Canada will keep people whose only illness is a mental illness out of assisted dying, with no end date

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23 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

1. 02

   A gene therapy gave blind people some light sense

   Researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that a gene therapy partly restored sight in 10 blind people. [11] All had advanced retinitis pigmentosa, inherited diseases in which the eye's light-sensing cells stop working, which affect over 1.5 million people. [11] One injection gives surviving nerve cells in the retina a light-sensitive protein, and goggles turn the scene into pulses of light those cells can sense. [11] Six of the ten sensed light clearly better, and some could find a door or walk along a line. [11]

   Why it matters — It is the first larger human trial of optogenetics, the method behind this year's medicine Nobel, and it works whatever gene caused the blindness. [11] Patients cannot yet see faces, and the team hopes for sharper sight in five to ten years. [11]

2. 03

   First UK testicular tissue transplant

   Surgeons at NHS Lothian in Edinburgh put frozen testicular tissue back into a 19-year-old, the first such operation in the UK and the second reported worldwide. [12] The tissue was taken three years ago, before chemotherapy for a serious blood disorder, and afterwards tests found no sperm. [12] It holds stem cells that make sperm from puberty on. [12] Older teenagers can freeze sperm, but boys before puberty have none to freeze. [12] In July a man was reported making sperm again from tissue frozen 16 years before. [13]

   Why it matters — Doctors should know within months whether the operation worked. [12] More than 1,200 patients in the UK and 3,100 worldwide have tissue stored and waiting. [12]

3. 04

   Sugar rations in infancy, seventy years on

   Britain rationed sugar after the Second World War, and young children were meant to have little or none added. [14] Rationing ended in September 1953, and sugar eaten nearly doubled. [15] Researchers compared people conceived just before and just after, using UK Biobank health records. [15] Those rationed through their first 1,000 days had about 35% less type 2 diabetes and 20% less high blood pressure. [15] Later studies found 14% less heart failure and biological ages about a year younger. [17][16]

   Type 2 diabetes35%

   High blood pressure20%

   Heart failure14%

   Why it matters — A government decision, not each family, set who ate less sugar, a comparison researchers could never set up on purpose. [14] Researcher Tadeja Gracner said they can show the protection but not yet how it works. [14]

4. 05

   A gut bacterium that lowers cholesterol in mice

   A study in Nature found that a common gut bacterium, Bacteroides uniformis, makes a molecule that lowers cholesterol. [18] Researchers at Sun Yat-sen University in China saw that people with heart disease often carried less of it. [18] In mice with clogged arteries, live bacteria shrank the fatty build-up in the main arteries by about a third. [18] The molecule, pentadecanoic acid, blocks the same liver enzyme that statins, common cholesterol pills, block. [18] In over 200 people, those with high cholesterol had less of it. [18]

   Why it matters — Statins alone do not bring cholesterol down far enough in nearly half of people with advanced heart disease. [18] The human data is a link, not a trial, so whether the bacterium helps people is still open. [18]

5. 06

   Gut bacteria that travelled with ancient people

   A study in Nature compared the gut bacteria of the Hadza, hunter-gatherers in northern Tanzania, and the Tsimane, who forage and fish in the Bolivian Amazon. [19] Though some 7,000 miles apart, they share about 1,200 bacterial species, a near-90% overlap. [19] Stanford researchers dated the shared strains to a common ancestor about 17,000 years ago. [19] That fits people carrying the bacteria out of Africa and across the old land bridge from Russia to Alaska. [19] City dwellers nearby had very different gut bacteria. [19]

   Why it matters — Senior author Justin Sonnenburg said losing such old companions may matter for the body. [19] Andrew Moeller of Princeton said city guts may instead suit city life, and nobody yet knows which is right. [19]

6. 07

   Kenya traces 57 contacts of its first Ebola death

   Kenya has put 10 people in quarantine and is tracing 57 contacts of a man who died of Ebola in Nairobi on Monday. [21][20] He was Kenya's first case: a Kenyan who had lived in Congo for years and fell ill about a month earlier. [22] He went from Buta to Kisangani and Beni, then through Uganda to Nairobi, without being stopped. [20] A health official said medicines may have hidden his symptoms. [20] Congo's outbreak has killed more than 4,000 people this year. [20]

   Buta, Congo→Kisangani→Beni→Uganda→Nairobi

   Why it matters — Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control, asked why he was not detected, and said not every neighbour is as ready as Kenya. [20] Kenya's health minister Aden Duale called it an incident, not an outbreak. [21]

7. 08

   Australia's abortion pill reaches more pharmacies

   Australian pharmacies stocking the abortion pill MS-2 Step rose from 2,228 to 4,107 after rules were eased, a study in JAMA Network Open found. [23] In 2023 the medicines regulator let any family doctor prescribe it, and pharmacists no longer had to register to hand it out. [23] Postcodes with a stocking pharmacy rose from 915 to 1,292. [23] In remote areas the share of pharmacies stocking it rose from 12.5% to 22%. [23] The pill can be used up to 63 days into a pregnancy. [23]

   Before the 2023 change2,228

   By mid-20254,107

   Why it matters — Lead author Kristina Edvardsson of La Trobe University said women can now get it closer to home, with less travel. [23] Another researcher said rural access still needs work. [23]

8. 09

   Immigrants in Los Angeles skipped the emergency room

   Visits by people born outside the US to three Los Angeles emergency rooms dropped sharply after US immigration enforcement increased last year, a study in JAMA Network Open found. [24] Over the same time, hospital admissions in that group rose. [24] The authors said heavier enforcement may lead immigrant patients to avoid urgent care. [24] A Minneapolis children's doctor had told STAT in February of a huge lapse in care. [24]

   Why it matters — The authors warned of harm to the patients' health and of costs for the hospitals that treat them. [24] The study puts numbers on what doctors had been describing for months. [24]

9. 10

   Christa Pike wakes after the failed execution

   Christa Pike, the Tennessee prisoner who survived two doses of the execution drug pentobarbital on 30 September, woke up in a Nashville hospital this week. [25] Her lawyer Randy Spivey said that on Monday night they understood she was brain dead and that life support would be removed the next day. [25] On Tuesday she woke and began talking. [25] She cannot move her arms, which are badly swollen, and nobody knows what use she will regain. [26]

   Why it matters — She is the only person known to have survived lethal injection drugs. [26] A judge ordered Tennessee to keep all evidence, and her lawyers want her sentence changed to life in prison. [26]

10. 11

    Insurers called watched prostate cancer untreated

    Howard Wolinsky, a medical journalist, wrote in STAT that eight life insurers turned him down for untreated cancer. [27] His prostate cancer was Gleason 6, the lowest grade on the scale doctors use to judge from a microscope how dangerous it is. [27] His doctors advised active surveillance: regular blood tests, biopsies and scans instead of surgery. [27] His cover fell from $600,000 to $100,000 for the same $184 a month. [27] One broker said some insurers may still make men like him wait three to five years. [27]

    Why it matters — Doctors watch low-grade prostate cancer because it rarely spreads when blood tests stay stable. [27] A man who follows that advice can still lose most of his life insurance. [27]

11. 12

    Glasgow student's family meets Scotland's minister

    The family of Ethan Scott Brown, a 23-year-old geography student, met Scotland's education secretary, Mairi McAllan, on Wednesday. [28] The University of Glasgow had wrongly told him he could not graduate with honours. [28] He took his own life on 13 December 2024, the day he should have graduated. [28] The university's own review found systemic grading errors, and that he had enough marks for a 2:1 degree. [28] It also found staff did not offer support after he raised concerns about his mental health. [28]

    Why it matters — The family's solicitor said the university will be held to account, and Scotland's prosecutors are investigating the death. [28] In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be reached free at any time on 116 123. [1]

12. 13

    Los Angeles finds its first rabid raccoon in 50 years

    Los Angeles County has found its first rabid raccoon in more than 50 years. [29] Four people and a dog may have been exposed at a backyard work site in Westlake Village. [29] The raccoon looked ill but was not aggressive. [29] Rabies passes through a bite or scratch and is almost always fatal once symptoms appear. [29] It kills tens of thousands of people a year, mostly in Africa and Asia, while the US records fewer than 10 deaths a year. [29]

    Why it matters — The four people are getting follow-up care that includes a series of vaccines. [29] County health officer Muntu Davis said nobody should touch wild animals, even ones that look healthy. [29]

13. 14

    Chemistry Nobel for mirror-image molecules

    Henri Kagan, 95, of Paris-Sud University, and Kenso Soai, 76, of the Tokyo University of Science, won the Nobel prize in chemistry on Wednesday. [31] Their work is on molecules that come in two mirror-image forms, like a left and a right hand. [31] Lab chemistry normally makes both forms in equal amounts, and they found ways to make just one. [30] Living things use only one form of each amino acid, the building blocks of proteins. [31] More than half of the medicines in use are mirror-image molecules. [31]

    Why it matters — The two forms of one drug can behave differently in the body, so the ability to make the right one gives safer, more precise medicines. [31]

14. 15

    A 194-year-old tortoise's genes read

    Jonathan, an Aldabra giant tortoise on the island of Saint Helena, is at least 194 years old, about a century past his species' usual limit. [32] Researchers read his DNA from cheek cells in a study in Science Advances. [32] He has unusual versions of 287 genes, some involved in repairing DNA. [32] Chemical tags that switch genes on and off usually fall into disorder with age. [32] In 272 of his genes, many linked to mitochondria, the parts of cells that make energy, the tags stayed orderly. [32]

    Why it matters — The genes are candidates for how long lives work, said an outside researcher, and may one day help human health. [32] About 5% of the sequence had to be filled in from a younger tortoise. [32]

15. 16

    US health-cost checks arrive before the midterms

    The Trump administration mailed $500 checks last week to some people who buy health cover on Healthcare.gov, the federal insurance marketplace. [33] They went to people in its 30 states who earn too much for regular subsidies and were hit when Congress let extra help expire. [33] Ellen Allen, in West Virginia, paid $1,967 a month for cover this year before turning 65. [33] Checks of $90 will follow for 20 million people on Medicare, the US scheme for over-65s. [33]

    Why it matters — The checks come weeks before US midterm elections, with a letter praising the Trump administration's health policy. [33] Kathleen Clark, an ethics law professor, said it reads like electioneering, which US law forbids. [33]

16. 17

    The UAE caps sugar, salt and fat in packaged food

    The United Arab Emirates approved caps on sodium, sugar and fat in packaged foods on Tuesday, for local and imported products alike. [35] The limits come in stages, with the final ones by 31 December 2030. [35] Firms that break them face fines of up to about $136,000 or closure for six months. [35] The country has taxed fizzy drinks at 50% and energy drinks at 100% since 2017. [35] Al Ain Farms and Arla have begun changing recipes. [34]

    Why it matters — Abu Dhabi health official Ahmed Al Khazraji said the aim is to improve food people already buy, instead of asking each shopper to choose differently. [34] A doctor at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi warned that food meeting the limits is not automatically healthy. [34]

17. 18

    Spain's missing menopause treatment returns

    Lenzetto, one of the most widely used hormone treatments for menopause symptoms, will be back in Spanish pharmacies in the second half of November, its maker Gedeon Richter told Euronews. [36] It ran short because demand for menopause hormone treatment in Europe grew far faster than expected. [36] The applicator used to give it could not be made fast enough. [36] The company says the shortage is global and has nothing to do with safety. [36]

    Why it matters — A new plant and production line are planned, including in Romania. [36] The company admits supply may still fall short of demand into 2027. [36]

18. 19

    Gaza has no fully working hospital

    Gaza still has no fully working hospital and no MRI scanner a year after the ceasefire, Physicians for Human Rights Israel said in a report. [37] Intensive care has grown by one bed, from 103 to 104. [37] Dialysis, which cleans the blood when kidneys fail, is offered at 12% of medical sites, down from 17% in October 2025. [37] Gaza's health ministry says at least 1,570 patients, 264 of them children, died waiting to be taken abroad for treatment. [37]

    Why it matters — The group blames Israel's limits on medicine, equipment and patients leaving. [37] The WHO counted 128 attacks on medical sites in the ceasefire's first seven months. [37]

19. 20

    ChatGPT's teen version rated an unacceptable risk

    Common Sense Media, a US non-profit that rates media for families, labelled ChatGPT for Teens an unacceptable risk. [38] OpenAI launched it in August with parental controls and limits on harmful material. [38] The group found it kept teens talking even in crises: in one test of a user spiralling into psychosis, it offered to keep chatting. [38] OpenAI disputed the testing. [38] It separately reported that teens use ChatGPT under 15 minutes a day on average. [39]

    Why it matters — Fewer than 2% of teens use it for over three hours straight, OpenAI said. [39] In August Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion to settle claims it built Facebook and Instagram to hook children. [39]

20. 21

    One Alzheimer's gene version softened another, in mice

    Mayo Clinic researchers bred mice carrying different pairs of the APOE gene, the strongest inherited risk for Alzheimer's disease. [40] The APOE4 version increases build-up of amyloid, a sticky protein, while APOE2 protects. [40] Mice with one copy of each had less amyloid and less harmful immune-cell activity than mice with APOE4 paired with the common APOE3. [40] The study appeared in Nature Communications. [40]

    Why it matters — People inherit two copies of the gene, and how the two versions act together had been unknown. [40] The result is in mice, so it points human studies somewhere without settling anything. [40]

21. 22

    A quick dengue test missed one case in nine

    A rapid test for dengue, a virus spread by mosquitoes, missed 8 of 72 confirmed cases in Peruvian adults, a study in Scientific Reports found. [41] Researchers checked the OnSite NS1 test against PCR, the slower lab test that reads the virus's genes, on 140 stored blood samples. [41] It caught 89% of real cases and raised no false alarms. [41] Most samples were taken three to five days after symptoms began, when the test works best. [41]

    8 of 72

    confirmed cases the rapid test missed

    Why it matters — A clinic can trust a positive result. [41] A negative result in someone who looks ill still needs a second test, the authors said. [41]

22. 23

    Road rage among Turkey's delivery riders

    A study in Scientific Reports interviewed 119 male motorcycle delivery riders in Turkey about stress and road rage. [42] The riders work in constant traffic under time pressure. [42] Researchers sorted them into four types, labelled risky, moderate, passive and prosocial, which differed in how they rode and in signs of distress. [42] The riders' own accounts tied road rage to pressure from the job as well as to riding habits. [42]

    Why it matters — The authors conclude that road rage among delivery riders comes partly from working conditions, not only from the rider. [42]

23. 24

    Two boys, one disease, one drug that fits

    Yannick, 13, and Brecken, 12, are friends who both have Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a rare, fatal disease that wastes muscle. [24] Brecken gets a new drug from the company Avidity that makes the cell skip the faulty part of the gene. [24] Each such drug must match a patient's exact mutation, and none yet matches Yannick's. [24] This summer Avidity delayed a trial of a drug that would. [24]

    Why it matters — As Brecken grows, Yannick is losing function, STAT reported. [24] Some parents are now trying to act on their own. [24]