Author: Claudinne Miller
This Extremely Rare Neurological Condition Makes Faces Appear Distorted or ‘Like a Demon’
Smithsonian For the first time, scientists have recreated what one patient suffering from prosopometamorphopsia, or PMO, sees when he looks at faces. One winter morning roughly three years ago, Victor Sharrah woke up and spotted his roommate walking to the bathroom. However, when Sharrah looked at his roommate’s face, he was startled to see that […]
Mar 26, 2024
Ventilation Can Reduce Exposure to Respiratory Viruses in Indoor Spaces
CDC Levels of respiratory disease continue to decline nationally from the peak around late December. But even as we move past winter, it is important to remember that respiratory viruses are still spreading at elevated levels, with some spreading throughout the year. Ventilation can reduce respiratory virus transmission By using core strategies, like vaccination and practicing good hygiene, […]
Mar 26, 2024
How do we halt the next pandemic? Be kind to critters like bats, says a new paper
NPR Almost every pandemic we’ve seen over the last century has come from a virus that’s spilled over into humans from an animal. “Generally, pandemics are seen as a biomedical problem,” says Raina Plowright, an infectious disease ecologist at Cornell University. “Certainly, once the pandemic is underway, it is a biomedical problem because you need to […]
Mar 26, 2024
Bird Flu Spreads to Dairy Cows
New York Times U.S. regulators confirmed that sick cattle in Texas, Kansas and possibly in New Mexico contracted avian influenza. They stressed that the nation’s milk supply is safe. A form of avian influenza that is highly fatal in birds has been confirmed in U.S. dairy cattle in Texas and Kansas, the Department of Agriculture announced on […]
Mar 26, 2024
Bird flu discovered in U.S. dairy cows is ‘disturbing’
Science Scientist who tracks infections on cattle farms discusses implications of recently announced virus detections. The bird flu virus that has wreaked havoc around the world appears to have surfaced in U.S. dairy cows, the first time this viral subtype has been documented in any cattle. Three U.S. states—Texas, Kansas, and New Mexico—on 25 March […]
Mar 26, 2024
Effectiveness of an Artificial Intelligence–Enabled Intervention for Detecting Clinical Deterioration
JAMA Question Is an artificial intelligence (AI) deterioration model–enabled intervention associated with a decreased risk of escalations in care during hospitalization? Findings In this cohort study of 9938 patients hospitalized at a single academic center in 2021 and 2022, exposure to the intervention was associated with a 10.4–percentage point absolute risk reduction in the primary composite outcome […]
Mar 26, 2024
Here Are the Viruses to Worry About Right Now
Time As winter ends, several viruses are still continuing to rise across the U.S., according to data from WastewaterSCAN, a network of wastewater surveillance sites. Norovirus, one type of influenza, and another respiratory virus are all increasing or have recently peaked in samples from the network’s 190 wastewater treatment facilities, which are located in 41 states. “What we’re […]
Mar 26, 2024
Puerto Rico Declares Public Health Emergency as Dengue Cases Rise
Time Puerto Rico declared a public health emergency over dengue, a mosquito-borne illness that has surged throughout the Americas this year. Health officials in Puerto Rico have identified 549 cases of dengue across the U.S. territory of 3.2 million people, with almost half the cases concentrated in the capital of San Juan. Also known as […]
Mar 26, 2024
Medical Misinfo Runs Rampant Online.
MedPageToday Online misinformation about vaccines harm patients, undermines trust in science, and places additional burdens on our healthcare system through reduced vaccine uptake. All in all, it is a barrier to protecting public health. As physicians, we see the damages caused by vaccine misinformation firsthand, and we welcome conversations with our patients about vaccine safety […]
Mar 26, 2024
Health Misinformation Is Evolving. Here’s How to Spot It.
NYT The Supreme Court heard arguments on Monday in a case that involves the Biden administration’s efforts to communicate with social media sites about posts officials believed made false or misleading claims about Covid-19 vaccines and the pandemic. While the case has primarily focused on a debate around free speech, it also has put a spotlight on the […]
Mar 20, 2024