Latest news with #NottinghamUniversity
Independent Singapore
7 days ago
- Business
- Independent Singapore
Cheaper brain cancer test provides more accurate results in just 2 hours
UK: A cheaper and faster brain cancer test developed by UK researchers can now identify the type of brain tumour in just two hours, offering more accurate results than current methods, PA Media reported. Patients typically wait six to eight weeks to determine the type of brain tumour they have, as samples are sent to central laboratories for genetic analysis. Experts said this long wait can be 'traumatic' and delay treatment like chemotherapy or radiotherapy. With the new test, diagnostic results can be ready in under two hours after surgery, with detailed tumour classifications available within minutes of sequencing. Researchers from the University of Nottingham and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) have developed a new method called ROBIN, short for rapid nanopore brain intraoperative classification, which assesses the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from a tumour sample. The test was applied to 50 patients and was in concordance with the standard of care in 90% of cases, according to findings published in Neuro-Oncology . Dr. Matt Loose, a professor of developmental and computational biology at the University of Nottingham, developed a method to sequence specific parts of human DNA using portable sequencing devices from Oxford Nanopore Technologies, which offers real-time analysis. Now, the team has used it to test brain tumour samples genetically. NUH neurosurgeon Dr Stuart Smith said, 'Patients find waiting many weeks for results extremely difficult and this adds to the anxiety and worry at what is already a very difficult time.' Meanwhile, NUH consultant neuropathologist Dr Simon Paine said that the method will be a 'game changer,' pointing to the speed at which results will be available and the degree of accuracy of the diagnosis. Dr. Simon Newman, Chief Scientific Officer of The Brain Tumour Charity, added that the new method will be 'transformative for all patients' as it ensures rapid access to an optimal standard of care and, crucially, removes the uncertainty patients face in waiting weeks for their diagnosis and prognosis. /TISG Read also: New white paper warns of the cost of inaction on youth mental health across APAC
News18
17-05-2025
- Politics
- News18
Uganda President's Son Live-Tweets Torture From His Basement
Last Updated: General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, son of Uganda's President Museveni, shared a video on X showing activist Edward Ssebuufu's torture. Kainerugaba is likely Museveni's successor. The son of Uganda President Yoweri Museveni, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has shared a video on X displaying the ordeal of a torture victim under dictatorship. In the video, the suffering of Edward Ssebuufu, a prominent opposition activist, was shown to the world by Kainerugaba, the Telegraph reported. Notably, Muhoozi Kainerugaba (51) is Commander of Uganda's Armed Forces and the man most likely to succeed his 80-year-old father as President. The sons of the dictator have often been accused of violent behaviour – Col Muammar Gaddafi's one-time heir, Saif al-Islam, carries an indictment for alleged crimes against humanity – yet only Kainerugaba has apparently chosen to live-post his cruelty to 1.1 million social media followers. In those posts, Kainerugaba's X account revels in Ssebuufu's agony and degradation, describing how the prisoner was supposedly 'crying" and 'urinating", before adding, 'I still have to castrate him." Kainerugaba, received a bachelors degree in political science from Nottingham University in 1997 and passed out of Sandhurst in 2000. He proclaims his goal to ascend to the pinnacle of power. advetisement Kainerugaba's previous outbursts have already earned him notoriety. He has in many ways praised Vladimir Putin as a 'hero", even offered to send Ugandan troops to fight for Russia. Besides he had also threatened to invade neighbouring Kenya ('two weeks to capture Nairobi"); and had also expressed his desire to marry Giorgia Meloni, the Italian Prime Minister. The background on his X homepage carries an image of Robert Powell playing Jesus Christ in the 1977 miniseries Jesus of Nazareth. Ssebuufu, Head of Security for Uganda's opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, disappeared after being arrested near the capital, Kampala, on April 27. Four days later, Kainerugaba's X account announced that Ssebuufu was in his captivity. This followed a series of tweets glorying in ordeal of the prisoner. 'The beards were the first thing the boys removed. After he finished crying and urinating," read one post. Watch India Pakistan Breaking News on CNN-News18. Get breaking news, in-depth analysis, and expert perspectives on everything from geopolitics to diplomacy and global trends. Stay informed with the latest world news only on News18. Download the News18 App to stay updated! tags : uganda Location : Uganda First Published: May 17, 2025, 12:37 IST
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The dictator's son livetweeting torture from his basement
The man's eyes are filled with terror, his shoulders bare, his once prominent beard has gone. Reduced to a state of desperation, he seems to be imploring a tormentor for mercy. In some dictatorships, torture occurs furtively in underground cells, but the ordeal of Edward Ssebuufu, a prominent opposition activist, shows that Uganda under President Yoweri Museveni is brazenly different. Ssebuufu's suffering was not just displayed to the world but posted live on X (formerly Twitter), proudly and boisterously, in all its stages of sadism. This was done not by an over-zealous secret policeman but by the social media account of the dictator's Sandhurst-educated son, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba. And the son is not some marginalised embarrassment but the Commander of Uganda's Armed Forces and the man most likely to succeed his 80-year-old father as President. The sons of despots have often been accused of brutish behaviour – Col Muammar Gaddafi's one-time heir, Saif al-Islam, carries an indictment for alleged crimes against humanity – yet only Kainerugaba has apparently chosen to live-post his cruelty to 1.1 million social media followers. In those posts, Kainerugaba's X account revels in Ssebuufu's agony and degradation, describing how the prisoner was supposedly 'crying' and 'urinating', before adding: 'I still have to castrate him.' Kainerugaba, who graduated in political science from Nottingham University in 1997 and passed out of Sandhurst in 2000, proclaims his ambition to ascend to the pinnacle of power. That prospect might chill many Ugandans who remember the blood-soaked reign of another soldier, Idi Amin, yet the reality is that Kainerugaba has every chance of achieving his goal. When old age eventually strikes down Museveni, who seized the presidency nearly 40 years ago, the son's command of the army would place him in pole position to ensure a hereditary succession in a country that calls itself a Republic. 'I would really worry about the prospect of him becoming President,' says one Ugandan journalist with calculated understatement. 'But when I set aside my personal feelings and analyse it objectively, I find that there's a real possibility of this happening.' Kainerugaba's previous outbursts have already earned him notoriety. He has variously praised Vladimir Putin as a 'hero'; offered to send Ugandan troops to fight for Russia; threatened to invade neighbouring Kenya ('two weeks to capture Nairobi'); and announced his desire to marry Giorgia Meloni, the Italian Prime Minister. His profile page on X carries an image of Robert Powell playing Jesus Christ in the 1977 miniseries Jesus of Nazareth. If Kainerugaba, 51, represents the future of Uganda, his latest excess may be the most instructive. Ssebuufu, Head of Security for Uganda's opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi (better known by his stage name Bobi Wine), disappeared after being arrested near the capital, Kampala, on April 27. Four days later, Kainerugaba's X account announced that Ssebuufu was 'in my basement'. Then came a stream of tweets glorying in the torment of the prisoner. 'The beards were the first thing the boys removed. After he finished crying and urinating,' reads one post. 'If you see Eddie's head now he looks like an egg. Totally clean,' says the next. Then: 'Eddie started crying as soon as the boys grabbed him.' Kainerugaba's account describes how the prisoner was being forced to defer to an image of the President. 'Eddie is looking very smart these days. The boys have tuned him well. He salutes Mzee's [Museveni's] picture every day before breakfast.' Over and again, the posts under Kainerugaba's name threaten to inflict the same ordeal on Wine, derisively referred to as 'Kabobi'. 'Next is Kabobi!' says one post. 'I have never joked in my life. I don't know why people think my tweets are jokes.' Whether Ssebuufu's torture was taking place in the basement of Kainerugaba's own house in Kampala is unclear, though one post says as much. The regime has a network of locations, known without irony as 'safe houses', where opposition activists are regularly detained and abused. Ssebuufu may have been held in one of them. On May 5, eight days after his arrest, he appeared in court in the town of Masaka, 80 miles south-west of Kampala, unable to stand without help. Ssebuufu, also known as Eddie Mutwe, was charged with robbery and remanded in custody in Masaka prison, where over 1,000 inmates occupy a jail designed for half that number. Two days later, Wine was allowed to visit Ssebuufu. Afterwards the opposition leader, visibly shaken, described exactly what he had learnt of his friend's suffering. 'We saw him and he was tortured very badly,' said Wine. 'He was tortured for three days and on the third day Muhoozi Kainerugaba came himself personally and beat him, tortured him, and his men tortured Eddie Mutwe in the presence of Muhoozi. He was electrocuted, he was waterboarded and so many terrible things happened to him.' Wine's description of Ssebuufu's ordeal tallied with Kainerugaba's social media posts. 'He was forced to salute Museveni's picture every day,' said the opposition leader. 'He was stripped naked and, later on, when he was given a piece of cloth, he was only given a Museveni T-shirt.' Lawyers representing Ssebuufu were allowed to visit him and confirmed his torture, though without mentioning Kainerugaba's personal involvement. 'He has been over-tortured for all the days he has been in detention, in irregular detention,' said Magellan Kazibwe, one of Ssebuufu's lawyers. 'He has told me and my colleague that he was tortured every day, five times, and they were beating him using these wires of electricity. They were electrocuting him. They were squeezing him, including his private parts. He is in great pain. He has not accessed any doctor up to now. He is in a very appalling and bad health state.' Ssebuufu was later reported to have received treatment at Masaka prison's medical facility. The fate of his security chief will be bitterly familiar to Wine, who endured 10 days of beatings and torture in military barracks in 2018. His injuries were so severe that he had to leave Uganda for medical care in the United States. When he ran against Museveni in the last presidential election, Wine was arrested in the middle of the campaign. As supporters mounted street protests demanding his release, the security forces opened fire with live rounds, killing at least 54 people in Kampala in November 2020 and arresting thousands more. On polling day, January 15 2021, Wine was placed under house arrest while the regime disconnected Uganda from the internet and announced a rigged result, giving him 34 per cent of the vote and handing Museveni victory with 58 per cent. Now, Wine is preparing to run against Museveni once again in the election due in January next year, which will also mark the 40th anniversary of the President capturing Kampala as a rebel leader and taking power in January 1986. In the first decade of his rule, Museveni managed to stabilise Uganda after years of ruinous civil war and the dictatorships of Idi Amin and Milton Obote. At that time, Britain and America regarded him as a reformer who deserved their support. They continued to indulge Museveni even as he twice rewrote the constitution to prolong his grip on power, first by abolishing term limits and then removing the age limit. Even now, as Museveni resorts to torture and repression against his opponents – and Kainerugaba waits in the wings – Uganda still receives £31.6 million of British aid. Wine, a musician and actor raised in one of Kampala's poorest areas, has built an opposition movement, the National Unity Platform, that carries the hopes of Ugandans who strive to escape their dictatorship. The agony of Edward Ssebuufu reminds them of the risks of defying Museveni. The dictator's son, who appeared to glory in the suffering of a human being, reminds Ugandans of the rule that may await them. 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.
The Guardian
11-05-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Nottinghamshire families left unaware of babies' blood test results in second NHS error
Hundreds of families in Nottinghamshire have potentially been left unaware of whether their babies may be carriers of certain genetic blood disorders, the second such NHS error to come to light since the start of this year. About 300 families whose children were born between 2004 and September 2024 in Bassetlaw and mid-Nottinghamshire were identified by the NHS as being affected. Changes in how genetic testing results were communicated to families meant they may not have been informed of whether their child was a carrier of a trait for sickle cell disease or for an unusual haemoglobin gene. NHS England said it has contacted the families affected directly by letter so that they understand what being a carrier means for them and their children. The NHS has also said that since the error, changes have been made to the way blood results are communicated within the area to make it more robust. Nottingham University hospital's local haemoglobinopathy team is now delivering the screening result for sickle cell carrier status to parents of children in the whole of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. Previously, this sickle cell notification pathway only covered the city and the south of the county. Sickle cell disease primarily affects people from an African-Caribbean background. Testing for the sickle cell trait is important because although carriers do not have sickle cell disease symptoms, there is evidence they have additional medical needs, such as if they need an anaesthetic. The sickle cell trait may affect women during pregnancy, and carriers can experience pain during intense physical activity and at high altitudes, research suggests. If two parents carry the sickle cell trait, there is a one in four chance their children will have sickle cell anaemia. In January, the Guardian reported that an error by the NHS led to more than 800 families in Derbyshire not receiving the results of a heel prick test given to babies after birth, meaning they did not know whether their child was a carrier of a trait for sickle cell disease or for an unusual haemoglobin gene. NHS officials apologised 'wholeheartedly' to the families affected, saying the error 'shouldn't have happened' and that an investigation had been launched. John James, the chief executive of the Sickle Cell Society, said: 'It is unacceptable that, once again, families have not been informed of their children's newborn screening results. The fact that this issue has now emerged in another area, over a 20-year period, highlights a catastrophic weakness in the NHS's system for communicating test results – with distressing consequences for parents and individuals who remain unaware of this vital information. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion 'While these individuals do not have sickle cell disorder, knowing they carry the trait is crucial for their long-term health and wellbeing, and for making informed decisions about their future, particularly as some will now be old enough to consider having a family of their own. 'We welcome the NHS's efforts to resolve the situation in Nottinghamshire, but we are calling on those responsible to provide reassurance that processes in all other areas of England are robust and fit for purpose. It should not take repeated failures for basic procedures to be fixed. Getting screening right isn't optional – it's essential.' An NHS spokesperson said: 'We are sorry that we failed to inform some families in Bassetlaw and mid-Nottinghamshire that their children were carrying the sickle cell or unusual haemoglobin genes immediately following the results being available. We are putting in place a robust process to make sure this does not happen again.'
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
What is hantavirus? The disease that killed Gene Hackman's wife
When Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found in their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, speculation over what could have been the cause of their deaths was rife. The authorities quickly ruled out foul play; the actor's daughters suspected a possible carbon monoxide leak. Within days, US reporting revealed Arakawa had been found in the bathroom near a countertop scattered with prescription pills (they were later found to be thyroid medication, and are said to have played no role in her death). Few could have predicted, though, that autopsies would eventually reveal Hackman died of heart failure a week after his wife, who had contracted hantavirus, a potentially life-threatening rodent-borne disease. Hantavirus will likely have been unknown to most people in the UK before this week, though in the US it's more common. In America, there are often signs telling people to beware of hantavirus in hotspot areas. A group of zoonotic diseases (meaning they can, in rare cases, spread from animals to humans), hantaviruses are carried in some mice, rats and voles, and tend to spread through their urine. Skip to What is hantavirus? How do you catch hantavirus? Does hantavirus exist in the UK? What are symptoms of hantavirus? Hantaviruses are a group of viruses that circulate in rodents. The types of hantavirus you could be exposed to will differ depending on where you are in the world, as certain species of rodent carry certain strains of hantavirus. This also means the symptoms will differ in the small number of humans who contract the virus, as different strains cause different immune responses. 'In America, there are several types of hantavirus – some are more dangerous to people than others,' says Professor Malcolm Bennett, an expert in zoonoses from rodents at Nottingham University. In Eurasia, he says, one of the most common hantaviruses is known as 'Seoul virus' because 'it was first found in rats in Seoul during the Seoul Olympics'. Seoul virus (which affects the kidneys rather than the lungs when contracted by humans) is found in brown rats worldwide. 'That's the one we have in the UK,' he says. 'There are other hantaviruses found in the UK in voles, but they don't seem to infect people. And most of these viruses don't cause disease in people – [they] don't jump species.' Rodents carrying hantavirus are infected 'for life', though if you had a pet rat or mouse which was infected (which is possible – it isn't only wild rodents that carry the disease) it wouldn't be obvious they had it as the rodents themselves don't tend to be symptomatic. It is most often found in wild rodents, though, and tends to appear in clusters. 'You'll suddenly have a hotspot,' explains Bennett, as the virus 'circulates in breeding areas'. If a rodent is carrying the virus, it could be contractable via their urine. If a pet rat or mouse has the virus, you could catch it when clearing out their cage as the dried urine becomes an aerosol when you sweep it up. What is more likely (and much more so, Bennett says, in America than in Britain) is that you would be exposed to the urine of a wild rodent when clearing out, say, a shed or a basement. 'You might be sweeping out a shed and the dust blows up and you inhale that,' he says. In America, where it's still relatively rare – as of the end of 2022, just 864 cases of the virus had been reported since the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began tracking it in 1993 – hantavirus tends to be carried by 'deer mice', says Dr Chris Smith, a consultant virologist and lecturer at Cambridge University. '[Deer mice] are common in certain geographies, including various places in the US. 'The mice shed the virus in faeces and urine. When people clear it up, the viral particles become airborne and are breathed in, causing hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.' Regular exposure to the virus will make it more likely you will contract it. 'You need to be frequently infected before you get [the] disease,' says Bennett. 'The more constant your exposure the more likely you are to become infected. It's like Covid – if you're with lots of people who have it, you'll get it.' That's not to say that if you're exposed to the virus you will definitely fall ill. 'Surveys suggest that more people have been infected and have antibodies than have knowingly had [the] disease,' he says. The only form of hantavirus found in the UK that can infect humans is the Seoul virus, says Bennett. It is found in brown rats – both wild and (very occasionally) pet ones. '[It can] get to pet rats through contamination from wild rats,' he says, adding: 'not every wild rat has it.' Still, it is extremely rare that the virus will be contracted by humans at all. And you couldn't, it's important to note, get it from house mice. 'We've never found any viruses in house mice,' he says. Nor have experts found hantavirus in 'voles or wood mice'. 'I've been part of groups that have been out and looked and we find hantaviruses in some wild voles, but they're the ones which don't seem to infect people.' If a human contracts hantavirus, the symptoms will differ depending on which strain you have been in contact with, which also depends on where in the world you are. In the US, the most common reaction is a pulmonary syndrome – a potentially fatal condition which affects the lungs. The CDC says symptoms of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome usually begin to show one to eight weeks after coming into contact with an infected rodent. 'Your lungs fill up with fluid and it's a very high mortality rate,' says Bennett. The virus begins with flu-like symptoms, but the deterioration can be 'pretty rapid', he says, as the capillaries in the lungs begin to leak. 'You die because there is an immune reaction to the virus in your lungs.' The form of hantavirus most common in Europe and Asia tends to affect the kidneys. Seoul virus causes a renal syndrome – usually, according to the CDC, coming on one to two weeks after exposure. Initial symptoms begin suddenly and include intense headaches, back and abdominal pain, fever and blurred vision. It's possible to have a mild case which clears up quickly, in which case you would likely never know you had contracted the virus. But if you fell seriously ill, Bennett says, it would be clear that you had some kind of kidney infection, so your GP would simply test your blood, send it off and discover the hantavirus. When caught, doctors will treat the symptoms of the virus. Most often, this will just involve supportive care, such as hydration. In the most severe cases, this could mean intubation for a pulmonary syndrome, or dialysis for a renal syndrome. 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.
