Prof Ashley Brown, a consultant at St Mary's, expressed the challenges of balancing clinical responsibilities with rehearsals, stating, 'singing is good for the heart.' He believes that 'everyone should sing more often' and suggested that singing could be prescribed on the NHS to cure various ills.
Air pollution is the second-largest risk factor for early death globally. Traditionally, our response has focused on reducing the levels of pollution people breathe, but this is only part of the story.
The emergency department at Michael Garron Hospital was built to care for about 150 patients a day, but now sees more than 300 patients daily, amounting to about 107,000 patients last year in a space designed for 50,000 annually.
I am open-minded; I believe in integrative practices, and I agree that the medical establishment can be arrogant and unduly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry, which now funds so much of medical research. But I fully understand Scherer's frustration with his interminable discussions with Kennedy about scientific articles.
The U.S. is no longer part of the World Health Organization. After the Trump administration declared its intention to pull the country out of the global public health agency one year ago, on Thursday it formally followed through, ending its commitment to the organization after 78 years. Withdrawing the U.S. from the WHO was one of Trump's day one priorities. Now, after the required one year notice period, the deed is done.
Risks of outbreaks with pandemic potential rise with increasing land-use change, biodiversity loss and climate change. The Pandemic Agreement adopted by the World Health Assembly in 2025 marks a historic shift that establishes the One Health approach as a legally binding obligation for pandemic prevention.
Because of budget cuts, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has ended clinical services at seven of its public health clinic sites. As of Feb. 27, the county is no longer providing services such as vaccinations, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, or tuberculosis diagnosis and specialty TB care at the affected locations, according to county officials and a department fact sheet.
The World Health Organization announced in late January that six European countries: the United Kingdom, Spain, Austria, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan had all officially lost their measles elimination status, which means the virus has been circulating continuously in those countries for more than 12 months.
In 2026, the US healthcare system is changing. Enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies have expired, causing premiums for marketplace plans to spike - and pricing some families out of health insurance entirely. President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act will reduce coverage for some patients with Medicaid and funding for hospitals, especially those in rural areas. Costs for Medicare and private insurance are also rising: Employer-based healthcare premiums have increased by 9%, the largest rise in more than a decade.
If you're based in the United States, you've probably gotten used to government bodies issuing nationwide alerts - including ones that relate to public health. These have, historically, been good ways for health-conscious people to know what to look out for and for regional public health experts to develop strategies to help keep potential outbreaks contained.Unfortunately, now both individuals and institutions are reckoning with a big question: what to do when those warnings are much smaller in number?
Perhaps the most significant milestone was the adoption by WHO Member States of the Pandemic Agreement, a landmark step towards making the world safer from future pandemics. Alongside this, amendments to the International Health Regulations came into force, including a new pandemic emergency alert level designed to trigger stronger global cooperation. And to sustainably finance the WHO's work, governments in a historic show of support increased their contributions to our core budget.
If you're smoking three packs of cigarettes a day, should you expect society to pay when you get sick?" He added that while Americans would always have the right to "eat donuts all day," nevertheless, "should you then expect society to care for you when you predictably get very sick at the same level as somebody who was born with a congenital illness?
Being overweight doesn't just make people more susceptible to chronic illnesses such as heart disease and diabetesit might also increase their risk of severe influenza and other infections, a new study confirms. The study, published today in the Lancet, suggests that people with obesity may be more susceptible to death and hospitalization from a variety of infections caused by viruses, fungi, parasites and bacteria.
Everything is changing, and in the face of that, America is failing. Over 90,000 souls have paid for our failing. Millions more are living in terror for their livelihoods and their families. But Covid-19 isn't a technology problem, or a science question, or a supply chain issue, or even a question of doctoring. This challenge is public health, and that is something we've been failing at for a damn long time.
There is little doubt that this is what African countries need if they are serious about universal health coverage - ensuring that every member of their populations has access to this fundamental human right. But such an approach has never been implemented in Africa. Some of the reasons for this are outlined in a report on health financing by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the continent's public-health agency based in Addis Ababa, published last week (see go.nature.com/3o9wxfc).
