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Even child obesity is bigger in Texas, NHS didn’t measure benefits of cancer drugs fund, and African malaria halved

The youngest person to ever be diagnosed with type-2 diabetes is the top health story across the papers today, which the Telegraph claims is a ‘shocking new benchmark in the growing worldwide obesity crisis’.

The three year old girl from Texas, US, was admitted to an obesity clinic with extreme thirst and urination after being given a diet of high fat and sugary foods.

A major report has condemned the NHS’s failure to collect any data on whether unregulated drugs, administered to 74,000 patients through the cancer drugs fund, extended life expectancy.

The Guardian reports that the National Audit Office has ‘castigated’ the health service for failing to record if the £1bn it spent on drugs rejected by medicines regulators had benefited patient outcomes.

Meg Hillier, the Labour MP chair of the public accounts committee, said: ‘There needs to be much better control of costs and proper assessment of whether these drugs are making a difference to the health of patients.’

And finally the BBC reports that 700 million malaria cases have been prevented in Africa thanks to concerted effort to tackle the disease since 2000, a 50% decrease.

The study, published in Nature today, attributes much of the decrease to the distribution and education around safety nets in beds, and the paper notes the work should be maintained so successes aren’t undone.

Though malaria still accounts for 78% of the deaths in Africa Dr Margaret Chan, the director general of the WHO, said the reduction ‘is a sign that our strategies are on target, and that we can beat this ancient killer.’


          

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