Short answer is .. no. In the NEJM on 27th April, Pittet et al, reported a RCT of BCG vaccination, in an attempt to prevent COVID-19. In addition to protecting against its target disease, tuberculosis, the bacille Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine has immunomodulatory ‘off-target’; effects that may protect against unrelated infections. The BCG vaccine has […]
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In the Lancet recently Bellary et al, 2023 has stressed the benefits of SGLT2 inhibitors in the elderly. Sodium glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors were initially licensed as glucose lowering agents for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Subsequent studies, aimed primarily at showing cardiovascular and renal safety, reported other benefits, including reductions in […]
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In the BMJ Rimmer, 2023 has noted important differences between the personalities of doctors, their patients, and the general population. In a paper published in BMJ Open, Australian researchers found that doctors were significantly more agreeable, conscientious, extroverted, and neurotic than the general population, but that patients were more open than doctors. The researchers […]
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Women in labour should be offered an alternative to an epidural spinal block injection, say new draft guidelines for the NHS. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is recommending Remifentanil, which is a fast-acting morphine-like drug given into a vein. Women control the medication themselves, by pressing a button to get more […]
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Roughly 38,000 deaths involved COVID-19 in 2022, compared to more than 95,000 in 2020. Before the pandemic, England and Wales, along with other countries, would ‘accept” between 10,000 and 25,000 deaths a year caused by influenza. And it is arguable that countries opening up and living largely as if the pandemic is not ongoing, […]
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Schmid and colleagues have debated this issue again in the BMJ this month. International guidelines for sciatica recommend a stepped care approach starting with conservative management (ie, physiotherapy and medication), escalating to steroid injections, then surgery when non-surgical treatment has failed or when major radicular weakness is present. Unfortunately, evidence on the effectiveness […]
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Nurses are set to walk out again for 48 hours, from 8pm on Sunday, April 30th to 8pm on Tuesday, May 2nd. Union members rejected a pay deal on Friday (April 14th), sparking concerns that more strikes could be on the way. In the ballot, 61 per cent of eligible members voted, with 54 […]
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Five people in England have died from the new COVID variant dubbed Arcturus, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has confirmed. The latest technical briefing on COVID variants in England states that 105 sequenced cases of XBB.1.16 have been identified – 54 were men, 50 women, and one person whose gender was not recorded. […]
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High waits for treatment are not new. Prior to the pandemic in February 2020 there were already 4.4 million people on a waiting list for care. At the beginning of the pandemic, the combination of suspension of non-urgent services and changes to individuals’ behaviour meant that the number of people joining the waiting list […]
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The BMJ has recently noted the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) announcing a new regulatory framework. This aims to make it faster to run (and gain approval for) clinical trials in the UK (Wise, 2023). The government hopes that the changes will stem the recent (perhaps Brexit-related) decline in clinical research initiated […]
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