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Cancer scanner panic; Down’s test hope and the woman with constant sea-sickness

By Nigel Praities

Our roundup of health news headlines on Thursday 30 June.

Looking through the papers every day reveals there are largely three types of health story – today is no different.

1. Cancer scare story of the day

The Daily Mail has news that despite a ‘huge increase' in health spending by the Labour government, patients have better access to specialised scanning equipment in Turkey and Slovakia than they do in the UK.

This – the newspaper says – is the reason why cancer survival rates in the UK are ‘so poor' because cancer tumours cannot be spotted early.

Out of 28 industrialised countries surveyed, only Hungary and Mexico have fewer numbers of computed tomography scanners per head of population. They are probably better at football too

2. Medical breakthough of the day

Researchers have discovered a maternal blood test that can diagnose Down's syndrome in unborn children.

The new test works by extracting the DNA of the foetus from the mother's blood and means a more risky amniocentesis is not needed.

3. Quirky health story of the day

Meet the woman who is constantly sea-sick. After a cruise in the Med nine years ago – mmm sounds lovely - Jane Houghton has been left with a constant queasiness.

She suffers from the rare Mal de Debarquement Syndrome, which causes sufferers to feel as though they are constantly bobbing about on a rough sea, unbalanced and nauseous.

Pah – sounds like how I feel every morning entering Pulse Towers. Did I type that out loud?

Spotted something we've missed? Let us know and we'll update the digest throughout the day...

Daily Digest - 30 June 2010