Latest Health News

TUESDAY, May 19, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- This is not a good time to have hypochondria. For folks who routinely obsess about their health, the coronavirus crisis could greatly magnify their distress. But there's some good news for them in this era of sheltering-in-place. While in-person talk therapy is the gold standard for helping hypochondria patients overcome a crippling fear of health threats, a new study suggests online therapy can be just as effective. Prior research suggests "that people who typically worry much about their health react more strongly to health-related threats, such as that of a pandemic," said Erland Axelsson, the study author. And if so, the ability to access online treatment options could prove invaluable to such patients, he said. The study of more than...

TUESDAY, May 19, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Despite numerous studies suggesting that certain drugs touted by President Donald Trump as "game changers" against coronavirus are actually useless and even harmful, Trump on Monday claimed he has been taking one of them for more than a week. Trump said he has been taking the drug hydroxychloroquine for about a week and a half in an effort to help prevent infection or illness with SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus. He said he is taking the drug with the approval of the White House physician. Trump said, "All I can tell you is, so far I seem to be OK," The New York Times reported. Early in the coronavirus pandemic, Trump pointed to hydroxychloroquine and a related drug, chloroquine, as perhaps a quick medicinal solution to the growing...

TUESDAY, May 19, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- President Donald Trump told the World Health Organization on Monday that the United States would permanently end all funding to the organization if it did not agree to make significant changes in the next 30 days. The threat was delivered in a letter that Trump posted on his Twitter account. Sent to WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the letter also warned that the United States would reconsider its membership in the WHO because it was soft on China and "so clearly not serving America's interests." "It is clear the repeated missteps by you and your organization in responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for the world," the four-page letter said. Also in the letter, Trump claims that the WHO "consistently...

MONDAY, May 18, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Qinlock (ripretinib) tablets as a fourth-line treatment for adults with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs), the agency announced Friday. The approval follows four other FDA-approved target therapies for GIST, including imatinib in 2002, sunitinib in 2006, regorafenib in 2013, and avapritinib in January. Qinlock is indicated for patients who have received at least three kinase inhibitor therapies, including imatinib. Approval of Qinlock was based on data from an international, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial with 129 patients with advanced GIST who had previously received treatment with other targeted therapies. Patients were randomly assigned...