Public health England

Director of RPS in Scotland calls for e-cigarette evidence review

The director of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in Scotland, Alex MacKinnon, has called for a review of the evidence on e-cigarettes.…

New guidance for hepatitis B vaccine shortage

Public Health England has issued “temporary” guidance that restricts providing hepatitis B immunisation to adults and children, in response to the global shortage of the vaccine.…

Pharmacies achieve lowest take-up rate for children’s flu vaccine

Public Health England figures show that pharmacies giving flu vaccines to school-age children achieved a lower take-up rate compared with delivery via GPs or schools…

Direct-acting antivirals successfully treating hepatitis C, says Public Health England

Public Health England is urging the public to get tested for hepatitis C after its latest figures revealed a fall in deaths from the disease, which it attributed to the introduction of direct-acting antiviral therapy.…

Tobacco Control Plan could be hindered by public health cuts

Department of Health calls for the first smoke-free generation and for a decrease in the smoking rate among adults under the Tobacco Control Plan but repeated cuts to local authority public health budgets have seen provision of stop smoking services slashed.…

Deaths from dementia have increased but population has more years of good health, says PHE report

Since 2000, the population in England has been living longer and spending more years in good health, according to a new report combining Public Health England data and knowledge on the health of the population in England in 2017.…

All babies to receive hepatitis B vaccination

All babies born in the UK from 1 August 2017 will be vaccinated against hepatitis B virus, health officials have announced.…

Number of new HIV diagnoses in gay men falls for first time

New diagnoses of HIV in England have fallen among men who have sex with men, with the greatest decline seen in London clinics trialling pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), according to figures from Public Health England.…

Row breaks out on whether GP practices should be funded for warfarin monitoring

Cash-strapped clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are increasingly pushing GP practices to prescribe and monitor specialist drugs that are outside their area of expertise, without paying for the extra work. …

Study finds vitamin D supplements cut respiratory infections but public health officials not convinced

Results from a meta-analysis involving 11,321 people show that those given vitamin D supplementation were less likely to experience an acute respiratory infection.…