Tuesday, October 13Global edition

Health

AI finds disease and mortality signals in a single night's sleep

Two research teams have built AI systems that read brain, heart and respiratory activity from one overnight sleep recording. Stanford's model predicted 130 conditions, scoring 0.85 for dementia; a Cleveland Clinic model found the highest-risk patients were more than twice as likely to die as those in the lowest-risk group.

1 min read

WHO says no to obesity drugs and surgery for children under 10

New global guidelines recommend diet, exercise and behavioural support as the only first-line care for younger children. The WHO cited doubts about the safety and long-term effectiveness of medicines and surgery — even as drug companies test obesity treatments in children as young as six.

2 min read

Extreme heat is making pregnancy more dangerous, UN climate chief warns

Speaking at a pre-COP31 summit in Fiji, Simon Stiell said rising temperatures are increasingly linked to premature births, stillbirths and maternal complications. A survey of 1,000 midwives and doctors found more than two-thirds had witnessed severe heat-related outcomes over the past five years.

2 min read

UN meeting on pandemic readiness opens with WHO $1.9bn in the red

World leaders gathered in New York to review progress on global pandemic preparedness, three years after a landmark political declaration. A key annex to the WHO Pandemic Agreement remains unfinished, and the health body is short nearly $1.9 billion after the US halted payments and left $130 million in 2024 dues unpaid.

3 min read

Nigeria raises Ebola alert as DRC death toll passes 3,600

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has issued a health advisory and stepped up screening for travellers from countries with active transmission. The DRC has recorded 7,672 confirmed cases, with the response hampered by gaps in funding and laboratory capacity.

2 min read

Kennedy puts specialists on the US panel that decides what preventive care is free

Eight new members join the US Preventive Services Task Force, including oncologists, cardiologists and a radiologist — the first specialists to sit on a panel previously made up only of generalists. The appointments follow Kennedy's dismissal of the former chair and vice chairs, leaving the task force's next meeting and future direction uncertain.

2 min read

Black lung is back to 1970s levels among veteran coal miners

One in three miners with 25 or more years underground in Central Appalachia now have the disease — a fourfold rise since 1999. Some are being diagnosed in their 30s and 40s, and a government report found coal companies are not being monitored for compliance with required medical benefits.

3 min read

India finds counterfeit rabies vaccine on sale with fake batch number

Vials bearing the batch number KE25012 were seized from an unlicensed residential premises in Delhi after failing potency tests. The manufacturer says it did not produce them — and because rabies is almost invariably fatal once symptoms appear, anyone who received the counterfeit doses may believe they are protected when they are not.

3 min read

Congo's Ebola outbreak has killed 3,000 and is still not at its peak

With 6,250 cases recorded since mid-May, health workers have managed to trace fewer than one in five expected contacts. Authorities are shifting to community-based containment as the outbreak spreads too fast and too wide to be brought under control through treatment centres alone.

2 min read