A new Covid-19 wave appears to be brewing in Europe as cooler weather arrives, with public health experts warning that vaccine fatigue and confusion over types of shots available will likely limit booster uptake. Omicron subvariants BA.4/5 that dominated this summer are still behind the majority of infections, but newer Omicron subvariants are gaining ground. … Read more
Experts say a growing number of young kids are going to the ER for respiratory infections this year. RSV, rhinoviruses and enteroviruses are the most common pathogens, causing mainly cold-like symptoms. Winter viruses are generally mild, but parents should watch for a fever lasting longer than 3 days. COVID-19 didn’t just affect schools, concerts and … Read more
Image: Shutterstock (Shutterstock) A new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers some good and bad news about the country’s ongoing monkeypox outbreak. New cases are slowing down, likely thanks to a combination of vaccination and education efforts. But it’s also likely that the virus won’t be eradicated here and will … Read more
CNN — Imagine waking up one morning after recovering from Covid-19 to find that your coffee smells like unwashed socks, your eggs reek of feces and your orange juice tastes metallic. Oddly, that’s a good thing: It’s a sign you still have a working sense of smell – even if it’s miswired in your brain. … Read more
What you need to know about COVID-19 boosters and the flu shot KOMO News County offers latest COVID booster shots, preps for flu season VC Star What to know before getting the flu, COVID, or Monkeypox vaccine krcgtv.com Don’t Delay – Get Vaccinated Against COVID-19 and Flu Now countynewscenter.com All Shot Up John Scalzi’s Whatever View Full Coverage on Google … Read more
CNN — The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a new warning to health care providers Thursday about severe illnesses in people with monkeypox. The alert comes as Ohio reported that an individual with monkeypox has died – the third known death of a patient with monkeypox in the United States. Ohio listed … Read more
Photo: L Julia (Shutterstock) The CDC recently issued an alert to healthcare providers about enterovirus D68, which has turned up in children who were hospitalized with severe respiratory illnesses. This virus can also cause a form of paralysis known as acute flaccid myelitis. Most illnesses with this virus do not cause the paralysis, but it’s … Read more
CNN — Many people postponed routine medical care because of disruptions related to the Covid-19 pandemic. That includes a decline in cancer screenings, such as mammograms and colonoscopies. In the meantime, cancer remains one of the major causes of death in the United States, second only to heart disease. Why is cancer screening so important, … Read more
CNN — People who got the Covid-19 vaccine reported slightly longer menstrual cycles, but the change was temporary, according to a new study published Tuesday in the journal BMJ Medicine. “Compared with the unvaccinated group, vaccinated individuals had an adjusted increase in menstrual cycle length of less than one day with both first and second … Read more
Children’s hospitals in Louisiana have reported an increase in admissions ahead of the usual winter surge this year. And while COVID-19 is still present, SARS-CoV-2 is not fueling most of the admissions and ER visits, according to data from Children’s Hospital New Orleans. Here are the viruses that pediatricians are seeing pop up most frequently: … Read more
Phages can sense bacterial DNA damage, which triggers them to replicate and jump ship. Viruses may be ‘watching’ you – some microbes lie in wait until their hosts unintentionally give them the signal to start multiplying and kill them. Especially after more than two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people picture a virus as … Read more
Children’s hospitals in Louisiana are coping with a surge in admissions and ER visits due to a handful of respiratory viruses. While it’s not unusual to see viruses surge as the weather gets colder, it is rare to be dealing with so many at once, leading to hospitals that are brimming with sick kids. “We’ve … Read more
A delta bacteriophage, the first identified in a new study in Frontiers in Microbiology to have binding sites for CtrA, a protein produced by the bacteriophage’s host that regulates the production of pili and flagella. The presence of these binding sites only in phages that require their host cells to have pili/flagella in order to … Read more
CNN — As part of the White House’s Covid-19 response plan for the fall, the US Department of Health and Human Services is debuting a video ad to encourage people to get the updated Covid-19 booster shot – especially those who are 50 and older. In the new video advertisement from the public education campaign, … Read more
CNN — Since the beginning of the monkeypox outbreak, scientists and activists have pushed for the name of the virus and the disease to be changed to something “non-discriminatory” and “non-stigmatizing.” Public health experts have worried that stigma could steer people away from getting tested and vaccinated. A new name can help slow the spread … Read more
Image: Shutterstock (Shutterstock) A virus that can rarely cause a polio-like paralysis in children has resurfaced in the U.S. after mostly disappearing during the covid-19 pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that it has spotted a surge of cases linked to enterovirus D-68. Based on recent past outbreaks, officials expect that a … Read more
Fears of a new deadly viral outbreak have begun to spread after three people died in Argentina this week from a mysterious case of pneumonia. Another six people have also been infected with a “pneumonia of unknown origin,” Argentine health officials reported. Of the nine people who have been infected, eight were health workers and … Read more
Three people have died and five are in hospital after developing a “pneumonia of unknown origin”, Argentinian health authorities have announced. According to the Ministry of Health in Tucumán – a small region in the northwest of the country some 800 miles from the capital, Buenos Aires – nine people in the sameprivate clinic unit … Read more