It’s a phenomenon first identified in India earlier this year: Patients who have or are recovering from COVID-19 who then contract a sometimes deadly fungal infection known as mucormycosis — also known as “black fungus.” Now, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said isolated cases of the disease are hitting COVID patients in… read on > read on >
Coping with the isolation, fear and sadness of the pandemic may have been a little easier if you had a trusting and loving dog by your side. But you don’t need to tell that to Francois Martin, a researcher who studies the bonds between animals and humans. His two Great Danes helped him through the… read on > read on >
There may be a silver lining to the COVID-19 pandemic, with U.S. health officials reporting an “unprecedented” decline in teens’ use of alcohol, marijuana, other illegal drugs and vaping. “We have never seen such dramatic decreases in drug use among teens in just a one-year period,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the U.S. National… read on > read on >
Following continued reports of a rare but life-threatening clotting condition linked to the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, a federal advisory panel will meet Thursday to once again weigh the safety of the shot. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which makes vaccine recommendations to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is… read on > read on >
Children and teens who use livestreaming gaming platforms may be bombarded with influencer-endorsed ads for energy drinks, junk food and alcohol, new research shows. “This type of marketing can normalize high-fat, high-sugar and high-sodium foods at a time in young viewers’ lives when they’re developing eating habits that are going to follow them into adulthood,”… read on > read on >
While strokes and related deaths have declined in rich nations, they remain stubbornly high worldwide, a new study says. Author Liyuan Han attributed the overall decreases to “better medical services in high-income countries, which may offer earlier detection of stroke risk factors and better control” of them. “But even in these countries, the total number… read on > read on >
An experimental drug, added to chemotherapy, may benefit women with an aggressive form of breast cancer, suggests an early study offering much-needed good news. The study involved women with “triple-negative” breast cancer, which accounts for about 15% to 20% of breast cancers among U.S. women. It is so called because the cancers lack receptors for… read on > read on >
Couples struggling to conceive a child through in vitro fertilization (IVF) sometimes are offered an often-painful procedure known as “scratching the womb” as a desperate last hope to get pregnant. As many as one-third of IVF clinics offer the practice in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, a new survey reports. It’s very likely… read on > read on >
The Omicron variant is spreading rapidly in the United States and could trigger a huge wave of COVID infections as early as January, federal health officials said Tuesday. In just one week there was a sevenfold spike in the highly contagious variant’s presence across the nation, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and… read on > read on >
“Medicare For All” gets tossed around a lot by advocates of universal health coverage, but a new study finds that today’s Medicare is far from free for seniors and people with disabilities. Instead, a large number of beneficiaries are sliding into medical debt and delaying needed health care due to financial holes in the system,… read on > read on >
