Fall is approaching, and so is the possibility of what public health officials are calling a “twindemic” — overlapping epidemics of both COVID-19 and influenza. A bad flu season coupled with continued COVID-19 outbreaks could increase people’s risk of fatal illness and overwhelm hospital capacity in communities already scrambling to treat coronavirus patients, experts say.… read on >
More older Americans have been seeing their doctors virtually since the pandemic began than ever before, a new poll finds. During the first three months of the pandemic, one in four patients over 50 years of age used telehealth — way up from the 4% who did so in 2019. Comfort levels with telemedicine have… read on >
Back-to-school season can be a time of stress for many kids — even in the best of times. But pandemic fears add to the anxiety many kids will experience with the start of the 2020-2021 academic year, according to David FitzGerald, a child and adolescent psychologist at UConn Health in Farmington, Conn. “COVID-19’s continued presence… read on >
High levels of air pollution may increase young children’s risk of developing asthma and persistent wheezing, researchers warn. The findings “support emerging evidence that exposure to air pollution might influence the development of asthma,” according to a report by Torben Sigsgaard, of Aarhus University in Denmark, and colleagues. For the new study, the researchers analyzed… read on >
Doctors have long suspected it, but a comprehensive new study provides more evidence that antibiotics can reduce the effectiveness of birth control pills. That means women who are using both types of drugs at once should take extra precautions to avoid an unintended pregnancy, the study’s British authors say. The study couldn’t prove cause and… read on >
People with diabetes face a higher risk of developing complications from COVID-19, but a new survey reports they have also suffered more economic fallout from the pandemic. In June, 18% of people with diabetes were out of work compared to 12% of the general population. And one-third of people with diabetes have lost at least… read on >
When COVID-19 was raging in the Northeastern United States, more than 25% of Connecticut nursing-home residents were suffering from the coronavirus, a new survey reports. Nursing homes are very susceptible to the pandemic because the patients are elderly, living in close quarters and often have other medical conditions that make them more vulnerable to COVID-19,… read on >
Some of the leading hotspots in the United States are on track to become even more sweltering in the coming decades — thanks to a combination of greenhouse gas emissions, urban development and population growth. In a new study, researchers estimate that over the course of this century, the biggest relative increases in extreme heat… read on >
Microscopic bits of plastic have most likely taken up residence in all of the major filtering organs in your body, a new lab study suggests. Researchers found evidence of plastic contamination in tissue samples taken from the lungs, liver, spleen and kidneys of donated human cadavers. “We have detected these chemicals of plastics in every… read on >
Women with early-stage breast cancer whose surgery has been postponed during the coronavirus pandemic need not worry about the delay, new study findings suggest. A longer time from diagnosis to surgery doesn’t affect overall survival of women with early-stage tumors, the researchers found. They also said a delay didn’t lower survival among women with estrogen-sensitive,… read on >
