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THURSDAY, July 22, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Many Americans are being charged for preventive -- and supposedly free -- health care, new research shows, and those bills may keep them from booking appointments in the future.Out-of-pocket charges for preventive care that should be free under the Affordable Care Act can discourage patients from receiving recommended care, said study lead author Alexander Hoagland, a Ph.D. student in economics at Boston University."The direct effect arises from patients who unexpectedly had to pay for a preventive service, and who are now less likely to return for repeated screenings," Hoagland said in a university news release."Indirectly, other potential patients who hear about these negative experiences may be less likely to seek out any screenings for...

WEDNESDAY, July 21, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine will be produced for the first time in Africa by a South African firm, Pfizer announced Wednesday.The Biovac Institute in Cape Town will produce the vaccine for distribution across Africa, which is in desperate need of more COVID-19 vaccines as cases surge, the Associated Press reported.Biovac will receive large-batch ingredients for the vaccine from Europe and will blend the components, put them in vials and package them for distribution. The company will begin production in 2022, and the objective is to make more than 100 million doses a year.This is "a critical step" in increasing Africans' access to an effective COVID-19 vaccine, according to Biovac CEO Dr. Morena Makhoana, the AP reported.The Johnson &...

WEDNESDAY, July 21, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Dementia is largely a disease of old age, but a new study finds that up to 5% of all cases are among people in the prime of their lives.Looking at 95 international studies, researchers estimated that nearly 4 million people worldwide are living with young-onset dementia -- cases that strike between the ages of 30 and 64.In the United States, an estimated 175,000 people have the condition, accounting for roughly 3% of all dementia cases nationwide.In context, that means young-onset dementia is rare, said Dr. David Knopman, a neurologist who specializes in dementia care at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.But it's important for people, including doctors, to be aware that dementia can arise unusually early in life, Knopman said.Because...

WEDNESDAY, July 21, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- It takes two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to "wake up" cells that play a very important role in the body's immune response, with the second dose increasing their numbers 100-fold, according to new research.The Stanford University study may help explain why getting the second dose of mRNA vaccines, such as the Pfizer or Moderna shots, is so crucial to building a strong immune system response against SARS-CoV-2.As study co-author Bali Pulendran explained, the current pandemic marks "the first time RNA vaccines have ever been given to humans, and we have no clue as to how they do what they do: offer 95% protection against COVID-19." Pulendran is professor of pathology and of microbiology and immunology at Stanford. It's never...