News

The Best Time To Get The Flu Vaccine If You Really Don’t Want To Get Sick

14th November 2014

It’s not even technically fall yet, and everywhere we look there’s another pharmacy offering the flu vaccine. Maybe we’re in a bit of denial that summer is actually ending, but it seems awfully early to start protecting ourselves from a virus that is notorious for hitting in the dead of winter. Right? Turns out, the perfect time to get the flu vaccine may be earlier than you think. It’s not an exact science; the timing and severity is a little different each year. But flu season can start as early as October and run all the way to May (ugh), usually peaking in the U.S. between December and February, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC recommends getting the shot [More…]

E-cigs refills ‘threat to children’

9th November 2014

Parents need to keep electronic cigarette refills away from young children because of the risk of poisoning, doctors in Birmingham say. They issued the warning, in the medical journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, after a two-year-old girl accidentally licked some of the liquid. The infant recovered, but high doses of nicotine can be lethal. Doctors said parents should treat nicotine refills like white spirit, medicines and bleach. There has been a surge in popularity of e-cigarettes, with more than two million people in the UK thought to use them. However, there has been a similar boom in nicotine poisonings. The National Poisons Information Service, part of Public Health England, said it had had 139 enquiries about nicotine last year, compared with 29 in 2012 [More…]

Sepsis: Antibiotics ‘Not Working’

14th October 2014

Doctors specialising in intensive care are warning that the growing resistance of bacteria to antibiotics could be leading to a rise in the number of people who die from sepsis. Around 37,000 people in the UK die each year from sepsis – the result of blood poisoning – and doctors say things could get much worse without new treatments and better prevention. Source: Hugh Pym reports BBC News 20th August 2014 Facts about sepsis Sepsis is a more common reason for hospital admission than heart attack and has a higher mortality. The most common causes of severe sepsis are pneumonia, bowel perforation, urinary infection, and severe skin infections. The most common signs of sepsis are a high fever, violent shivering, fainting, cold and pale hands, [More…]

Hospitals See Rapid Rise in Skin Cancer

9th October 2014

The number of people admitted to hospital for skin cancer treatment in England rose by nearly a third in five years, official figures show. In 2007 there were 87,685 admissions, while in 2011 there were 123,808. The data, gathered by researchers at Public Health England, does not include treatment in outpatient units or by GPs. Experts say cheap foreign holidays and the fashion for having tanned skin are probably to blame for the increase. The majority of the cancers treated were on the head and neck. While skin cancers can be serious, they are also largely avoidable as excess sun exposure is the major cause. The figures, which will be presented at the World Congress On Cancers Of The Skin, in Edinburgh later this week, [More…]

Release date for Health and Safety Statistics 2013/14

1st October 2014

The annual Health and Safety Statistics release will be on Wednesday 29 October 2014. RIDDOR The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations underwent a legal change on 1st October 2013. As a consequence, many of the published RIDDOR statistics for the latest year (2013/14) will be affected. As the change took effect half-way through the 2013/14 planning year, any impacts will broadly be half that expected for a full year. Briefly, these changes will affect statistics of: Non-fatal injuries to workers. The previous ‘major’ injury definition changed to ‘specified’ injury; although the separate ‘over-7-day’ injury category did not change in 2013 (it changed in 2012), there may also be a small knock-on effect to the statistics of this classification. Fatal injuries to non-workers – the requirement to report suicides [More…]

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