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The 151% winter death spike, end of injections for diabetes sufferers and fewer children dying from cancer

There were 43,900 excess winter deaths last winter, a 151% hike on the year before.

The shocking statistic is being part-blamed on the ineffectiveness of last winter’s flu vaccination, reports the Daily Mail.

Claudia Wells, head of mortality statistics at the Office for National Statistics, said it could have been ‘much worse’ if it had not been a mild winter.

’Last winter wasn’t particularly cold in terms of average temperatures but we do know that there was slightly more flu circulating than usual and the peak was slightly earlier so it lasted longer,’ she said.

Type 1 diabetes sufferers may not need daily insulin injections in future, after scientists were able to restore insulin production for up to a year.

A trial involving a boost to the immune system has shown the therapy is safe, writes the Telegraph. The first trial patient said it had ‘freed her from the daily grind’ of injections.

The Sun also has some good news as it reports that the number of children dying from cancer has fallen by a quarter in the last decade.

The Cancer Research UK statistics show that annual fatality rates dropped from 30 to 23 children per million.


          

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