The first-ever minimum staffing rule has been set for nursing homes, the Biden administration announced Monday. Central to the final rule, first proposed in September, is a requirement that a registered nurse be in every skilled nursing facility 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It also mandates that there be enough staff to…  read on >  read on >

Measles infections continue to spread across the country, with 125 cases now reported in 18 states, new U.S. government data shows. That is more cases than were reported in all of 2022, the most recent annual peak for measles infections, the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday. So far this year, there have…  read on >  read on >

Two common PFAS “forever chemicals” have been deemed hazardous substances by the Environmental Protection Agency. The new designation, enacted under the country’s Superfund law, will let the EPA investigate and clean up leaks and spills of these harmful chemicals, agency officials said Friday. It will also mean polluters can be charged for the clean-up of…  read on >  read on >

housework

Counterfeit or mishandled Botox shots have triggered harmful reactions in 19 people in nine states, U.S. health officials warned Monday. In its alert, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said nine people had been hospitalized and four were treated with an antitoxin because of concerns that the botulinum toxin had spread beyond the…  read on >  read on >

Genetics-based “one-and-done” vaccines for the flu and COVID could prove more effective and easier to craft than current jabs, researchers report. These new vaccines would target viruses using a different response to infection than what is prompted by current vaccines, researchers said. Instead of teaching the immune system to create antibodies to fight off a…  read on >  read on >

Dogs and cats can pass antibiotic-resistant bacteria to their owners, raising concerns that household pets could be contributing to the world’s antibiotics crisis, a new study says. Cases of these “superbugs” being passed between sick dogs and cats and their healthy owners have been identified in the U.K. and Portugal, according to research presented at…  read on >  read on >

A chlamydia vaccine has triggered immune responses in an early trial, raising hopes that one day it might help curb the spread of the sexually transmitted infection (STI). There is currently no vaccine for chlamydia, which is the most common bacterial STI in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.…  read on >  read on >