More than 60 children infected in north London measles outbreak

More than 60 children have been infected by a measles outbreak in north London, it has been reported.Seven schools and a nursery in Enfield reported the cases, with some children treated in hospital, according to the Sunday Times.There are concerns the outbreak is linked to low levels of MMR vaccination in the capital. For every one infected person, measles can spread to up to 18 unvaccinated people.Dudu Sher-Arami, Enfield’s director of public health who is writing to every parent in the area, said the outbreak posed a serious threat to the wider capital and there was the potential to cause a “much greater and bigger pan-London outbreak” because residents travel across the city

Vaping in cars carrying children to be banned in England

Vaping in cars carrying anyone under 18 will be banned in England under government plans to reduce the harm caused by smoking and e-cigarettes.The move is included in the tobacco and vapes bill, which will also outlaw smoking, vaping and using heated tobacco in playgrounds and outside schools and hospitals.Smoking in cars containing children and young people up to the age of 18 has been illegal in England since 2015. The new legislation will extend that prohibition to the use of vapes and heated tobacco.“No child in a playground or hospital patient should suffer because someone else chooses to smoke,” said Wes Streeting, the health secretary

When it comes to mental health labels, we need to tread lightly | Letters

Thank you, Gavin Francis, for your long read (‘What I see in clinic is never a set of labels’: are we in danger of overdiagnosing mental illness?, 10 February). It powerfully captures some of the traps modern psychiatry finds itself in and beautifully describes the all-important – and indeed, threatened – relationship at the heart of any good doctor’s practice. I have been a psychiatrist and psychotherapist for over 40 years and would like to make two points about the “epidemic” of mental illness now upon us.First, there is a mass of evidence that shows mental ill-being, suffering and disturbance, at all degrees of severity, are affected by the level of inequality in society and by social hardship such as poverty, violence and discrimination. Between them, this explains some of the increase we are seeing

Can we make a plea for 'thank yous' | Letters

I do not agree with Sangeeta Pillai (The hill I will die on: Britons love saying thank you – I think we should ban the phrase, 7 February). I do not like sarcastic or passive aggressive “thank yous”, but what is wrong with thanking people in the service industry for the service they give? I do not believe that it is overworked or meaningless. I love to thank baristas, shop assistants, bus drivers or other people because they more often than not provide a very good service. They work hard and are not paid a lot of money. They are often people doing jobs that are difficult for one reason or another

All men have a responsibility to challenge misogyny | Letter

The Buckingham Palace statement (King Charles ‘ready to support’ police over claims about Andrew, 9 February) should be welcomed, but should have come sooner, acknowledging as it does the responsibility we have for the acts of others, not only for our own.Male violence against women and girls is not the preserve of the rich and powerful. It is evident in every strata of society: behind closed doors in domestic abuse, in the spiked drinks in clubs and pubs, in the trafficking and rape of girls by grooming gangs of every ethnicity, in the offices of the Metropolitan police, in the genital mutilation of hundreds of thousands of women across the globe. I could go on.In every iteration, it is an expression of power: of power over women, of power over other men, or of power created and shored up between men

Criminals exploit ‘stigma and embarrassment’ to sell fake erectile dysfunction drugs

Men have been warned against buying illegal erectile dysfunction pills online after nearly 20m pills – enough to fill two doubledecker buses – were seized in the last five years.The “stigma and embarrassment” of erectile dysfunction is being “exploited by criminals”, according to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).Between 2021 and 2025, the MHRA’s criminal enforcement unit, working closely with Border Force to intercept shipments, seized about 19.5m doses of erectile dysfunction medicines, equivalent to a single dose for three in every four adult men in the UK. Many of the pills seized contained no active ingredient, the wrong dose, hidden drugs or toxic ingredients, the MHRA said