Latest Health News

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 20, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- The White House on Wednesday unveiled a national plan to roll out coronavirus vaccines for 5- to 11-year-olds that is designed to make getting shots as easy and comfortable as possible for both kids and their parents.Rather than mass vaccination sites, the Biden administration plans to have pediatric COVID shots delivered in settings that parents know and trust."Nationwide, more than 25,000 pediatric and primary care provider sites will provide vaccinations for children, in addition to tens of thousands of other provider locations that serve children, including pharmacies, children's hospitals, and community health centers," a White House statement said.According to Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health...

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 20, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- As COVID-19 has surged throughout the United States for the past year and a half, some may have picked up an old bad habit or started a new one.How do researchers know this? They discovered that cigarette sales jumped during the first 15 months of the pandemic, exceeding their own estimates by 14%. It's not entirely clear whether that's because current smokers are smoking more, former smokers have restarted or new smokers have joined their ranks. Yet experts are concerned."The study provides indirect evidence of increased smoking," said study co-author Samuel Asare, a principal scientist with the American Cancer Society. "We don't directly show whether there was increased smoking. We know that there is a strong correlation between sales and...

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 20, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- A kidney grown in a genetically altered pig functioned normally after being attached to a human patient during a groundbreaking procedure performed by U.S. doctors. If the technique proves generally successful it could revolutionize organ transplant, greatly expanding the pool of available organs.The surgery was conducted in September at NYU Langone Health in New York City and involved a patient who was brain-dead and being kept alive on a ventilator, The New York Times reported.The kidney came from a pig genetically engineered to grow an organ with a low risk of being rejected by the human body. After being attached to the blood vessels in the upper leg outside of the patient's abdomen, the kidney quickly started functioning normally, said...

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 20, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Flu activity in the United States is 23% higher so far this season than in 2020, sales of flu medications at Walgreens suggest.The significant increase shown by the company's analysis of its own data reflects the historically low levels of flu last year as people stayed home, wore masks and got a record number of flu shots during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Walgreens Chief Medical Officer Kevin Ban, CBS News reported."With many regions loosening COVID mitigation efforts and people spending more time together in person, we may see an uptick in flu activity," Ban said. "It remains critically important to get vaccinated against the flu before it spreads in your community."Las Vegas and Nevada led the list of cities and states for flu...