Mental health is increasingly recognised as a vital part of human well-being, yet the legal systems that protect people with mental illness have often developed slowly. In South Africa, the story of mental health legislation is a powerful example of how societies move from fear and control toward dignity and rights. The research of Prof. Letitia Pienaar of the University of South Africa explores this transformation and reveals how law, history, and human experience have shaped the country’s modern approach to mental health care. Her work shows that progress has been significant, but it also highlights the continuing challenges in turning legal promises into real protection for vulnerable people.

In the landscape of childhood cancer, there are diseases so rare that even many physicians will never encounter a single case. Yet within these rare diagnoses lie some of the deepest biological insights and some of the most urgent clinical challenges. Choroid plexus carcinoma, often abbreviated as CPC, is one such disease. It is a malignant brain tumor that arises predominantly in very young children, most often under the age of four. Though rare, it is biologically revealing, clinically formidable, and, in recent years, the focus of a determined effort to change its outcome.

On a warm spring afternoon in the northeastern United States, a walk through tall grass can feel harmless, even restorative. Yet hidden in the undergrowth is a growing public health concern that few people recognize by name. The Powassan virus is rare, but it is dangerous, and its quiet rise is reshaping how scientists think about tick borne disease, climate change, and neurological illness. In a recent review published in the journal Virulence, researchers Manpreet Kaur, Monica Adam, and Prof. Megan Mladinich Valenti bring together decades of scattered research to tell the evolving story of this virus and the risks it poses.

In the years since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, many military veterans have carried home an invisible burden. Blast-related mild traumatic brain injury, often called blast-mTBI, has been described as the signature injury of those conflicts. It is labeled mild, yet for many who experience it, the consequences are anything but. Veterans report persistent headaches, sleep disturbances, memory lapses, mood changes, irritability, and difficulties with concentration and decision making. These symptoms can linger for years, affecting relationships, work, and overall quality of life.

In many hospitals around the world, the neonatal unit is seen as the safest place for a newborn baby who needs anything more than basic care provided in the postpartum unit. Yet this well-intentioned reflex to protect a baby “just-in-case” can carry hidden costs. A new study led by Dr Indira Narayanan, neonatologist and researcher at Georgetown University Medical Center, suggests that a small but impactful number of babies admitted to neonatal units may not actually need intensive care at all. Instead, these admissions can increase pressure on already stretched units, especially in low-and middle-income countries, separate mothers from their babies, and unintentionally undermine breastfeeding efforts.

Four years after the first lockdowns and daily case counts faded from headlines, COVID 19 continues to shape lives in quieter but deeply disruptive ways. For millions of people around the world, the virus did not simply end with a negative test. Instead, it left behind a complex and often invisible condition known as long COVID. This lingering illness challenges how medicine understands recovery, chronic disease, and the long reach of viral infections. In a comprehensive review, Dr. Huda Makhluf of the National University in San Diego, and her colleagues, synthesize what scientists currently know about long COVID and what remains frustratingly uncertain.