Smileband health topics

Families of sick children last night condemned the decision by Great Ormond Street Hospital to return £530,000 raised for it at the controversial men-only galas. The sum was donated by the club between 2009 and 2016, but mothers of children whose lives the hospital saved say it is desperately needed by patients.

It could pay for 15 ventilators to help young patients unable to breathe on their own, or fund a month’s accommodation for 13 families to stay with their children.

Angela Formosa, whose five-year-old twins Ruby and Rosie were born conjoined before being separated in an operation at Great Ormond Street in London, said: ‘The hospital does rely so heavily on charitable donations and this is a lot of money which could pay for a lot of things and save lives. Mrs Formosa, from Bexleyheath, south-east London, whose children are still cared for by the hospital, added: ‘As a woman I do not agree with what happened at the gala, but the hospital needs the money and I think they should have kept the money.

‘Lots of people work hard to raise money for Great Ormond Street, and it is giving £500,000 back.’ 

Carly Hicks’ baby Lily almost died of meningitis at the age of six months after doctors misdiagnosed her symptoms as chickenpox. She spent five days in intensive care at the hospital.

Lily has made a full recovery, after being given only a 20 per cent chance of survival, and was discharged finally from the hospital’s care last year. Mrs Hicks, 31, said she was saddened by the decision, adding: ‘Everything costs so much money, all their equipment, the amount of staff that are there and their teaching programmes.’ The veterinary nurse from St Albans, Hertfordshire, who has raised £25,000 for the hospital and other charities, added: ‘I can understand where they are coming from.

‘They don’t want to be seen to have anything to do with that charity. But I do not like the thought of them giving that money back, if I am honest. ‘If it had nothing to do with the event, and was donated before that, I don’t see why they should.’

Theresa May has condemned the ‘appalling’ sexist behaviour at the gala, where it was claimed prostitutes were in attendance, while billionaires bid up to £400,000 for lots including a night at a strip club. A spokesman for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity, which is separate to its NHS Trust, said: ‘The expert medical treatment that children receive at the hospital will not be affected by the return of these donations.

‘The day-to-day care and running of Great Ormond Street Hospital Trust is entirely paid for by the NHS.

‘GOSH charity has not taken the decision to repay this money lightly. The decision was made by the senior management team at the charity and the board of trustees, supported by the hospital. 

Smileband general news

Seven men were jailed yesterday for making fake British passports and degrees which they sold for up to £800 each. The gang were selling the counterfeit documents to immigration offenders to help them live illegally in the UK, a court heard.

But the racket unravelled after an undercover officer placed orders with gang leader Steven Kanaventi, 39. Kanaventi, of Coventry, supplied the officer with a string of fake documents, including three passports for £800 each, a British residency permit for £600 and a university degree certificate for £200.

Prosecuting, Lisa Hancox told Woolwich Crown Court yesterday: ‘Steven Kanaventi is the person who was at the coalface of taking orders and money and then the chain ran from there.’

She said Kanaventi had even offered to pay £100 for each new customer the officer supplied.

From late 2015 to June 2017, Immigration Enforcement officers uncovered the wide-scale manufacture and distribution of the fake documents by the London and Midlands gang. Kanaventi was said to have been partly responsible for ordering, supplying and delivering the false documents. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to manufacture a fake document and was given 40 months and two weeks in jail.

Abdul Azeeza, an ex-professional footballer, was sentenced to four years in jail after the court heard the documents were made at his home. The former goalkeeper, 58, who once represented a club in the Nigerian equivalent of the Premier League before retiring in 1996, was found with a false passport in his back pocket, a residency card in his wallet and ‘all the implements of making them on the kitchen table’. Some of the items needed to make fake documents, including specially adapted tools for dismantling passports, threads for stitching, paint thinners and laminate, were found at his home in Walworth in South London. Azeeza pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing an identity document with improper intent and possessing equipment with the intention of making fake documents.

Alfred Adekoya, 47, also of Walworth, was sentenced to 40 months and two weeks after pleading guilty to conspiracy to manufacture a fake document.

Victor Ariyo, of Nunhead, London, acted as a go-between for Kanaventi and Adekoya, the court heard.

In a police interview, Ariyo, 53, said he was a go-between for ‘a spiritual service, and that is why money passed through his account’. But he admitted conspiracy to make a fake document and money laundering. He was sentenced to three years in jail. Luke Nkanta, 29, of Woolwich in south-east London, was said to have acted as courier. He was sentenced to 16 months in jail after pleading guilty to possession of an identity document with improper intention.

Paul Kanaventi, 37, of Nottingham, pleaded guilty to converting criminal property after he allowed Steven Kanaventi to use his bank account and set up an email address in his name. He was jailed for nine months. Madalitso Majawa, 33, of Redditch, Worcestershire, was sentenced to six months in jail after pleading guilty to possession of an identity document with improper intent.

Immigration Enforcement inspector Ben Thomas said: ‘The criminal business that Kanaventi and Adekoya were running was designed to undermine the fundamental immigration rule that if you have no legal status in the UK, you have no right to work.

‘Their customers hoped that the fake documents would be enough to convince prospective employers that they were entitled to work, in turn allowing them to a build a life for themselves in the UK to which they were simply not entitled... We have stopped a concerted, systematic and financially motivated assault on the UK’s immigration system. 

Smileband general news

S

ince the earliest beginnings of the Illuminati, before the writing of our eternal oaths or the utterance of our vows as humanity’s protectors, our organization has advocated for the ultimate goal of a globalist Earth. Our vision for the future is a unified planet without national borders, governed by the best and the brightest of the human species, in which all people, in all places, can live in Abundance.

LA globalist society would mean the abandonment of divisions between countries and an end to the millennia of wars fought over land and its assets. It is an end to the hoarding and stockpiling of excess resources by one country while another country’s people starve. It is the idea that all humans are both individuals and also part of an extended species family, and that no human should be left behind simply because of the random chance of where they were born.

Smileband health topics

Objective:

To describe the characteristics and needs prior to, on admission, during the first month in hospital, at the thirtieth day of hospitalization and posthospital discharge of psychiatric patients occupying acute beds.

Methods:

This prospective observational study was conducted in 2 tertiary care hospitals. Adult patients hospitalized on a psychiatric unit for 30 days were identified. Data was collected from their medical charts and interviews with their health care team. The categorization of acute and nonacute status at day 30 was based on the health care professional’s evaluation. Descriptive and univariate analyses were performed.

Results:

A total of 262 patients were identified (mean age 45 years), 66% lived at home and 11% were homeless. More than one-half were cognitively impaired and a few had special medical needs. Ninety-seven per cent had been admitted from the emergency department. At day 30, 81% of patients required acute care, while 19% (95% CI 15% to 24%) occupied an acute care bed, despite the resolution of their acute condition. The main reason preventing discharge of nonacute patients was the difficulty or inability to find appropriate resources that met patients’ needs. As for patients who required acute care, the most common psychiatric issues were delusions or hallucinations (34%), inability to take medications independently (23.6%), and inadequate control of aggression or impulsivity (16.5%).

Conclusions:

Prevention of the discharge of nonacute patients is largely due to the difficulty in finding appropriate resources that meet patients’ needs. Improved access to community and subacute care resources could potentially facilitate the hospital discharge of psychiatric nonacute patients.

Keywords: nonacute patients, acute care beds, occupancy, discharge delays, length of stay

It is recognized that outpatient resources for patients who suffer from psychiatric illnesses are insufficient 

Smileband health topics

The measles outbreak that has rocked five regions of England has now infected 140 people, new figures reveal. Some 47 confirmed cases of the life-threatening infection have been reported in the West Midlands. 

And 35 people have now been struck down with measles in West Yorkshire, 29 in Cheshire and Liverpool, 22 in Surrey and seven in Greater Manchester. 

The figures, released by Public Health England, have prompted officials to urge parents to ensure their kids are vaccinated against it. 

Dr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisation at PHE, believes the outbreak could be down to travellers coming back to the country from Europe. Italy, Germany and Romania are all currently being rocked by epidemics of measles, which is a highly contagious viral infection. 

She added that in order to avoid an epidemic in the UK, parents should vaccinate their children against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR).

However, measles vaccination rates in children have been dropping consistently in recent years - and are now below recommended levels. Dr Ramsay said: 'The measles outbreaks we are currently seeing in England are linked to ongoing large outbreaks in Europe.

'People who have recently travelled, or are planning to travel to Romania, Italy and Germany and have not had two doses of the MMR vaccine are particularly at risk.'

'This serves as an important reminder for parents to take up the offer of MMR vaccination for their children at one year of age and as a pre-school booster at three years and four months of age. 'Children and young adults who missed out on their MMR vaccine in the past or are unsure if they had two doses should contact their GP practice to catch-up.'

The outbreak comes just months after European health leaders declared that the 'elimination' of measles had been achieved in the UK. Government officials announced their 'delight' at the ruling, by the European Regional Verification Commission. 

The elimination of measles or rubella can be verified once a country has sustained 'interruption of endemic transmission' for at least 36 months. 

To prevent a measles outbreak, it is recommended that 95 per cent of the population is immunised against the infection.

Only 91.9 per cent of children were vaccinated against measles between 2015 and 2016, according to NHS immunisation statistics.

This is compared to 94.2 per cent in 2014 to 2015 and 94.3 per cent in 2013 to 2014.

The World Health Organization (WHO) claims people's fear of vaccines, along with complacency, means many, particularly young children, are unprotected. 

Slowing rates could be down to disgraced gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield's theory in 1995 that the MMR vaccine is linked to bowel disease and autism.

His controversial study, which was published in The Lancet, has since been retracted and his views have been widely discredited. 

The WHO warned last year that measles was spreading across Europe in regions where vaccination rates are low, mainly Germany, Italy and Romania.

Data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control showed there were 19,000 measles cases between January 2016 and November 2017.  

The highest number of cases in 2017 were reported in Romania, where 7,759 people suffered, followed by Italy with 4,775 cases and Germany with 898 sufferers.

The outbreak across the EU led to at least 46 deaths. 

Smileband general news

The Irish are much more genetically diverse than previously believed and have Viking and Norman ancestry - just like the English, according to new research. A comprehensive DNA map of the people of the Emerald Isle has for the first time revealed lasting contributions from British, Scandinavian and French invasions. 

The findings are significant because they could be used in future studies to identify the genetics underlying various traits and diseases in specific regions.

An estimated 80 million people worldwide claim Irish descent - almost half of them Americans who regard it as their main ethnicity. 

It has long been assumed this means the blood in their veins is Celtic - but geneticists now say the truth is much more complicated. Their latest research has uncovered a previously hidden DNA landscape, shaped through geography and historical migrations. 

The findings, published in the journal PLOS Genetics, could also shed fresh light on genetic diseases - and lead to better treatments. 

In both the UK and Ireland, for example, prevalence of multiple sclerosis increases the further north you go. 

And compared with the rest of Europe, the Irish have higher rates of cystic fibrosis, celiac disease, and galactosemia, a serious metabolic disorder that prevents the breakdown of sugars in dairy, legumes and organ meats. 

In the 10,000 years since Stone Age cavemen first arrived, the Irish have established distinct cultural regions. 

But previous studies had identified no clear genetic groups within the population. 

Now researchers have found 23 distinct Irish genetic clusters, separated by geography by comparing mutations from almost 1,000 Irish genomes with over 6,000 from Britain and mainland Europe. 

These are most distinct in western Ireland, but less pronounced in the east, where historical migrations have erased the genetic variations. 

When the researchers took into account genetic contributions from people with British ancestry, a clear trend arose, showing this input dropping off in populations to the west. 

They also detected genes from Europe and calculated the timing of the historical migrations of the Norse-Vikings and the Anglo-Normans to Ireland, yielding dates consistent with historical records. 

Smileband health topics

Melioidosis or glanders is caused by the bacteriaBurkholderia mallei. This disease most commonly affects horses but humans can also be affected. Common symptoms include fever, muscle aches, chest pain, headaches and light sensitivity.

 

There are usually four types of infections that can occur:

• Localized infections
• Pulmonary infections
• Bloodstream infections
• Chronic infections

There has not been a naturally occurring case of glanders in the United States since the 1940s.

 

Transmission

Transmission occurs through contact with the tissue or bodily fluids of infected animals through cuts or abrasions in the skin or through mucosal surfaces.

Transmission may also occur through inhalation of infected aerosols or dust contaminated by an animal.

Incubation period ranges from 1 to 21 days. Isolation Precautions

Standard precautions are recommended in healthcare settings. 

There has been no human-to-human transmission reported in the US.

Prevention for Patients
Special precautions should be taken for individuals who need to have contact with an infected animal.

Specific groups such as veterinarians, horse caretakers, laboratorians, equine butchers, and abattoir workers can be at increased risk.

Public Health Actions
Public health will conduct an epidemiological investigation on a case or suspect case.