Latest Health News

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 11, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- While the origins of smallpox has remained a mystery for centuries, researchers now believe that it dates back 2,000 years earlier than previously thought.Until recently, the earliest genetic evidence of smallpox, the variola virus, was from the 1600s. And in 2020, researchers found evidence of it in the dental remains of Viking skeletons, pushing its existence 1,000 years earlier.Now, Italian scientists have used a mathematical equation to pinpoint the beginnings of smallpox, and coupled with pox scarring seen on ancient Egyptian mummies, they have pushed the emergence of the virus back 3,800 years.“Variola virus may be much, much older than we thought,” said study first author Dr. Diego Forni, from the Scientific Institute IRCCS...

TUESDAY, Jan. 10, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Despite routine use of a childhood vaccine, the United States still sees outbreaks of mumps. Now, a new study reinforces the belief that it's due to waning immunity post-vaccination.Mumps is a viral infection best known for causing puffy cheeks, a swollen jaw, fever and general misery. While it's usually relatively mild, mumps occasionally causes serious complications like brain inflammation and hearing loss.Because of that, children in the United States are routinely immunized against mumps, using the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine.Yet mumps has seen a resurgence in the past two decades. Since 2006, there has been an uptick in annual cases -- often among college-age adults who were vaccinated as children, according to the U.S. Centers...

TUESDAY, Jan. 10, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- An experimental blood test could one day provide early warning for a life-threatening complication of pregnancy, a new study reports.Placenta accreta occurs when the placenta — the food and oxygen source for a fetus — grows too deeply into the wall of a woman’s uterus.The condition can cause a woman to bleed to death following delivery, especially if it hasn’t been detected beforehand, said study leader Dr. Hope Yu, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.Unfortunately, up to half of placenta accreta goes undiagnosed prior to delivery, the researchers noted.The new test appears to accurately detect emerging cases of placenta accreta by looking for microparticle proteins associated with the...

TUESDAY, Jan. 10, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Gas stoves could face new emissions standards or even be banned because of their link to indoor air pollutants and childhood asthma, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).The federal agency will open public comment on gas cooking stoves and their hazards sometime this winter, Bloomberg News reported.“This is a hidden hazard,” agency commissioner Richard Trumka Jr., said in an interview. “Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.”About 12% of childhood asthma cases can be linked to gas stove use, according to a recent study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.“There is about 50 years of health studies showing that gas stoves are bad for...