US scientists have opened the way for the development of a "bionic eye". They used electrodes to stimulate an area of the brain that processes visual information, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported.
An experimental drug may be able to compensate for the genetic error responsible for some cases of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, US scientists hope. In rodents, the drug PTC124 was able to restore the muscle function normally lost in this disease, Nature reports. Trials have already begun in humans, although the results will take years. The drug works by allowing cells to read through certain mistakes in the genetic code for a protein - dystrophin - missing in 15% of patients with DMD.
There is a lack of information to help people with conditions such as diabetes to access local services, a study says. The Picker Institute said patients with chronic conditions and their carers often came up against "brick walls" when looking for help.
Cheltenham has doubled the number of off-street disabled parking bays in its car parks to 55. Blue badge holders can park all day free of charge in any council off-street car park as long as their badge is displayed.
A man and woman who kidnapped, stripped and tortured a pregnant teenager with learning difficulties have been jailed for a total of 17 years. Tammy McGregor, 19, had hot salted water poured over her wounds and cigarettes stubbed out on her at a flat in Aberdeen.
The supply of contaminated NHS blood products to haemophiliacs in the 1970s and 1980s was "wholly avoidable", an independent public inquiry has heard. Some 5,000 people were exposed to hepatitis C and of these more than 1,200 were also infected with HIV. Victims, and relatives of some of the more than 1,700 patients who died, have been addressing the privately-funded hearing, due to report in late summer. The government has said treatments were given in "good faith".