A specialist surgeon has been suspended from a world-renowned NHS hospital after nine children under their care were left with lasting injuries.

Boys born in the UK in 2023 can expect to live on average to the age of 86.7, and girls to 90,

Baby milk formula should have plain packaging in hospitals, the regulator has said following a probe into the market.

2 hours agoClive MyrieChief presenter

2 hours agoEmilia BelliBBC News

“Vaccines should be treated with nuance, recognizing differences between seasonal vaccines and childhood immunizations,” Dr. Ralph L. Abraham, the state’s surgeon general, wrote in a memo.Louisiana’s top health official said in an internal memo to the state’s Health Department on Thursday that it would no longer use media campaigns or health fairs to promote vaccination against preventable illnesses.The official, Dr. Ralph L. Abraham, Louisiana’s surgeon general, wrote in the memo that the state would “encourage each patient to discuss the risks and benefits of vaccination with their provider” but would “no longer promote mass vaccination.”The letter came on a day when the U.S. Senate confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has raised questions about vaccines, as the new U.S. health secretary. But it was not clear if the memo had come in response to the change in federal leadership.“Vaccines should be treated with nuance, recognizing differences between seasonal vaccines and childhood immunizations, which are an important part of providing immunity to our children,” wrote Dr. Abraham, a former Republican congressman.A spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of Health did not immediately respond on Thursday night to questions about the scope of the directive and how it might affect the distribution of vaccines.The Health Department in New Orleans, Louisiana’s largest city, quickly said that it would not follow the state’s lead.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Robert F Kennedy Jr, one of President Donald Trump’s most controversial cabinet picks, has been sworn in as the next US Health and Human Services Secretary.

A proposal by the Trump administration to reduce the size of grants for institutions conducting medical research would have far-reaching […]

It is the first ruling in a case challenging “shield laws” intended to protect doctors in states that support abortion rights who send abortion pills to states with bans.In a case that could have major implications for abortion access in the United States, a Texas judge on Thursday ordered a New York doctor to stop prescribing and sending abortion pills to patients in Texas and to pay a penalty of more than $100,000 for providing the medication to one woman.The case is widely expected to reach the Supreme Court and become a pivotal test in the escalating battle between states that ban abortion and states that support abortion rights. It essentially pits Texas, which has a near-total abortion ban, against New York, which has a “telemedicine abortion shield law” intended to protect abortion providers who send medications to patients in other states.These shield laws have become a key abortion rights strategy since the Supreme Court overturned the national right to abortion in 2022. The laws, enacted in eight states so far, stipulate that officials and agencies will not cooperate with civil suits, prosecutions or other legal actions filed against health care providers who prescribe and send abortion medication to patients in other states.Such laws represent a stark departure from typical interstate practices of extraditing, honoring subpoenas and sharing information. Under telemedicine abortion shield laws, which have been in use since summer 2023, health care providers in states where abortion is legal have been sending more than 10,000 abortion pills per month to patients in states with abortion bans or restrictions.The Texas lawsuit was filed in December by the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, against Dr. Margaret Daley Carpenter of New Paltz, N.Y., who works with telemedicine abortion organizations to provide pills to patients across the country. The suit alleges that Dr. Carpenter, who is not licensed in Texas, supplied abortion pills to a woman in Texas.The order signed on Thursday by Judge Bryan Gantt of Collin County District Court said that Dr. Carpenter “is permanently enjoined from prescribing abortion-inducing drugs to Texas residents.” Violating an injunction can result in a contempt order from a judge, which could carry additional financial penalties or a jail sentence. The judge also ordered a $100,000 fine and about $13,000 in attorneys’ fees and court costs plus interest.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

13 hours agoEleanor Lawrie and Michael BuchananSocial affairs, BBC news