Violence and abuse against UK ambulance staff at highest level ever recorded

The number of violent assaults, acts of aggression and incidents of abuse against ambulance staff in the UK has risen to the highest on record, according to data health leaders described as “horrendous” and “truly shocking”.There were 22,536 incidents of violence, aggression and abuse directed at paramedics and other ambulance workers in 2024-25, up 15% on the 19,633 in 2023-24, figures from the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) show.It means that each week on average those responding to 999 calls are the victims of 433 attacks, include kicking, punching, slapping, head-butting, spitting, sexual assault and verbal abuse.Senior ambulance officials said they believed the true toll was even higher, with many incidents not reported or recorded. Female paramedics and ambulance workers are the most likely to be targeted by the public

Global study on Covid vaccine safety falls victim to Trump cuts

The largest ever global study into the safety of Covid-19 vaccines has been terminated just 13 months shy of completion, after becoming caught up in the Trump administration’s sweeping funding cuts.The Global Vaccine Data Network, which was established in 2019 by the New Zealand-based vaccinologist Helen Petousis-Harris and the US-based vaccinologist Steven Black, has already produced some of the world’s most comprehensive studies on vaccine efficacy and safety, based on data from more than 300 million people.The University of Auckland hosts the network, which collaborates with institutions and experts across the globe.The groundbreaking five-year project to evaluate the safety of Covid vaccines across hundreds of millions of people received more than NZ$10m from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2021, but after a recent funding review by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), it can no longer finish the project, Petousis-Harris said.The network looks at data from millions of people to evaluate the effectiveness of vaccines, analyse risk and benefits and respond to issues such as vaccine hesitancy

Daily peanut exposure can desensitise allergic adults, study suggests

Adults with severe peanut allergies can be desensitised by daily exposure, according to the first clinical trial of its kind.After being given steadily increasing doses of peanut flour over a period of months, two-thirds of the trial participants were able to eat the equivalent of five peanuts without reacting.The findings suggest that the window of opportunity for treating allergies could extend into adulthood, raising the prospect of new treatments for those severely affected.“Constant fear of life-threatening reactions place a huge burden on people with peanut allergy,” said Stephen Till, the professor who led the research at King’s College London. “The only way to manage a peanut allergy is strict avoidance and treatment of allergic reactions, including with adrenaline

NHS ‘routinely failing’ deaf patients in England, report finds

Deaf patients face systemic discrimination when it comes to learning about their own health due to NHS failings, with some not understanding that they might have a terminal illness, according to a damning report.The study by the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) and SignHealth accuses the NHS of “routinely failing” deaf people.A survey of more than 1,000 people in England who are deaf or have hearing loss found that almost one in 10 had avoided calling an ambulance or attending A&E due to their disability, and a quarter had avoided seeking help for a new health concern.The survey also found that about half of sign language users reported not having understood their diagnosis, or how their treatment worked. NHS staff said a lack of training, time and a poor IT system were major factors in being unable to provide these accessibility requirements for deaf people

NHS staff fatigue poses ‘significant’ threat to patient safety, watchdog warns

NHS staff are so tired they are dying in car crashes and posing a major threat to patients, the service’s safety watchdog will warn on Thursday.Fatigue among frontline personnel causing them to make mistakes is a “significant” risk to patients, according to the Health Services Safety Investigation Body (HSSIB).It “contributes directly and indirectly to patient harm”, yet is not properly appreciated as a risk by the NHS, possibly because of the perceived “heroism” of NHS staff.Exhaustion has led to doctors and nurses harming patients by inserting feeding tubes in the wrong place, leaving swabs inside a woman who had just given birth and mislabelling blood samples.But the NHS safety regulator for England also found that staff who are driving home after finishing a long shift could die in a road accident because they are extremely tired

Childhood toxin exposure ‘may be factor in bowel cancer rise in under-50s’

Childhood exposure to a toxin produced by bacteria in the bowel may be contributing to the rise of colorectal cancer in under-50s around the world, researchers say.Countries, including some in Europe and Oceania, have witnessed an increase in young adults with bowel cancer in recent decades, with some of the steepest increases reported in England, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and Chile.Doctors have pointed to soaring rates of obesity, widespread junk food and physical inactivity as potential drivers of the disease, but the new study finds that harmful strains of the common gut microbe E coli may be involved.Prof Ludmil Alexandrov at the University of California, San Diego, said: “We think what we’re seeing is an infection in early life that subsequently increases one’s risk for developing colorectal cancer in the future.”In an effort to understand the trend, an international team led by the University of California, San Diego analysed DNA from 981 colorectal tumours from patients in 11 countries in North America, South America, Asia and Europe