Latest Health News

30Apr
2021

COVID Deaths Continue to Decline in U.S.

COVID Deaths Continue to Decline in U.S.FRIDAY, April 30, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- In a sign that the coronavirus pandemic is beginning to ebb in America, a new analysis finds the seven-day average of new COVID-19 deaths in the United States has hit its lowest point since last October.As of Wednesday, 684 new deaths had been reported, data from Johns Hopkins University showed. That's roughly an 80% drop since January, CNN reported. And the decline has been sure and steady in recent months: Since the start of 2021, the seven-day average number of COVID-19 deaths has decreased.What is fueling the promising trend? Experts say the country's aggressive vaccination drive has played a big part.COVID-19 vaccinations are already driving down death rates among vulnerable groups in the United States, such as older adults, Dr. Amesh...

Your Blood Type Might Raise Odds for Certain Health...

30 April 2021
Your Blood Type Might Raise Odds for Certain Health ConditionsMONDAY, May 3, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Certain blood types may increase a person's risk of different health problems, a new study suggests.The research confirms some previous findings and reveals new links between blood types and diseases, according to the authors of the study published April 27 in the journal eLife."There is still very little information available about whether people with RhD-positive or RhD-negative blood groups may be at risk of certain diseases, or how many more diseases may be affected by blood type or group," said first author Torsten Dahlén, a doctoral student at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.To help fill that gap, the researchers investigated the link between blood types, RhD status and more than 1,000 diseases. (A person who is RhD positive has a...

Heat Waves Topping 132 Degrees F Likely in Middle East...

30 April 2021
Heat Waves Topping 132 Degrees F Likely in Middle East Without Action on Climate Change FRIDAY, April 30, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- The Middle East and North Africa are already among the hottest spots on the planet, but new research warns that if nothing is done to slow climate change there will be life-threatening heat waves with temperatures of 132 Fahrenheit or higher in those regions. "Our results for a business-as-usual pathway indicate that, especially in the second half of this century, unprecedented super- and ultra-extreme heat waves will emerge," said study first author George Zittis, of The Cyprus Institute. Temperatures could reach 132 F (56 degrees Celsius) and higher in urban areas and last for weeks, posing a life-threatening risk for humans and animals, even heat-tolerant animals, such as camels, the researchers said in a news release from the CMCC...

Too Few Young Men Have Gotten the HPV Vaccine

30 April 2021
Too Few Young Men Have Gotten the HPV Vaccine FRIDAY, April 30, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- The HPV vaccine isn't reaching enough young American men, researchers report. The vaccine protects against reproductive warts as well as cancers caused by human papillomavirus (HPV), the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States.Many young women get the HPV vaccine to help protect them against cervical cancer, but numbers are much lower among young men, the Michigan Medicine-University of Michigan researchers found. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine for women in 2006 and expanded it to men in 2009.When the HPV vaccine was first introduced, the main goal was to prevent cervical cancer. But oropharyngeal cancer -- which occurs in the throat, tonsils and back of the tongue -- has now surpassed...

Young, Immune-Compromised Patients Are Hotspots for Coronavirus Mutations: Study

30 April 2021
Young, Immune-Compromised Patients Are Hotspots for Coronavirus Mutations: StudyFRIDAY, April 30, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- COVID-19 infections may last longer in young people with weakened immune systems, and that extended period could lead to more mutations in SARS-CoV-2, according to the authors of a new case study.The study included two children and a young adult who had weakened immune systems due to treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. For months, they tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.Most people are infectious for only about 10 days after first showing COVID-19 symptoms, the Children's Hospital Los Angeles researchers noted.The investigators said their study — published online April 26 in the journal EBioMedicine — is the first report of prolonged SARS-CoV-2 infection in kids or young adults."It's significant that...

Few Kids Seeing a Dentist Have COVID-19, Study Finds

30 April 2021
Few Kids Seeing a Dentist Have COVID-19, Study FindsFRIDAY, April 30, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Just 2% of young dental patients without COVID-19 symptoms tested positive for the new coronavirus, according to a new study.Kids with COVID-19 are typically asymptomatic but can carry high levels of SARS-CoV-2 and spread it to others, University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) researchers noted.Their study included 921 patients, aged 2 to 18, who had emergency dental procedures at UIC dental clinics between April 1 and Aug. 1, 2020.The patients were screened over the phone before their visits and had no symptoms when they arrived for their appointments. They were given a polymerase chain reaction test for SARS-CoV-2 at their visit."The kids tolerated the test just fine. We were trained by a pediatrician on how to conduct the test. We used the nasal...

1 in 5 Patients on Kidney Dialysis Say No to COVID-19 Vaccine: Study

30 April 2021
1 in 5 Patients on Kidney Dialysis Say No to COVID-19 Vaccine: StudyFRIDAY, April 30, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- About 20% of Americans on kidney dialysis are reluctant to get a COVID-19 shot, according to a new study.Kidney failure patients on dialysis are at increased risk for COVID-related complications that could lead to hospitalization and death, so it's important for them to be vaccinated, researchers said."Finding that 80% of patients on dialysis were willing to get a COVID-19 vaccine is a fantastic sign for potentially reaching high rates of vaccination in our population," said study author Dr. Shuchi Anand, assistant professor of nephrology at Stanford University School of Medicine in California.But, researchers added, the findings underscore the need to ease reluctant patients' concerns about COVID vaccination.For the study, Anand's team...

Will Baby Have Allergies? First Poop Might Tell

30 April 2021
Will Baby Have Allergies? First Poop Might TellTHURSDAY, April 29, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- An infant will generate a lot of poop during the first year of life, but the very first one may offer key clues about the risk of developing allergies.Researchers analyzed samples of meconium from 100 babies enrolled in the CHILD Cohort Study, a long-term health study of children in Canada. Meconium is a dark green substance composed of what the fetus ingests and excretes while in the womb, from skin cells and amniotic fluid to molecules called metabolites. A newborn typically passes meconium during the first day of life.The study found that the fewer different types of molecules a baby's meconium contained, the greater the child's risk of developing allergies by the age of 1."Our analysis revealed that newborns who developed allergic...

Poll Reveals Who's Most Vaccine-Hesitant in America and Why

THURSDAY, April 29, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. resistance to getting a COVID-19 vaccine is slowly diminishing, a new online survey finds, but it still exists and at especially rates in some...

FDA Poised to Ban Menthol Cigarettes

THURSDAY, April 29, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday proposed a ban on menthol cigarettes, a move that the agency has tried before and one that public...
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