Tag: UK

Mystery hepatitis surge in children in the UK causing liver failure

Ricky Scaparo – April 15, 2022

Parents have been urged to be on the lookout for signs of hepatitis in kids after 74 cases were detected in the UK. The condition can, in serious cases, lead to liver failure and experts have not yet pinned down the reason for the mysterious outbreak.

Prof Graham Cooke, NIHR Research Professor of Infectious Diseases, Imperial College London explained that hepatitis is a broad term to describe inflammation of the liver.

He said that this could be down to a range of issues – such as a virus of exposure to a toxic substance, including alcohol and some medications. “Globally, the most important causes are viruses that have adapted to infect the liver. “Early tests appear to have excluded these as a cause in the hepatitis currently under investigation.

So far, there have been 60 cases in England and 11 in Scotland of unexplained hepatitis, or liver inflammation, since the start of the year, most of them in children who are 2 to 5 years old. Case numbers in Wales and Northern Ireland haven’t been released.

Although no child has died, a “small number” have needed a liver transplant, said the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) on 8 April. This means they will have to take drugs that suppress the immune system for the rest of their lives, which will leave them at risk of infections.

Hepatitis is often associated with specific pathogens, such as the hepatitis C virus, but it can be triggered by many other things. There have previously been small clusters of cases caused by the hepatitis A virus, which can be spread by fecal contamination of food or water.

The hepatitis viruses A to E have all been ruled out in the current outbreak, though. Finding the cause will require carefully investigating every case to see if they have factors in common, says Graham Cooke, an infectious disease specialist at Imperial College London.

https://endtimeheadlines.org

UK reports first HUMAN case of deadly bird flu strain in SW England, Thousands of animals may be culled as ‘biggest ever’ outbreak sweeps country

Ricky Scaparo – January 6, 2022

The first human case of a deadly strain of bird flu in the UK has been detected in a person living in the South West of England as the country faces its largest-ever outbreak in animals, health officials have said.

According to Daily Mail, Britain’s ‘patient zero’ caught the H5N1 virus after ‘very close and regular contact with a large number of infected birds which they kept in and around their home, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).

It is the first-ever human case of H5N1 — which kills up to half of the people it infects — recorded in the UK and fewer than 1,000 people have ever been diagnosed with the strain globally since it emerged in the late 1990s. According to the Guardian, Bird-to-human transmission of avian flu is very rare and has occurred only a small number of times in the UK previously.

The UKHSA said only a small number of contacts were involved, all of whom were professionals working as part of the incident management team. All contacts of the person, including those who visited the premises, had been traced and there was no evidence of onward spread of the infection to anyone else, it said.

The infected person is well and self-isolating, and the risk to the wider public from avian flu remains very low. Prof Isabel Oliver, the chief scientific officer at UKHSA, said: “Currently there is no evidence that this strain detected in the UK can spread from person to person, but we know that viruses evolve all the time and we continue to monitor the situation closely.

We have followed up on all of this individual’s contacts and have not identified any onward spread. SCMP warned that the UK Health Security Agency emphasized that “people should not touch sick or dead birds”.

England is in the grip of its largest outbreak ever of H5N1 virus, which causes most cases of bird flu. England has reported 63 cases confirmed since November, and at least a million birds have been culled, mostly at poultry farms, BBC News reported on Wednesday.

https://endtimeheadlines.org

France orders lockdown… for domestic fowl over bird-flu threat

RT – November 5, 2021

The French Agriculture Ministry has ordered the country’s poultry farmers to keep their fowl indoors to prevent the potential spread of a highly contagious bird-flu strain via migratory birds.

The ministry published the order in the French official journal on Thursday, citing the “rising infection rate in migratory corridors” as a sufficient reason to consider the potential infection risk “high” across the country.

The measure is aimed at protecting farms, as no cases in humans have been reported so far. The ministry announced the move after a highly contagious H5 strain of bird flu was discovered at a farm in the neighboring Netherlands. The discovery prompted a cull of 36,000 birds as part of the Dutch authorities’ precautionary measures. The Netherlands then also introduced a “lockdown” for poultry on its territory

The UK declared a nationwide Avian Influenza Prevention Zone on Wednesday, demanding farmers toughen their infection prevention measures, but stopping short of ordering them to keep fowl indoors. The move followed the discovery of several bird-flu cases in wild birds in the UK.

“Since the beginning of August, 130 bird-flu cases or clusters have been detected in wild animals or on farms in Europe,” the French ministry said on Thursday, adding that the list included at least three cases among domestic birds in northeastern France. The three bird flu outbreaks detected in France were related to the H5N8 strain.

The avian flu strain, H5N1, is notorious for its high mortality rate of around 60% in humans, and is contracted via contact with the excretions of infected birds. The World Health Organization still considers the risk of its human-to-human transmission to be “low.”

https://www.newsmax.com

Woman with Down Syndrome Loses Challenge to UK Eugenic Abortion Law

Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D. – September 24, 2021

A British court decided Thursday against a young woman with Down syndrome who challenged a law permitting the abortion of children with her condition up to birth.

While abortions in England, Wales, and Scotland are forbidden after 24 weeks of pregnancy, an exception is made when there is “a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped,” in which case abortion may be performed at any time before birth.

Heidi Crowter, a 26-year-old woman with Down syndrome who lives on her own and recently got married, called the legislation “offensive” and together with two others took the Department of Health and Social Care to the UK High Court, contending that a provision of the 1967 Abortion Act is discriminatory and violates the European Convention on Human Rights.

During the two-day hearing of the case in July, Jason Coppel QC, representing the petitioners, told the court that Down syndrome is the single most common justification for “late-term abortions” under the Abortion Act.

In their decision, two senior judges, Lord Justice Rabinder Singh and Mrs. Justice Nathalie Lieven, dismissed the case, arguing that not all mothers will want to carry a pregnancy to term if they believe the child will be born with disabilities.

“The evidence before the court powerfully shows that there will be some families who positively wish to have a child, even knowing that it will be born with severe disabilities,” they said. “But the evidence is also clear that not every family will react in that way.”

“The evidence is also clear that, although scientific developments have improved and earlier identification may be feasible, there are still conditions which will only be identified late in a pregnancy, after 24 weeks,” the judges said.

During the hearing of the case, Crowter told reporters that the law was “out of date.”

https://www.breitbart.com

UK govt launches immediate investigation into sexual abuse in schools, after 11,000 alleged victims post testimonies online

RT – March 31, 2021

An immediate review of safeguarding policies in British state and independent schools will be launched, the government has announced, following the online posting of thousands of reports of sexual abuse.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Department for Education said it had asked the UK’s education watchdog, Ofsted, to look at “the extent and the severity of the issue”, and ensure the correct practices are in place to support potential victims.

The review will be carried out by the end of May and will involves the police, as well as representatives from social services, victim support groups and schools.

A new helpline, run by the NSPCC, the UK’s leading children’s charity, will also go live from Thursday to support young people and help them report sexual abuse in school to the police, the department said.

The scale of the problem facing British schools has been laid bare in recent weeks, as more than 11,500 testimonies of rape, sexual violence and abuse were posted to the website Everyone’s Invited.

“ Sexual abusein any form is abhorrent, and it is vital that these allegations are dealt with properly,” UK Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said in response to the deluge of allegations of abuse.

While the review is to focus on state-run and independent schools, in recent weeks, the spotlight has also been thrown on alleged serial abuse in private institutions that don’t have existing formal co-operation networks with police.

https://www.rt.com

Historical Epidemic Making a Scary Comeback Due to a Bacterial ‘Clone’

Ricky Scaparo – October 10, 2020

(ETH) – A deadly pathogen called scarlet fever was once the leading cause of death for children across the western world and was nearly eradicated thanks to 20th-century medicine but new outbreaks of it have surfaced in the UK and North East Asia over recent years suggesting we’ve still got a long way to go

The reason we are experiencing a resurgence of this deadly pathogen still remains a mystery. However, a new study has reportedly uncovered clues in the genome of one of the bacterial strains responsible, showing just how complex the family tree of infectious diseases can be.

According to the report from Science Alert, The species behind the illness is group A strep, or Streptococcus pyogenes; which is a ball-shaped microbe that can churn out toxic compounds called superantigens, that are capable of wreaking havoc inside the body. Especially in children. Results of this in the body can cause mild symptoms such as a bad rash and be as severe as causing a toxic shock that causes organs to fail.

With the invention of antibiotics, outbreaks could easily be managed before they got out of hand. By the 1940s, the disease was well on the way out but this looks to be changing. “After 2011, the global reach of the pandemic became evident with reports of a second outbreak in the UK,

beginning in 2014, and we’ve now discovered outbreak isolates here in Australia,” says the University of Queensland molecular biologist Stephan Brouwer. “This global re-emergence of scarlet fever has caused a more than five-fold increase in disease rate and more than 600,000 cases around the world.”

https://endtimeheadlines.org

EU launches legal action against UK over Brexit bill

DW – October 1, 2020

The European Union launched a legal case against the United Kingdom on Thursday for a “breach of the good faith articles in the Withdrawal Agreement.”

The action is due to the UK’s new Internal Market Bill that undercuts the British government’s earlier legal commitments as part of the agreement, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

“We had invited our British friends to remove the problematic parts of their draft Internal Market Bill by the end of September,” von der Leyen said. “The deadline lapsed yesterday.”

London has one month in which to respond to the formal letter of complaint submitted by the Commission. The EU’s executive branch will then assess the answer before considering further action.

If the Commission deems the response to be unsatisfactory it then has the option of suing at the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice.

Von der Leyen said it was “the first step in an infringement procedure.” A draft “letter of formal notice” has been finalized, meaning legal action is imminent.

The choice of words “leaves some wiggle room to walk this back,” said DW Brussels correspondent Barbara Wesel. “Negotiations about a trade deal are still going on, but they are not going well… and a trade deal cannot come into force if the Internal Market Bill passes.”

Michael Gove, the UK minister handling Brexit divorce issues, said “differences still remain” between Britain and the EU in trade talks, but that some advances had been made after the ninth round of negotiations between the two parties took place this week.

“We made progress in a number of areas and specialized committees will meet in the coming weeks, in order to conclude further work,” Gove told parliament.

https://www.dw.com

Abortions Set for Another Record High in England and Wales

– September 18, 2020

Almost 110,000 abortions were carried out on residents of England and Wales between January and June this year, the Government has revealed.

Figures released by the Department for Health and Social Care indicated there had been an increase of more than 4,000 on the same period last year.

In the whole of last year, 207,384 abortions were carried out on residents, but pro-life campaigners say 2020 looks “set to eclipse 2019’s total”.

The number of abortions rose sharply in April, 4,500 more than the previous year, after the Government introduced ‘DIY’ home abortions at the end of March.

Under the rules, women can take both pills required for an abortion at home up to ten weeks, following a conversation with a doctor.

There has been a subsequent uptake in medical abortions, rising from 72 per cent of all abortions between January and June 2019 to 82 per cent over the same period this year.

Right to Life UK’s Catherine Robinson called the findings a “national tragedy”.

She said: “Every one of these abortions represents a failure of our society to protect the lives of babies in the womb and a failure to offer full support to women with unplanned pregnancies.

“This year we’ve come together as a nation and made great sacrifices to protect the vulnerable from Covid-19.

“Sadly, at the very same time as protecting one group of vulnerable people, we as society have also ended thousands of young vulnerable lives through abortion.”

https://christiannews.net

UK-EU Post-Brexit Talks: There’s Just 30% Chance of Clinching Trade Deal, British Media Says

– September 4, 2020

In late July, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier blamed Britain for failing to show a “due level of engagement” in the post-Brexit trade talks between Brussels and London.

Senior UK government officials were quoted by The Times as saying on Friday that there is only 30% to 40% chance that Britain and the EU will conclude a trade agreement before the end of this year.

The officials pointed to the current impasse in the talks over state aid rules-related issues.

The British government has repeatedly refused to comply with state aid rules, insisting that Brexit’s essence stipulates the UK alone deciding its own regulations.

Also adding pessimism over the EU-UK trade deal is UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s recent proposal aimed at British fishermen doubling the volume of their catch from the country’s coastal waters.

Brussels responded by rejecting the proposal which it claimed would result in the loss of one in three fishing boats in Europe.

The British officials’ reported prediction comes a few weeks after EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier voiced his disappointment and concern about the latest round of post-Brexit talks between Brussels and London, saying that “the British negotiators have not shown any real willingness to move forward”.

Barnier added that in order to get a deal, Britain should come with “clear and constructive proposals” during the next round of talks scheduled for 7 September in London.

At the same time, the EU chief negotiator said that some progress on technical issues had been made during the talks which must be concluded to have the full legal text be ready by October.

The two sides currently remain at odds over the post-Brexit trade talks as Barnier and his UK counterpart David Frost blame each other for the stalemate.

https://sputniknews.com

Too Soon to Say Brexit Will Lead to EU Breakup But It’ll Have Huge Impact on Bloc’s Economy – Expert

Sputnik News – June 25, 2020

According to statements made public in the British press, the European Union is afraid of being left “fighting for its survival” if the UK secures a strong trade deal at the end of the Brexit transition.

The news follows tense negotiations between Britain and the EU over the level of trade relations they will have once the Brexit transition ends in December. Sputnik has spoken to political commentator Keith Rowe to give more insight into the matter.

Sputnik: How significant are these reported fears from Brussels that the EU will be left fighting for its survival if the UK secures a decent trade deal? What do they represent in your eyes?

Keith Rowe: When you say decent trade deal, do you mean a decent trade deal with the EU? Well, I would have thought that’s in the EU’s advantage if we get a decent trade deal. They want to keep us on side. We buy a lot of stuff, of all types, from the EU. It’s in their interests for us to have a deal.

The point is they wanted it to be as strongly biased in their favour as they can get and I think the British position is that we just want a straightforward, Canada++ style trade deal.

That’s in their best interests, I suspect that they won’t be able to agree with that and unless they really knock some heads together very, very quickly and realise that they’ve got to compromise strongly I suspect that, while it might be in their interests to have a good trade deal with the UK, that they won’t achieve one in time for us to leave. They might achieve one after, but they won’t achieve one in time for us to leave.

https://sputniknews.com