Tag Archives: medicine

NPR reports: The fungus Candida auris is becoming a more dangerous public health care threat, as the number of drug-resistant cases jumped in 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday. The national public health agency is calling C. auris an urgent threat because of its resistance to medications. It can cause serious illness and death in people …

Reuters reports: Some of the world’s leading makers of flu vaccines say they could make hundreds of millions of bird flu shots for humans within months if a new strain of avian influenza ever jumps across the species divide. One current outbreak of avian flu known as H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b has killed record numbers of birds and infected mammals. Human …

CBS News reports: California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Saturday that the state has launched a 10-year partnership with a drug maker to produce insulin for its residents at a significantly lower cost. The state plans to sell insulin at a cost of $30 for a 10-milliliter vial, Newsom said in a press conference Saturday near Los Angeles. The insulin will …

The Hill reports: Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. David Trone (D-Md.) on Monday called on the State Department to issue a travel advisory warning Americans about the dangers of buying pharmaceuticals from some Mexican pharmacies. “We write to urge the State Department, which plays a critical role in ensuring the safety of Americans traveling abroad, to immediately issue a …

Tampa’s NBC affiliate reports: A Florida resident died after being infected by a rare amoeba last week, health officials say. According to a WFTX report, Charlotte County health officials said the unidentified male patient likely contracted Nagleria fowleri after rinsing out his sinuses with tap water. Eric Milbrandt, director of the marine laboratory at the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, said the …

Via press release from Business Wire: Amazon today announced RxPass, a new Prime membership benefit from Amazon Pharmacy that offers patients affordable access to commonly prescribed generic medications that treat more than 80 common health conditions. With RxPass, Prime members can receive all of their eligible medications for one flat, low monthly fee of $5, and have them delivered free …

NPR reports: The Food and Drug Administration is considering a major shift in the nation’s COVID-19 vaccine strategy. The goal is to simplify vaccination against COVID and perhaps adopt an approach similar to what is used for the flu vaccine, with annual updates to match whatever strain of the virus is circulating. Currently, people who want to be fully vaccinated …

Gallup reports: A 57% majority of U.S. adults believe that the federal government should ensure all Americans have healthcare coverage. Yet nearly as many, 53%, prefer that the U.S. healthcare system be based on private insurance rather than run by the government. In 2000, Gallup began tracking the public’s views of whether it is the federal government’s responsibility to ensure …

NBC News reports: A new version of omicron has taken hold in the U.S., according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The subvariant of omicron, named XBB.1.5, has raised concerns about another potential wave of Covid cases following the busy holiday travel season. The CDC projected Friday that about 40% of confirmed U.S. …

The Washington Post reports: A study released Wednesday by the National Center for Health Statistics found that more than 3,500 Americans died of long-covid-related illness in the first 2½ years of the pandemic. While those deaths represent a small fraction of the 1 million deaths from the coronavirus, they reinforce the danger of ignoring the lingering symptoms that many patients …

STAT News reports: This Wednesday will mark two years since nurse Sandra Lindsay became the first person in the U.S. to receive a Covid-19 vaccine outside of a clinical trial. A study released Tuesday by the Commonwealth Fund shows that in those two years, the Covid vaccines have averted over 3 million deaths in the U.S. The CDC estimates that …

People Magazine reports: Céline Dion revealed Thursday morning that she’s been diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome, a rare and incurable neurological disease that can cause debilitating muscle spasms. In a tearful video posted to her Instagram account in both English and French, the Canadian singer said her condition would force her to postpone and cancel a series of upcoming concert …

From the study’s abstract: The rise in working-age mortality rates in the United States in recent decades largely reflects stalled declines in cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality alongside rising mortality from alcohol-induced causes, suicide, and drug poisoning; and it has been especially severe in some U.S. states. Building on recent work, this study examined whether U.S. state policy contexts may be …

Politico reports: The Biden administration is racing against the dropping temperatures to convince more Americans to get the updated Covid-19 booster shot amid low uptake numbers driven by confusion over the shot, declining cases and profound pandemic fatigue. By the end of last week, the administration expected between 13 and 15 million people out of 283.4 million Americans aged 12 …

Via press release from the CDC: With a potentially severe respiratory season ahead, about half of all US adults remain vulnerable to influenza (flu), according to new data released today by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID). The new NFID survey of US adults found that only 49% plan to get a flu vaccine during the 2022-2023 flu season. …

The Washington Post reports: An experimental Alzheimer’s drug slowed cognitive and functional decline by 27 percent in a closely watched clinical trial, the sponsors of the medication said Tuesday, increasing the therapy’s chance for approval as soon as early next year. Japanese drugmaker Eisai and its American partner, Biogen, in a news release said the slowing of deterioration, compared with …

The Hill reports: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning young people against engaging in an online trend that challenges people to cook with over-the-counter drugs, saying there are “significant risks” in using these medications incorrectly. At the beginning of this year, the trend took off on social media apps such as TikTok, where users would post videos of …

The Associated Press reports: COVID-19 infection may significantly boost an older person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, a new, large-scale study suggests. People 65 and older who contracted COVID were nearly 70% more likely overall to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s within a year of their infection, researchers report. The elderly fared even worse, with the risk of Alzheimer’s doubling in …

ABC News reports: U.S. life expectancy dropped for the second consecutive year in 2021, falling by nearly a year from 2020, according to a government report being released Wednesday. In the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the estimated American lifespan has shortened by nearly three years. The last comparable decrease happened in the early 1940s, during the height …

USA Today reports: Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill appears to provide little or no benefit for younger adults, while still reducing the risk of hospitalization and death for high-risk seniors, according to a large study published Wednesday. The results from a 109,000-patient Israeli study are likely to renew questions about the U.S. government’s use of Paxlovid, which has become the go-to treatment …