Latest Health News

TUESDAY, May 12, 2020 (American Heart Association News) --The first thing to know about the possible links between COVID-19 and stroke is simple, say doctors: We just don't know. "We have very serious worries that there's a connection," said Dr. Patrick D. Lyden, professor of neurology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. "But I want to make it crystal clear that if we stay focused on evidence and data – which we really need to do more of at this moment – we don't know anything with probability." Lyden, who wrote American Heart Association guidance for stroke centers about how to handle the coronavirus for its journal Stroke, said doctors anecdotally were reporting "a surprising number of very severe strokes at this time" in COVID-19 patients. But the reason isn't clear. Many...

TUESDAY, May 12, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Hunkering down during the coronavirus pandemic has stressed families and raised the risk for child abuse, Penn State researchers report. "We're very worried about children becoming more seriously injured over longer periods of time before they can get treatment," said Dr. Lori Frasier, chief of the division of child abuse pediatrics at Penn State Children's Hospital. Data from ChildLine, part of the Pennsylvania child protective services program, show 30% to 50% fewer reports of child abuse from the three weeks before state-mandated COVID-19 restrictions to the first three weeks after closures. Yet that's different from what Frasier found. "Most reports to ChildLine are made by mandated reporters -- teachers, doctors and psychologists,...

TUESDAY, May 12, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- A cough or other respiratory symptoms aren't the only early signs of COVID-19 in children, according to researchers. They examined the cases of five children who were admitted to the hospital with digestive tract symptoms and later diagnosed with pneumonia and COVID-19. Children with sickness and diarrhea who also have a fever or history of exposure to coronavirus should be suspected of having COVID-19, concluded the authors of the study. The findings were published May 12 in the journal Frontiers in Pediatrics. "These children were seeking medical advice in the emergency department for unrelated problems, for example, one had a kidney stone, another a head trauma. All had pneumonia confirmed by chest CT scan before or soon after admission...

TUESDAY, May 12, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Since the coronavirus pandemic began, rates of hospital admission and death from COVID-19 have been significantly higher in men than women. Now, new Dutch research suggests a reason why: Compared to women, men have higher concentrations of a blood enzyme that helps the new coronavirus infect human cells. The enzyme is called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). "ACE2 is a receptor on the surface of cells," explained lead researcher Dr. Adriaan Voors, a professor of cardiology at the University Medical Center Groningen, in the Netherlands. His team published their findings May 11 in the European Heart Journal. ACE2 "binds to the coronavirus and allows it to enter and infect healthy cells," Voors explained in a journal news release. "High...