Jo Waters

The Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) vaccine is currently denied to those aged over 80 in the UK, but new evidence shows that it is effective for them too.
A study of RSV vaccine effectiveness among US veterans (which included the over-80s) published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal has found that the vaccine reduced hospitalisations associated with RSV by 80.3% and was 78.1% effective against documented RSV infection. And in the over-80s, the vaccine efficiency rate against RSV inf...

Cauda equina is an emergency condition - here's how to spot the symptoms

Sitting paddling in her kayak, Mandy Smith grimaced as she felt another agonising twinge of back pain.
She was also alarmed by new shooting pains now running down the front of both her legs.
‘When I got out of the kayak, I couldn’t stand up straight – I was doubled over with the pain, which quite literally took my breath away,’ recalls Mandy, now 51.
Mandy had been back and forth to her GP three times in late 2021 and early 2022, and went to two physiotherapy sessions. They didn’t really help...

Sitting paddling in her kayak, Mandy Smith grimaced as she felt another agonising twinge of back pain.
She was also alarmed by new shooting pains now running down the front of both her legs.
‘When I got out of the kayak, I couldn’t stand up straight – I was doubled over with the pain, which quite literally took my breath away,’ recalls Mandy, now 51.
Mandy had been back and forth to her GP three times in late 2021 and early 2022, and went to two physiotherapy sessions. They didn’t really help...

Heartbreaking testimonies from young people who were turned away from services and not taken seriously when they were feeling suicidal, were aired during a recent high-profile MP-led inquiry. MPs from the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Suicide and Self-Harm Prevention wanted to hear the young voices behind the worrying suicide figures.
In 2023, 547 young people aged 10 to 24 in England and Wales sadly took their own lives (Samaritans, 2023a). In Scotland, 82 young people died by suic...

Tony Courtney Brown was a far-from-well man when he was taking 24 tablets a day for half a dozen complaints.
Then in his early 60s, he was being treated for depression with three antidepressants, and was given higher and higher doses of the opioid painkiller tramadol, along with gabapentin, both for back pain.
‘I was also taking medication for an enlarged prostate, for constipation [caused by the tramadol], omeprazole [for acid reflux caused by the antidepressants] and Cialis for libido probl...

Whether it’s a creaking noise when you bend them, stiffness when you get up in the morning, or a painful twinge when tackling the stairs, almost half (47%) of the over-50s report suffering from some sort of knee pain.
Around 100,000 knee replacements are done every year in the UK. Hardly surprising when you think that the knee joints are the largest in the body and bear up to three times your body weight when walking, six times your weight when running and ten times more when going up or down...

First came what Jade O’Saye thought was a stye – a blister on the eyelid, although in her case it was on the white of her eye – then pain when she blinked. Within months, her right eye was so swollen and sore it was bulging out the socket.
‘My eye was protruding and really red and angry,’ says Jade, 40, a procurement manager for a travel company. She struggled even to close the eye to sleep.
Not only was it painful, ‘it was completely disfiguring’, she adds.
‘I wore sunglasses to hide it, but...

First came what Jade O’Saye thought was a stye – a blister on the eyelid, although in her case it was on the white of her eye – then pain when she blinked. Within months, her right eye was so swollen and sore it was bulging out the socket.

‘My eye was protruding and really red and angry,’ says Jade, 40, a procurement manager for a travel company. She struggled even to close the eye to sleep.

Not only was it painful, ‘it was completely disfiguring’, she adds.

‘I wore sunglasses to hide it, but...

The Covid-19 spring vaccine campaign is underway again. You’re eligible if you are 75 and over, live in a care home for older people, and if you are of any age (over six months) with impaired immunity.
So far, the numbers booking their jabs are way down on last spring’s programme. But doctors are reminding us that Covid often spikes in the summer, so it’s important to get the vaccine if you’re eligible.
It’s also a good time to check if you’re up to date with other vaccines you’re entitled to...

When a surgeon checked Curtis Arnold-Harmer’s nose he saw such extensive damage to the lining that he asked the father-of-one if he had been a habitual cocaine user. Yet the truth was infinitely more mundane.
In fact the damage was down to the repeated use of nasal decongestants, which Curtis had first used to overcome the bunged-up sensation brought on by a cold.
Soon he was reaching for a spray several times a day as without it his nose would feel unbearably blocked – something that suddenl...

If you’ve been hesitating about having a shingles vaccine, new findings that it might reduce your risk of developing dementia by 20% may just swing it for you.
The latest study is based on the health records of 280,000 people aged 70 and over who received a shingles vaccine in Wales after it was introduced in 2013. The research, published in Nature, is being seen as the strongest evidence yet that the vaccine may be protective against dementia.
What is shingles?
Shingles is a painful rash cau...

Why are women still having to deal with undiagnosed gynaecological conditions, untreated maternal mental health issues, struggles in the workplace and unequal care? Journalist Jo Waters investigates.
Hailed as a landmark for improving women’s health, the Women’s Health Strategy for England (Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) was launched by the former Conservative government in 2002 (DHSC, 2022). At the beginning of 2024, the then health and social care secretary Victoria Atkins made...

All Posts

Alexandra Heumber Perry—Global

4 min read

It is time to shift the paradigm on rare diseases

It’s time to make rare diseases a global health priority and ensure that people living with rare diseases are not left behind.

Jo Waters—Global

9 min read

Can high-cost gene therapies become affordable for all?

As new gene therapies offer hope for rare diseases, health systems work to balance innovation with sustainability.

Prasanna Shirol—India

4 min read

Designing a collaborative care syste...

For decades Pai Masendu believed she simply had ‘fat legs’ that were out of proportion to the rest of her body – but it wasn’t only their size that bothered her.
They also constantly ached and were prone to bruising, and no amount of dieting or exercise seemed to help.
One year she lost three stone, but she says, ‘while my collarbone stuck out and my face was thin, my legs and arms never lost any weight’.
‘People complimented me on my smaller waist and hourglass figure, but I’d have to buy cl...