Singer Jesy Nelson recently shared an emotional update regarding the complications she is experiencing in her pregnancy with twin babies. Former Little Mix singer Jesy, who is having twins with partner Zion Foster, announced that she has been diagnosed with pre-twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (pre-TTTS). The condition, which is present in pregnancies involving twins with a shared placenta, has serious risks involved and needs intense medical supervision. As Nelson embarks on this difficult journey, her story enlightens us about a rare but dangerous condition many expectant parents may not know much about.

Twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome is a rare but dangerous condition that arises in monochorionic twin pregnancies, in which identical twins share a single placenta. The placenta supplies the developing babies with oxygen, nutrients, and blood flow, but in TTTS, there is an imbalance of blood vessels that interconnect the twins, and thus the vital resources are not evenly distributed. One twin, or the donor twin, shares excess blood with the other, referred to as the recipient twin. This leads to one baby becoming malnourished and possibly anemic, and the other in danger of heart problems due to too much blood.

Nelson described her diagnosis in a heartfelt Instagram video, explaining that she is currently in the pre-stage of TTTS and undergoing frequent monitoring. "I am being scanned twice a week, and each time, things have gotten a little worse," she shared, expressing her fears and hopes for the health of her babies.

Potential Risks of TTTS

If left untreated, TTTS can have devastating consequences. Medical research indicates that:

• 90% of the cases of untreated TTTS lead to loss of one or both twins.
• Despite treatment, only a 70% survival rate for both twins is assured.
• Severe forms can result in preterm labor, cardiac failure in the recipient twin, and organ failure in the donor twin.
• Complications in long-term survivors include neurological damage and developmental delay in surviving infants.

TTTS usually advances in stages, beginning with minimal changes in fluid levels and worsening as one twin continues to get an unequal share of blood. In extreme cases, fetal laser surgery, referred to as the Solomon technique, can be employed to divide the blood vessels and balance the twins.

Why Identical Twin Pregnancies Are More Complicated

Identical twins may develop differently, and their own unique form of placental sharing can have a dramatic effect on pregnancy risk. Jesy Nelson's twins are considered monochorionic diamniotic (mono/di), which means they share a placenta but have two amniotic sacs. This is the type of pregnancy in about 70% of identical twin pregnancies and carries an increased risk of complications like TTTS, umbilical cord entanglement, and growth restriction.

Conversely, dichorionic diamniotic (di/di) twins both have a separate placenta and amniotic sac, which greatly diminishes the threat of TTTS. Twin pregnancy type is normally identified by early ultrasound, with physicians being able to track future complications from inception.

Other Twin Pregnancy Health Risks

Twin pregnancies, even without the presence of TTTS, entail a variety of health risks to the mother as well as infants:

1. Premature Birth

Over 60% of twin pregnancies end in premature delivery, with birth usually taking place before 37 weeks. Premature infants can have immature organs and need neonatal intensive care (NICU) assistance to assist with breathing, feeding, and infection fighting.

2. Gestational Hypertension and Preeclampsia

Pregnant women with multiples are at increased risk of having high blood pressure during pregnancy. This, if left untreated, can result in preeclampsia, a serious complication of pregnancy that can result in damage to organs, preterm labor, and in some cases, maternal or fetal death.

3. Anemia

Pregnant women carrying multiples are twice as likely to experience anemia, a condition where the body does not produce enough healthy red blood cells. This can lead to fatigue, dizziness, and complications during delivery.

4. Birth Defects

According to John Hopkins Medicine, multiple birth babies are twice as likely to have congenital abnormalities compared to single births. These can include heart defects, neural tube defects, and gastrointestinal issues.

5. Amniotic Fluid Imbalances

When twins have to share a placenta, they are more likely to have polyhydramnios (excess amniotic fluid) or oligohydramnios (not enough amniotic fluid). Both result in distress to the babies during fetal development and can result in premature labor.

6. Postpartum Hemorrhage

Twins are at increased risk of excessive postpartum hemorrhage because their uterus is larger and there are greater blood supply needs.

Jesy Nelson's openness about her challenging experience is raising awareness for TTTS, a condition that few individuals—let alone expectant mothers and fathers—might be aware of. Through her tearful video, Nelson stressed the significance of knowing about twin pregnancies aside from the thrill of having multiples. "We had no idea that this type of thing occurs when you're having twins. We just desperately want to make people aware of this because there are so many people who aren't aware."

Her case reminds us of the intricacies involved in twin pregnancy and the significance of early identification and medical management. For mothers carrying twins, frequent ultrasounds and vigilance can become a life-and-death issue for early detection and better outcomes of both babies.

Through constant medical attention and care, she and her partner Zion Foster remain positive and get ready for their babies to be born. In other parents whose situations are no different, the story of Nelson highlights awareness, medical progress, and emotional encouragement in handling complicated pregnancies.

The expecting parents of twin siblings are advised to discuss TTTS screening and possible interventions with their physicians to give their babies the best chance.

Climate change is already driving illness, disrupting essential services and putting health at risk, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned at COP31 in Türkiye on Monday. Calling the climate crisis a health crisis, he urged governments to strengthen health systems, implement existing climate plans and increase funding for proven interventions.

Speaking at a news briefing alongside Turkish Health Minister Kemal Memişoğlu, Tedros said the health impacts of climate change were no longer a distant threat.

"They are here and now," he said, pointing to heat, floods, droughts, wildfires and air pollution that are increasingly affecting healthcare services.

"Health is also the most compelling reason for climate action," he said.

COP31: WHO Chief Lists Three Priorities For Health

Also read: COP31 Begins On Health Day: How Will Countries Measure The Health Impact Of Climate Change?

Tedros outlined three priorities to address the health impacts of climate change, saying the newly launched Antalya Initiative for Health Resilience (AIR) could help countries put them into practice.

1. Build climate-resilient health systems

Hospitals and clinics must be able to operate through heatwaves, floods and storms. This requires reliable electricity and water, early warning systems, resilient supply chains and trained healthcare workers.

2. Move from plans to implementation

Countries already know many of the measures that work, but financing, capacity and coordination remain major barriers to implementing them at scale, Tedros said.

He stressed that climate-related health risks cannot be addressed by health ministries alone. Ministries overseeing finance, environment, energy, transport, housing and urban planning must work together and integrate health into national adaptation plans and climate commitments.

3. Increase funding for proven interventions

Tedros called for greater investment in measures that can save lives, reduce emissions and strengthen economies.

"Climate action is not simply a cost. It's an investment in healthier people, more resilient communities and stronger economies," he said.

A WHO technical analysis published on November 4 found that six priority climate-health actions could save 1.6 million lives annually and generate US$24 in benefits for every dollar invested.

What Is The Antalya Initiative For Health Resilience?

Read More: Climate Crisis Is A Health Crisis: Just 6 Actions Could Save 1.6 Million Lives, Says WHO

Launched by the COP31 Presidency, the Antalya Initiative for Health Resilience (AIR) is a voluntary, non-binding initiative to help countries share practical experience and strengthen health systems against climate-related risks.

It will support the documentation of successful interventions, peer learning and the exchange of approaches that countries can adapt to their own settings.

AIR complements the WHO-led Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health (ATACH), which brings countries and partners together to make, renew and report climate-health commitments. While

ATACH provides a platform for coordination, AIR focuses on sharing practical lessons from implementation.

The initiative will also build on the Belém Health Action Plan (BHAP), adopted at COP30, with lessons and resources carried forward through ATACH at future COPs.

"The focus now should be implementation, implementation and implementation," Tedros said, urging countries to learn from existing best practices rather than reinvent solutions. He called on governments to strengthen climate resilience across health systems and urged climate negotiators and funders to make health an explicit part of climate decisions and financing.

COP31 Health Day: What To Expect

Health Day, which opens COP31 on November 9, focuses on building dynamic and resilient health systems. It features four high-level panel discussions and a ministerial roundtable covering climate-resilient healthcare, digital health, climate-sensitive health technologies, humanitarian assistance and climate-health financing.

The scale of the health threat underscores the urgency. Around 3.5 billion people live in contexts highly vulnerable to climate change.

More than 90% of deaths from climate-related disasters over the past two decades occurred in developing countries. Air pollution, including pollution from fossil fuel combustion, causes around seven million deaths globally each year, according to WHO.

Two experimental heart drugs developed by Novartis and Novo Nordisk have failed to reduce major cardiovascular events in separate late-stage trials, despite successfully targeting cholesterol and inflammation.

Novartis' pelacarsen lowered lipoprotein(a), or Lp(a), by 78%, while Novo Nordisk's ziltivekimab substantially reduced inflammatory markers. However, neither drug reduced heart attacks, strokes or cardiovascular deaths compared with a placebo.

"Everybody in the world, me included, thought that this was going to work," said Dr. Steven Nissen of Cleveland Clinic, presenting the pelacarsen results at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2026.

Novartis' Pelacarsen Fails To Reduce Heart Events

Also read: Confused By Your Cholesterol Report? Here's What LDL And ApoB Really Mean

The seven-year Phase III Lp(a) HORIZON trial involved 8,323 people with established cardiovascular disease and elevated Lp(a) levels across 42 countries.

Participants received monthly injections of pelacarsen or a placebo. Despite reducing Lp(a) by 78%, the drug did not lower the risk of non-fatal heart attacks, strokes, urgent procedures to unblock arteries or cardiovascular deaths.

Even participants with higher Lp(a) levels showed no cardiovascular benefit.

"I cannot avoid the disappointing conclusion – it didn’t work," Nissen said, adding that cardiovascular outcomes remained unchanged despite the significant reduction in Lp(a).

Novo Nordisk's Ziltivekimab Also Fails

Novo Nordisk's Phase III ZEUS trial tested whether ziltivekimab, an experimental anti-inflammatory drug, could reduce cardiovascular events by blocking interleukin-6 (IL-6).

The trial included 6,376 patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease and systemic inflammation.

In July 2026, Novo announced that the trial had failed to demonstrate a cardiovascular benefit. Results published in the New England Journal of Medicine on November 7 showed that although the drug substantially reduced inflammatory markers, it did not prevent major cardiovascular events.

During a median follow-up of 33 months, cardiovascular death, non-fatal heart attack or non-fatal stroke occurred in 17.6% of patients receiving ziltivekimab and 17.7% receiving placebo.

On September 7, Novo Nordisk discontinued two additional late-stage trials of ziltivekimab in patients with heart failure and inflammation.

An independent data monitoring committee recommended stopping the studies, concluding they were unlikely to succeed.

Read More: This Common Heart Attack Risk Starts Silently In Healthy People In Their 20s

Why Did The Drugs Fail?

Nissen suggested that participants may have had advanced cardiovascular disease, making it too late for the drug to prevent further events.

Dr. Roger Blumenthal of Johns Hopkins suggested that participants' blood pressure and LDL cholesterol were already well controlled, leaving limited scope for additional risk reduction.

Another hypothesis was that anti-clotting medications taken by all participants may have diluted pelacarsen's potential effect, since Lp(a) is thought to contribute to cardiovascular disease partly by promoting blood clots.

These remain hypotheses, not proven explanations.

The findings also do not mean that Lp(a) or inflammation is irrelevant to heart disease. They show that lowering these markers with these particular drugs did not reduce cardiovascular events in the populations studied.

What Happens Next?

People with elevated Lp(a) can manage their cardiovascular risk by addressing other risk factors.

Nissen recommended exercise, weight management and lowering LDL cholesterol with statins when appropriate.

Three other cardiovascular outcome trials involving investigational Lp(a)-lowering drugs are underway. Their results may help determine whether targeting this cholesterol particle can prevent heart attacks and strokes.

Climate change is no longer a distant environmental concern. The effects of increasing temperatures, extreme weather events, melting glaciers, changing rainfall patterns and worsening air pollution on human health are alarming. Countries are continually identifying these health risks but monitoring if their climate policies are actually effective is the big question. This is one of the important areas of discussion at the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31), which starts on November 9, 2026 in Antalya, Türkiye.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is stressing upon health to become a central part of climate policy discussions. The health body has urged countries to increase focus on measurable action, healthcare systems that can withstand climate change and funding to execute those actions.

Ahead of the conference, Dr Diarmid Campbell Lendrum, Head of the Climate Change, Energy, and Air Quality Unit at WHO headquarters said, “Health is the strongest argument for climate action."

Countries Need Reliable Health Indicators For Climate Change

Also read: Climate Crisis Is A Health Crisis: Just 6 Actions Could Save 1.6 Million Lives, Says WHO

Climate change has numerous effects on health. Extreme heat can lead to dehydration, heat exhaustion and heatstroke, while floods and droughts can disrupt access to safe drinking water, food and healthcare. Changing temperatures and rainfall patterns can also fuel spread of infectious diseases, including mosquito-borne illnesses.

Air pollution, which is closely linked to the burning of fossil fuels, adds to the burden of respiratory and cardiovascular disease.

However, measuring these effects is not as straightforward as one might think.

An increase in hospital admissions during a heatwave, for instance, could be considered an indicator, but countries also need to monitor who is most affected, whether healthcare facilities can cope and whether preventive measures are working.

A WHO review published in October 2025, Mapping Climate Change and Health Indicators, examined 31 reports from 22 countries. It identified 3,880 indicators being used to assess health risks related to climate change. After removing overlaps and combining similar measures, researchers identified 1,684 unique indicators.

These indicators covered climate hazards, population exposure, vulnerability, health outcomes, the impact on healthcare systems, future risks, and the policies and resources available to address them.

What Will Countries Measure?

Also read: Big Lancet Report: Heat-Related Deaths Rise 36% Since Paris Climate Agreement, Global Warming Blamed

Health indicators can help governments think beyond recording extreme weather events and examine their consequences for public health and healthcare systems. Some of the areas that countries could monitor include:

• Heat-related illness and deaths: Hospital admissions, emergency visits and mortality linked to extreme temperatures.
• Infectious diseases: Changes in the geographical spread of climate-related diseases, including dengue and malaria.
• Food and water security: Malnutrition, food insecurity and illnesses linked with unsafe drinking water.
• Healthcare infrastructure: The number of hospitals vulnerable to floods, heatwaves and other extreme weather events.
• Healthcare preparedness: Availability of early warning systems, emergency response plans, trained health workers and essential emergency medicines.
• Population vulnerability: Health impacts on children, older adults, people with disabilities, outdoor workers and underprivileged communities.

What Is WHO Calling For At COP31?

WHO is using COP31 to push for stronger implementation of existing climate and health commitments. Its priorities include making healthcare systems resilient to climate change, reducing the health sector's environmental footprint and ensuring that health considerations are included in climate policies and financing decisions.

The conference will begin with a dedicated Health Day on November 9, featuring discussions on health technologies related to climate, digital health, humanitarian response and resilient healthcare systems.

WHO's November 2026 briefing estimates that 3.3 to 3.6 billion people live in contexts highly vulnerable to climate change. It also says that scaling up six climate health actions could save 1.6 million lives annually and generate around US$24 in returns for every dollar invested.

Ultimately the challenge for countries is to turn climate and health commitments into measurable improvements. Tracking heat-related deaths, diseases, healthcare preparedness and unequal health impacts can help governments understand where action is working and where gaps remain.