COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus including HPAI H5N1 and Disease X UK and World News Update 13th December 2024

 COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 13th December 2024

World COVID Statistics: 776,947,553 officially reported cases and 7,076,993 losses of life.

The world is still officially losing around 500 people to COVID each week, despite only 102 countries still reporting regular figures to the World Health Organisation. 

“We cannot talk about COVID in the past tense.

It’s still with us, it still causes acute disease and Long COVID, and it still kills.

The world might want to forget about COVID-19, but we cannot afford to.”

Dr Tedros, Head of WHO, at Wednesday's media briefing. 

This time 5 years ago, the first severely ill patients in Wuhan, China, were about to be hospitalised. 

Symptom onset for patient A was 1st December 2019, with 3 more patients by 10th December, and first hospitalisations around 17th. 

"On that first confirmed case, none of his family members developed fever or any respiratory symptoms. He had not been to the Huanan seafood market and also no epidemiological link could be found between the first patient and later cases.

Chinese media later reported that there were earlier suspected infectections, going back to 17 November. Authorities did not publicly accept there was human-to-human transmission of the virus until 21 January."

Jim Reed, BBC Health Reporter. 

5 years people... We all having been living a pandemic for 5 years. 

 

COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 15th November 2024

 COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 15th November 2024

10,644 deaths were registered in England and Wales, week ending 1 November 2024 (Week 44):

· 13.3% lower than the expected number (1,634 fewer deaths)

· 13.8% involved influenza or pneumonia (1,469 deaths)

· 2.5% involved COVID19 (262 deaths)

Office for National Statistics

The UK HSA have started publishing weekly virus watch reports for England. We currently have lots of RSV, especially in children under 5. COVID and flu are pretty stable. 

During the UK Autumn budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced significant extra money for the NHS - £25.7 BILLION over the next 2 years.

It includes:

- funding to reduce waiting times by supporting the NHS to deliver an extra 40,000 elective appointments a week. This is part of the "plan to make sure patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from their referral to getting treatment". (Which would be utterly amazing if it ever happens.)

- £1.5 billion to fund new surgical hubs which will help build capacity for over 30,000 additional procedures, and more than 1.25 million additional diagnostic tests (which use CT or MRI scanners) 

- £70 million to invest in new radiotherapy machines to improve cancer treatment 

- Over £2 billion for NHS technology and digital improvements to increase productivity and save staff time 

- Over £600 million increase in local government spending to support social care  

- £26 million to open new mental health crisis centres  

"Looking beyond this Budget, the government will publish a 10-year health plan for the NHS in spring 2025. This will set out the long-term vision for fixing the NHS."

Well that all sounds incredibly promising... as long as they can get, and keep, the staff to deliver it. 

COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 2nd August 2024

 COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 2nd August 2024

The UK's JCVI (Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation) have announced who will get COVID boosters this Autumn. They haven't expanded the list to include all children, nor do they include people who live or work with vulnerable people, but they have expanded the age range for older people. Folk in the following categories will be sent an invitation to book later in the year:

- Adults aged 65 or over

- Residents in a care home for older adults

- Individuals aged 6 months to 64 years in a clinical risk group (huge list, available online). 

The UK currently has high levels of COVID, and we aren't alone. Earlier Greece was warning tourists about a surge which has seen masks return to some hospitals, and travel advisories from neighbouring countries.

The FLIRT variants are being blamed. They actually appear to hospitalise slightly less people, but they can creep around some of our immunity, so more people are catching them, with a knock on effect that hospitals are still seeing more COVID patients. 

Latest hospital figures for England show a peak in COVID admissions almost as high as last Winter or Autumn's peaks, and Scotland's wastewater monitoring shows the highest levels since early 2022.

Prof Christina Pagel of indieSAGE reminds us one negative test doesn't mean you don’t have COVID, test again over consecutive days to confirm:

"Basically, there is a LOT of Covid around and not a lot of other respiratory viruses.

If you have cold or flu symptoms, it's probably Covid."

COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 12th April 2024

 COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 12th April 2024

World COVID Statistics: 704,749,430 officially reported cases and 7,010,624 losses of life.

Hiya! Welcome back. Not a lot of COVID news this week, it's especially quiet because a lot of regular sciencey folk have taken time off, so no big COVID news means no disasters, which is always a good thing.

COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 4th August 2023

 COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 4th August 2023

The UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has currently authorised 9 different COVID vaccines, and the latest is Bimervax, which is suitable as a booster jab for people aged 16+. It's still up the Joint Committee on Immunisation and Vaccination (JCVI) as to whether we actually deploy any of the vaccines we've okayed, and the Government have to agree to buy them. 

In the UK COVID cases are currently on the rise, with pharmacists noting a marked increase in test buying over July and the ZOE app. registering a jump in symptomatic people. That follows a similar pattern to previous pandemic years, with us desperate for the school holidays to serve as a firebreak. It's always worth keeping alert though... 

COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 10th February 2023

COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 10th February 2023

World COVID Statistics: 677,186,916 reported cases and 6,779,665 losses of life.

"Devastating earthquakes struck Türkiye and Syria, injuring thousands of people. WHO has activated its emergency medical teams network, now on the ground delivering health care to those in need."

Monday 6th February's earthquakes are so far known to have killed over 22,000 people, injured over 80,000 more, and they have left hundreds of thousands of people homeless in snowy conditions.

Volunteer teams from more than 25 countries are already there, and 95 countries had offered help by this morning. Volunteers include over 30 search & rescue teams, engineers, medical staff, firefighters and vets, and they are still pulling people out alive.

Thank you to all of them.

Anyone wanting to make donations, please use official agencies such as the 15 members of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC). DEC agencies work together to ensure the correct sort of aid is targeted exactly where it's needed most. DEC includes many of the big names, including the Red Cross, Save The Children, Oxfam, CAFOD, Christian Aid and International Rescue.

"Over the past few weeks there have been several reports of mammals including minks, otters, foxes and sea lions having been infected with H5N1 avian influenza. H5N1 has spread widely in wild birds and poultry for 25 years but the recent spill over to mammals needs to be monitored closely.

For the moment, WHO assesses the risk to humans as low. Since H5N1 first emerged in 1996 we have only seen rare and non-sustained transmission of H5N1 to and between humans, but we cannot assume that will remain the case and we must prepare for any change in the status quo."

Dr Tedros, head of WHO, with a little warning at Wednesday's Conference On Global Health. 

i-SPY books review for Collins & Michelin - the classic children's boredom buster

i-SPY books have been around for a long time. I remember diligently filling in my copy of i-SPY Butterflies as a child, although I mainly used it for reference as these fact-filled pocket-sized books have big, clear illustrations and concise descriptions. They also have a completist, competitive aspect as you try to tick off as many of the objects or animals as you can, score 1000 points and become a Super-Spotter, earning a badge and certificate.

We've been sent a bundle of 4 of the new i-SPY books  to review - At The Shops, Garden Birds, In The City and with plenty of nostalgia for me, Butterflies And Moths. They're very much the same as they were 40 years ago, with a wealth of information packed into a tiny book.

Secrets Of Winter Shine-A-Light Children's Book from Ivy Press

Some children's books are a joy, and Secrets Of Winter is one of them. This is a book with a secret, in fact every other page holds a secret, and it's only when you 'shine a light' behind the page that you can find it's hidden treasure...

Written and illustrated by Carron Brown and Georgina Tee, Secrets Of Winter is one of a series of 'Shine-A-Light' books. We were reading at bedtime, so we used a torch to 'see' the pictures as we read.

The Wilko Wild Bird Project: Feeding The Birds In Our Garden.

I'm pleased to say that this year we've been chosen by Wilko to be Wild Bird Bloggers. We're really lucky in that we have a quite large garden, and although we're in a town, we have countryside very nearby. We have a lot of birds who visit and live in our garden.

Wilko sent me a multi-purpose nesting box, a wooden bird table, a cage seed feeder and a bag of wild bird seed mix. When the boys came home from school they were genuinely excited and had a lot of questions about where we were going to put everything.