Congratulations to the England cricket team for winning the Ashes series. After working on a cricket-themed disease awareness campaign throughout the summer, the Aurora team has been following the action avidly and for some in the office, with a new found interest. It's always lovely to beat the Aussies!

If the Aurora top 20 has been forwarded to you by a friend or colleague and you would like to receive your own copy in future, please click here.

The summer is a notoriously quiet period for news stories and health was no exception, there was not a huge amount of movement in the top five slots - all the usual suspects were there: swine flu, cancer, nutrition, obesity and alcohol. These areas remain subjects of media fascination and in turn must be areas that the British public are interested in reading about. There were no new entries this month but a number of re-entries, including superbugs where the good news was that the Evening Standard and Daily Mail, among others, reported that the latest data from the Office for National Statistics showed the number of deaths linked to hospital-acquired infections MRSA and C.difficile fell last year for the first time.

Inevitably, yet again this month, swine flu has completely dominated the health news landscape. Although there is a glimmer of hope that the media hysteria around this issue is dimming because there was a noticeable fall in the number of stories at the end of the month, compared to the beginning when there was complete domination.

Stories have ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous. They have included Britons being flown in private jets abroad for treatment if the pandemic hits, doctors ‘playing God' with treatments, ‘Tamiflu' tourists visiting the UK and leaving with precious supplies, school children being used as ‘guinea pigs' for the vaccine, drug addicts getting the vaccine first, pensioners getting it last, 16 year olds manning the swine flu hotline and the list goes on.

But the good news was that most papers, including The Independent, Daily Mirror and Daily Telegraph, reported that health officials agreed that swine flu had peaked for now. Official figures released showed that the weekly consultation rate between doctors and patients suffering from flu-like infections had fallen to almost normal levels. Government scientists warn this is likely to be a temporary lull before a second outbreak occurs after schools re-open in September. We anticipate that swine flu will keep the number one slot in September.

Nutrition was an interesting one this month. There were the usual stories about what we should or should not be eating this month. In short, on the ‘yes' list this month are popcorn and cereals which are high in antioxidants, according to scientists in a study reported in The Guardian. On the ‘no' list are iced coffees and salami and ham for children (The Guardian again, this time reporting on an initiative by the World Cancer Research Fund advising families to avoid processed meats in favour of poultry, fish and low-fat cheese). Organic food also came in for criticism over ‘false nutrition claims'. The Evening Standard stated that the government's health watchdog the Food Standards Agency had claimed that organic food gives no additional health benefits.

The Observer reported on a new psychological condition characterised by an obsession with healthy eating. The condition has been christened orthorexia nervosa and perhaps unsurprisingly was named by a Californian doctor, Steven Bratman. The Daily Telegraph picked up on the story and described the disorder as a ‘fixation on righteous eating' with sufferers tending to be over 30, middle class and well educated. This condition is perhaps not surprising given the amount of column inches nutrition gets every single month.

To avoid falling foul of orthorexia nervosa, it appears we should be following a caveman's diet. The Daily Express reported that our ancestors had it right when it came to healthy eating. A study from the University of California reported that just ten days following the diet of Stone Age man (lean meat, fruit, vegetables and nuts) was enough to lower blood pressure, reduce cholesterol and improve blood sugar levels.

Fertility and IVF issues jumped up the chart quite significantly - last month at 20 and this month at number nine. There were a number of stories fuelling this jump including reports in The Sun, The Times, METRO London, Daily Mirror and The Independent that treatment for fertility is still a lottery in this country. Despite a pledge from ministers to end the IVF ‘postcode lottery', thousands of couples are still denied NHS fertility treatment.

The Times interviewed Professor Lisa Jardine, chairman of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority who stated that woman could be allowed to sell their eggs to IVF clinics in an effort to stem ‘fertility tourism'. She said that she was already aware of students who travelled to countries which allow payment, such as the USA to help clear their debts: “Donation always runs the risk of exploitation... I'd rather we had control over here.”

And finally, as there are more than a few chocoholics in the Aurora office, we were perturbed to read that the government's Food Standards Agency has their beady eyes on our chocolate consumption. They want manufacturers to reduce the size of chocolate bars by about a fifth to cut calorie intake. Officials are pushing for smaller bite-size bars... something tells me that this won't stop the team here from enjoying their mid-afternoon fix. We will after all be busy following the ‘caveman diet' so we will deserve a treat.

So, what has been revving up the news in August? Let's take a look at the Aurora rev-counter, which aims to provide a snapshot of what's driving the health news each month:

Independent research is the top driver this month closely followed by health service delivery, largely driven by the furore created by criticisms of the NHS on the other side of the pond (see Aurora's thoughts on our blog post on this topic). Our healthcare system was described as ‘evil and Orwellian' by US critics. The comments caused a huge amount of anger here, with ministers and medics rushing to defend the NHS. Many high profile figures, including Professor Stephen Hawking also spoke out: “I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS... I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived.”

Have you enjoyed reading this email? If so, why not forward it to a friend?

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 snapshot of health stories in the national press and is based upon a quantitative process. Analysis based on news from the 26 July to 25 August 2009.

© Aurora 2009

Aurora Healthcare Communications Ltd Registered No. 5591618 England and Wales.
Registered office at 85-87 Bayham Street, London, NW1 0AG, UK