TUESDAY, Aug. 8, 2023 (HealthDay News) – A variant nicknamed Eris now accounts for the largest proportion of new COVID infections across America. About 17.3% of U.S. COVID cases are believed to have been caused by the variant, formally known as EG.5, in early August, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.…  read on >  read on >

Doctors who overprescribe antibiotics are often blamed for medication-resistant illnesses, but new research points to another potential culprit: air pollution. Controlling air pollution could reduce antibiotic resistance, greatly reducing deaths and economic costs, according to a new in-depth global analysis were published Aug. 7 in The Lancet Planetary Health.. “Antibiotic resistance and air pollution are…  read on >  read on >

Bringing a professional sports team to a new city often includes a big taxpayer-funded stadium subsidy, but new research shows that has a health downside: a spike in flu deaths. “Most, if not all, of the sports venues in the cities we studied received direct and/or indirect public financing,” said researcher Brad Humphreys, a professor…  read on >  read on >

Underage drinking is an issue in many U.S. communities, but the number of law enforcement agencies using alcohol-related enforcement strategies has remained low or dropped in the past decade. In a new study, researchers tracked law enforcement strategies for underage drinking, impaired driving and sales to obviously intoxicated persons between 2010 and 2019. The research…  read on >  read on >

Black women have significantly more preterm births than white women do, and though almost a third of these extra cases can be explained by heart issues and social factors, the rest remain a mystery. However, targeting those known factors could improve birth outcomes, a new study suggests. Social determinants of health include factors such as…  read on >  read on >

In the midst of a childhood obesity epidemic, a new study is pointing to a way to help school kids maintain a healthier weight: clean, accessible drinking water. The decidedly low-tech solution emerged in a study of 18 California elementary schools that serve largely low-income minority families. Researchers found that when they kicked off a…  read on >  read on >

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved a new pill, called zuranolone, that may quickly ease severe postpartum depression and help millions of women regain their emotional equilibrium following childbirth. Taken as a pill once a day for two weeks, zuranolone (Zurzuvae) showed “rapid, significant and sustained” reductions in depressive symptoms when compared…  read on >  read on >

FRIDAY, Aug, 4, 2023Steroids are often unnecessarily prescribed to pregnant women thought to be at risk of preterm birth, a new evidence review contends. As a result, millions of babies are needlessly exposed to long-term health problems associated with steroid use in gestation, such as increased risk of infection and delayed brain development, researchers say.…  read on >  read on >