Category: Health News

Pandemic Restrictions Fuel Recall Efforts on Fall Ballots

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Hospitals in Missouri were inundated with COVID-19 patients last summer when a group opposed to a mask mandate that had already expired gathered enough signatures to trigger a recall vote against the mayor who enacted it. Now

England set to light up e-cigs on prescription for smokers

England’s state-funded National Health Service (NHS) could start prescribing medically licensed electronic cigarettes to smokers in a world first, the health ministry said Friday. The move comes despite international concerns about the effects of commercially sold e-cigarettes and the popularity of vaping among young people. The country’s medicines regulator is publishing updated guidance that the

Study finds immunity against SARS-CoV-2 delta variant waned after BNT162b2 vaccine second dose

Variants of concern of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have shown the ability to avoid vaccine-induced and natural immunity. The Delta variant is now responsible for over 90% of new cases. In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers from Israel have investigated the possibility that vaccine-induced immunity reduces

Blue is the clue to evaluating diabetic retinopathy

Researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) demonstrate a thorough and non-invasive imaging technique to identify areas of the eye affected by diabetic retinopathy, a progressive eye disease associated with diabetes Tokyo, Japan—Just as bright light can illuminate the depths of a darkened room, researchers in Japan have found that blue light can be

New monoclonal antibody shows promise for severe asthma

A new monoclonal antibody therapy shows promise in offering an alternative treatment for patients suffering from moderate-to-severe asthma. Research led by Michael E. Wechsler, MD, MMSc, director of the National Jewish Health Cohen Family Asthma Institute, found that itepekimab was safe and effective in a phase 2 trial published online today in the New England

An application to monitor people at risk of psychosis

Three percent of the population suffers from psychotic disorders, which are an important cause of disability in adolescents and young adults. In order to adapt the medical follow-up and to avoid a worsening of the disorder, it is essential to closely monitor the evolution of psychotic symptoms, both in terms of frequency and intensity. Today,

California virus cases stop falling, governor urges caution

California Gov. Gavin Newsom rolled up his sleeve Wednesday and received a coronavirus vaccine booster shot, a move he encouraged others to take as the state heads into the time of year that in 2020 ushered in the deadliest spike of COVID-19 cases. Much has changed since then—88% of those 18 and older in California

Psychologists create first-ever body-maps of hallucinations

University of Leicester psychologists have, for the first time, created body-maps of the sensations that arise during hallucinations in people experiencing psychosis. The study, published in The Lancet’s EClinicalMedicine, provides the most extensive descriptive data to date on the feelings that arise during hallucinations and where individuals reported sensations in the body. University of Leicester

Can a chemokine help protect against bronchial asthma?

The chemokine RANTES, a signal protein that plays a role in causing certain cells from the immune system to migrate into lung tissue, seems to have an anti-inflammatory effect on the disease bronchial asthma. This is the conclusion reached by a research group led by Prof. Dr. Dr. Susetta Finotto and doctoral candidate Nina Li

SGLT2 Inhibitors for Diabetes: No Link to Fractures in Older Adults

Use of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors does not appear to raise the risk for fractures in older adults, new research suggests. The data come from a nationwide propensity score-matched study of US Medicare recipients with type 2 diabetes who were new users of either an SGLT2 inhibitor, a dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitor, or a

Researchers find phthalates in wide variety of fast foods

A team of researchers from The George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, the Southwest Research Institute and the Chan School of Public Health, has found phthalates in a wide variety of fast foods. In their paper published in Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, the group describes how they collected samples

COVID-19 vaccination plan for kids 5 to 11

President Biden has released his rollout plan for COVID-19 vaccines in anticipation of approval to use the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5–11 as part of an emergency use authorization. “The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) will be meeting to review the data that was submitted for emergency use authorization on Oct. 26,” says

Metastases use divided blood vessels to grow

For the first time, researchers at the University of Gothenburg have shown that metastases in patients with malignant melanoma gain access to the circulatory system not only through the outgrowth of new blood vessel branches, but also an alternative process in which one blood vessel divides into two parallel vessels by longitudinal splitting. The finding