While COVID-19 variants Alpha, Gamma and Delta are no longer circulating among humans, they continue to spread in white-tailed deer. The animals are the most abundant large mammal in North America. Scientists aren’t sure whether the deer could act as long-term reservoirs for these obsolete variants. In a new study, researchers at Cornell University, in…  read on >  read on >

Major pregnancy complications, such as preeclampsia and preterm birth, should be recognized as lifelong risk factors for women’s heart disease, new research suggests. Women who experience any of the five major pregnancy complications have an increased risk of ischemic heart disease up to 46 years after delivery, says the study published Feb. 1 in the…  read on >  read on >

When it comes to reducing stroke risk among women, new research suggests that the more estrogen a woman is exposed to over the course of her life, the better. The finding follows nearly a decade spent tracking stroke risk among roughly 123,000 Chinese postmenopausal women. In the end, investigators concluded that those who had a…  read on >  read on >

Changes in U.S. abortion laws have prompted confusion among women about medication abortion and emergency contraception, or the “morning-after” pill. A new poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) underscores this lack of awareness about what’s legal or not from state to state, including whether a full abortion ban is in place or abortions are…  read on >  read on >

There’s good news for American mothers-to-be and their newborns: Rates of smoking during pregnancy have fallen by 36% since 2016, a new report finds. The percentage of pregnant women who smoked was already low in 2016 compared to decades past: 7.2%. But by 2021, that rate had fallen to just 4.6%. That’s according to the…  read on >  read on >

People who have autism feel pain at a higher intensity than others, which is the opposite of what many believe to be true, new research suggests. The prevailing belief is that those with autism are indifferent to pain, possibly because of a tendency for self-harm. However, “this assumption is not necessarily true,” said Dr. Tami…  read on >  read on >

Infants exposed to maternal smoking during pregnancy are more than five times more likely to die unexpectedly compared to babies of nonsmokers, a new study says. “The message is simple. Smoking greatly elevates the risk of sudden unexpected infant death,” said lead study author Barbara Ostfeld, program director of the SIDS Center of New Jersey…  read on >  read on >

New drugs may be needed to fight the deadliest form of tuberculosis, because it may no longer respond to current treatments. An animal study by Johns Hopkins University researchers found that an approved antibiotic regimen may not work for TB meningitis due to multidrug-resistant strains. Small human studies have also provided evidence that a new…  read on >  read on >