UK children to get chickenpox vaccine with measles, mumps and rubella jab

Children in the UK are to be immunised against chickenpox at the same time as measles, mumps and rubella.The NHS across the UK’s four home nations will administer a combined vaccine to young children to protect them against all four diseases from Friday.The measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) jab, which has been used since 1988, is being replaced by a combined MMRV vaccine that includes immunisation against chickenpox, also known as varicella.Infants will be offered two doses, at 12 and 18 months, to reduce their risk of catching chickenpox. The first appointments at GP surgeries to receive the vaccine are being held on Friday

The reason for Italy’s ‘demographic winter’ | Letters

The Italian “demographic winter” has a number of causes, but rising male biological infertility is not one (A child is born: Italians celebrate village’s first baby in 30 years, 26 December).A lot of worry about falling sperm counts has been generated by some studies, but a more recent meta‑analysis found, through inclusion of regional controls, an increase in US sperm counts between 1970 and 2018. Sperm counts may be falling in places like the Chinese province of Henan, which has substantial air and water pollution, but there is limited evidence that sperm counts are falling in the developed world.In 2024, the Pew Research Center asked women and men over 50 who never had children why they hadn’t. Around a third (31%) didn’t want them, but more prolific reasons included “it just never happened” (39%) and “didn’t find the right partner” (33%)

Two charities that received £1.1m from Sackler Trust kept anonymous to prevent ‘serious prejudice’

Two charities that received a combined total of more than £1.1m from the British charitable trust run by the Sackler family were kept out of its latest accounts to protect their reputations from “serious prejudice”.The trust, which draws on the Sackler fortune that came out of the US opioid crisis, gave £3.8m to arts, eduction and science bodies in 2024, according to its latest accounts, filed on New Year’s Eve.The largest named recipients – each receiving £250,000 – were Veterans Aid, which tackles homelessness in the ex-service community, and the Belvoir Cricket and Countryside Trust, which works to develop an appreciation for the British countryside and promotes a love of sport, especially cricket

High blood pressure: who is at risk and why UK children are getting it

High blood pressure was long considered a health problem of middle age, but rates are increasing in children and adolescents, with doctors reporting a surge in strokes among people of working age.Hypertension is the medical name for high blood pressure. It arises when blood pressure in the arteries, the vessels that carry blood from the heart to the brain and around the body, is consistently above a healthy level. It is often called a silent killer because it causes damage throughout the body without producing obvious symptoms.Blood pressure is usually measured with a blood pressure monitor, which wraps an inflatable cuff around the arm

Call for routine high blood pressure testing of UK children as cases almost double

Leading doctors have called for a national UK programme to monitor schoolchildren for high blood pressure amid concerns that rising rates in adolescents will increase cases of organ damage, strokes and heart attacks.Rates of high blood pressure have nearly doubled among children in the past 20 years, but no routine testing is performed in the UK, leaving doctors in the dark about the extent of the problem and which children need most help.Identifying teenagers with high blood pressure would enable GPs to intervene early and reduce the risk of organ damage and potentially life-threatening cardiovascular disease as people reach their 30s and 40s, doctors said.“We need to find out how bad the problem is, and that means finding a way to measure blood pressure in children who are still at school,” said Prof Manish Sinha, a consultant paediatric nephrologist at the Evelina London children’s hospital, Guy’s & St Thomas’s foundation hospitals NHS trust.“The fundamental issue is that people don’t recognise that hypertension can be a childhood problem

UK ministers face increased pressure to restrict gambling ads

Ministers will come under mounting pressure to introduce curbs on gambling advertising this year, as MPs and campaigners latch on to polling that indicates widespread public support for tougher restrictions.Policies affecting gambling have been the subject of fierce debate over recent years, leading to stricter regulation of the £12.5bn-a-year sector and higher taxes announced in November’s budget, despite intensive lobbying by the industry.But, while successive governments have brought in measures such as lower stake limits on online slot machines and a statutory levy to fund addiction treatment, gambling advertising has remained largely unaffected.New polling, shared with the Guardian, indicates strong public backing for a much less permissive approach to gambling ads, which have exploded in volume since deregulation by Tony Blair’s Labour government in 2005