Getting toys for some of the tots in your life this holiday season? Experts at Penn State Health offer tips on making safe choices. Each year, about 200,000 U.S. children end up in the emergency room with a toy-related injury, ranging from poisoning to choking hazards, according to Jen Lau, program manager of Pediatric Trauma…  read on >  read on >

Moms-to-be can safely take Paxlovid to help keep their COVID infection from turning serious, a new study shows. Nearly everyone in a group of 47 pregnant women prescribed Paxlovid did well on the drug, which did not appear to interfere with their pregnancy in any significant way, researchers report in the Nov. 29 issue of…  read on >  read on >

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved the first fecal microbiota treatment, aimed at helping adults battling tough-to-treat Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infections. “Today’s approval of Rebyota is an advance in caring for patients who have recurrent C. difficile infection [CDI],” said Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation…  read on >  read on >

THURSDAY, Dec. 1, 2022 (HealthDay News) – U.S. health officials will begin testing wastewater for poliovirus in select locations around the country, including possibly at sites in Michigan and Pennsylvania. The testing will happen in communities that have low polio vaccination rates or those with possible connections to New York communities that are linked to…  read on >  read on >

Children exposed to the Zika virus may need more support as they start school, even if they were not diagnosed with Zika-related birth defects and congenital Zika syndrome (CZS), a new study suggests. Children may still have differences in brain development, including those in thinking skills, mood and mobility, though researchers said some identified in…  read on >  read on >

Researchers warn that high rates of cervical cancer screening in women over 65 suggest that some older Americans are being unnecessarily screened. More health data on these screenings in older women is needed to prevent potential harm and unnecessary costs, said the team from University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)…  read on >  read on >

Teenagers and young adults who use benzodiazepines to treat insomnia may be at heightened risk of overdose, a new study finds. Benzodiazepines include anxiety medications like Ativan, Klonopin, Valium and Xanax, as well as prescription sleep aids such as estazolam (ProSom), triazolam (Halcion) and temazepam (Restoril). In the new study, researchers found that young people…  read on >  read on >