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#GPnews: Malaria drugs fail to cure patients in UK first

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Patient posted explosive through GP practice’s letterbox

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12:20 House of Commons health committee chair and former GP Dr Sarah Wollaston has joined angry voices against new US president Donald Trump’s policies this week.

In her latest opinion piece for the Guardian, she urges Prime Minister and fellow Tory MP Theresa May to put her foot down against religious and gender prejudice.

Read her full piece via this external link

10:30 NICE has admitted its new standard advising GPs to ask all over-65s about falls could be ‘intrusive’ to patients, reports the Mirror.

Professor Gillian Leng, deputy chief executive at NICE, said: ‘We know that prevention is better than cure when it comes to falls, particularly in older people.’

To read Pulse’s full story on the new standard, click here.

09:25 Commonly used malaria drugs have failed for the first time in the UK. The drug combination failed to cure four patients who had contracted malaria in Africa.

Experts said that although it was an early sign the parasite was evolving resistance, it was too early to panic, reports the BBC.

The four patients were eventually cured using other treatments but scientists have called for a review into drug resistance to the malaria parasite in Africa.

Dr Colin Sutherland, from the Malaria Reference Laboratory at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: ‘It does feel like something is changing, but we’re not yet in a crisis.

‘It is an early sign and we need to take it quite seriously as it may be snowballing into something with greater impact.’