The Guardian Health

Canadian healthcare staff decry ‘cruel hoax’ after scam email promises paid day off

Unions condemn ‘insensitive’ internal cybersecurity test sent to healthcare workers in Newfoundland and LabradorFor years, healthcare staff in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador have felt overworked and under-appreciated. Turnover, burnout and thinning resources were pushing workers in the sector to a breaking point.So when the email titled “June Holiday” arrived in thousands of inboxes, they felt a moment of overdue joy. Continue reading...

health  Jun 22, 2026

The Guardian Health

Brown skuas and giant petrels rarely make landfall. When they were found in WA, scientists feared ‘bad news’ for wildlife

Experts thought H5N1 bird flu would more likely reach Australia’s north. But an arrival from Antarctica had always been possibleGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastBrown skuas and giant petrels are a common sight offshore in southern Australian waters in the winter months, but they will rarely risk venturing on to land.So when two of these birds were discovered sick – on beaches a few kilometres apart on Western Australia’s southern coastline – it was a sign something migh

health  Jun 22, 2026

The Guardian Health

‘Truly horrific’: the stories of five people affected by the NHS maternity scandal

Some see publication of the Nottingham report as a landmark moment, others as bittersweet and traumaticThe long-awaited report into maternity failures at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS trust (NUH), the largest investigation of its kind involving about 2,500 families, will be published later this week.Led by the senior midwife Donna Ockenden, the inquiry investigated stillbirths, neonatal deaths, maternal deaths and babies or mothers who suffered brain damage and other injuries between 2012

health  Jun 22, 2026

The Guardian Health

Is it true that … beards are unhygienic?

People assume that those with facial hair are more likely to harbour bacteria on their faces than the clean-shaven – but the truth is more tangledThe idea that beards are dirtier than clean-shaven faces has been floating around for decades, says John Tregoning, professor of vaccine immunology at Imperial College London. There is even research that shows people perceive bearded men as less hygienic: one study found restaurant customers rated waiters with facial hair as dirtier. Sci

health  Jun 22, 2026

The Guardian Health

Report on Nottingham NHS maternity scandal to reveal ‘horrendous’ failings

Insider indicates Ockenden inquiry has uncovered appalling behaviour including racism toward mothersThe report of the inquiry into the biggest maternity scandal in NHS history will outline “horrendous” failings in the care provided to women in Nottingham, the Guardian can reveal.A catalogue of appalling behaviour over many years by staff at the city’s two hospitals – Queen’s Medical Centre and Nottingham City hospital – included racism towards mothers, it will say. Continue reading...

health  Jun 22, 2026

The Guardian Health

I disagree with Andy Burnham’s politics. But as former health secretaries, we both know the NHS needs to be fixed | Jeremy Hunt

As prime minister, he would have a unique chance to turn the world’s most bureaucratic health service into its most innovative oneIf Andy Burnham moves from Manchester to No 10, he will be the first prime minister to have been health secretary in the history of the NHS. What might that mean for the troubled service? His commitment to social care is well known. But when the Treasury tells him there is no money, he is going to have to think hard about how to make his mark.The UK now spends the fif

health  Jun 22, 2026

The Guardian Health

Jeremy Clarkson says he’s in remission from prostate cancer: ‘The doctors caught it early’

Former Top Gear host urges others to get tested after revealing diagnosis in fifth season of Clarkson’s FarmJeremy Clarkson says he is officially in remission from prostate cancer, less than a week after revealing he had an “aggressive” form of the disease in the final episodes of Clarkson’s Farm’s fifth season, which were filmed in 2025.“I am without a doubt, officially, the world’s luckiest man,” said the former Top Gear presenter in an interview with the Sunday Times. Continue reading...

health  Jun 22, 2026

The Guardian Health

The Guardian view on nicotine: we shouldn’t buy the idea of addiction without harm | Editorial

The UN is set to review the legal status of nicotine. An outright ban would go too far, but there is no case for its easy availabilityThe health case for banning cigarettes is ironclad. As the then head of the World Health Organization, Gro Harlem Brundtland, put it in 2000, “a cigarette is the only consumer product which when used as directed kills its consumer”. Smoking is still the leading cause of preventable death worldwide. Many countries, including the UK, have taken strong meas

health  Jun 21, 2026

The Guardian Health

How much preventive health screening should I be getting?

Screenings can find treatable conditions before they’ve caused too much damage – but ‘overscreening’ can cause harmI couldn’t help but roll my eyes when tech entrepreneur and longevity influencer Bryan Johnson posted about his girlfriend’s “vaginal microbiome report” in April. (He said it was in the “top 1% of vaginas”.) While the vaginal microbiome is genuinely interesting, most clinicians don’t routinely recommend this test to patients.As medical technology has become more powerful – and more

health  Jun 21, 2026

The Guardian Health

Lives are being ruined by undiagnosed hypermobility and lack of treatment | Letter

Ignorance around hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is a public health catastrophe, say readers in response to an article on how sufferers have to wait 21 years for a diagnosisYour coverage of hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) is a vital start to addressing a systemic public health catastrophe (UK hypermobility sufferers wait up to 21 years for diagnosis, study suggests, 15 June). I am 34 and a former drama student who is unable to build any career as hEDS dismantled my life. The co

health  Jun 21, 2026

The Guardian Health

‘A genuine wildlife emergency’: everything you need to know about the arrival of H5 bird flu in Australia

What is the virus? Where did it come from? Are humans at risk? What does it mean for wildlife and the agriculture sector? Experts answer your questionsGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA deadly strain of bird flu, known as H5 bird flu, has arrived on the Australian mainland.The federal agriculture minister, Julie Collins, this weekend confirmed that a brown skua – that had been found sick in Western Australia – had died from the H5N1 virus. The skua is a wild migratory b

health  Jun 21, 2026

The Guardian Health

The real reason a hantavirus disaster was averted | Letters

Dr Matthew Dryden praises an astute doctor and the value of teamwork across continents. Plus a letter from Dr Brian JonesDevi Sridhar writes about some of the global public health responses to the outbreak of hantavirus centred on the MV Hondius, but her conclusions as to how the world avoided another global outbreak failed to recognise the real reason disaster was averted (Right now, we could be living through a hantavirus disaster. The world avoided that, and this is why, 15 June).The UK Overs

health  Jun 19, 2026

The Guardian Health

Emergency medicine is in crisis – why is this allowed to continue? | Letters

Dr Carole Gavin says if the government fails to act it will bear the responsibility for yet more avoidable deaths, while Sarah Brown describes her mother’s experienceThe experience of working in A&E described by Sophie (Patients are dying in A&E corridors – but I’ve seen how things could be different, 11 June) will be familiar to every member of staff working in a UK emergency department. Not only are patients dying on our corridors with no privacy or dignity due to lack of space and hos

health  Jun 19, 2026

The Guardian Health

Elizabeth Greenhall obituary

My friend Liz Greenhall, who has died aged 83, was a consultant in public health who was responsible for family planning services in Oxfordshire. Her work broke new ground in the provision of healthcare for young women and marginalised groups, and included the institution of “Bodyzone” clinics in schools, where pupils had direct access to advice on a range of health issues including providing contraception.In 2000 the Faculty of Family Planning and Reproductive Healthcare (now known as the Colle

health  Jun 19, 2026

The Guardian Health

I’m a critical care doctor. I’ve never seen the US harm its children this deliberately | Robert B Shpiner

At every stage of childhood, the Trump administration is withdrawing a protection. It is also dismantling the tools that would measure the harmA newborn’s first hours in a US hospital used to carry a quiet set of guarantees. A vitamin K injection against catastrophic bleeding. A hepatitis B vaccination. The assumption that whatever a family could afford, the country had already decided this child was worth protecting. I have spent more than 40 years in pulmonary and critical care medicine. I hav

health  Jun 19, 2026

The Guardian Health

The hill I will die on: Food-sharing is gross without serious rules of engagement | Poorna Bell

No trying my dessert, no tasting my drink, and definitely no double-dipping. I don’t care if it makes me sound precious or a germophobeWhen I was a child, I remember the grimace on my uncle’s face when one of my sticky little cousins drank from his can of soda. He announced that he could no longer drink it because another person’s saliva had touched it. While no one said the words “germaphobe weirdo” out loud, we were all thinking it. Our shock increased as he abandoned his old can for a fresh o

health  Jun 19, 2026

The Guardian Health

Bending forwards a lot at work in early pregnancy may increase miscarriage risk, study suggests

More walking and standing in the workplace also associated with higher risk, according to Danish researchBending forwards and walking a lot at work in the early stages of pregnancy may increase the risk of miscarriage, a study suggests.Miscarriage affects about 15% of women. Risk factors include parental age, smoking, night shift work and exposure to air pollution and various chemical compounds. Continue reading...

health  Jun 18, 2026

The Guardian Health

CDC to tap $107m in emergency funding for Ebola response in the DRC and Uganda

Number of people infected now tops 1,000 though health officials say the global risk remains lowSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will tap $107m in emergency funding for Ebola outbreak response in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda, officials said on Thursday.The continued Ebola outbreak in the DRC comes as Canada, Mexico and the US jointly host the Fifa World Cup, attracting visitors from around the world. T

health  Jun 18, 2026

The Guardian Health

Social media ban: saving kids or punishing them? | Letters

Dr Rory Conn says the ban is long overdue to protect children from harm, but 16-year-old Clara O‘Grady says social media is not an isolated section of teenagers’ lives that can easily be removed. Plus letters from Dr Peter Jarrett and Tony SideThis week marks a positive moment for public health and for the wellbeing of children and adolescents. Hearing Keir Starmer’s announcement proposing a ban on social media for under-16s, I felt an optimism I have not experienced for years regarding the ment

health  Jun 18, 2026

The Guardian Health

Irish parliament votes to remove three-day abortion wait

Waiting period before receiving medication was included in draft law to gain support for abortion ban in 2018 referendumIreland’s parliament has voted to remove a mandatory three-day wait for abortion during early pregnancy after campaigners said the rule was an unnecessary restriction.The Dáil passed the bill on Wednesday night, clearing a path for the legislation to go to a parliamentary committee and become law later this, or next, year. Continue reading...

health  Jun 18, 2026