Adults with chronic back pain must not be given spine injections as they provide little or no pain relief compared with sham injections, according to an international study, published on Thursday.

A team of clinicians and patients from Canada, the US, and Australia strongly recommended against epidural steroid injections and nerve blocks for people living with chronic back pain (lasting at least three months) that is not associated with cancer, infection, or inflammatory arthritis.

Chronic back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide -- estimated to affect one in five adults aged 20-59. Older adults tend to suffer more with the condition.

Epidural steroid injections, nerve blocks, and radiofrequency ablation (using radio waves to destroy nerves) are widely used to stop pain signals from reaching the brain.

However, current guidelines provide conflicting recommendations for their use.

A new, unidentified illness has been reported in the northwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which is buffeted by multiple public health and humanitarian crises, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday.

Two clusters of cases and deaths related to the unidentified disease were reported in two health zones of the DRC's Equateur Province, the WHO said in a report.

By February 15, the WHO said, 431 cases and 45 deaths had been reported.

The first cluster of cases and deaths were reported in January in Boloko Village, in Bolomba Health Zone. Preliminary investigations traced the outbreak's origin to three community deaths among children under five years old, who died after developing a fever, headache, diarrhea, and fatigue, which later progressed to hemorrhage.

One in five or 20 per cent of newborns with neonatal seizures will go on to develop epilepsy by age one, finds a study on Wednesday.

Seizures in newborns are one of the most frequent acute neurological conditions among infants admitted to neonatal care units.

Researchers from the Copenhagen University Hospital – Rigshospitalet in Denmark showed that after neonatal seizures, the risk of epilepsy is persistently increased throughout adolescence. The team analysed data on all 1,998 children born in the country who experienced neonatal seizures.

The results, published in the journal Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology showed that the cumulative risk of epilepsy was 20.4 per cent among children with neonatal seizures compared with 1.15 per cent among children without.

The immune systems of cancer patients may play a significant role in their treatment outcomes, according to a study on Tuesday.

In the study, researchers at the University College London and the Francis Crick Institute found that cancer patients with a higher number of immune cells in their blood have a better survival rate.

They used a pioneering technique -- Immune Lymphocyte Estimation from Nucleotide Sequencing (ImmuneLENS), which enables researchers to calculate the proportion of T cells and B cells (types of immune cells) from whole genome sequencing (WGS) data.

The team analysed over 90,000 WGS samples -- both of healthy individuals and cancer patients. The findings described in the journal Nature Genetics showed that cancer patients had a lower proportion of T cells circulating in the blood compared to healthy individuals.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has announced a nationwide screening drive for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer.

The screening drive will be held from February 20 to March 31. The Health Ministry called on individuals above 30 years of age, to get screened for these diseases from the nearest government healthcare facility.

"Take charge of your health -- join the nationwide screening drive for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) from February 20th to March 31st, and get screened for free at your nearest government healthcare facility,” said the MoHFW in a post on social media platform X.

A new international study has for the first time identified unique subpopulations of fat cells.

Researchers from Israel's Ben Gurion University (BGU) noted that the study could pave the way for personalised medicine in obesity, news agency reported.

The study, part of the international Human Cell Atlas project, mapped fat cell populations in various human fat tissues, focusing on subcutaneous and visceral fat.

Using technologies mapping RNA molecules, the team attached unique "barcodes" to RNA from individual cells, allowing them to identify distinct cell types within fat tissue.

The incidence of acute respiratory viral infections (ARVI) and influenza has been rising in Kyrgyzstan, the press service of the country's Ministry of Health said and added that it has initiated monitoring of children's attendance in schools.

From February 10 to 16 as many as 10,796 cases of ARVI and 73 cases of influenza were reported, marking a 3 per cent increase compared to the previous week. Approximately 4.4 per cent of those infected required hospitalisation.

The report indicated that since mid-December 2024, the flu season has been characterised by the presence of Influenza A/H1N1/2009, Influenza B, and COVID-19.

To effectively implement anti-epidemic measures and prevent outbreaks, the health ministry has initiated monitoring of children's attendance in schools, news agency reported.

While intermittent fasting is hugely popular for weight loss and other health conditions, an animal study on Friday claimed it may be unsafe for teenagers, as it may impair their cell development.

A team of German researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), LMU Hospital Munich, and Helmholtz Munich showed that age plays a significant role in the outcomes of intermittent fasting.

Intermittent fasting is a dietary approach, which restricts daily eating to one six- to eight-hour period each day, and is known to help people with diabetes, and heart disease besides enabling weight loss.

The research, published in the journal Cell Reports, showed that chronic intermittent fasting disrupted the development of insulin-producing beta cells in young mice.

"Our study confirms that intermittent fasting is beneficial for adults, but it might come with risks for children and teenagers," said Stephan Herzig, a professor at TUM and director of the Institute for Diabetes and Cancer at Helmholtz Munich.

While anaemia is long known to be caused by iron deficiency, experts on Thursday noted that air pollution and vitamin B12 deficiency have emerged as major culprits behind its increasing prevalence in the country.

Anaemia occurs when there isn’t enough haemoglobin in the body to carry oxygen to the organs and tissues. The condition, which mainly affects women and children, leads to the lower count of red blood cells or the haemoglobin. In severe cases, anaemia can cause poor cognitive and motor development in children.

“Emerging research has suggested that anaemia in India is not solely due to iron deficiency. Two additional factors warrant attention: air pollution and vitamin B12 deficiency,” Dr K Madan Gopal, a public health expert working at the National Health Systems Resource Center, a premier think tank of the Health Ministry, New Delhi,

Australian researchers have developed a new treatment for deadly childhood cancer using engineered immune cells.

The research, published on Wednesday, was led by a team from the University of Queensland (UQ) that developed a new therapeutic strategy for paediatric sarcomas, news agency reported.

Sarcomas are cancers that develop in the bones and soft tissues, including muscles, fat, and blood vessels. In children, the tumours tend to grow aggressively and spread throughout the body, making treatment difficult.

According to the new study, sarcomas account for 5-10 per cent of all childhood cancers but are responsible for more deaths than brain cancer, skin cancer, leukaemia, and lymphoma.