Pfizer Inc. announced Tuesday that it has asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to authorize its two-dose COVID vaccine for emergency use in children under 5 while it continues to research the power of a third shot in these youngest Americans. If the FDA grants the request, the two-shot regimen would become the first…  read on >  read on >

Suicides by drug overdose have increased among teens, young adults and seniors, even as they declined for the overall population, U.S. federal researchers say. Drug-related suicides declined for Americans in general during the latter part of the 2010s, researchers from the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) found. But rates of suicide by overdose…  read on >  read on >

Many American teens and young adults underestimate the risk of sexually transmitted infections from unprotected oral sex, and that’s especially true of young men, a new survey shows. Doctors say oral sex can transmit herpes, gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis, HIV and human papillomavirus (HPV), which can lead to cervical cancer, and head and neck cancers. While…  read on >  read on >

As the number of U.S. children with COVID-19 continues to surge, there are a number of things parents should know, a pediatric infectious disease expert says. “What used to be the average number of children with COVID for the whole hospital is now the average just for the intensive care unit,” said Dr. Jessica Ericson,…  read on >  read on >

Vaccinations have been given to the first volunteers in a Phase 1 trial of Moderna’s experimental HIV vaccine, the company has announced. The vaccine uses mRNA technology — similar to that utilized in breakthrough COVID vaccines — to deliver HIV-specific antigens that could trigger an immune response against the virus that causes AIDS, the company…  read on >  read on >

Colon cancer rates are increasing for younger Americans, along with rates of obesity. Could slimming down reduce young people’s risk for malignancy? A new study suggests that even a small amount of weight loss may cut your odds for benign growths in the colon known as adenomas, or polyps. Left unchecked, these growths can lead…  read on >  read on >