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FRIDAY, Sept. 3, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Transgender people have double the odds of dying early compared to folks whose identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth (cisgender), a long-term study finds.And the added risk did not decrease over time, according to an analysis of data collected from more than 4,500 transgender people in the Netherlands between 1972 and 2018. Study author Martin den Heijer said the risk has persisted for decades."Increasing social acceptance, and monitoring and treatment for cardiovascular disease, tobacco use and HIV, will continue to be important factors that may contribute to decreasing … risk in transgender people," said den Heijer, a professor at Amsterdam University Medical Center.During the study period, 10.8% of transgender women (those...

THURSDAY, Sept. 2, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- People hospitalized for COVID-19, and even some with milder cases, may suffer lasting damage to their kidneys, new research finds.The study of more than 1.7 million patients in the U.S. Veterans Affairs system adds to concerns about the lingering effects of COVID -- particularly among people sick enough to need hospitalization.Researchers found that months after their initial infection, COVID survivors were at increased risk of various types of kidney damage -- from reduced kidney function to advanced kidney failure.People who'd been most severely ill -- requiring ICU care -- had the highest risk of long-term kidney damage.Similarly, patients who'd developed acute kidney injury during their COVID hospitalization had higher risks than COVID...

THURSDAY, Sept. 2, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- As the new school year begins, teachers can take comfort in a new report that finds they have no greater risk of catching or being hospitalized for severe COVID-19 than anyone else.Researchers in Scotland say that might be because many schools take precautions that other workplaces don't. It's also possible that the teachers in the study were younger and healthier than other workers, the authors said."Teachers are about average in terms of their risk of hospitalization with COVID-19, when compared to other working-age adults," said lead researcher Dr. David McAllister, a professor of clinical epidemiology and medical informatics at the Institute of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Glasgow. "Unlike health care workers, teachers are...

THURSDAY, Sept. 2, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- The prescribing, dispensing and use of ivermectin to prevent or treat COVID-19 outside of clinical trials must end immediately, the American Medical Association, American Pharmacists Association and American Society of Health-System Pharmacists say.The drug has U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to treat people with infections caused by internal and external parasites, but is not approved to prevent or treat COVID-19.Ivermectin is also available for veterinary use in horses and other animals, but medications intended for animals should not be used by humans."We are alarmed by reports that outpatient prescribing for and dispensing of ivermectin have increased 24-fold since before the pandemic and increased exponentially over the past...