Latest news with #LiverpoolSchoolofTropicalMedicine
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
The Gaza students with scholarships to UK unable to take up their places
Time is running out for 40 students in Gaza who have been awarded full scholarships to study at some of the UK's leading universities this September, but have been unable to fulfil visa requirements due to the war. Campaigners have called on the British government to intervene to ensure their safe passage. Here are some of the students' stories. Abdallah, 27, has been awarded a Chevening scholarship, part of a UK government-funded global scholarship programme, and has a place to study for an MSc in data science and artificial intelligence (AI) at Queen Mary University of London. 'Just two weeks after earning my medical licence in 2023, the war broke out. I chose not to flee. Instead, I volunteered in local hospitals, treating the wounded while my own family suffered nearby. 'I soon realised that bandages and medicine cannot heal a nation so deeply traumatised. We need more than emergency care – we need innovation. That is why I applied to study data science and AI in the UK. 'I am driven by desperation and hope. Gaza is facing an unprecedented mental health catastrophe. Nearly every child and adult has been exposed to intense trauma, displacement, or loss. Yet Gaza's mental health infrastructure has been completely shattered. 'To fight a crisis this massive, I need world-class training. Once I complete my degree, I will return to Gaza to lead the creation of data-driven health systems that prioritise mental wellbeing.' Israa, 31, is a Palestinian doctor who has been awarded a Medical Research Council doctoral training partnership to do a PhD in sexual and reproductive health at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, where she previously completed a master's in international public health. She said: '[Studying in the UK was] a transformative experience that gave me a global perspective and strengthened my resolve to serve the most vulnerable people. I returned to Gaza by choice to serve, to heal and to uplift. A few months later, the brutal war started. 'I now work supporting women, girls, adolescents and displaced communities. I was supposed to start my [PhD] studies in October 2024, but the award was deferred to this October. I am calling for immediate action to evacuate UK scholars and professionals from Gaza, not only for my safety, but for the future I represent. 'My work, my voice, and my life matter. I am not only a doctor or a student, but I am also a survivor, a woman, a wife, and a human being who has dedicated her life to health equity and justice.' Israa added: 'It is not easy to guarantee we will be alive next week. The more we accelerate the efforts [to evacuate the students] the better for us.' Khulud, 28, is another Chevening scholar with a place at University College London to study for a master's degree in dental health. After completing her dental degree at the University of Palestine in 2020, she worked in clinical dentistry while training others. When the war began, Khulud opened a clinic with her brother, offering free dentistry, general medicine, paediatrics, nutrition, and psycho-social care to over 20,000 displaced people. 'These experiences didn't just shape me – they saved me,' she said. 'Even in the darkest moments, there is light in service, and hope in community. 'The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. There are continuous attacks, mass displacement, and severe shortages of food and medical supplies. Thousands have died, and many more are at risk. I cannot say with certainty that I'll still be alive in 2026. 'Losing this scholarship and the resources I've secured would be devastating. Emotionally, it would extinguish one of the few hopes that keep me resilient. Academically, the programme might not be available again. Most importantly, it would deny Gaza a health professional determined to return and help rebuild.' Majd, 24, a mechanical engineer from Gaza, has a full scholarship to pursue a master's degree in advanced manufacturing systems and technology at the University of Liverpool. He said: 'Life during the war has been extremely difficult. I've been displaced, with no stable electricity, internet, or basic services. Every day is full of uncertainty and worry. 'Most industrial facilities in Gaza have been destroyed, which means there's almost no equipment or resources left to work with. The lack of electricity, fuel, and basic infrastructure has made it nearly impossible to continue any kind of engineering work. 'The UK offers world-class education with excellent research and teaching. Studying there will give me access to resources that will improve my knowledge in advanced technologies. This international experience is vital for me to develop the skills needed to contribute meaningfully to Gaza's future reconstruction. 'I want to use what I learn to create job opportunities, empower youth, and help rebuild infrastructure that supports long-term stability and growth in Gaza after the war. 'I fully understand that the UK has visa systems in place for important reasons, and we are not asking for special treatment. However, this is an extraordinary situation. We ask for consideration and support to enable us to continue our studies, as education will be key to rebuilding Gaza.' Abeer, 28, has a place to study for an MA in data and health science at the University of St Andrews. 'After our home was destroyed in the winter of 2023 we moved into an Unrwa school. After three days there the school was heavily shelled. 'The bombing was violent and horrific. My brother Mohamed was badly injured, his feet caught underneath the falling rubble. He could not walk or move. We had to carry him south to Khan Younis, where we lived in a tent. 'It was here that we lost Mohamed. He never recovered from the injury at the Unrwa school. His loss caused our whole family to collapse. I felt my heart had stopped pumping. I lost my will to live, life lost its meaning. 'It was not long after that my older brother reached out, and reminded me that I had wanted to apply for a scholarship at St Andrews. 'Hardship should not stop you,' he told me. 'This is what you wanted before, you must persist.' 'Coming from Gaza I have seen the need for better health care solutions, and this programme and its modules offer the knowledge I need to make a real impact on health care.' Samah, 25, a medical laboratory specialist at al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza, has been accepted to study for an MSc in genomic medicine at the University of Oxford. She did not wish to share any photos of herself. 'From the first day of the ongoing war in Gaza, I have been on the frontline, working under extremely difficult and life-threatening conditions. Our hospital, like many others, faced mass casualties on a daily basis. We lost most of our laboratory equipment due to targeted attacks and destruction, yet we continued to serve patients. 'As the war progressed, I witnessed families resorting to burning hazardous materials just to cook food for their children. This prolonged exposure to potentially carcinogenic agents made me realise the urgent need to understand the long-term biological and genetic impacts of such conditions. 'Motivated by this experience, I decided to pursue advanced study in the field of medical genetics and cancer research. 'This opportunity is not just an academic pursuit for me, it is a mission to bring hope and healing back to a devastated community.' These accounts were compiled with the help of the UK Coalition for Students in Gaza
BBC News
28-05-2025
- Climate
- BBC News
Kent 'perfect place' for new mosquitos to enter UK, academic says
A virology researcher says Kent is a "perfect place" for new mosquito species to become established in the Jonathan Ball from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine told BBC Radio Kent that more exotic mosquito species are making "a northward charge"."We suspect that as our climate warms, these mosquitos will increase their range and that will include southern parts of Britain," he Ball was speaking after the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said on 21 May it found West Nile virus fragments in mosquitoes captured in Nottinghamshire in 2023. The UKHSA says the risk to the general public of West Nile virus is "very low" and there is "no evidence to suggest ongoing circulation of the virus" in UK mosquitos or Nile virus typically causes either very minor symptoms or none at all, but can sometimes make people seriously virus - found in many parts of the world, including Africa, South America, and mainland Europe - can kill in rare cases through serious brain human cases of West Nile virus have been acquired in the UK, but seven cases of the disease linked to travel abroad have been recorded since specific treatment or vaccines exist for virus fragments were found in Aedes vexans mosquitos, which Prof Ball says is "that pesky mosquito that you sometimes find in woodlands next to small shallow puddles".He added: "We know that these virus can often replicate in different insect species. They're pretty promiscuous in terms of the insects that they can replicate in." Prof Ball urged the public to "try and avoid" mosquito bites, which can happen at all times of day, by "covering up or using a good insect repellent".Howard Carter, the creator of Incognito insect repellent, said "a lot of people do get bitten" in Kent and that Brits "do not take enough precautions when they go abroad" either."Kent residents, more than any other county" need to take precautions, he told BBC Radio Kent on Wednesday, because "one day either Dengue or West Nile virus will be in the UK and that's an outbreak".
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
The UK's own health security depends on continued investment in global disease research
By 2040, the £3 billion of global health research and development (R&D) funding invested by the United Kingdom since 1994 will have saved 1.43 million lives, averted 99 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and prevented 183 million cases of neglected disease. Behind each one of the numbers is a person, a family, a community whose lives have been saved or changed for the better. We believe that as one of the richest nations in the world, the UK has an ethical responsibility to take a lead on breakthroughs in neglected diseases. But the case for continued support and investment is much stronger than just ethical responsibility; there are widespread and measurable economic and social benefits not only in the countries where these diseases occur but in the UK itself. On world Malaria day, a new report, by Impact Global Health in collaboration with Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, found that the UK directly benefits from R&D investment into diseases like malaria, HIV and tuberculosis. It shows that the UK economy would gain an additional boost of £7.7 billion and 4,000 additional jobs by 2040 from public funding of neglected disease R&D. Some £6 billion has already been gained but around £1.5 billion, equivalent to an average of £100 million a year, is yet to be felt and is contingent on funding being sustained. And the benefits to the UK of investment in global health do not stop there. Covid-19, and the West African Ebola epidemic demonstrated that infections don't recognise geographic borders. Nobody is safe from future pandemics until everybody has access to effective diagnostics, drugs and treatments and robust health systems. Put simply: the UK's own global health security depends on continued investment in this early pipeline of global health R&D. Yet 2025 has been a challenging year for global health – with significant cuts announced to critical funding internationally and continued uncertainty about future investment. Already, many projects have been forced to pause or stop, causing a direct negative impact on the people and communities which are most in need. In an age where there are multiple calls on government and other budgets, global health R&D could be seen, mistakenly, as an easy target. But the impact of R&D funding in the UK and across the globe should not be underestimated. This latest research clearly shows how this funding has already significantly improved health outcomes and positively impacted individual lives and wider society. We must keep this momentum to realise these benefits into the future. There is a very real risk that funding cuts now or in the future will reduce the impact of what has already been achieved and will lose the opportunity to develop new products, save even more lives and create even more sustained economic benefit. Any reduction in investment could rapidly unravel the substantial progress made to date, leaving future advances in life-saving interventions in jeopardy. Now is the time for bold action to protect critical investment in this area. Every pound of funding lost will negatively impact the UK economy, make the UK more vulnerable to future pandemics, and most importantly, expose the most vulnerable communities around the world to greater health threats. The UK has been a leader in funding and conducting research and development targeted at neglected diseases over the last two decades. Along with saving countless lives within some of the world's poorest communities, that investment has had real health and economic benefits in the UK. Professor David Lalloo is Vice Chancellor of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Professor Liam Smeeth is Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
25-04-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
The UK's own global health security depends on continued investment in disease research
By 2040, the £3 billion of global health research and development (R&D) funding invested by the United Kingdom since 1994 will have saved 1.43 million lives, averted 99 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and prevented 183 million cases of neglected disease. Behind each one of the numbers is a person, a family, a community whose lives have been saved or changed for the better. We believe that as one of the richest nations in the world, the UK has an ethical responsibility to take a lead on breakthroughs in neglected diseases. But the case for continued support and investment is much stronger than just ethical responsibility; there are widespread and measurable economic and social benefits not only in the countries where these diseases occur but in the UK itself. A new report, by Impact Global Health in collaboration with Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, found that the UK directly benefits from R&D investment into diseases like malaria, HIV and tuberculosis. It shows that the UK economy would gain an additional boost of £7.7 billion and 4,000 additional jobs by 2040 from public funding of neglected disease R&D. Some £6 billion has already been gained but around £1.5 billion, equivalent to an average of £100 million a year, is yet to be felt and is contingent on funding being sustained. And the benefits to the UK of investment in global health do not stop there. Now is the time for bold action Covid-19, and the West African Ebola epidemic demonstrated that infections don't recognise geographic borders. Nobody is safe from future pandemics until everybody has access to effective diagnostics, drugs and treatments and robust health systems. Put simply: the UK's own global health security depends on continued investment in this early pipeline of global health R&D. Yet 2025 has been a challenging year for global health – with significant cuts announced to critical funding internationally and continued uncertainty about future investment. Already, many projects have been forced to pause or stop, causing a direct negative impact on the people and communities which are most in need. In an age where there are multiple calls on government and other budgets, global health R&D could be seen, mistakenly, as an easy target. But the impact of R&D funding in the UK and across the globe should not be underestimated. This latest research clearly shows how this funding has already significantly improved health outcomes and positively impacted individual lives and wider society. We must keep this momentum to realise these benefits into the future. There is a very real risk that funding cuts now or in the future will reduce the impact of what has already been achieved and will lose the opportunity to develop new products, save even more lives and create even more sustained economic benefit. Any reduction in investment could rapidly unravel the substantial progress made to date, leaving future advances in life-saving interventions in jeopardy. Now is the time for bold action to protect critical investment in this area. Every pound of funding lost will negatively impact the UK economy, make the UK more vulnerable to future pandemics, and most importantly, expose the most vulnerable communities around the world to greater health threats. The UK has been a leader in funding and conducting research and development targeted at neglected diseases over the last two decades. Along with saving countless lives within some of the world's poorest communities, that investment has had real health and economic benefits in the UK.
Euronews
20-04-2025
- Health
- Euronews
Why is tuberculosis, the world's deadliest infectious disease, on the rise in the UK?
ADVERTISEMENT Anja Madhvani was already sick when she ran out of water in the middle of the desert. She'd travelled from the United Kingdom to run an ultramarathon in Morocco in 2018, but couldn't seem to keep enough food down. Camping in the evenings, she was feverish. When she coughed, blood came up. Then the hallucinations started. 'I was on my own in this expanse of baked earth,' Madhvani, now 35, told Euronews Health. 'And I just had this physical feeling that I was dying'. When she finally finished the race and made it back to the UK, doctors told her she had the flu, then a chest infection. X-rays and phlegm testing later confirmed Madhvani actually had tuberculosis (TB) – making her one of about 6.9 million people worldwide to be diagnosed that year. It took Madhvani 11 days in a hospital isolation unit and nearly a year of daily pills to recover from the disease, and another year to feel like herself again. Related Global aid cuts are 'crippling' the fight against the world's deadliest infectious disease, WHO says 'Progress was so slow,' said Madhvani, an event manager in Leeds. 'I had been walking around for quite a while with this deadly thing inside of me, and I had no idea… Some of those things still linger a little bit'. TB is often thought of as a relic of the 19th century, when 'consumption' was believed to be responsible for a quarter of all deaths in the UK. But it remains the world's deadliest infectious disease, killing an estimated 1.25 million people in 2023. TB mostly affects countries in Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Western Pacific, and it is often called a 'social disease' because of its close links to poverty. After a downturn during the COVID-19 pandemic, wealthy countries like the UK are now seeing a resurgence of TB that experts say is the canary in the coal mine for other health issues related to social deprivation – everything from other infectious diseases to chronic conditions like diabetes. 'Because TB is the archetypal disease of poverty… it really is a sentinel for other conditions,' Dr Tom Wingfield, an infectious disease doctor and deputy director of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine's Centre for TB Research, told Euronews Health. TB cases up across the UK England reported 5,480 TB cases last year, up 13 per cent from 2023 on top of an 11 per cent increase the year before – the biggest annual jump since at least 1971. Related Tuberculosis cases are up among kids in Europe and Central Asia, health authorities warn It's now common enough that a clinic in East London, which has more new TB cases than anywhere else in Western Europe, is opening a £4.63 million (€5.55 million) centre for TB patients . It treated 294 patients last year. TB is caused by a bacteria that can lie dormant in the lungs for decades before attacking the rest of the body, notably the spine and brain. The only vaccine currently available helps prevent the disease among young children, but is not effective for adults. ADVERTISEMENT Most new cases in England have been among immigrants who may have been infected years before their arrival. But for the second year in a row, TB cases are also on the rise in England among those born in the UK after they'd fallen every year since 2012. Infections are also up in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The uptick in cases is likely due in part to disruptions in medical care during the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning a backlog of TB infections is only now being detected. Related Public programme to give poor people cash reduced tuberculosis cases and deaths, study finds It's a big enough increase that these delays are likely only part of the story. ADVERTISEMENT TB risks are higher among people who are homeless, living in crowded settings, currently or formerly imprisoned, have a history of drug or alcohol misuse, or are grappling with undernutrition. As of late 2024, just 13.1 per cent of England's TB patients aged 15 or older reported at least one social risk factor – but with data missing, it's likely an undercount. 'We know pretty well from the figures where the rises are coming from. The why is still a bit of a mystery,' Paul Sommerfield, executive trustee of TB Alert, a non-profit focused on TB in the UK and India, told Euronews Health. How to combat TB Earlier this month, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) asked experts to weigh in on an updated 5-year action plan to better prevent, detect, and control TB in England. ADVERTISEMENT The current plan aimed to curb delays in diagnosis like the one Madhvani faced, have most patients finish their treatment, do more testing for TB, and ensure health workers can spot the signs of TB. Related UK PM Starmer announces major healthcare reform as public sector cuts take shape But it's still unclear whether enough money will be attached to the new plan, particularly for efforts to raise awareness in high-risk communities about symptoms and how to access medical care, Sommerfield said. The UKHSA declined to answer questions about the new plan's priorities or budget. In a statement issued to Euronews Health, Dr Esther Robinson, head of the agency's TB unit, called the disease a 'serious public health issue' and urged people to get tested if they have symptoms, including a persistent, mucus-ridden cough. ADVERTISEMENT Wingfield has some ideas for the plan. He wants more screenings for new immigrants at risk of TB, given few eligible people are actually tested, and suggested that employers who recruit from overseas could help fund the programme. He also wants the government to collect more information on TB patients' social and financial problems, so they can be connected to housing, food banks, and other services. Many TB doctors in the UK 'have given money from out of their pocket to somebody that they've looked after to get food, to pay for a bus… or because they're just in a dire situation,' Wingfield said. Related Having a poor socioeconomic background could speed up biological ageing, new study finds Meanwhile, Madhvani pointed to gaps in mental health support for TB patients, particularly once they wrap up treatment. ADVERTISEMENT 'I don't think that the system understands how frightening it is and how lonely it is, especially when you finish treatment and then you're just spat out into the world. There's no more follow-up,' she said. Identifying TB early to make treatment easier One bright spot is that few UK patients have forms of TB that are resistant to drugs, which can make it harder and more expensive to treat. Drug resistance poses a bigger problem in countries where people struggle to access medical care or stop treatment early. The drugs cause sometimes painful side effects, and people are supposed to take them every day for four to nine months. 'We have a fairly good system for dealing with TB, but it's a matter of finding people soon enough to treat them properly,' Sommerfield said. ADVERTISEMENT Related Antibiotic-resistant superbugs could kill 39 million people by 2050, researchers warn Some people who are infected with TB never go on to develop the disease. But rooting out infections early is critical for patients like Madhvani. She doesn't know how she got TB. But before her diagnosis, she unknowingly infected her partner, friends, family members, and colleagues. Most didn't go on to develop the disease, but her mother did, and she is still struggling with health complications seven years later. Another person Madhvani infected had latent TB, but no disease yet. Doctors put him on medication to stave off illness, but he stopped taking it early. ADVERTISEMENT Years later, 'he sent me a photo of him in hospital, emaciated… and he looked more unwell than I ever was,' Madhvani said. Her gut reaction was anger that he hadn't taken TB seriously enough. 'I don't think people understand what it will do to you if you don't get it sorted,' she said. 'It doesn't matter how wealthy you are, whether you've travelled or not travelled. If you come into contact with it, you're at risk'.
