Latest Health News

15Aug
2022

Dog Contracts Monkeypox From Owners, Prompting Change to CDC Guidance

Dog Contracts Monkeypox From Owners, Prompting Change to CDC GuidanceMONDAY, Aug. 15, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Adding yet another wrinkle to the monkeypox outbreak, a new case study suggests that people can pass the virus on to their pet dogs.Therefore, people who are infected with the virus should avoid close contact with their pets, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control now advises in an updated guidance.The change reflects the first documented cases of a pet getting the virus from its owner, according to CBS News. That case happened in France, according to a new paper published in The Lancet."To the best of our knowledge, the kinetics of symptom onset in both patients and, subsequently, in their dog suggest human-to-dog transmission of monkeypox virus," the researchers concluded in the paper.In this case, a 4-year-old Italian greyhound developed...

U.S. Nursing Homes Are Understaffed, But Minority...

15 August 2022
U.S. Nursing Homes Are Understaffed, But Minority Communities Have It WorstMONDAY, Aug. 15, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Staffing shortages at nursing homes across the United States are severe in disadvantaged areas where needs may be greatest, researchers say.The study — recently published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society — looked at staffing before the COVID-19 pandemic. It found that skilled clinical workers such as registered nurses (RNs) and physical therapists were in short supply at nursing homes in poorer neighborhoods, potentially putting residents' safety at risk. Those same neighborhoods are more likely to serve vulnerable populations, including racial and ethnic minorities.While some areas have established minimum staffing standards to address shortages, that alone won’t fix care, said senior author Jasmine Travers, an assistant...

How Worried Should You Be About New Reports on Polio?

15 August 2022
How Worried Should You Be About New Reports on Polio?MONDAY, Aug. 15, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Poliovirus detected in New York City wastewater last week put public health officials on high alert, as it indicates the potentially paralyzing virus is circulating widely in the area.But infectious disease experts say there's no need for families of fully vaccinated children to panic."The inactivated polio vaccine is part of the standard childhood immunization schedule, so for most families, it really shouldn't be a concern," said Dr. Gail Shust, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at NYU Langone Hassenfeld Children's Hospital in New York City. "It happens to be an extremely effective vaccine."At this point, there's also no need to seek out a polio booster for a fully vaccinated child or adult, she added."For kids who've gone through...

Nerve Block Plus Lidocaine Clears Psoriasis in Small Study

15 August 2022
Nerve Block Plus Lidocaine Clears Psoriasis in Small StudyMONDAY, Aug. 15, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Spinal injections of a common anesthetic may help clear the inflammatory skin condition psoriasis, a small pilot study suggests.The study involved four patients with severe psoriasis, and researchers are describing it as a "proof-of-concept" — specifically, the idea that targeting certain sensory nerves might help treat the skin disease.Much more research is needed before the tactic could be used as a psoriasis treatment, experts said.But for the four patients treated — up to four times over a few months — the lidocaine injections led to a significant reduction in skin symptoms.Psoriasis is a chronic skin condition that affects more than 8 million Americans, according to the National Psoriasis Foundation. The disease arises from an...

U.S.-Russia Nuclear War Could Leave 5 Billion Dead Due to Famine

15 August 2022
U.S.-Russia Nuclear War Could Leave 5 Billion Dead Due to FamineMONDAY, Aug. 15, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Even a "small" nuclear war, far short of a global conflict, could kill much of the world's population due to starvation, a new study projects.Any nuclear war would have obviously devastating effects in the places where it was waged — obliterating cities, instantly killing huge numbers of people, and contaminating local soil and water.But the destruction would be expected to stretch far beyond those borders: It's believed the massive fires ignited by bomb blasts would launch soot high into the atmosphere, blocking sunlight and causing temperatures to plunge — a concept called nuclear winter.It would be akin to instant climate change, said Alan Robock, one of the researchers on the new study.The effects on crops, fish and livestock worldwide...

U.K. Is First Country to Approve Moderna's Omicron-Targeted COVID Vaccine

15 August 2022
U.K. Is First Country to Approve Moderna`s Omicron-Targeted COVID VaccineMONDAY, Aug. 15, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- A COVID-19 booster that's targeted to the Omicron variant will be available soon — and it's already been approved in Britain.The U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency was the first to give the go-ahead for the vaccine that was designed to fight both the original COVID virus from 2020 and the omicron BA.1 variant, which began spreading last November, the Associated Press reported. Health officials in the United Kingdom have not decided whether the vaccine is part of its fall COVID strategy, though British officials have said everyone 50 and over will be able get a fall booster shot.“What this (combination) vaccine gives us is a sharpened tool in our armory to help protect us against this disease as the virus continues to...

Monkeypox May Get New Name to Curb Stigma

15 August 2022
Monkeypox May Get New Name to Curb StigmaMONDAY, Aug. 15, 2022 (HealthDay News) – Monkeypox could soon get a new name.The World Health Organization announced Friday that it plans to rename the condition to eliminate any derogatory or racist connotations, a decision in alignment with current best practices for naming diseases."The naming of virus species is the responsibility of the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), which has a process underway for the name of the monkeypox virus," WHO said in a statement.The U.N. health agency made the decision after a meeting with scientists. WHO will hold an open forum to consider new names not offensive to specific groups. The agency has already renamed two families (clades) of the disease, removing geographic area names including Congo Basin and West Africa and...

Unpaid Time Off Work Rose 50% During Pandemic

15 August 2022
Unpaid Time Off Work Rose 50% During PandemicMONDAY, Aug. 15, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. workers without paid leave lost out on an estimated $28 billion in wages during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report.The analysis showed that the greatest increases in unpaid absences were among low-income workers who were self-employed, Black or Hispanic, female, or raising families with children. Work absences brought on by personal illness, child care requirements, or obligations to family members rose 50% from previous years."Missed wages from unpaid leave have affected populations already at greater risk of severe COVID infection and of economic and material hardship, compounding existing economic, racial and gender disparities," said Chantel Boyens, principal policy associate at the Urban Institute,...

Heat, Smoke & the Heart: Wildfires Cause Cardiac Crises

MONDAY, Aug. 15, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- While most people know that breathing in wildfire smoke isn’t good for respiratory health, they may not know that unclean air is also problematic for...

One Back-to-School Worry for Parents: Traffic Dangers

MONDAY, Aug. 15, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- The dangers of school traffic is a major worry for many parents, a new poll finds. In fact, a third of more than 900 parents surveyed last spring said...
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