead to neurological issues, such as brain swelling or meningitis. In light of the virus' detection in the UK, doctors are being advised "as a precaution" to run additional tests on people with unexplained brain swelling, or encephalitis, the UKHSA said. There is no vaccine or targeted treatment for West Nile virus. James Logan, a professor of medical entomology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, called on public health and veterinary authorities to boost their surveillance to "stay one step ahead" of the virus. "This is a moment to recognise that the UK is no longer immune to some diseases once considered 'tropical,'" Logan said in a statement. "We are entering an era where we must learn to live smarter in a bug's world".
