Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is a highly contagious bacterial infection that mainly affects the lungs and airways. It can affect people of all ages and while it can be a very unpleasant illness for older vaccinated adolescents and …
Integration. It's a frequently used word, but one that is often misunderstood. It has multiple definitions – over 175 at the last count – which can understandably lead to confusion about what we mean by the term and how we can deliver …
Back in the 1980s, the Royal College of Psychiatrists published ‘Alcohol: Our Favourite Drug’. Not much has changed over the years. Eighty-five per cent of adults drink alcohol and luckily, most of us drink in a ‘low-risk’ way. But well …
Antibiotics have been around for nearly 70 years. Many people still alive today may remember them first being used to treat casualties from the Second World War. Around 1944 a newspaper billboard proclaimed that ‘Penicillin cures gonorrhoea in four hours …
“Are we there yet?” You don’t have to travel very far with small children before you are asked this question. In fact, a survey by Littlewoods.com in March 2013 reported that children ask their mothers around 300 questions every day …
Last week saw plenty of conversation about the public health aspect of the Compassion in Practice nursing vision. Viv Bennett and her team were letting nurses and midwives know that they can really make a difference. Here are some highlights.
Today Public Health England published national drug treatment statistics for adults in 2012-13. They show that treatment continues to perform well overall and that, within the context of declining prevalence, the numbers in treatment are falling. Access remains quick and …
It is far too easy to talk about the wisdom of hindsight, and I could not even begin to count how many times I have used the phrase, “I would not have started from here.” When I was asked to …
In my first four months as Finance and Commercial Director for Public Health England (PHE) I’ve had the opportunity to see some of the excellent work we’re doing in supporting local government to deliver its statutory public health responsibilities. I’ve …
On 1 April 2013 the regional Public Health Observatories (PHOs) transferred along with the specialist observatories and the National Cancer Intelligence Network into PHE as a single Knowledge and Intelligence service for England. It was, and still is, a momentous …
How will NHS Health Checks help us in our priority of reducing health inequalities? It's a question I get asked a lot because of the nature of the programme. It's intended as a population-based prevention programme, which will raise awareness and assess …
