Richard Gray – Page 3 – Horizon Magazine Blog

‘Four times more toxic’: How wildfire smoke ages over time

July 22, 2020 by Richard Gray

Smoke from wildfires can rise many kilometres into the stratosphere and cause air pollution in areas far away from where the flames actually were. Image credit - Pixabay/Saiho, licenced under Pixabay licence

Enormous plumes of smoke thrown into the atmosphere by uncontrolled wildfires may be affecting the health of people living hundreds of miles away. Every year, thousands of fires engulf forests, grasslands and moors across Europe. In 2018, more than 204,861 hectares of land were left burnt in Europe and other countries around the Mediterranean, while the previous … Read more

Q&A: When and how does anxiety become a problem?

June 9, 2020 by Richard Gray

We do not really know why some people develop long-term anxiety disorders while others bounce back from adverse situations, says Prof. Baldwin. Image credit - Pexels/Pixabay

Short-term anxiety is a normal response to stress, but more needs to be done to understand and treat longer-term anxiety disorders, which affect the lives of millions of people across Europe and impose a significant economic burden on society, according to Professor David Baldwin, head of the mental health group at the University of Southampton, … Read more

Q&A: Coronavirus has shown the need for a global health system – but revealed its weaknesses too

June 4, 2020 by Richard Gray

Global agencies need to see coronavirus not just as a health crisis, but as a development and economic one, too, says Professor Colin McInnes of Aberystwyth University in Wales, UK. Image credit - Unsplash/ Thomas de LUZE

We are seeing a failure of global health governance in response to Covid-19 because there are too many agencies with different interests, according Professor Colin McInnes, pro-vice chancellor at Aberystwyth University in Wales, UK, who says global institutions such as the World Health Organization and World Bank should stand together in crises. He ran a … Read more

Q&A: The sound of your voice could help fight Covid-19

May 5, 2020May 4, 2020 by Richard Gray

n the future, smartphone apps may help diagnose disease by analysing someone's voice, cough and breathing. Image credit - Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels, licenced under CC0

A recording of a cough, the noise of a person’s breathing or even the sound of their voice could be used to help diagnose patients with Covid-19 in the future, according to Professor Cecilia Mascolo, an expert in mobile health at data analysis at the University of Cambridge, UK. Prof. Mascolo has developed a sound-collecting … Read more

Q&A: ‘We can diagnose more than 4,000 rare diseases but there’s still a long way to go’

February 29, 2020 by Richard Gray

There are more than 6,000 rare diseases and we can diagnose about 4,000 so far. Image credit - Pxfuel

Patients with rare diseases often suffer a long and lonely path as they struggle to find out what the cause of their debilitating symptoms are, but recent advances in diagnostics are helping to give them new hope of identifying their illness, and perhaps even finding a treatment, according to Dr Lucia Monaco of Italy’s Fondazione … Read more

‘Treating cancer is only part of the journey’: the overlooked needs of cancer survivors

February 4, 2020 by Richard Gray

Better cancer treatments means there is a growing number of cancer survivors in Europe and we need to work out how best to support them. Image credit - pxfuel, licensed under CC0

As more people live for years and even decades after being diagnosed with cancer, the question of how best to support survivors is a challenge now facing health systems in Europe. More research into survivors’ specific care and support requirements is now needed, say experts. For many people, it is a word to be whispered … Read more