Health risks tied to obesity are often serious, with new research showing it boosts odds for heart failure among older women, especially those who go through menopause later than usual. Women whose periods stopped at 55 or after were at greatest risk, according to the study, published April 13 in the Journal of the American… read on > read on >
The structure of teens’ families influences their risk of delinquent behaviors such as shoplifting, graffiti or robbery, new research suggests. For the study, the researchers analyzed survey data gathered between 2016 and 2019 from more than 3,800 14- and 15-year-olds in Sweden. They used a statistical measure called incident rate ratio, or IRR, to compare… read on > read on >
As the number of known coronavirus cases worldwide hit 500 million on Tuesday, health experts called for increased testing, vaccination and contact tracing. There’s been a sharp rise in known cases so far this year, from 300 million in early January to 400 million in early February and half a billion now, The New York… read on > read on >
Immune system-triggered inflammation is the likely reason for the loss of smell reported by many COVID-19 patients, a new study finds. “As a neuropathologist, I wondered why smell loss is a very common symptom with COVID-19 but not with other respiratory diseases,” said lead study author Dr. Cheng-Ying Ho. She is an associate professor of… read on > read on >
Even as the COVID-19 pandemic kept people isolated at home, sexually transmitted disease (STDs) cases increased across the United States. Although cases fell in the pandemic’s early months, infections rose again by the end of 2020, with gonorrhea, syphilis and congenital syphilis surpassing 2019 levels, according to a new U.S. Centers for Disease Control and… read on > read on >
Drug overdose deaths among America’s teens have skyrocketed during the pandemic, and not because drug use is more common, researchers report. In 2020, overdose deaths among adolescents nearly doubled, compared with 10 years before the pandemic. They rose another 20% in the first six months of 2021, a new study finds. “Teen drug use rates… read on > read on >
Faced with rising COVID-19 case counts, Philadelphia has announced that it will reinstate an indoor mask mandate next week. City officials announced the change on Monday, as COVID-19 cases have climbed across the country due to the highly transmissible Omicron subvariant known as BA.2. Philadelphia has an automatic indoor mask mandate that kicks in whenever… read on > read on >
An experimental medication for critically ill COVID-19 patients appears to work so well that the drug’s maker announced Monday it has stopped its clinical trial early and will apply for emergency use authorization. The medication, sabizabulin, halved the death rate in COVID-19 patients who were receiving supplemental oxygen and were at high risk of serious… read on > read on >
There was a 6.5% drop in premature births from cesarean sections and induced deliveries in the United States during the pandemic, likely because pregnant women made fewer visits to their doctors, researchers report. They said their findings raise questions about whether some decisions made by doctors during pregnancy may lead to unnecessary preterm births, defined… read on > read on >
Too few sexually active teens are getting tested for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), according to a new report by U.S. health officials. In all, just 20% of sexually active high school students said they were tested for an STD — now called sexually transmitted infections (STIs) — in the past year, according to researchers from… read on > read on >
