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DNA fragments from thousands of years ago are providing insights into multiple sclerosis, diabetes, schizophrenia and other illnesses.Multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that affects 2.9 million people, presents a biological puzzle.Many researchers suspect that the disease is triggered by a virus, known as Epstein-Barr, which causes the immune system to attack the nerves and can leave patients struggling to walk or talk. But the virus can’t be the whole story, since nearly everyone is infected with it at some point in life.A new study found a possible solution to this paradox in the skeletal remains of a lost tribe of nomads who herded cattle across the steppes of western Asia 5,000 years ago. It turns out that the nomads carried genetic mutations that most likely protected them from pathogens carried by their animals, but that also made their immune systems more sensitive. These genes, the study suggests, made the nomads’ descendants prone to a runaway immune response.The finding is part of a larger, unprecedented effort to understand how the evolutionary past has shaped the health of living people. Researchers are analyzing thousands of genomes of people who lived between Portugal and Siberia and between Norway and Iran roughly 3,000 to 11,000 years ago. They hope to trace the genetic roots of not only multiple sclerosis, but also diabetes, schizophrenia and many other modern illnesses.“We are taking ancient human genomics to a whole new level,” said Eske Willerslev, a geneticist at the University of Copenhagen who led the effort.The researchers published the multiple sclerosis study as well as three other papers on the genetics and health of ancient peoples on Wednesday in the journal Nature.For more than a decade, Dr. Willerslev and other researchers have been pulling DNA from ancient human bones. By comparing the surviving genetic material with that of living people, the scientists have been able to track some of the most significant migrations of people across the world.For example, they have chronicled the movement of farmers from what is now Turkey across Europe starting about 8,000 years ago. These early farmers encountered European hunter-gatherers who had lived on the continent for more than 30,000 years. In some places, hunter-gatherer DNA vanished from skeletons after the arrival of the farmers, suggesting violent conflicts. In other places, the two populations mingled enough to produce later generations with a mixed ancestry.Thousands of years passed before the next big migrational shift. About 5,000 years ago, European DNA began to show the genetic signatures of a group of pastoralists who lived on the steppes that stretch from Ukraine to Kazakhstan, called the Yamnaya.The Yamnaya traveled on horses and in wagons across hundreds of miles of grassland, herding cows, goats and sheep along the way. Even without farms or cities, they prospered for centuries, burying their dead with gold and jewelry.In the Bronze Age, the Yamnaya expanded their territory, sweeping through much of Asia as well as Europe. Dr. Willerslev and his colleagues have found that once in Europe, the group often wiped out the farmers it encountered, although they also had peaceful relations in some places.Today, people in northern Europe can trace most of their ancestry to the Yamnaya. Farther south, Yamnaya ancestry is less common. People there instead have more ancestry from Near East farmers and Europe’s earlier hunter-gatherers.Dr. Willerslev and his colleagues wondered what kind of genetic variations each ancient group carried by each ancient group and how they affected their health. To find out, the researchers studied some of their living descendants.They took advantage of UK Biobank, a huge database of DNA and medical information. Most of the 433,395 volunteers whom the scientists studied were born in Britain, but 24,511 were born in other countries.The researchers were able to tie thousands of genetic variants in the database to increased risks for a wide range of diseases. They then compared the volunteers’ DNA with the genetic fragments from ancient skeletons.One analysis found that hunter-gatherers from Western Europe, for example, carried many of the variants that raise the risk for high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes. Another showed that ancient Near East farmers carried a high burden of variants linked to anxiety and other mood disorders.These findings don’t necessarily mean that these ancient people suffered from these conditions. Genetic variants lay the trap, but it’s often the environment that springs it.Diabetes, for example, has become increasingly common in the modern world, in part because of the cheap, sugar-loaded food that makes up an increasing part of our diet. In earlier centuries, high-risk genes for diabetes may not have had the opportunity to give rise to the disease.In some cases, Dr. Willerslev and his colleagues found, these genetic variants provided ancient peoples with a survival advantage.The variants that raise the risk of multiple sclerosis, for example, became steadily more common among the Yamnaya. The nomads who carried them appear to have had more offspring than those who didn’t.“These variants that are causing the high risk of multiple sclerosis today must in the past have had a benefit,” Dr. Willerslev said.The new studies give some strong hints about what that benefit is. Some of the skeletons contained DNA not just from humans, but also from disease-causing viruses and bacteria. Many of these pathogens did not appear among hunter-gatherers or even among the earliest farmers in Europe. But the Yamnaya remains contained the genetic signatures of a number of pathogens, including the one that caused plague.“These variants seem to give some kind of protection from infectious diseases,” Dr. Willerslev said.A number of studies on multiple sclerosis suggest that the variants that raise the risk of the disease also make the immune system’s attack against viruses and bacteria more aggressive.Dr. Willerslev and his colleagues argued that the Yamnaya were more vulnerable to animal diseases than previous humans were. The Yamnaya depended on animals for meat and milk and were in constant contact with their herds as they moved across the steppes.Those conditions provided a new opportunity for diseases to jump to humans. In response, the Yamnaya evolved immune-related genes that helped them fend off the new enemies.“They’ve made a really, really compelling case,” Yassine Souilmi, a genomicist at the University of Adelaide in Australia, said of Dr. Willerslev and his colleagues. “I’ll be shocked if further experimental testing doesn’t match their conclusions.”Dr. Lars Fugger, a multiple sclerosis expert at the University of Oxford who collaborated with Dr. Willerslev on the new studies, said that the disease may not have become common until recent decades. In today’s environment, with less infectious disease than past centuries, he said, a strong immune system becomes more likely to misfire, attacking its own body.“Many of us are living in an environment that is squeaky clean,” Dr. Fugger said. “The balance is no longer there.”Understanding the evolutionary roots of multiple sclerosis could guide researchers to better treatments for the disease. Currently, the only effective treatments for the condition are drugs that suppress the immune system. To Dr. Fugger, those drugs seem like blunt instruments against a delicately balanced part of our biology.“Rather than just knocking it out, we should just try to find out in greater detail how it’s unbalanced, and then try to recalibrate it,” he said.The researchers are starting similar analyses of other diseases, such as schizophrenia and psoriasis. “This is just the beginning,” Dr. Fugger said.For now, they are continuing to rely on the UK Biobank, which means their results will be largely limited to genes that have influenced the health of northern Europeans. “It would be phenomenal to have similar studies in other parts of the world,” said Lluis Quintana-Murci, an evolutionary geneticist at Institut Pasteur who was not involved in the research.But there are few opportunities to carry out such studies. Many countries lack detailed electronic health records, for one thing. And unethical behavior of Western scientists has left many Indigenous populations uninterested in donating DNA to such efforts.Dr. Souilmi, who is helping to build a database for Indigenous Australians, said that the different evolutionary path of each population could reveal important insights about human biology in general. “By studying other parts of the world, we’re actually broadening our understanding of all human conditions today,” he said.

After dropping two Harvard experts who had received industry support, the National Academies turned to a colleague with a similar background.Shortly after dropping two Harvard scientists with financial conflicts of interest, the national organization assembling a committee to assess the evidence about drinking and health has chosen four new panelists, among them another Harvard professor who also has financial ties to the alcohol industry.The committee’s work, under the auspices of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, will be used to update the federal government’s dietary guidelines, which advise Americans on nutrition and diet, including how much they should or should not drink.Scientists at universities all over North America study the health effects of alcohol, and many do not accept industry funding. The National Academies instead chose two Harvard colleagues who also have published research strongly suggesting that drinking in moderation is good for you, critics said.“How could they appoint someone with a history of alcohol funding after removing the other two because of alcohol funding?” said Dr. Michael B. Siegel, professor of public health and community medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Siegel is a longtime critic of industry-funded research into alcohol.Many of the committee’s other 12 provisional members are experts in biostatistics and data analysis; one focuses research on alcohol’s impact on prenatal health. As such, the Harvard researchers are likely to wield influence on the committee, Dr. Siegel said.While it is indisputable that heavy drinking is bad for your health, some studies have found cardiovascular benefits in moderate drinking. But in recent years critics have questioned the methodology used in some of these studies, many of which were done by scientists who have received financial support from groups funded by the alcohol industry.The World Heart Federation last year issued a report saying that even small amounts of alcohol can increase the risk of cancer, injuries and heart disease, including coronary disease, stroke and heart failure.In 2020, when the U.S. dietary guidelines were last updated, the government rejected the advice of its scientific advisers to recommend lower alcohol consumption. The guidelines now recommend consumption of one drink daily for women, two for men.“There used to be a consensus that there were health benefits to moderate drinking. Now there is no longer a consensus — there is a controversy,” said Tim Stockwell, a scientist with the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, whose own work disputes the notion there are benefits to moderate drinking.“But if there’s controversy, get one expert from each side,” he added. Several organizations and individuals had suggested Mr. Stockwell for the committee, but he said he was never approached.Canadian health officials radically overhauled their guidelines for alcohol consumption last year, saying that no level of drinking is healthy and urging people to cut back as much as they can.“I think they’re worried the U.S. dietary guidelines will follow Canada’s lead,” Dr. Stockwell said of the industry.Among the four new nominees is Dr. Luc Djousse, an associate professor at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health who has studied the effects of moderate alcohol consumption on cardiovascular disease.While he has received grants from the National Institutes of Health for his work, he has also been funded by the Alcoholic Beverage Medical Research Foundation, an industry group. He was recently a featured speaker at a Beer and Health Symposium put on by beer makers.Dr. Djousse is also a member of the International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research, an organization once closely tied to the alcohol industry, and he signed a letter written on the organization’s behalf that was published in a medical journal. The group says it no longer receives money from the alcohol industry.He has cowritten several papers with Dr. Kenneth Mukamal and Dr. Eric Rimm, the Harvard researchers whose nominations were removed from consideration last month.Dr. Djousse did not respond to requests for comment; nor did Todd Datz, chief communications officer for the T.H. Chan School of Public Health.Dana Korsen, director of media relations at the National Academies, said that the committee’s roster remained provisional through a public comment period that ends on Thursday. The committee’s first meeting is scheduled for the next day.Ms. Korsen did not respond directly to questions about Dr. Djousse’s funding by the alcohol industry. “As with all study committees, the first meeting will include a discussion on compliance with our policies for conflict of interest and disclosure,” she said in an email.She declined to provide the names of National Academies officials directly involved in the nominations and turned down requests for interviews with them.A lack of transparency “begs the question as to whether the National Academies has found itself co-opted once again,” said Diane Riibe, who co-founded the U.S. Alcohol Policy Alliance, which translates alcohol policy research into public health practice.Dr. Djousse has cowritten several papers on moderate alcohol consumption and its putative benefits with Dr. Mukamal, who led a $100 million clinical trial on moderate drinking that was supposed to settle questions about its benefits or harms.In 2018, the National Institutes of Health canceled the trial after The New York Times reported that Dr. Mukamal and officials from the N.I.H.’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism had solicited $68 million from alcohol and beer manufacturers to underwrite the research, a conflict of interest and a violation of federal policy.“Dr. Djousse is a close colleague of Dr. Mukamal’s,” Dr. Siegel wrote in a recent blog post. “Having him on the panel is the next best thing to having Dr. Mukamal himself.”The other Harvard nominee is Dr. Carlos Camargo, a professor of emergency medicine and epidemiology who has also studied moderate alcohol consumption and was chair of the alcohol committee for the 2005 U.S.D.A. dietary guidelines.He, too, has cowritten numerous papers with Dr. Mukamal finding benefits in light drinking. He declined a request for comment, referring a reporter to the National Academies.The two other new nominees are Dr. Bruce N. Calonge, associate dean for public health practice at the Colorado School of Public Health and chief medical officer of the Colorado state department of public health and environment, who was provisionally selected to head the committee; and Linda Snetselaar, a professor of epidemiology and director of the nutrition center at the University of Iowa College of Public Health, and editor in chief of the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.Members of the public have until the end of the day Thursday to comment on the nominations. Ms. Korsen, of the National Academies, did not answer questions about how the organization will review public comments that come in less than 24 hours before the committee’s first meeting.The committee’s task is to review the cumulative evidence about the relationship between drinking and a wide range of health issues, including obesity, cancer, heart disease, cognitive health and all-cause mortality.It will also examine the effects of drinking while breastfeeding, including the impact on postpartum weight loss, milk composition and quantity, and infant development.Although moderate drinking, especially of red wine, has long enjoyed a health halo, more rigorous research in recent years and concerns about industry funding have raised doubts.Even light drinking can slightly raise a woman’s risk of breast cancer as well as a common type of esophageal cancer. Heavy drinking is linked to a significantly greater risk of mouth and throat cancers, cancer of the voice box, liver cancer and, to a lesser extent, colorectal cancers.The National Academies has never been involved in updating the dietary guidelines, but was allocated $1.3 million by Congress to do the work. Dr. Siegel has called for an investigation into the formation of the panel now that researchers with ties to industry have twice been nominated.

Published1 hour agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, PA MediaBy Jim ReedHealth reporterThe Covid inquiry will not start hearing evidence about the development of vaccines and other drugs this summer, as originally planned. Witness hearings will be postponed until a later date, likely to be after the next general election.Baroness Hallett, who is chairing the inquiry, recognised the decision would be “disappointing for some”.But she said more time was needed to prepare for a separate investigation into the impact of Covid on the NHS.”I want to ensure our hearings in 2024 are as effective as possible and I recognise the increasing pressure on organisations to respond to requests and provide information to the inquiry,” she added.”I remain committed to not allowing the inquiry hearings to run beyond my original aim of summer 2026.”Different phasesThe Covid-19 public inquiry has been split into a number of sections – known as modules – each covering different topics.The first phase, which started taking evidence in June 2023, looked at planning for a pandemic. Its findings and recommendations are expected to be published this summer. A second phase, looking at the major political decisions taken after Covid emerged, started hearings in London in October 2023, and will now travel to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to take evidence. The module investigating vaccines and therapeutics was originally expected to start in the summer of 2024, but that has now been postponed. Instead, public hearings will restart in September 2024 looking at the impact of the pandemic on the NHS and healthcare, as originally planned.The investigation into vaccines was meant to look in detail at the rollout of jabs across the UK, including the setting up of the UK vaccines taskforce and the role of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.It will also cover concerns around vaccine safety, including any suggested link between the jabs and heart issues, and whether reforms are needed to the scheme which is meant to pay out if an individual’s health is damaged after taking the jabs.No timing has been given for the postponed hearings, with further details promised “in the next few weeks”. It is thought the decision is likely to push that part of the inquiry until after the next general election, which has to take place before 28 January 2025.Cabinet secretary to face questionsThe inquiry is also still expected to question the current cabinet secretary, Simon Case, in a special hearing later this spring.Mr Case, who has recently returned as head of the civil service after two months of sick leave, was not able to give evidence last autumn when the second phase of the inquiry looked at the political decisions made during the pandemic.In WhatsApp exchanges with other Downing Street officials, and later read out at the inquiry, he was often critical of ministers. In one message he accused officials, including former health secretary Matt Hancock and then-education secretary Gavin Williamson, of being “weak”. In another, he described being “at the end of my tether” over decisions being made by Boris Johnson and said the former prime minister was “unable to lead”.More on this storyWhat is the UK Covid inquiry and how does it work?Published14 December 2023Officials urged tough Covid ads for ‘white van man’Published20 December 2023

Wastewater data has become perhaps the best metric to track the spread of the virus in the U.S., but it’s an imperfect tool.The curves on some Covid graphs are looking quite steep, again.Reported levels of the virus in U.S. wastewater are higher than they have been since the first Omicron wave, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, though severe outcomes still remain rarer than in earlier pandemic winters.

The effects of drugs that treat Alzheimer’s, cancer and other illnesses are often limited by the blood-brain barrier. A small study suggests a way forward.There is a problem with the recently approved Alzheimer’s drug, Aduhelm. It can remove some of the amyloid that forms brain plaques that are hallmarks of the disease. But most of the drug is wasted because it hits an obstacle, the blood-brain barrier, that protects the brain from toxins and infections but also prevents many drugs from entering.Researchers wondered if they could improve that grim result by trying something different: they would open the blood-brain barrier for a short time while they delivered the drug. Their experimental method was to use highly focused pulses of ultrasound along with tiny gas bubbles to pry the barrier open without destroying it.The investigators, at the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute at West Virginia University, reported their results last week in The New England Journal of Medicine. When the barrier was opened, 32 percent more plaque was dissolved, said Dr. Ali Rezai, a neurosurgeon at the institute, who led the study. The group did not measure the amount of antibody getting in — that would require radioactively labeling the drug — but in animal studies opening the barrier allowed 5 to 8 times more antibody to enter the brain, Dr. Rezai said.The early-stage experiment, which was only tried in three patients with mild Alzheimer’s, was funded by the university and the Harry T. Mangurian, Jr. Foundation.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? 

Published2 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingBy Jon IronmongerInvestigations, BBC EastIn 2016, Kettering General Hospital (KGH) became the focus of a major criminal inquiry. Documents seen by the BBC reveal detectives looked for evidence of gross negligence manslaughter over the treatment of Jorgie Stanton-Watts, a vulnerable toddler.Seven years of investigations followed, by the hospital, regulators and a coroner. This is the story of a family’s struggle to hold people to account.Jorgie died on Saturday 8 October 2016 from the results of dehydration and sepsis.Her mother Nicola Stanton, 49, says she went home distraught, but on Monday morning was surprised to find the police at her door. “They said ‘If your daughter had died of dehydration while in your care, you’d be looking at a prison sentence and your other children would be removed.’ We knew then something wasn’t right.”From birth, Jorgie was in and out of hospital with a pituitary gland problem that affected her development and made her face puffy. Her grandmother, Zena Stanton, 72, shows a video of her wriggling happily on a play mat and listening to her favourite song, Maggie May. “Jorgie was known as ‘Sunshine’ – she was always happy-go-lucky, but for those few days at KGH, she was in agony,” she says.”She wouldn’t even let us pick her up for a cuddle.”Since Jorgie’s death, a BBC investigation has heard from more than 50 parents with serious concerns about the treatment of their children, many of whom died or suffered injury. The Northamptonshire hospital has also been inspected regularly.In April the Care Quality Commission (CQC) downgraded the hospital’s children’s services to inadequate, the lowest possible rating.Jorgie was admitted to KGH on 29 September 2016 with a cold.Soon afterwards, she developed an infection and was moved to Skylark Ward, a 26-bed children’s unit. Then things began to go wrong.Unable to produce the stress hormone cortisol, Jorgie needed a higher dose of hydrocortisone if she was poorly.An ‘inexplicable’ decisionHowever, on 2 October her consultant, Dr Pratibha Rao, reduced her dosage by switching from intravenous to oral medication.This decision was “inexplicable”, according to Dr Richard Stanhope, a paediatric endocrinologist who gave evidence at Jorgie’s inquest.He concluded it “almost certainly” led to severe dehydration.But staff failed to notice. Jorgie’s nappies were not weighed, as they should have been, and other warning signs ignored.”It was a complete lack of care,” Nicola says. “Jorgie was well known on the ward so the way she was treated hurt us even more.”One of the nurses even took a monitor off me because it was constantly beeping and doing their heads in.”Hospital accused of failing children ‘truly sorry’Ward accused of failing children rated inadequateHospital needs to get its act together, says MPOn 5 October, the day Jorgie collapsed, no observations had been carried out and almost nothing written in the nursing notes.It fell to a lab worker to raise the alarm after receiving the results of a delayed blood test and Jorgie was urgently collected by a team at Leicester Royal Infirmary (LRI).But her condition was irreversible. She died on 8 October, two weeks before her second birthday. “We watched her die in the most awful way – we were asking constantly for fluids but they ignored us,” says Zena, now in tears.They were not the only ones with misgivings.Someone at LRI had called Northamptonshire Police, and within hours the case was assigned to its major crime team, part of the East Midlands Special Operations Unit. Numb with grief, Nicola was driven to a police station.”It was all a blur. My interview lasted about six or seven hours,” she says.”Mum went off the following day and then my sister and then Stephen, Jorgie’s father, a day later.” The funeral was delayed. Jorgie’s brain was removed for testing and later transported to London for a second post-mortem examination.Fifteen months later, Nicola received a letter from lead detective Det Insp Stuart Hitchon.The police investigation was closed. They had been unable to show medical staff’s actions led to Jorgie’s death or met “the threshold for manslaughter by gross negligence”. He cited Dr Stanhope’s findings that while “stopping the hydrocortisone would not have helped”, paediatricians “felt it was the right decision”.Years later, a police sergeant who reviewed the file and did not want to be identified, told the BBC that, in her opinion, the case “was in the ‘too-difficult-to-deal’ box”. She added: “Basic rules of investigation were not adhered to because it happened in a hospital.” Indeed, detectives had not interviewed any of the people who had cared for Jorgie.A spokeswoman for Northamptonshire Police said a great deal of other evidence was gathered “including Jorgie’s medical records and statements from family members”.She said: “We completely understand the family’s disappointment when this decision was made.”She added that any suggestions the investigation was not carried out properly because “the case was too complex or it happened in a hospital, are unhelpful and completely untrue”.Five medical failuresThe case was passed to coroner Philip Barlow, who asked that statements be taken for the first time from Dr Rao, another consultant, and two nurses.His conclusion at the inquest in April 2019 was damning. Jorgie’s death, he said, was the result of multi-organ failure caused by dehydration and sepsis. He identified five medical failures by hospital staff, contributed to by neglect.These included Dr Rao’s decision to remove Jorgie’s steroid drip and the failure by staff to notice she was becoming dehydrated.After the inquest, KGH apologised and the coroner noted the resulting changes on Skylark Ward. Its then director of nursing, Leanne Hackshall, said the hospital “had worked hard to learn all of the lessons”.Dr Rao was appointed to supervise the retraining of staff in key areas such as fluid management. But Jorgie’s family were frustrated that none of the four individuals had been suspended, even while the hospital conducted its own investigation. “We wanted to face [those involved] and see people disciplined,” says Zena.”A child died – there has to be consequences.” The hospital refused to arrange a meeting out of concern for its staff members’ mental health.Zena pressed on. She complained to the General Medical Council (GMC) and the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), which held four separate investigations.Three cases were closed with no action, including Dr Rao’s.The GMC decided there was “no evidence to support a finding that her care was deficient”. ‘Sought to deflect blame’It hired a different expert who found that removing the steroid drip was “entirely appropriate” and “safe” because Jorgie “remained under observation and on intravenous fluids”.Dr Rao continues to work on Skylark Ward. In July the NMC made a finding of misconduct against nurse Afua Ntumy, saying she did not act when Jorgie became dehydrated and “sought to deflect blame on to others”. She was also allowed to continue working on Skylark after performing well in a recent appraisal.”We’re done now,” says Nicola, looking completely exasperated. “It’s not going to change – we’re not big enough and we haven’t got anything else in us now to keep doing it.” In July the CQC reported signs of improvement after a follow-up inspection of KGH’s children’s services, but a spokeswoman said it had been made aware of further concerns.In September the hospital announced it would stop treating babies born under 32 weeks due to staffing issues. “Jorgie was just a number – one less on the books,” Zena says. “The whole of this for the hospital has been about protecting staff and that’s why there are so many failings on that ward.”There are some dedicated nurses and consultants but they’re few and far between and until they sort it, things won’t change.” KGH’s chief executive, Deborah Needham, said it had “co-operated fully and openly” with all of the reviews of Jorgie’s case. In a statement, she added: “We would again like to offer our sincere condolences to Jorgie’s family on their loss and apologise for the quality of care she received.”We are committed to providing a high quality children’s service and strive continually to look for ways to improve and embed the safest possible working practises.”More recently improvements recommended by the Care Quality Commission have been comprehensively addressed with significant investment.” Dr Rao did not respond to the BBC’s requests for comment. Do you have a story to share with the BBC East Investigations Team?You can reach Jon Ironmonger on WhatsApp and Signal on: +44 07890 348918 or by email at jon.ironmonger@bbc.co.ukMore on this storyHospital stops treating babies born before 32 weeksPublished22 September 2023Nurse on children’s ward guilty of misconductPublished6 September 2023Ward accused of failing children shows improvementPublished20 July 2023Related Internet LinksCare Quality CommissionKettering General HospitalNorthamptonshire PoliceThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

Published1 day agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, GoogleBy Alex PopeBBC News, BedfordshireA coroner has criticised a doctors’ surgery over the death of a woman who had been prescribed opioid drugs for about 14 years.Joy Ebanks, 59, died from oxycodone toxicity in May last year.Sean Cummings, the assistant coroner for Bedfordshire and Luton, said there was “no evidence” to suggest a plan was formed by Kirby Road Surgery in Dunstable to reduce the dosages.The surgery said it would put together an action plan.In his prevention of future deaths report, Dr Cummings said Mrs Ebanks was taking oxycodone and pregabalin as pain treatment and her primary cause of death was “oxycodone toxicity enhanced by pregabalin intake”.Oxycodone is an opioid painkiller used to treat severe pain. Long-term use is associated with physical and mental health issues, heart conditions and accidental overdoses.Fourth wave of fentanyl crisis hits every corner of USTwo million on antidepressants for five yearsPanorama: The Antidepressant StoryMrs Ebanks suffered from fibromyalgia, arthritis, agoraphobia and was diagnosed with depression, Dr Cummings said.She was prescribed venlafaxine and quetiapine – both used to treat mental health conditions – and took cannabis.The patient lived alone, had not engaged with support and had “been self-neglecting”, the report added.She was found unresponsive by her care worker on 24 May 2023 and was pronounced dead at the scene. ‘Poor communication’Dr Cummings said Mrs Ebanks had been prescribed “opiates since at least 2009″.Medication reviews were largely done by telephone because of her agoraphobia and dislike of people coming to her home, he wrote.”There was evidence of poor communications between the agencies providing her with different aspects of her care,” he said.”There was no evidence of any attempt to review the prescriptions of two dependency forming drugs with a view to reducing the dose over time. The opioid prescription was high.”The report said there was “a risk that future deaths could occur unless action is taken”.The surgery said it was saddened by her death and added: “We are currently considering the contents of his report and will reply with an action plan to address the matters raised.”A copy of the report was also sent to the East London NHS Foundation Trust which “may find it useful or of interest”, Dr Cummings said.Follow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830More on this story’We had to investigate our autistic son’s death’Published7 days agoTwo million on antidepressants for five yearsPublished19 June 2023Coroner calls for action after policeman’s suicidePublished26 January 2023Related Internet LinksCoroner ServiceKirby Road SurgeryThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

Published21 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Getty ImagesBy Geeta PandeyBBC News, DelhiAs cyber scams go, this one is rather unique.In early December Mangesh Kumar (name changed) was scrolling on Facebook when he came across a video from the “All India Pregnant Job Service” and decided to check it out. The job sounded too good to be true: money – and lots of it – in return for getting a woman pregnant.It was, of course, too good to be true. So far, the 33-year-old, who earns 15,000 rupees ($180; £142) per month working for a wedding party decoration company, has already lost 16,000 rupees to fraudsters – and they are asking for more. But Mangesh, from the northern Indian state of Bihar, is not the only person to fall for the scam.Deputy superintendent of police Kalyan Anand, who heads the cyber cell in Bihar’s Nawada district, told the BBC there were hundreds of victims of an elaborate con where gullible men were lured to part with their cash on the promise of a huge pay day, and a night in a hotel with a childless woman.So far, his team have arrested eight men, seized nine mobile phones and a printer, and are still searching for 18 others.But finding the victims has proved more tricky.”The gang has been active for a year and we believe they have conned hundreds of people, but no-one has so far come forward to complain, possibly because of shame,” he explained.The BBC has managed to speak to two of the victims – one said he had lost 799 rupees, but didn’t want to discuss details. Mangesh was much more forthcoming and, over the course of several phone calls, revealed how he fell prey to the scammers.”Ten minutes after I’d clicked on the video, my phone rang. The man asked me to pay 799 rupees if I wanted to register for the job,” he told me.The caller – Mangesh calls him Sandeep sir – told him that he would be working for a company in Mumbai and that once he had signed up, he would be sent details of the woman he would have to impregnate.They offered him half a million rupees – almost three years wages – just to have sex with the woman and promised further reward of 800,000 rupees if she conceived.”I’m a poor man, I desperately need money so I believed them,” the father of two young boys told me.Over the next couple of weeks, Mangesh was asked to fork out more than 16,000 rupees – 2,550 rupees to obtain some court documents, 4,500 as safety deposit and 7,998 rupees as Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the money he was going to get. He’s shared all the receipts and the fake court papers with me – the official-looking document has his name and carries his photograph along with that of a man in police uniform. In big capital letters on top, it says “Baby Birth Agreement” and the fine print below reads “pregnancy verification form”.The signature at the end of the document resembles one used by US talk show host Oprah Winfrey.Man travels 1,000 miles to claim bogus prizeCyber gangs earning less as victims refuse to payThe scammers kept him interested by sending him photos of “seven-eight women”, asking him to choose the one he would like to impregnate. “They said they would book a hotel room in the town where I lived and I would meet the woman there,” he said.When Mangesh kept asking for the promised money, they sent him a receipt saying they had credited his bank account with 512,400 rupees but the money was on hold and would be paid after he’d paid 12,600 as income tax.By then, Mangesh says, he had lost an entire month’s salary and told them that he couldn’t pay any more and asked for a refund. “But Sandeep sir refused and when I got angry, he told me that since my bank account showed a credit of 500,000 rupees, income-tax authorities would raid my home and arrest me.”I’m a poor labourer, I’d lost a month’s pay and I didn’t want to get tangled in any criminal case. I was so afraid that I switched off my phone for 10 days. I switched it back on only a few days ago,” he told me, adding that he initially also took me to be a part of the scammers’ gang. According to DSP Anand, the men behind the scam are educated – some are even graduates – and they know how to work mobile phones, laptops and printers. The victims, on the other hand, are from all over India and most have little education.Mangesh says it didn’t strike him that this could be a con because “Sandeep sir” had sent him copies of his identity cards, including one which identified him as an Indian army soldier. He also believed that the display photo on the caller’s WhatsApp – showing an attractive foreign woman cradling a newborn in her arms – was genuine.”You tell me how can you not believe that photo?” he asks. The problem is, cyber law expert Pavan Duggal explains, that people in India, “are by and large very trusting and rarely do an independent verification of information on the internet”, bolstered by an overconfidence in their safety.However, the methodology of the scam in Nawada, he says, “is very novel”. “The scammers lured them with promise of free money and free sex which is a deadly combination. In situations like these, prudence often takes a backseat.” But with the advent of Covid-19 – when cellular and net banking became the norm – Mr Duggal says “the golden age of cyber crime began” and warns that “it will go on for decades”. As cyber criminals come up with newer, innovative and more customised offerings, India will have to work harder to protect people like Mangesh from falling prey to scammers, he adds.”The government needs to do a lot more to create awareness through radio and television broadcasts since people trust the government more.” But the government alone cannot reach each one of India’s 1.4 billion people.India arrests dozens in call centre ‘drugs’ scamCyber-attack on Air India server affects millions”The numbers are overwhelming. And depending on the government alone will take a very long time and the Indian economy will continue to bleed. So the government must give incentives to the private sector to pitch in,” he says. The scammers, meanwhile, still haven’t given up on Mangesh.While on a call with me last week, he rang off saying “the madam” was calling. This, he later explained to me, was the woman he had been promised a meeting with. On Sunday night, he told me he had been speaking to her almost daily.She’s now telling him that “Sandeep sir” is the real conman and he’s pilfered most of the 500,000 rupees Mangesh had been promised, but that he can still get 90,000 rupees if he pays 3,000 rupees as GST. “I told her I’m broke. I pleaded with her to return my money but she said it won’t be possible. I wish she would at least return 10,000 rupees,” he told me.I ask him if he still trusts the scammers.”I really don’t know what to do now. I’ve lost an entire month’s pay and have not been able to send any money to my family in Bihar. My wife is very angry and no longer speaks to me.” He’s angry that “Sandeep sir” no longer takes his call.”Those who cheated me must get the maximum punishment. I do backbreaking work the whole day for 500 rupees. I know I made a huge mistake. But what they did with me is so wrong.”BBC News India is now on YouTube. Click here to subscribe and watch our documentaries, explainers and features.Read more India stories from the BBC:India court cancels release of 2002 riots rapistsIndia’s Sun mission reaches final destinationIndia summons Maldives envoy over Modi insult rowBollywood writers fight against ‘unfair’ contractsCan vaccines help India triumph against TB?

In an effort to make the internet more accessible for people with disabilities, researchers at The Ohio State University have begun developing an artificial intelligence agent that could complete complex tasks on any website using simple language commands.
In the three decades since it was first released into the public domain, the world wide web has become an incredibly intricate, dynamic system. Yet because internet function is now so integral to society’s well-being, its complexity also makes it considerably harder to navigate.
Today there are billions of websites available to help access information or communicate with others, and many tasks on the internet can take more than a dozen steps to complete. That’s why Yu Su, co-author of the study and an assistant professor of computer science and engineering at Ohio State, said their work, which uses information taken from live sites to create web agents — online AI helpers — is a step toward making the digital world a less confusing place.
“For some people, especially those with disabilities, it’s not easy for them to browse the internet,” said Su. “We rely more and more on the computing world in our daily life and work, but there are increasingly a lot of barriers to that access, which, to some degree, widens the disparity.”
The study was presented in December at the Thirty-seventh Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), a flagship conference for AI and machine learning research.
By taking advantage of the power of large language models, the agent works similarly to how humans behave when browsing the web, said Su. The Ohio State team showed that their model was able to understand the layout and functionality of different websites using only its ability to process and predict language.
Researchers started the process by creating Mind2Web, the first dataset for generalist web agents. Though previous efforts to build web agents focused on toy simulated websites, Mind2Web fully embraces the complex and dynamic nature of real-world websites and emphasizes an agent’s ability of generalizing to entirely new websites it has never seen before. Su said that much of their success is due to their agent’s ability to handle the internet’s ever-evolving learning curve. The team lifted over 2,000 open-ended tasks from 137 different real-world websites, which they then used to train the agent.

Some of the tasks included booking one-way and round-trip international flights, following celebrity accounts on Twitter, browsing comedy films from 1992 to 2017 streaming on Netflix, and even scheduling car knowledge tests at the DMV. Many of the tasks were very complex — for example, booking one of the international flights used in the model would take 14 actions. Such effortless versatility allows for diverse coverage on a number of websites, and opens up a new landscape for future models to explore and learn in an autonomous fashion, said Su.
“It’s only become possible to do something like this because of the recent development of large language models like ChatGPT,” said Su. Since the chatbot became public in November 2022, millions of users have used it to automatically generate content, from poetry and jokes to cooking advice and medical diagnoses.
Still, because one website could contain thousands of raw HTML elements, it would be too costly to feed so much information to a single large language model. To address this gap, the study also introduces a framework called MindAct, a two-pronged agent that uses both small and large language models to carry out these tasks. The team found that by using this strategy, MindAct significantly outperforms other common modeling strategies and is able to understand various concepts at a decent level.
With more fine-tuning, the study points out, the model could likely be used in tandem with both open-and closed-source large language models such as Flan-T5 or GPT-4. However, their work does highlight an increasingly relevant ethical problem in creating flexible artificial intelligence, said Su. While it could certainly serve as a helpful agent to humans surfing the web, the model could also be used to enhance systems like ChatGPT and turn the entire internet into an unprecedentedly powerful tool, said Su.
“On the one hand, we have great potential to improve our efficiency and to allow us to focus on the most creative part of our work,” he said. “But on the other hand, there’s tremendous potential for harm.” For instance, autonomous agents able to translate online steps into the real world could influence society by taking potentially dangerous actions, such as misusing financial information or spreading misinformation.
“We should be extremely cautious about these factors and make a concerted effort to try to mitigate them,” said Su. But as AI research continues to evolve, he notes that it’s likely society will experience major growth in the commercial use and performance of generalist web agents in the years to come, especially as the technology has already gained so much popularity in the public eye.
“Throughout my career, my goal has always been trying to bridge the gap between human users and the computing world,” said Su. “That said, the real value of this tool is that it will really save people time and make the impossible possible.”
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Army Research Lab and the Ohio Supercomputer Center. Other co-authors were Xiang Deng, Yu Gu, Boyuan Zheng, Shijie Chen, Samuel Stevens, Boshi Wang and Huan Sun, all of Ohio State.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a common infection in children and senior adults, can also infect nerve cells and trigger inflammation leading to nerve damage, according to a new Tulane University study.
RSV can cause mild symptoms such as coughing, sneezing and fever or lead to more severe conditions such as pneumonia or bronchiolitis. But since the disease was first discovered in 1956, it has been thought to only infect the respiratory tract.
This study, published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, is the first to prove that RSV can penetrate nerve cells and may provide the clearest link between RSV and reported neurological symptoms in children.
RSV has been previously detected in the spinal fluid of children with seizures. Additionally, 40% of RSV-positive children under the age of 2 have shown acute encephalopathy, brain damage that can result in confusion, memory loss or cognitive difficulties.
The findings underscore the potential long-term impacts of the disease, as well as the importance of preventative measures such as the two RSV vaccines approved by the FDA in 2023.
“This is the most common respiratory virus in the first years of life as well as an impactful virus among the elderly,” said Dr. Giovanni Piedimonte, Tulane University vice president for research and professor of pediatrics, biochemistry and molecular biology. “This adds a new dimension to the importance of RSV vaccines for both the elderly and mothers to protect their babies.”
Researchers studied the virus using 3D peripheral nerve cultures grown from stem cells and rat embryos. After finding they can be infected by RSV, researchers found RSV induced the release of chemokines — proteins that fight infections by controlling immune cells — and caused significant inflammation.

With low levels of RSV infection, the nerves became hyperreactive to stimulation. At higher levels, they observed a progressive degeneration of the nerve and increased neurotoxicity due to excess inflammation.
“Until this study, the theory was that the inflammatory response was indirectly activating the nerves,” Piedimonte said. “This study shows that not only does that happen, but the virus can penetrate directly into the nerves.”
The nerve hyperreactivity could explain why children who get RSV are later more likely to have asthmatic symptoms, Piedimonte said.
The study also found that RSV could enter the spinal cord via peripheral nerves despite not having the ability to enter the spinal neurons directly. More research is needed to explore that mechanism, but Piedimonte theorizes that by using the peripheral nerves to enter the spinal cord, RSV can bypass the blood-brain barrier, enter the central nervous system and infect the brain.
If confirmed, it could signal a connection between RSV and other neurological or developmental disorders, Piedimonte said.
“If indeed it’s confirmed in future studies that viruses like this are able to access the central nervous system, that opens a huge Pandora’s box,” Piedimonte said.
Co-authors on the study include Tulane University researchers Kevin Pollard, Vicki Traina-Dorge, Stephen Medearis, Alexander Bosak, Greg Bix and Michael Moore.