Tag Archives: medicine

CTV News reports: A policy change years in the making, on Thursday Health Canada approved Canadian Blood Services’ submission to eliminate the three-month donor deferral period for gay and bisexual men as well as some other folks in the LGBTQ2S+ community. Moving away from a blanket ban, the national blood donor organization will be able to screen all donors regardless …

The Associated Press reports: Moderna on Thursday asked U.S. regulators to authorize low doses of its COVID-19 vaccine for children younger than 6, a long-awaited move toward potentially opening shots for millions of tots by summer. Frustrated families are waiting impatiently for a chance to protect the nation’s littlest kids as all around them people shed masks and other public …

Bloomberg News reports: Researchers have identified five types of bacteria that are linked to aggressive prostate cancer. The bacteria was common in urine and tissue samples from men with the condition, a new study found. It is hoped the findings could help pave the way for treatments that could target this bacteria and slow or prevent the development of aggressive …

Via press release from the CDC: Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the first COVID-19 diagnostic test that detects chemical compounds in breath samples associated with a SARS-CoV-2 infection. The test can be performed in environments where the patient specimen is both collected and analyzed, such as doctor’s offices, hospitals and mobile …

UPI reports: COVID-19 causes loss of sense of smell in some of those infected by not only damaging the tissue in the nasal cavity, but also the area of the brain responsible for controlling the senses, a study published Monday by JAMA Neurology found. The white matter region of the brain plays a key role in communication between cells in …

Mediaite reports: Dr. Anthony Fauci suggested he may retire soon in a recent interview with ABC News. Fauci joined Brad Mielke on the podcast Start Here on Friday, during which he addressed an impending increase in Covid-19 cases from the BA.2 variant. “I have said that I would stay in what I’m doing until we get out of the pandemic …

USA Today reports: The study, published Monday in Nature, used before-and-after brain images of 785 British people, ages 51 to 81, to look for any changes. About half the participants contracted COVID-19 between the scans – mostly when the alpha variant was circulating – which left many people at least temporarily without a sense of smell. Analysis of the “before” …

Salon reports: A new study conducted by Tulane National Primate Research Center has collected data pointing towards evidence that the coronavirus has a negative impact on four different areas of the male genital tract. The 500-acre primate center where the study was conducted is located in Covington, Louisiana and houses upwards of 4,800 primates. Results concluded that three male rhesus …

The New York Times reports: Two doses of a new Covid vaccine that is based on a conventional approach achieved 100 percent efficacy against severe disease and hospitalizations, and it could be an effective booster after other Covid shots, the vaccine’s manufacturers announced on Wednesday. The vaccine, made by the Europe-based pharmaceutical companies Sanofi and GSK, is one of four …

Vice News reports: Varying doses of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, were intranasally delivered to hamsters—only some of which were vaccinated against the virus. What researchers found was an “acute decrease” in sperm count and testosterone levels four to seven days post-infection in unvaccinated hamsters. Meanwhile, “damage” to the testicular tissue—including inflammation, degeneration, and necrosis—was observed as early as …

France 24 reports: French researcher Luc Montagnier, who has died at 89, shared the Nobel medicine prize for his vital early discoveries on AIDS, but was later dismissed by the scientific community for his increasingly outlandish theories, notably on Covid-19. Montagnier and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi shared the Nobel in 2008 for their work at the Pasteur Institute in Paris in isolating …

Salon reports: Approximately 500,000 Americans are now diagnosed with Lyme disease, the most common tick-borne disease, annually — double the number of cases reported in the 1990s. A group of researchers at Yale University is trying to revive a Lyme vaccine. By using messenger RNA — the same technology that Pfizer and Moderna used in their COVID-19 vaccines — the researchers were …

The Associated Press reports: Gilead Sciences Inc said an unauthorized network of drug distributors and suppliers sold pharmacies more than $250 million of counterfeit versions of its HIV treatments over the last two years, endangering patients. The drugmaker said it found 85,247 bottles that had been tampered with or faked, including versions of its Biktarvy and Descovy treatments. In a …

The New York Times reports: Some people with a weakened immune system can get a fourth dose of the coronavirus vaccine as early as this coming week, according to recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that were updated last week. The C.D.C. endorsed a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for moderately or severely immuno …

NBC News reports: Additional data from Pfizer’s clinical trial of its oral Covid-19 antiviral drug confirm the treatment’s high level of effectiveness, the company said in a news release Tuesday. In the final analysis of its Phase 2/3 clinical trial, the antiviral, called Paxlovid, was found to be 89 percent effective at preventing high-risk people from being hospitalized or dying …

The Washington Post reports: Across America, many of the nearly 50 million people infected with the coronavirus continue to suffer from some persistent symptoms, with a smaller subset experiencing such unbearable fatigue and other maladies that they can’t work, forcing them to drop out of the workforce, abandon careers and rack up huge debts. Hard data is not available and …

The New York Times reports: From the start of the pandemic, the coronavirus seemed to target people carrying extra pounds. Patients who were overweight or obese were more likely to develop severe Covid-19 and more likely to die. Though these patients often have health conditions like diabetes that compound their risk, scientists have become increasingly convinced that their vulnerability has …

The BBC reports: The human papillomavirus, or HPV, vaccine is cutting cases of cervical cancer by nearly 90%, the first real-world data shows. Cancer Research UK described the findings as “historic”, and said it showed the vaccine was saving lives. Nearly all cervical cancers are caused by viruses, and the hope is vaccination could almost eliminate the disease. The researchers …

The New York Times reports: Surgeons in New York have successfully attached a kidney grown in a genetically altered pig to a human patient and found that the organ worked normally, a scientific breakthrough that one day may yield a vast new supply of organs for severely ill patients. The transplanted kidney was obtained from a pig genetically engineered to …

From the Nobel Prize Committee: Our ability to sense heat, cold and touch is essential for survival and underpins our interaction with the world around us. In our daily lives we take these sensations for granted, but how are nerve impulses initiated so that temperature and pressure can be perceived? This question has been solved by this year’s Nobel Prize …