Health

Getty Images Cervical screening tests save thousands of lives each year in the UK, but many women do not take up invitations for screenings A knowledge gap around cervical screenings is currently “costing lives”, a cancer charity says. The Eve Appeal says more women need to know they can ask for adjustments to their cervical screenings, which can be painful, …

In this file photo, a researcher works in a lab that is developing testing for the Covid-19 coronavirus in Nutley. — AFP/File Whether COVID-19 was unleashed by a laboratory mishap or spilled over from animals remains an enduring, fiercely contested mystery. Here are the leading arguments that fuel both sides of this debate, as AFP reflects on the virus’s impact …

BBC Until recently, Jane would have described her family as normal, law-abiding citizens. But that changed last summer, when the full-time mum started illegally buying cannabis oil online for her daughter, Annie. The 10-year-old has a severe, rare type of epilepsy, resistant to conventional treatments. At her worst, Annie was admitted to hospital 22 times in 22 months. Doctors warned …

Getty Images Some women are ditching pills and coils for fertility apps When the BBC reported a shift in contraception use from “hormonal” products like the pill to “natural” fertility tracking apps among some women seeking abortions, many other women got in touch sharing their experiences. Their stories reveal how difficult it can be to find birth control that fits …

Three years ago, when Bob and Sandy Curtis moved into an upscale continuing care retirement community in Port Washington, N.Y., he thought they had found the best possible elder care solution. In exchange for a steep entrance fee — about $840,000, funded by the sale of the Long Island house they had owned for nearly 50 years — they would …

Women wear protective masks as they walk through a crowd along a market in Karachi, on December 2, 2020. — Reuters KARACHI: At least 30% of patients experiencing cold and cough symptoms are testing positive for COVID-19 in the megapolis, Geo News reported on Saturday. According to Professor Saeed Khan, an infectious disease specialist at Dow University Hospital, a significant …

Getty Images Calories must now appear on menus in large restaurants and take-aways Putting calories on food labels and menus “is no silver bullet”, say researchers who analysed the best evidence to date on how effective the policy can be. A review of 25 studies on calorie labelling in a number of countries found a small reduction in the calories …

When the letter arrived at Westil Gonzalez’s prison cell saying that he had been granted parole, he couldn’t read it. Over the 33 years he had been locked up for murder, multiple sclerosis had taken much of his vision and left him reliant on a wheelchair. He had a clear sense of what he would do once freed. “I want …

MARTIN MCQUADE / BBC Amarjit Kaur and Mandip Singh Matharoo’s daughter Asees was stillborn in January 2024 The deaths of at least 56 babies, and two mothers, at an NHS trust over the past five years may have been prevented, the BBC has found. The two maternity units at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals (LTH) NHS Trust are rated “good” by …

Lisa McHugh Hallie was in hospital for 10 days and had to be fed through a tube County Fermanagh-based country music singer Lisa McHugh has told how her baby daughter spent 10 “horrendous” days in hospital after contracting respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). RSV is a common, but highly infectious, respiratory virus that affects the breathing system, particularly in young children …