In this issue:

Finding an alternative to antibiotics

Wound infection after surgery is still a major cause of ill health and patient suffering.

Good progress towards Crohn’s disease vaccine

Crohn’s disease is chronic inflammation of the intestine and it ruins people’s lives. The symptoms of this disease include chronic diarrhoea, abdominal pain and weight loss.

MRI scans predict brain damage in babies

Most people associate stroke with the elderly, but sadly some babies suffer stroke when they are born. Neonatal stroke affects one or two in every 4,000 babies.

My story: epilepsy

Denice Barnaby from Herne Hill in London has had to live with severe epilepsy since 1986. Triggered by a blow to the back of her head, this one accident has, she tells me, “messed up my life, basically.”

New test for genetic disorder

Neurofibromatosis is one of the most common genetic disorders. Of the two types of neurofibromatosis, type 1 (NF1) affects around one in 2,500 babies born in the UK.

New treatments for emphysema

Action Medical Research has just awarded £85,000 to Dr Ravi Mahadeva, based at the University of Cambridge. His three-year project will investigate Alpha-1 antitrypsin, a major anti-inflammatory protein found in the lung.

Pedal power!

An Action Medical Research project tests the effectiveness of exercise therapy for paralysis patients.

Serious childhood infections

An Action Medical Research project is seeking to improve protection against serious childhood infections.

The rubella vaccine

Rubella, or German Measles as it is sometimes known, is a viral infection which mainly infects children between the ages of six and twelve, causing a slight fever and a rash.

The sacred disease

What links Hercules, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Charles Dickens, Handel, Byron, van Gogh, and Dostoyevsky? The answer is that they all suffered from epilepsy.

Treating nerve injuries

Nerve injuries are common and can result from accidents or trauma and radical surgery for diseases such as cancer.

Walking back to happiness

Daniel Sartin meets Dr Mark Taylor — a man with a mission to keep Britain’s pensioners on the move.