Intestinal flora works together with certain genes to aggravate ulcerative colitis, research reveals

20 July 2025, Cairo, Egypt – In her visit to Afghanistan from 29 June to 1 July 2025, WHO Regional Director Dr Hanan Balkhy focused on polio eradication efforts, substance use treatment and other priority areas. Dr Balkhy met with national leaders and partners, including UN representatives and diplomats. In her meeting with the Minister of Public Health H.E. Noor Jalal Jalali, Dr Balkhy discussed progress on polio eradication and the challenges facing the Polio Programme, and the 3 flagship initiatives, with a focus on strengthening Afghanistan’s national regulatory authority, building the capacity of laboratory personnel and establishing a national dialogue on substance use. Dr Balkhy offered WHO support in developing a national rehabilitation and reintegration plan and expressed WHO’s keenness to collaborate with the Ministry of Public Health on a national health policy addressing key issues such as One Health, substance use and road traffic accidents. Dr Balkhy also met with representatives from the embassies of Pakistan, Indonesia and Türkiye, the World Bank, the European Union and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to discuss the Polio Programme and request support for Programme activities and other health priorities. An estimated 4 million people suffer from substance use disorders in Afghanistan. Visiting the 100-bed Female and Children Drug Addiction Treatment Centre in Kabul, Dr Balkhy praised the strength and resilience of women receiving treatment and stressed that everyone deserves a chance to heal. In a meeting with Ms Roza Otunbayeva, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of United Nations Assistance Read more...

This article contains spoilers! I once leaped out of a train car because two strangers were loudly discussing the ending of the last Harry Potter book. Okay—I didn't leap, but I did plug my ears and flee to another car.

Ten years after the UK became the first country to legalize mitochondrial donation, the first results from the use of these high-profile reproductive technologies—designed to prevent passing on genetic disorders—have finally been published.

Tourists in Kathmandu are tempted everywhere by advertisements for trekking expeditions to Everest Base Camp. If you didn't know better, you might think it's just a nice hike in the Nepalese countryside.

Breakups hurt. Emotional and psychological distress are common when intimate relationships break down. For some people, this distress can be so overwhelming that it leads to suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

US President Donald Trump has been diagnosed with "chronic venous insufficiency" after experiencing some mild swelling in his lower legs.

University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health scientists report that seasonal influenza vaccination prevented 32.9% to 41.5% of infections in a simulated population, extending protection even to some unvaccinated residents.

Inhaling agricultural dust may pose significant risks to gut health for workers in animal agriculture, a University of California, Riverside, study has found.

Vaccination of pregnant women has been linked to a drop in newborns being admitted to hospital with a serious lung infection, research suggests.

Researchers from Aarhus University—in a major international collaboration—have developed a groundbreaking method that can provide more information from the tissue samples doctors take from patients every day.

Modern methods of radiotherapy would fight cancer more effectively and safely if treatments could be planned, taking into account the radiation quality of the therapeutic proton beams. An achievement by physicists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow brings us closer to this goal. The research is published in the journal Physics in Medicine & Biology.

A new study led by researchers at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine reveals that flavor additives commonly used in e-cigarettes may increase the likelihood of vaping behavior in adolescents—even in the absence of nicotine.

UC Davis MIND Institute researchers Randi and Paul Hagerman are calling for increased awareness and screening for fragile X-associated conditions. In a new paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the husband-and-wife physician-scientists note that the group of genetic conditions is still not widely recognized by health care providers, despite decades of research.

Greater access to innovative treatments could be linked to a drop in patients requiring surgery for a type of inflammatory bowel disease, a 20-year study suggests.

Stevia may provide more benefits than as a zero-calorie sugar substitute. When fermented with bacteria isolated from banana leaves, stevia extract kills off pancreatic cancer cells but doesn't harm healthy kidney cells, according to a research team at Hiroshima University.

Doctors should ask diabetic women at every visit about their intention to have a child, to make sure they get the appropriate care prior to conception, new guidelines say.

Hispanic people are more likely to develop peripheral neuropathy than white people, and it's not clear why, a new study has found.

The human gut microbiome has been shown to impact health in a myriad of ways. The type and abundance of different bacteria can impact everything from the immune system to the nervous system. Now, researchers at Stanford University are taking advantage of the microbiome's potential for fighting disease by genetically modifying certain bacteria to reduce a substance that causes kidney stones. If scientists are successful at modifying gut bacteria, this can lead to therapeutic treatments for a wide range of diseases.