HomeInternational
International
Dutch fertility doctor fathered 49 children without consent
A Dutch fertility doctor accused of using his own sperm to inseminate patients without their consent has been confirmed as the father of 49...
Fisher-Price recall at urging of American Academy of Pediatrics
Toymaker Fisher-Price has recalled nearly 5m of its Rock 'n Play Sleepers after reports linked the product to dozens of baby deaths. BBC News...
FDA halts sale of all surgical mesh products in the US
The US Food and Drug Administration has halted all US sales of surgical mesh products. Boston Scientific and Coloplast were the last two companies...
Half of patients should not have had mesh surgery, UK hospital admits
Almost half of the patients given a controversial artificial mesh surgical intervention for bowel prolapse should not have been operated upon, an NHS hospital...
MPs urge ban on UK patients travelling to China for organ transplants
UK patients should be banned from travelling to China for transplant surgery, the government has been told, before an inquiry into allegations of forced...
OxyContin maker Purdue settles $270m opioid lawsuit
The maker of OxyContin and the company’s controlling family agreed to pay $270m in a deal announced with the state of Oklahoma to settle...
State of emergency in New York county after measles outbreak
A county in New York state has declared a state of emergency following a severe outbreak of measles. BBC News reports that Rockland County,...
UK now imports more doctors than it trains
Britain is now importing more doctors than it trains, People Management reports statistics from the General Medical Council have revealed. According to the medical...
US doctor uses video-link screen to tell patient he is going to die
A doctor in California told a patient he was going to die, using a robot with a video-link screen, reports BBC News.
Ernest Quintana, 78,...
Italy: No vaccination, no school law boosts immunisations
Italian children have been told not to turn up to school unless they can prove they have been properly vaccinated. BBC News reports that...
Over 40% of GPs intend to quit within five years: UK survey
A University of Warwick survey of GPs in the UK has revealed that over 40% intend to leave general practice within the next five...
Netflix dumps controversial dentistry documentary
Netflix has quietly pulled the controversial documentary Root Cause from its streaming platform and scrubbed all trace of it from their website, reports The...
Unvaccinated French boy reintroduces measles to Costa Rica
An unvaccinated French boy is suspected of reintroducing measles to Costa Rica after the Central American country had been free of the disease for...
1.3m UK asthma sufferers skip doses because of prescription charges
Asthma sufferers in the UK are rationing how much of their medication they take because they cannot afford to pay National Health Service (NHS)...
FDA warns over 'disease cure' claims for vitamins, minerals and herbs
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned sellers of dietary supplements to stop claiming their products can cure diseases ranging from Alzheimer’s...
WHO warns on 50% global increase in measles last year
Anti-vaccine scepticism, conflict and poor access fuelled a 50% increase in measles cases last year. The Guardian reports that this is according to the...
Root Cause: Dentistry professional bodies want Netflix to withdraw film
Dentists, endodontists and dental researchers are warning Netflix, Apple, Amazon and Vimeo to remove a documentary that spreads fear and misinformation about the safety...
Emotive campaign over £105,000 per year cystic fibrosis drug
Campaigners in the UK are calling on the government to urgently intervene over the cost of a drug that could extend the lives of...
European Medical Agency is an early casualty of Brexit
The European Medicines Agency, one of the biggest EU regulators and one of the first casualties of Brexit, has closed its doors in the...
Royal College of Paediatrics slammed over baby milk producer link
The Royal College of Paediatrics has been accused of breaching World Health Organisation guidance after it accepted sponsorship funding from baby formula companies. The...
Arrogant surgeons must attend 'ego classes' or be banned
Arrogant surgeons who bully patients and staff should attend “ego classes” or be banned from the operating table. The Daily Mail reports that this...
Canada restricts use of Allergan's uterine fibroid treatment
Canada’s health regulator announced it was restricting the use of Allergan's uterine fibroid treatment Esmya after discovering a risk of serious liver injury from...
UK increases efforts to recruit medical staff from overseas
An ambitious 10-year plan for the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) unveiled by Prime Minister Theresa May relies upon recruiting thousands of nurses and...
Europe bans Allergan implants linked to rare cancer
Breast implants made by Allergan that have been linked to an uncommon form of cancer are being taken off the market in Europe, The...
'Anti-scientific' policies causes Italian health head to quit
The head of Italy’s national health research organisation has said he was forced to quit because of the “anti-scientific” policies of the country’s populist...
NHS ordered to pull the plug on fax machines
The UK’s National Health Service has been banned from buying new fax machines and has been told by the government to phase out entirely the 9,000 machines...
Dutch hospitals to stop using US body brokers
Two major Dutch hospitals say they will stop importing human body parts from US firms, which they have been doing without any regulation for...
Successful birth after womb is transplanted from deceased donor
A woman in Brazil who received a womb transplanted from a deceased donor has given birth to a baby girl in the first successful...
UNICEF: World 'off track' when it comes to ending Aids among youth
In 2018, more than half of the children and adolescents living with HIV globally are in Eastern and Southern Africa and, according to UNICEF,...
Influential US panel backs PrEP
The influential US Preventive Services Task Force has recommended that doctors offer pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in the form of a daily pill, to prevent HIV transmission...
French investigation into babies born without upper limbs
The whistleblower who raised the alarm over clusters of babies born with missing upper limbs in France has welcomed the government’s decision to set...
UK checks 3,000 foreign doctors after fake qualification scare
Some 3,000 foreign doctors in the UK are being urgently checked after a New Zealand woman practised psychiatry for 22 years without any qualifications,...
Israeli company under the spotlight for 'Aids cure' claims
Claims from an Israeli company to have successfully trialled its 'Aids cure' in Uganda, which has caused a storm of interest on social media, this week...
Poor diet a factor in 20% of deaths — Global Burden of Disease study
Almost 20% of deaths worldwide are attributable to an unhealthy diet, with high blood pressure and smoking completing the top three risk factors, according...
MPs want patent laws changed to address antimicrobial resistance
The UK government should consider changing patent law to incentivise major pharmaceutical companies to develop new antibiotics to address the "grave threat to health"...
Med students 'losing the dexterity needed for surgery'
A professor of surgical education at says UK medical students have spent so much time in front of screens and so little time using their...
German nurse murdered a 100 patients and nobody noticed
An ex-nurse in Germany has admitted at the start of his trial that he murdered 100 patients, making him one of the world's most...
31 studies on cardiac stem cells from Harvard lab retracted
Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have recommended that 31 papers from a former lab director be retracted from medical journals. Stat...
Mesh to be used only as last resort — NICE draft guidelines
Surgical interventions with vaginal mesh should be offered as a last resort, according to new UK draft guidelines, while the Australian government has, meanwhile,...
EMA recommends restrictions on fluoroquinolone and quinolone
The European Medicines Agency’s risk assessment committee has recommended restrictions on the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics fluoroquinolone and quinolone following a review of side...