Latest news with #medicalcharity
LBCI
6 days ago
- Health
- LBCI
MSF says quarter of Gaza's young children malnourished
MSF said Friday that a quarter of all young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women screened at its clinics in Gaza last week were malnourished, blaming Israel's "policy of starvation." The medical charity known by its French acronym MSF said that "across screenings of children aged six months to five years old and pregnant and breastfeeding women at MSF facilities last week, 25 percent were malnourished," warning that "rates of severe malnutrition in children under five have tripled in the last two weeks alone." AFP
BBC News
15-07-2025
- General
- BBC News
'I lost limbs but stayed to help others in Ukraine'
An aid worker who lost an arm and a leg in a Russian drone strike in Ukraine says the war has left thousands of people in need of prosthetic Scott, from Dorset, was helping evacuees from the front line town of Pokrovsk on 30 January when his vehicle was his injuries, he chose to remain in his adopted country and now works for Superhumans - the medical charity that supplied his prosthetic said Ukrainians were being looked after by the "comprehensive state system" but the charity helped people get back to being "whole human beings". Mr Scott, originally from Shaftesbury, said he was "doing really well" since his on BBC Radio Solent's Dorset Breakfast show, he said: "I haven't had a lot of the problems other people have suffered with, particularly mentally."I was offered an evacuation for treatment and I told the team, as long as I'm not taking a bed up from a Ukrainian, I'll stay in Ukraine."It's turned into an incredible decision. I'm very happy to be able to continue to help my adopted country in a very positive way." Superhumans offers free, state-of-the-art prosthetics, reconstructive surgery, rehabilitation and psychological support for adults and children affected by the has supplied 1,600 prosthetics in the last two years but said there were at least 80,000 more people in need of artificial Scott, 28, said he had been "incredibly lucky".He said: "Through Superhumans, I've received a top-notch prosthetic leg, which I'm incredibly grateful to get and I've been slowly learning to use."There is a very comprehensive state system - both medical and rehab - so people are being looked after but it's really places like Superhumans that have the time and the funds to go the extra mile, getting us back to being as whole human beings as possible." You can follow BBC Dorset on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Controversial project could create human DNA from scratch
A controversial project that aims to create the building blocks of human life has started. It was previously thought creating human DNA could lead to designer babies or unforeseen complications and changes for future generations. However, in a world first, medical charity the Wellcome Trust, has given an initial £10m to start the project. Scientists say it has the potential to transform the understanding of human health, open opportunities to develop treatments for incurable diseases and develop climate-resistant crops. 'Our DNA determines who we are and how our bodies work,' said Michael Dunn, director of discovery research at Wellcome. 'Through creating the necessary tools and methods to synthesise a human genome, we will answer questions about our health and disease that we cannot even anticipate yet, in turn transforming our understanding of life and wellbeing.' In the next five to ten years scientists aim to build a full synthetic human chromosome. Every cell in the human body contains DNA, which is a molecule that carries genetic information that physically makes people who they are. The new Synthetic Human Genome Project will potentially allow researchers not just to be able to read DNA but create parts of it. Scientists will first aim to create larger blocks of human DNA to try to create a synthetically constructed a human chromosome – which contains genes that govern our development, repair and maintenance. These chromosomes would then be studied to find out how genes and DNA regulate our bodies. The project is led by Professor Jason Chin from the Generative Biology Institute at Ellison Institute of Technology and the University of Oxford, in collaboration with team of researchers from Cambridge, Kent, Manchester, Oxford and Imperial College London. 'The ability to synthesize large genomes, including genomes for human cells, may transform our understanding of genome biology and profoundly alter the horizons of biotechnology and medicine,' said Professor Chin. The project will be confined to test tubes and petri dishes, with no attempt to create synthetic life. But critics fear the research opens the way for researchers to create enhanced or modified humans. Professor Bill Earnshaw, a genetic scientist at Edinburgh University who designed a method for creating artificial human chromosomes fears this research could open the opportunity to attempt to create biological weapons, enhanced humans or even creatures that have human DNA. "The genie is out of the bottle," he told BBC News. "We could have a set of restrictions now, but if an organisation who has access to appropriate machinery decided to start synthesising anything, I don't think we could stop them." There will also be a dedicated social science project running alongside the researchers led by Professor Joy Zhang, a sociologist, at the University of Kent. "We want to get the views of experts, social scientists and especially the public about how they relate to the technology and how it can be beneficial to them and importantly what questions and concerns they have," she said.
The Independent
26-06-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Controversial project could create human DNA from scratch
A controversial project that aims to create the building blocks of human life has started. It was previously thought creating human DNA could lead to designer babies or unforeseen complications and changes for future generations. However, in a world first, medical charity the Wellcome Trust, has given an initial £10m to start the project. Scientists say it has the potential to transform the understanding of human health, open opportunities to develop treatments for incurable diseases and develop climate-resistant crops. 'Our DNA determines who we are and how our bodies work,' said Michael Dunn, director of discovery research at Wellcome. 'Through creating the necessary tools and methods to synthesise a human genome, we will answer questions about our health and disease that we cannot even anticipate yet, in turn transforming our understanding of life and wellbeing.' In the next five to ten years scientists aim to build a full synthetic human chromosome. Every cell in the human body contains DNA, which is a molecule that carries genetic information that physically makes people who they are. The new Synthetic Human Genome Project will potentially allow researchers not just to be able to read DNA but create parts of it. Scientists will first aim to create larger blocks of human DNA to try to create a synthetically constructed a human chromosome – which contains genes that govern our development, repair and maintenance. These chromosomes would then be studied to find out how genes and DNA regulate our bodies. The project is led by Professor Jason Chin from the Generative Biology Institute at Ellison Institute of Technology and the University of Oxford, in collaboration with team of researchers from Cambridge, Kent, Manchester, Oxford and Imperial College London. 'The ability to synthesize large genomes, including genomes for human cells, may transform our understanding of genome biology and profoundly alter the horizons of biotechnology and medicine,' said Professor Chin. The project will be confined to test tubes and petri dishes, with no attempt to create synthetic life. But critics fear the research opens the way for researchers to create enhanced or modified humans. Professor Bill Earnshaw, a genetic scientist at Edinburgh University who designed a method for creating artificial human chromosomes fears this research could open the opportunity to attempt to create biological weapons, enhanced humans or even creatures that have human DNA. "The genie is out of the bottle," he told BBC News. "We could have a set of restrictions now, but if an organisation who has access to appropriate machinery decided to start synthesising anything, I don't think we could stop them." There will also be a dedicated social science project running alongside the researchers led by Professor Joy Zhang, a sociologist, at the University of Kent. "We want to get the views of experts, social scientists and especially the public about how they relate to the technology and how it can be beneficial to them and importantly what questions and concerns they have," she said.
Arab News
30-05-2025
- General
- Arab News
Charity urges Starmer to allow 2 children from Gaza entry to UK for lifesaving treatment
LONDON: A medical charity has written to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer pleading with him to allow two severely ill children from Gaza to be flown to the UK for lifesaving treatment. One of the children, three-year-old Haitham, was badly burned when an Israeli airstrike hit the family home, killing his father and pregnant mother, Sky News reported. He has been left with burns across 35 percent of his body and is being treated in Nasser hospital, the last working medical facility in southern Gaza. UK charity calls on government to rescue two children in Gaza. Our special correspondent @AlexCrawfordSky spoke with doctors treating Haitham who are worried he might not survive. Watch our special programme on the impact of the war in Gaza at 9pm BST — Sky News (@SkyNews) May 29, 2025 British surgeon Dr. Victoria Rose, who is treating Haitham, said she is worried he might not survive because the hospital no longer has the resources to look after him properly. 'It's a massive burn for a little guy like this,' Rose said. 'He's so adorable. His eyelids are burnt. His hands are burnt. His feet are burnt.' Referring to the renewed violence in Gaza, she said: 'Every time I come, I say it's really bad, but this is on a completely different scale now. It's mass casualties. It's utter carnage. 'We are incapable of getting through this volume. We don't have the personnel. We don't have the medical supplies. And we really don't have the facilities. 'We are the last standing hospital in the south of Gaza. We really are on our knees now.' Haitham's grandfather, Hatem Karara, said Haitham had also suffered internal bleeding. He said: 'What did these children do wrong to suffer such injuries. To be burned and bombed? We ask God to grant them healing.' The second child identified by the UK-based charity Project Pure Hope is one-year-old Karam, who is suffering from a rare birth defect in which nerves are missing from parts of the bowel. His protruding intestine could easily be operated on with the right skills and equipment available in the UK. An initial operation was carried out in Rafah, but when his family was forced to flee to Khan Younis, Karam's condition worsened, his mother Manal Nayef Mostafa Adra said. She said a foreign doctor told her that the surgery needs to be redone outside of Gaza. Omar Dinn, co-founder of Project Pure Hope, said the charity would fully fund bringing the children to the UK. He said the UK government had made strong statements recently condemning Israel's killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the blocking of aid supplies, and now had the opportunity to act. 'We're giving them an action, which is the ability to allow two more children to come to the UK for privately funded medical treatment and to save their lives,' he said. 'If we don't act for these two children now, it's very likely that the outcome will be nothing but death.' Two girls from Gaza with serious health conditions were flown to the UK earlier this month for specialist treatment. But only three Palestinian children have been allowed into the UK for healthcare since Israel launched its devastating offensive in Gaza 20 months ago. Of the nearly 54,000 Palestinians killed in the war, 16,000 have been children.
