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COVID-19 survivors face lingering health challenges

UC San Francisco researchers examined COVID-19 patients across the United States who survived some of the longest and most harrowing battles with the virus and found that about two-thirds still had physical, psychiatric, and cognitive problems for up to a year later.

10 Apr 2024

Maternal influences on food allergy prevention: A closer look at diet and environment

Review assesses how maternal diet and environmental factors during pregnancy influence the prevention of food allergies in offspring, underlining the importance of a balanced diet and questioning the efficacy of allergen avoidance.

9 Apr 2024

Study reveals inflammation's role in long COVID's lingering effects

Large-scale study found that long COVID patients exhibit sustained inflammation and specific immune responses associated with varying symptoms, highlighting the importance of personalized treatment approaches.

9 Apr 2024

The healing power of touch: Study finds moderate health benefits across ages

Meta-analysis reveals touch therapies have moderate beneficial effects on both mental and physical health across different demographics, with touch interventions especially effective for pain, anxiety, and depression relief, and for promoting neonatal health outcomes.

9 Apr 2024

Nirmatrelvir fails to shorten COVID-19 symptoms in latest trial

A study in The New England Journal of Medicine evaluates the combination of nirmatrelvir and ritonavir against COVID-19, finding it does not significantly reduce symptom duration in vaccinated or unvaccinated adult outpatients.

8 Apr 2024

Denmark's pertussis epidemic reveals the power of maternal vaccination

A study published in Eurosurveillance details the 2023 pertussis epidemic in Denmark, emphasizing the age-specific incidence, the role of maternal vaccination in reducing infant hospitalizations, and the impact of vaccination strategies on managing the outbreak.

8 Apr 2024

Pioneering vaccine strategy promises to outmaneuver antimicrobial resistance

Study introduces Reverse Vaccine Development as a strategic approach to identify correlates of protection early in vaccine development against antimicrobial-resistant pathogens, aiming to mitigate risks such as significant phase-III clinical trial failures.

7 Apr 2024

COVID-19 shatters decades of global health progress, slashing life expectancy

Study in The Lancet reveals COVID-19 as the second leading cause of death in 2021, disrupting three decades of progress in global health and reducing life expectancy by 2.2 years from 2019 to 2021 despite previous gains.

7 Apr 2024

PeriCord bioimplants show promise in heart regeneration studies

The promising results obtained in a clinical trial with a pioneering advanced therapy drug named PeriCord, which aims to repair the heart of patients who have suffered a heart attack, confirm the feasibility of new therapies based on the application of stem cells and tissue engineering to promote the regeneration of damaged tissues.

5 Apr 2024

Study highlights vaccine rollout inequities in New York City

Despite vaccine shortages, many younger people in New York City accessed vaccines ahead of schedule, particularly in high-income areas, according to new research at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

5 Apr 2024

Novel SARS-CoV-2 mutations found in floodwaters near homeless communities

Study highlights the detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA and novel spike gene mutations in flood control channels affected by homeless populations, demonstrating the value of environmental surveillance in understanding public health dynamics.

4 Apr 2024

Understanding the mechanisms behind cystic fibrosis infections

Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease that causes serious and sometimes fatal respiratory and digestive disorders.

4 Apr 2024

Rapid action on climate change could protect people from immune-mediated diseases

Our environment is damaged by rising pollution and falling diversity: these dysregulate our immune systems, while climate change caused by greenhouse gases causes health issues that weakened immune systems can’t protect us against.

4 Apr 2024

Similar inflammatory profiles discovered in childhood respiratory illnesses

Researchers have made a breakthrough into how two chronic respiratory diseases in childhood affect the immune system, paving the way for better treatments.

4 Apr 2024

Study links pneumonia transmission in seniors to contact with young children

New research being presented at this year's European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2024) in Barcelona, Spain (27-30 April) finds that pneumonia-causing bacteria are common in the over 60s and that contact with pre-school and young school-aged children appears to be the most important factor in the onward transmission of Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) to the over 60s.

3 Apr 2024

Muscles in microgravity: Spaceflight duration impacts muscle protein stress markers

Study explores the differential effects of short and long-duration space missions on muscle protein nitrosylation in astronauts, indicating adaptations and potential impairments in muscle function due to microgravity, and highlights the role of inflight exercise in mitigating some negative effects on muscle health.

3 Apr 2024

Study finds silica, metals higher in lungs of previously deployed military veterans

Since the conflicts that followed 9/11 in 2001, military veterans deployed to areas in Southwest Asia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Horn of Africa have been developing respiratory diseases caused by inhaling particulate matter linked to their deployment locations and job duties.

3 Apr 2024

Global life expectancy rises by 6.2 years since 1990 despite COVID-19 setbacks

Global life expectancy increased by 6.2 years since 1990 according to a new study published in The Lancet.

3 Apr 2024

Mental illness does not diminish COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness

A large multi-state electronic health record-based study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) VISION Network has found that COVID-19 vaccines are as effective for adults with anxiety or depression or mood disorders as for individuals without these common diagnoses.

3 Apr 2024

Lurie Children's Hospital administers first gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy in Illinois

On March 27, 2024, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago treated its first patient with ELEVIDYS (delandistrogene moxeparvovec-rokl), the first gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy – a rare, genetic disease characterized by progressive muscle damage and weakness.

3 Apr 2024