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THURSDAY, May 14, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Small respiratory droplets produced while talking can hang in the air for at least eight minutes and perhaps even longer, researchers report. The finding could explain why new coronavirus infections are more common in nursing homes, cruise ships and other confined locations with limited ventilation, the Washington Post reported. The researchers used laser light to assess levels of small respiratory droplets that leave people's mouths when they speak. The study was published May 13 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Highly sensitive laser light scattering observations have revealed that loud speech can emit thousands of oral fluid droplets per second," the researchers at the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and...

WEDNESDAY, May 13, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- As New York City officials grapple with the sudden appearance of a rare inflammatory condition in children exposed to COVID-19, a new Italian report describes similar cases that have cropped up in that country. The researchers say their findings provide "the first clear evidence" of a link between the new coronavirus and this inflammatory condition. Between Feb. 18 and April 20, there were 10 cases of young children hospitalized with an inflammatory condition that resembles Kawasaki disease in the Lombardy region of northern Italy. In the five years leading up to the middle of February, only 19 children in the region had ever been diagnosed with the condition. Those recent cases represent a 30-fold increase in the number of cases, but...

WEDNESDAY, May 13, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- More than one-quarter of popular English-language COVID-19 information videos posted to YouTube are misleading, researchers warn. There are posts, for example, falsely claiming that drug companies already have a cure for COVID-19, but won't sell it, and that different countries have stronger strains of coronavirus, a new study finds. YouTube viewers "should be skeptical, use common sense and consult reputable sources -- public health agencies or physicians -- to fact-check their information," said study lead author Heidi Oi-Yee Li, a medical student at the University of Ottawa in Canada. With billions of viewers, YouTube has enormous potential to bolster or hamper public health efforts, Li and her colleagues said in background notes. But...

WEDNESDAY, May 13, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- In a first, scientists have treated a Parkinson's disease patient with his own skin cells -- repurposing them to become key brain cells that the disease kills off. Two years after receiving the experimental treatment, the patient has had no adverse effects, his doctors report. His symptoms, meanwhile, have either stabilized or gotten somewhat better. "The improvement has been modest," said senior researcher Kwang-Soo Kim, who directs the molecular neurobiology laboratory at the Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital, in Belmont, Mass. "But," he added, "before this treatment he'd been deteriorating rapidly, and afterward his worsening stopped." Kim said his team is planning to study the therapy in additional patients. For now, this patient...