# Health news 25th May 2011



## Northerner (May 25, 2011)

*Winter flu death toll topped 600*
Last winter's flu outbreak claimed 602 lives in the UK, with more than 70% of the deaths among 15- to 64-year-olds, Health Protection Agency figures show. Flu normally hits older people, but last winter it acted differently as the main strain was swine flu, which the elderly have some resistance to. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13523971 

*Brisk walks fight prostate cancer*

Men who have been recently diagnosed with prostate cancer can help keep their disease at bay by taking brisk walks, claim researchers. Based on their observations, men who power walk for at least three hours a week can halve how much their cancer will grow and spread over the next couple of years.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13518537

*More than 20,000 women aged under 25 had their SECOND abortion last year, shock figures show*
More than 20,000 women a year are having two or more abortions by the age of 25. A third of all terminations are carried out on patients who have had at least one already.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...-SECOND-abortion-year-shock-figures-show.html

*NHS in England to suffer smaller cuts than rest of UK*
A new paper claims that health services will be cut by almost 11 per cent over the next four years in Wales, compared with a real-terms fall in spending of just 0.9 per cent in England. In addition, health spending will fall by 2.2 per cent by 2014-15 in Northern Ireland and by 3.3 per cent in Scotland next year alone. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/h...d-to-suffer-smaller-cuts-than-rest-of-UK.html

*Middle-class drinkers at increased risk as they get older*

While the risk of drinking among all socio-economic groups rises until middle age, death rates among people on lower incomes peak in middle age, at which point the chances of dying begin to decrease. But the highest-earning members of society continue to put themselves at greater risk in old age because they do not realise what constitutes heavy drinking, experts said. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/h...kers-at-increased-risk-as-they-get-older.html


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