Doctors are being told to adopt a new policy of writing letters that are easier for patients to understand. The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges says too often correspondence contains complex medical jargon rather than plain and simple English. Using the phrase "twice daily" to explain the dosing of a medicine is better than the Latin abbreviation "bd", for example. Patients should ask their local hospital to comply, the academy says.
HIV positive patients taking a cocktail of pills each day to manage the disease may soon be able to switch to a monthly injection following successful trials. Currently most people infected with HIV take a combination of three or more tablets per day to prevent the virus replicating and triggering Aids. But in clinical trials an injection of two anti-retroviral drugs - cabotegravir and rilpirivine - was found to be just as effective as the standard treatment.
The heatwave is being blamed for record numbers of people going to A&E in England in July. As temperatures soared, attendances reached more than 2.1 million - the highest since records began in 2010. The number of patients waiting more than a year for non-urgent surgery also rose to their highest point in more than six years, at 3,517.This is despite a pledge in 2014 by the then Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to end the "unacceptable" waits.
Private bowel cancer screening in England is to start earlier, at age 50, Public Health England has announced. It said evidence showed that screening people at a younger age would allow more bowel cancers to be picked up at an earlier stage. Currently, men and women in England are first invited for screening at the age of 60 and sent a home testing kit. The change brings England in line with Scotland where bowel screening is automatically offered from 50.
A jab that protects against a virus that causes cervical cancer will be given to boys aged 12 to 13 in England.
The BBC reports that a drug to treat malaria - the first such pill to get approval in 60 years - has been given the green light by authorities in the United States. The medicine is specifically for the recurring form of malaria, which makes 8.5 million people ill each year.
Preparing for a holiday can be exciting, but it is also vital that you focus on your health
The BBC reports that a little-known sexually transmitted infection could become the next superbug unless people become more vigilant. Mycoplasma genitalium (MG) often has no symptoms but can cause pelvic inflammatory disease, which can leave some women infertile
Health officials have declared a “national measles incident” after a five-fold rise in cases over the past year
