Latest Health News

THURSDAY, Oct. 22, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Homeless people are three times more likely to die after a heart attack than other patients, a new study finds. "Our study shows a dramatically higher rate of mortality after heart attacks in people experiencing homelessness compared to non-homeless patients," said researcher Dr. Samantha Liauw of the University of Toronto. "More research is needed to discover the reasons for this disparity in outcomes so that the chances of survival can be improved in this vulnerable population." Liauw and her colleagues compared more than 2,800 heart attack patients admitted to a Toronto hospital between 2008 and 2017. Of those, 75 were homeless. Among homeless patients, 19% died in the hospital, compared with 6% of others. Homeless patients were...

THURSDAY, Oct. 22, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- More than half of all Americans have been personally affected by COVID-19 at this point in the pandemic, according to a new HealthDay-Harris Poll survey. The national survey was conducted by The Harris Poll between Oct. 8 and 12. It found that 55% of U.S. adults now say they know someone in their immediate or extended network of family and acquaintances who's been infected, hospitalized or passed away from COVID-19. About two in every five people said they'd had even more direct experience with COVID-19, with either themselves or someone very close to them falling ill, being hospitalized or dying. "By now, we're all accustomed to regularly seeing the sobering figures for COVID infection and death rates, but these findings translate to...

THURSDAY, Oct. 22, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- In a move that widens the pool of people considered at risk for coronavirus infection, U.S. health officials released new guidance on Wednesday that redefines who's considered a "close contact" of an infected individual. The change, issued by the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, will likely have the biggest impact in group settings where people are in repeated contact with others for brief periods over the course of a day, such as schools and workplaces, the Washington Post reported. The CDC had previously defined a "close contact" as someone who spent at least 15 consecutive minutes within six feet of a confirmed coronavirus case. Now, a close contact will be defined as someone who was within six feet of an infected...

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 21, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- A combination of two "targeted" therapies can beat back a rare form of blood cancer -- without the toxic effects of chemotherapy, a new study has found. In a trial of 63 patients, researchers found that the drug regimen frequently wiped out all signs of the cancer -- a subtype of the blood cancer acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). And at 18 months, 95% of patients were still alive. Experts said it is too soon to call the approach a "cure." But they were hopeful the findings, published Oct. 22 in the New England Journal of Medicine, could lead to an effective -- and chemo-free -- treatment for the cancer. The disease is a subtype of ALL in which the cancer cells have a genetic abnormality called the Philadelphia chromosome (Ph)....