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The government has launched the Global AMR Innovation Fund (GAMRIF) on Monday (22 May), under which it has announce up to £39 million fund for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) research. Of this new funding package, up to £24 million over four years has been awarded to bolster the UK's partnership with CARB-X - a global AMR research initiative - to support the continued early development of invaluable new antibiotics, vaccines, rapid diagnostics and other products to combat life threatening drug-resistant infections and prevent death and disease across the world. In addition to the CARB-X grant, GAMRIF is investing £5 million over two years into the Global Antibiotic R&D Partnership (GARDP) to develop - and ensure global access to - new antibiotic treatments against major global health priorities. The announcement comes as Health Minister Will Quince attends the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, Switzerland, and Development Minister Andrew Mitchell participates in an event on health leadership and climate change alongside the WHA. They will announce the launch of the UK government's Global Health Framework for 2023-2025, as part of Minister Quince's address at the WHA. Health Minister Will Quince said: Antimicrobial resistance is a major threat to global health and has led to millions of tragic deaths per year, but the Global AMR Innovation Fund is supporting cutting-edge research and developing vital new treatments to prevent death and disease across the world.

An experimental Alzheimer's drug developed by Eli Lilly and Co slowed cognitive decline by 35% in a late-stage trial, the company said on Wednesday, providing what experts say is the strongest evidence yet that removing sticky amyloid plaques from the brain benefits patients with the fatal disease. Lilly's drug, donanemab, met all goals of the trial, the company said. It slowed progression of Alzheimer's by 35% compared to a placebo in 1,182 people with early-stage disease whose brains had deposits of two key Alzheimer's proteins, beta amyloid as well as intermediate levels of tau, a protein linked with disease progression and brain cell death. The study also evaluated the drug in 552 patients with high levels of tau and found that when both groups were combined, donanemab slowed progression by 29% based on a commonly used scale of dementia progression known as the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale (CDR-SB). Using that scale, experts said Lilly's findings were roughly on par with Eisai Co Ltd and Biogen Inc's lecanemab, sold under the brand name Leqembi, which reduced cognitive decline by 27% in patients with early Alzheimer's in a study published last year. The results drove Lilly's shares to a record high, up more than 6% at $429.85. Dr. Ronald Petersen, an Alzheimer's researcher at Mayo Clinic, said Lilly's trial is the third to show removing amyloid from the brain slows progression of the disease, which could put to rest some lingering doubts about the benefits of drugs in the class and the amyloid-lowering theory. "It's modest, but I think it's real," he said of the benefit, "and I think it's clinically meaningful." Dr. Erik Musiek, a Washington University neurologist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, said the efficacy looks as good or better than lecanemab.

Cardiac surgery and respiration disorders are one of the primary drivers of death all around the world. Significant reasons of these problems might be prevented if the risk factors are perceived. Early prognosis, set off and suitable treatment whenever initiated can drag out and save many lives.

Pharmaceutical recalls are complicated and expensive, just like in any other business. Pharmaceutical recalls, however, pose a further risk because they might change both short- and long-term health effects. To ensure smooth recalls with few negative effects on public health, it is crucial to understand the pharmaceutical product recall procedure and the roles of each key player. Throughout the recall procedure, patient safety is crucially ensured by the FDA, pharmaceutical companies, pharmacy technicians, and other healthcare professionals. Learning about pharma recalls, procedures, and responsibilities is essential for guaranteeing patient safety for key actors like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), manufacturers, and other medical specialists. RECALL CLASSIFICATIONS Recalls can fall into one of three categories-class I, II, or III-with class I being the most serious and lethal. Products that have the potential to result in serious, permanent complications or death are subject to Class I recalls. Class II recalls are recommended for product flaws that have a low likelihood of harmful events or that can result in reversible side effects. Last but not least, class III recalls typically arise from problems with packaging that do not pose a risk. Since they are frequently issued out of an abundance of prudence rather than due to any negative impacts, many people may even describe this kind of recall as benign.

Indian authorities have cancelled or suspended licences of some domestic drug companies as part of action taken against 76 pharmaceutical firms this month for selling adulterated or fake products, a government source said on Thursday. India is known as the 'pharmacy of the world' and its pharmaceuticals exports have more than doubled over the past decade to $24.5 billion in 2021-22. But that image has been dented by the death of at least 70 children in Gambia and 19 children in Uzbekistan in Uzbekistan last year linked to drugs made by India-based pharmaceutical companies. Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya confirmed a crackdown but did not give details of companies against which action had been taken. "There are more than 10,500 pharma companies in the country. Companies who make spurious medicine will not be spared," Mandaviya told reporters at an event. Licences of some Indian drug companies have been cancelled, some were suspended while others have been put on notice during the past 15 days, the source, who had direct knowledge of the matter, told Reuters news agency.

An Indian court has sentenced two pharmaceutical company executives to two-and-half years in jail for exporting substandard drugs to Vietnam a decade ago, months after the WHO linked their cough syrups to the deaths of children in Gambia. India suspended production at Maiden Pharmaceuticals in October last year for violations of manufacturing standards after the World Health Organization said four of its cough syrups may have killed dozens of children in Gambia. The company has denied its drugs were at fault for the deaths in Gambia and tests by an Indian government laboratory found there were no toxins in them. The company had been facing legal difficulties for years over suspected shoddy products. A court in Sonipat, near New Delhi, where Maiden has its main production facility, ordered jail for company founder Naresh Kumar Goel and technical director M.K. Sharma for exporting heartburn medicine "not of standard quality" to Vietnam.

If your loved one is suffering from anxiety, you'll likely be aware of how damaging the condition can be. Anxiety comes in many forms and can be triggered by an array of factors, but there are some simple steps to take if you want to improve the wellbeing of your family member - how can you best go about supporting a loved one with anxiety? What is anxiety? - Anxiety is mental state in which we feel highly worried, nervous, uneasy, or uncomfortable. While it's normal to feel anxious in certain situations and at notable points in our lives (this is linked to the 'fight or flight' instinct), it's important to address the problem if you feel that your anxiety is impacting your quality of life. What are the five major forms of anxiety? - The 5 most common forms of anxiety as diagnosed by medical professionals include generalised anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and social phobia, also known as anxiety disorder. What causes anxiety problems? - Anxiety can be caused by a wide range of factors. We're more likely to become anxious when we're overworked, stressed, depressed, under financial pressure or physically or mentally unwell. It's also common to become anxious after traumatic events such as having to make medical negligence claim after sustaining a surgical based injury, losing a home or the death of a loved one.

Patient safety should remain a top priority in any healthcare setting. People should always receive the right advice, and pharmacists aren't 'GPs on the cheap.' Staff should be fully trained, and medical equipment should be correctly maintained at all times. In turn, this helps create a safer environment for patients and professionals alike. In this article, we'll discuss some of the factors that can enhance patient safety in healthcare settings. AUTOMATION AND MONITORING Automating processes within a facility can help streamline operations. This has the potential to reduce or eliminate human error that could result in serious injury or death. In addition, automated systems often provide instant alerts when something goes wrong - allowing medical staff to react quickly and appropriately. Automated solutions can help facilities achieve hand hygiene monitoring standards, and it's possible to schedule a demo and see their outcomes. They can reduce staff sick time and HAIs, as well as Joint Commission citations and associated costs. Monitoring helps ensure compliance with safety protocols. It's essential for improving patient safety and gaining data on all aspects of a facility's operations. It also helps organizations track the effectiveness of their protocols and procedures over time. This helps them constantly evaluate and refine their policies, to maximize patient safety benefits. ADEQUATE STAFFING In order to provide quality care, it's essential to have enough staff on hand to meet patient needs and ensure all protocols are being followed. Without this, healthcare providers may struggle to provide prompt, efficient care - which can put patient safety at risk. Adequate staffing levels should be determined by a variety of factors. They include patient numbers, the complexity of care required, and the size and layout of the facility.

Being able to access high-quality healthcare at the times you need it most is vital. Regardless of whether this is a simple check-up, a medical review or complex surgery, having a suitable healthcare package designed according to your medical needs will be beneficial in the long run. The NHS has recently come under significant strain. Factors such as an increase in the number of patients, reduced funding and increased life expectancy have led to long waiting times and limited treatments. As a result, more individuals are now seeking private healthcare which, while it may be more expensive, offers faster and more effective treatment. Here we'll discuss some of the main benefits of private healthcare and why it is becoming the ideal choice for healthcare in 2023. Reduced waiting times One of the main issues faced by the NHS is waiting times, with some patients being made to wait up to a year for routine hospital care. Currently, ambulance services and A&E units are under unprecedented pressure and it is estimated that hundreds of deaths each week are associated with admission delays. Understaffing has been a chronic issue in recent years in the NHS and is a major threat to the welfare of patients. This has been one of the major concerns that has led to nurses and ambulance staff taking strike action. As nurses and hospital workers are put under higher strain, they are more likely to make mistakes, which could well lead to patients coming into harm and making a claim. Opting for private healthcare guarantees that you are able to access your appointments, surgeries and treatments much quicker, with some flexibility offered to align with your lifestyle. The capacity to bypass the painfully long waiting times ensures you receive the necessary medical attention much sooner and could prevent the emergence of other health complications.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has called for a 'firm commitment' to prosecuting those making profits through the sale of DNP (2,4-Dinitrophenol). It has also urged the social media companies to 'remove content promoting or selling DNP to further reduce harm'. Legislation to regulate DNP will come into effect on 1 October 2023. On Monday (23 January) it was announced that DNP will be included in the 1972 Poisons Act. President of RPS Professor Claire Anderson said: "DNP is unfit for human consumption and its main use is in the manufacture of explosives and pesticides. It is sold by unscrupulous dealers to vulnerable individuals wanting to lose weight but has a dangerous effect on the metabolism and has led to 32 deaths since 2007 in those taking it as a 'diet drug'. "Including DNP in the Poisons Act is a positive move as it will restrict its availability, but what's really needed is an outright ban to reduce the risk to the public. Australia has already classified DNP as a substance of such a danger to health as to warrant prohibition of sale and we'd like the UK to follow suit.

A community pharmacist who supplied a drug addict with "under the counter drugs" has been jailed for 18 months. Dushyant Patel, 67, a London pharmacist with more than 40 years' experience, had supplied class C drugs to a drug user in Norwich for months in 2020. Police identified Patel as a suspect four months after the death of drug user, Alisha Siddiqi, whose body was found at a property in Colossus Way, Costessey, in August 2020. An initial post-mortem examination was inconclusive, but toxicology results later showed she died from an overdose of prescription medication. An analysis of her phone revealed that she had frequent communication with Patel between January and August 2020. Class C drugs sold without prescription There was also communication regarding transactions relating to the sale of prescription drugs including class C drugs, without a prescription, namely Zolpidem and Zopiclone. Patel was identified as a suspect and later charged with drugs offences. He was jailed at Norwich Crown Court in December after a trial in August when he was found guilty of two counts of being concerned in supplying a controlled drug between March and August 2020.

The UK's Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said mistakes at a testing laboratory led to misreporting of tens of thousands of positive COVID-19 cases as negative and may have resulted in the deaths of about 20 people. Britain has one of the highest coronavirus death tolls in the world, with more than 177,000 deaths since the pandemic started in 2020. Many experts have said the contact tracing programme fell well short of the "world-beating" system the government had promised. An investigation by the government agency responsible for responding to public health emergencies said the Immensa laboratory in central England was found to have misreported around 39,000 tests as negative when they should have been positive between September 2 and October 12 last year.

The world has never been in a better position to end the Covid-19 pandemic, the head of the World Health Organization said on September 14, his most optimistic outlook yet on the years-long health crisis which has killed over six million people. "We are not there yet. But the end is in sight," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters at a virtual press conference. That was the most upbeat assessment from the UN agency since it declared an international emergency in January 2020 and started describing Covid-19 as a pandemic three months later. The virus, which emerged in China in late 2019, has killed nearly 6.5 million people and infected 606 million, roiling global economies and overwhelming healthcare systems. The rollout of vaccines and therapies have helped to stem deaths and hospitalisations, and the Omicron variant which emerged late last year causes less severe disease. deaths from Covid-19 last week were the lowest since March 2020, the U.N. agency reported.

Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's longest-reigning monarch, the nation's figurehead and a towering presence on the world stage for seven decades, died peacefully at her home in Scotland on Thursday aged 96. "The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family," the new king, her eldest son Charles, said. "I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world," the 73-year-old said in a statement. The news has stunned and deeply saddened community pharmacy in Britain. The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) issued a statement to say it "has been very saddened to hear of the death of Her Majesty the Queen. "At this time of national mourning, we join the rest of the country in sending our thoughts and condolences to the royal family."

Head injuries are a serious matter. They can lead to long-term health problems and even death in some cases. This article will go over some unexpected scenarios that often lead to head injuries. AIRBAG DEPLOYMENT Car accidents occur often, and you probably think you're safe from minor ones if you have your seatbelt strapped in. However, many people have suffered airbag injuries from a car accident because of their position at the moment it deployed. This may not seem like a big deal, but airbags inflate quickly, at around 200 miles per hour, and with great force. If your head is too close to the airbag when it deploys, you can suffer from some serious injuries. So what can you do to avoid this? First, make sure that you're sitting in an upright position with plenty of space between you and the steering wheel. Additionally, try to keep your headrest in an upright position so that it can provide some support if an accident does occur. And finally, be aware of airbag deployment times; they typically deploy within 0.08-0.14 seconds after an impact occurs.

The Taskforce report recognises the important role of community pharmacy and pharmacy teams, and in particular, the fact that they often have most contact with individuals who are receiving medication assisted treatment, commented the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) on the publication of the Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce's final report. The final report published on Thursday (June 21) follows four years of work developing and implementing a programme of actions to tackle the rising number of drug Deaths in Scotland. RPS, as pharmacy's professional leadership body in Scotland and the rest of Great Britain, has positively engaged with the Taskforce as it carried out its work. Last year, RPS published 'Pharmacy's role in reducing harm and preventing drugs Deaths (Scotland)' which contained 14 key recommendations. Many of the recommended actions within the Taskforce's report align with RPS policy.

The European Union's population shrank for a second year running last year, the bloc's statistics office said on Monday, as the region reels from over two million deaths from the coronavirus. According to Eurostat, the population of the 27 countries that make up the bloc fell by close to 172,000 from the previous year and over 656,000 from January 2020. "In 2020 and 2021 the positive net migration no longer compensated for the negative natural change in the EU and, as a consequence, the EU total population has been decreasing," it said, pointing to impacts from the pandemic. The number of deaths began outstripping births in the EU a decade ago, but immigration from outside the bloc helped offset the gap until the first year of the pandemic. The previous time the EU had registered a fall in population was in 2011 - the only other time since 1960 - but this rapidly picked up due to net migration.

Medical malpractice is a serious issue, and if you are ever a victim of it, you need to know what to do. More often than not, people do not even know that they are victims of medical malpractice until it is too late. This blog post will discuss six important things that you need to know about medical malpractice. Read on to learn more. IT CAN HAPPEN TO ANYONE First and foremost, medical malpractice can happen to anyone. It does not discriminate based on age, gender, or race. If you have been a victim of medical negligence, then you need to take action. However, many people do not even know that they are victims of medical malpractice until it is too late. This is because the symptoms of medical malpractice can often mimic other conditions or diseases. As such, it is important to be aware of the signs and symptoms of medical malpractice so that you can take action as soon as possible. Some of the most common signs and symptoms of medical malpractice include sudden and unexpected death, severe or permanent injuries, disfigurement, as well as loss of limb. If you or a loved one have experienced any of these symptoms, then it is important to seek legal help as soon as possible. An experienced medical malpractice lawyer will be able to help you investigate your case and determine if you have a valid claim. In this case, take the time to explore online sources where you may come across the websites of some of the most reputable lawyers. This is where you will have the chance to learn about medical malpractice and what you can do to take action. Rest assured that with the help of a competent lawyer, you will be able to get the justice and compensation that you deserve.

Two new subvariants of Omicron - BA.4 and BA.5 - are spreading much faster than other corovanirus variants in Europe, which could lead to more hospitalisations and deaths as they become dominant, the EU's disease prevention agency said on Monday (June 13). Most EU countries have so far detected low rates of the two subgroups. But in countries where the proportion has risen - such as Portugal, where BA.5 accounted for 87 per cent of cases by May 30 - there have been surges in overall cases, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). The two sublineages were added to the World Health Organization's monitoring list in March and have also been designated as variants of concern by the ECDC. Variants BA.4 and BA.5 do not appear to carry a higher risk of severe disease than other forms of Omicron.But an increase in case numbers from higher transmission rates risks leading to an increase in hospitalisations and deaths, the agency said. "The growth advantage reported for BA.4 and BA.5 suggest that these variants will become dominant," ECDC said in a statement on its website.