News & Updates

The NAC CARES team (Graham, Chris, Beth & Lauren) keep track of all the latest aspergillosis related medical and scientific happenings and bring together the most important bits in our blog and newsletter. We write them in non-technical language.

Blog Articles

Conversations with Patients: Living and accepting chronic illness.

The National Aspergillosis Centre hosts several social contact meetings each week intended for anyone (not just NAC patients) to attend and find support from fellow patients, carers and NAC (non-medical) staff. We talk about many things and muse on many subjects,...

UK National RSV vaccination program launched

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is mostly a minor 'common cold' for us, but for the very young and the elderly, it can cause severe infections eg pneumonia. Each year it can cause 30,000 hospitalisations and 20-30 deaths amongst infants, whilst amongst the elderly...

CPA patients have impaired neutrophil response to infection

A new paper from a research group in India has compared people who have tuberculosis (Tb) with those who have Tb and then developed chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA). CPA develops in patients with Tb quite commonly and for many years it has been speculated that...

English prescription charge to rise 1st May 2024

Charges for prescriptions and prescription prepayment certificates (PPCs) will increase by 2.59% (rounded to the nearest 5 pence) from 1 May 2024. Charges for wigs and fabric supports will increase by the same rate. A prescription will cost £9.90 for each medicine or...

The Role of Speech & Language Therapy (SALT)

Did you know Speech and language therapists (SLTs) play a crucial role in the management of patients with respiratory conditions?  The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) comprehensive factsheet on Upper Airway Disorders (UADs), is an essential...

Understanding How Our Lungs Fight Fungus

Airway epithelial cells (AECs) are a key component of the human respiratory system: The first line of defence against airborne pathogens such as Aspergillus fumigatus (Af), AECs play a crucial role in initiating host defence and controlling immune responses and are...

Chronic illness diagnosis and guilt

Living with a chronic disease can often lead to feelings of guilt, but it's important to recognize that these feelings are common and perfectly normal. Here are some reasons why individuals with chronic illnesses may experience guilt: Burden on others: People with...

Tipping Point – when for a time it just all feels like TOO MUCH

Alison's story with ABPA (T'was the week before Christmas...) As we journey through life with chronic conditions we can teach ourselves coping strategies   As the strategies work we gain a sense of achievement and I guess a pride that we can do this we can...

Chronic illness diagnosis and grief

Many of us will be familiar with the process of grief after a loved one has died, but did you realise that the same process often happens when you are diagnosed with a chronic illness such as aspergillosis? There are very similar feelings of loss:- loss of part of...

ABPA guidelines update 2024

Authoritative health-based organisations throughout the world occasionally release guidelines for doctors on specific health problems. This helps everyone give patients a consistent level of the right care, diagnosis and treatment and is particularly useful when the...

Videos

Browse our Youtube channel containing all our patients’ support meetings and other talks here