Happy belated new decade! While the top 20 had a Christmas break, our little elves were still busy reading all the health news and analysing the data, so if you want to view the top 20 chart for December 2009, please click here.

The chart for January has seen some interesting movement and re-entries. Swine flu's eight month unbeaten run at the top (the longest in top 20 history) has come to an end and a boozy Christmas and New Year has seen alcohol swallow up the first top spot of 2010 ahead of cancer and nutrition. Six re-entries hit the chart this month including multiple sclerosis, for which promising new oral drugs have been in the news.

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So we finally see swine flu fall from grace at the top of the table as the pig walks off with its tail between its legs. So overbearing has been the tyranny of the pig that the last time we saw another therapeutic area atop the chart was April 2009. The shelf-life of swine flu has astonished us all at Aurora. In particular, the quantity and breadth of the coverage has been consistently high in volume and wide ranging. So why has the New Year seen the biggest health story of last year drop three places to number four? Whilst it satisfied the WHO's official definition for a pandemic, swine flu (thankfully) never reached the predicted levels of human devastation. As the pandemic has died down, the media pandemonium too is dropping off and much of the coverage has now shifted towards post-analysis. For example, one story reported surplus swine flu vaccines in the UK being donated to developing countries.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) sneaks its way into the top 20 this month as news of effective new oral treatments for people with MS was published in the New England Journal of Medicine and, subsequently, widely reported in the media. This coverage was due, in part, to Aurora who developed the media campaign for Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK Ltd. The two drugs in the limelight, which work in totally different ways are Novartis' fingolimod and Merck Serono's cladribine. According to the coverage, the arrival of tablets to treat MS will improve patient choice by providing an alternative to injections and infusions. While separate studies showed the two drugs to have similar levels of efficacy against placebo, the majority of media outlets, including the Daily Telegraph and the Times reported an additional NEJM published trial for fingolimod, which confirmed its “superiority versus a current standard of care”. Fingolimod news was also covered on BBC 1 Breakfast and the ITV News at Ten and has been widely written about across the web including on the NHS Choices website.

Alcohol has been splashed all over the news since Christmas, with much reporting focusing on the burden on the NHS of irresponsible drinking. National dailies ran the story of a report from the Royal College of Physicians, which warned that the health effects of British drinking culture are “unsustainable” and that immediate action must be taken. Visit our blog and read what one of the Aurora team had to say about media reporting of alcohol consumption. Health effects of drinking and associated legislation are clearly highly politicised health topics. The Government is determined to appear to be taking a tough stance on binge drinking and we have all read, with mixed feelings, the news that minimum alcohol prices will be raised to stem the rising tide of boozy Britain. But who does this tactic target? It's a tough moral dilemma whether it is right for all drinkers to pay up in the hope that drink-related adverse health effects will go down.

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Aurora strives to apply quantitative, qualitative and emotional understanding of health issues to client communication programmes. Dove-tailing informed PR activity with the media's appetite enables us to assist clients with communicating their vision. To find out more, contact Neil Crump or Claire Eldridge on +44 (0)20 7424 7940. 

The top 20 chart provides our interpretative snap-shot of health stories in the national press and is based upon a quantitative process. Analysis based on news from the 26 December 2009 to 25 January 2010.