Daily digest March 23 2015

Mentally ill teens wilfully neglected, says charity chief

The mental health of children and teenagers has been 'wilfully neglected' by those in power, according to the head of the NSPCC, who says that youngsters have to wait until their minds are 'broken' before they can get help.

Peter Wanless, chief executive of the child protection charity, said that for all the talk about child mental health in recent years, nothing had been done to improve it. He pointed to evidence that the pressures of modern childhood are driving many to the brink, as reported in the Times.

Last year four of the top ten issues for ChildLine concerned mental health, including self-harm and suicidal thoughts. Counselling sessions run by the helpline for self-harm have tripled in the past three years to 24,308. Sessions involving suicidal thoughts have doubled to 17,930.

Two thirds of all counselling sessions are not primarily about a child’s mental health but about abuse, neglect or bullying.

(£) Read more on the Times website: click here

Blood test breakthrough will give early arthritis warning

A single blood test could soon detect crippling arthritis up to a decade before it strikes.

British scientists have discovered a protein linked to both rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, the Daily Express has reported. The revolutionary finding could transform the lives of millions of sufferers struggling with everyday tasks.

Although there are already tests available to diagnose rheumatoid arthritis, there is still not one to spot patients with the most common type of arthritis – osteoarthritis.

Read more on the Daily Express website: click here

Five-year-old boy given all-clear from brain cancer

The parents of five-year-old Ashya King, who was diagnosed with brain cancer, revealed today their son is clear of the disease, as reported in the Daily Mail.

Brett and Naghmeh King were put in prison after taking their son out of an NHS hospital and travelling to the Czech Republic for pioneering proton therapy.

Now, some five months after he completed the treatment, they said Ashya was making good progress, has started speaking again and is able to play with his brothers and sisters in the park.

His parents told a newspaper he had been given the all-clear by the private clinic that treated him.

Read more on the Daily Mail website: click here

Climate change will bring deadliest diseases to Britain, experts claim

Some of the world's deadliest tropical diseases are heading for Britain as global warming makes the country a paradise for mosquitoes, government scientists have warned.

Rising temperatures will make the damp British climate perfect for insects, increasing the likelihood of malaria, dengue fever and West Nile virus outbreaks, as reported in the Telegraph.

Dr Jolyon Medlock, from the emergency response department at Public Health England, co-authored a study that found mosquitoes could expand their reach by a third by 2030.

Read more on the Telegraph website: click here