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Welcome to this week’s myHSN Week in Health – a round-up of the biggest health news this week, and what it means for you
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Nurses announce further strikes
Male contraceptive pill shows promise
Weight loss jab to hit UK high streets
NHS urges more women to undergo breast cancer screening
Baby receives ‘most expensive’ drug, life-saving gene therapy
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Nurses announce further strikes
Credit. Pexels
What?
Strike action continues to rumble on in the NHS as nurses announce a fresh wave of strikes. In its biggest walkout so far, a 48-hour strike has been announced to take place 1-3 March. In a further step, nurses will strike in core services, including staff from A&E, intensive care and chemotherapy units.
Why?
Nurses are requesting a pay rise 5% above inflation to make up for years of below-inflation pay rises. Nurses have been worse off year-on-year as salaries lag behind living costs.
How (does it affect you)?
During strike days, appointments may be cancelled and may or may not be rescheduled. Ring ahead of these dates to rearrange your outpatient appointment.
It is difficult to predict the impact on core services like A&E. Nurses from non-striking unions are planned for reployment to these areas, with striking RCN nurses being lined up as back-up cover if a ‘safe’ service cannot be guaranteed. Of course, this undermines the strike effort, but maintaining these core services is necessary to avoid loss of life.
See if your local hospital or trust is affected by walkouts here.
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Male contraceptive pill shows promise
What?
A new contraceptive pill aimed at men has seen promising initial results in mice. The new pill disables a protein in sperm that ‘dectivates’ the sperm cell. This in turn makes it unable to swim and therefore unable to make contact with the egg during sex, preventing formation of a pregnancy.
Why?
The male contraceptive pill has long been seen as a logical step to prevent pregnancy. This would remove the need for condoms or women taking a contraceptive pill.
Significant hurdles exist in the quest for a male contraceptive pill. The female contraceptive pill has side effects, but given its long-established use, introduction of a male pill is often thought to be an unpopular prospect. There has been significant lack of progress in the development of a male contraceptive pill that ensures only temporary contraception, and with no short or long term negative effects on sexual desire.
How (does it affect you)?
This pill has only been studied in mice models and is a long way off human experimentation. More development is needed, especially given its duration of effect is measured in ‘hours’ when sperm can live in the female reproductive system for days after sexual intercourse.
Spearately, this pill may offer the first unisex contraceptive pill, that is, used by men or women. This is built on the idea that the pill could also be taken by women to disable sperm after sex, and in turn avoid the hormonal effects of the conventional ‘pill’. More research is clearly necessary.
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Weight loss jab to hit UK high streets
What?
A weight loss drug given by injection is to be introduced onto UK high streets in the coming months. Wegovy™ (semaglutide) is to be sold on prescription in UK high street chemists as a weight loss solution. Patients will underego an in-house consultation with a prescriber to ensure the treatment is right for them. Monthly prices have not been confirmed, but typically are around £150-200 per month when prescribed privately.
Why?
You may have read or seen Ozempic® on social media, having taken TikTok by storm with over 350 million hashtags. Ozempic is another brand of semaglutide produced by a different drug company. Indeed we covered it here at myHSN, stating the risks of buying medicines as part of an online trend, leading to shortages for those who need it for type 2 diabetes.
Semaglutide is effective for weight loss, however the effects often last only as long as the drug is taken. Additionally, most effective use is gained when accompanied by adequate diet and exercise. Side effects can be mild, but can be as serious as pancreatitis or even an increased risk of cancer. A full list can be found here.
How (does it affect you)?
Can I get a prescription for Wegovy? Yes, but currently only privately. With rollout onto the high streets, certain criteria will need to be met. These will include a minimum weight and an expectation that all other reasonable measures to lose weight have been tried already. The cynical view of course is that as long as a story of long term trouble with weight loss is heard by the prescriber, the drug should be available.
Ultimately, this decision should be taken with the assistance of your GP to decide whether it is safe for you. While Wegovy or Ozempic do represent a feasible and quick way to shed pounds, the path to long-term ideal health lies in the combination of a balanced diet, exercise and lifestyle modification. If it sounds too good to be true…?
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NHS urges more women to undergo breast cancer screening
Credit. Pexels
What?
NHS England is urging more women to take NHS breast cancer screening invites in a large national push. Women aged between 50 and 53 are urged to look out for their first screening invitation in the post and follow instructions to book an appointment at their local screening service.
Why?
While 1.97 million attended a screening appointment last year, this was out of over 3 million invites. This means the service is being vastly underused, and many thousands of breast cancers may have been missed.
Breast cancer is a curable disease when detected early. The breast cancer screening programme involves an X-ray of the breasts to detect changes that could represent cancer. Any suspicious findings will mean an invitation for further investigations.
How (does it affect you)?
If you are aged 50-53 years old, this directly affects you, and you urged to accept the invitation to breast cancer screening. This will allow any early changes that may be cancerous to be picked up.
If you are over 53 and have not received an invitation, call your GP or local screening service to check an appointment has been made for you. If you are a trans man or non-binary, and not registered as female at your GP practice, you may have been overlooked by the automated system. In this case it is important to chase your GP or local service to ensure a screening appointment is made for you.
Additionally, women of all ages and urged to ‘TLC’, touch, look and check, for lumps in their breasts, and report any suspicious findings with their GP.
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Baby receives ‘most expensive’ drug, life-saving gene therapy
Credit. Pexels
What?
A 19-month old baby has received the formerly designated ‘most expensive drug in the world’, Libmeldy® for a rare disease called metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD) caused by a faulty gene.
Why?
The drug, priced at £2.8 million, is sold to the NHS in England at a confidential discounted fee, This is seen to represent a cure and is effective when delivered before damage from the genetic disorder has taken hold.
MLD can lead to blindness, movement disorders and brain impairment, amongst other symptoms, and is generally viewed as a terminal disease. The treatment begins with a drug that depletes the patient’s immune system to prepare for stem cell transplant – this is called conditioning. Modified stem cells are then given to the patient that rebuild the immune system, without the faulty gene. The immune system redevelops and the baby is allowed to grow up as normal.
How (does it affect you)?
This is an extremely rare disease and therefore will not affect many. However, this treatment is a clear indicator that the most advanced treatments can be cost effective on the NHS. The UK is able to negotiate prices for medicines to ensure adequate value for money.
The drug must be administered at a very young age before the effects of the faulty gene are allowed to cause damage to the baby’s body.
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As always, best wishes from myHSN!
