Author: Claudinne Miller
Bubonic plague case reported in Mongolian capital
Xinhua One case of bubonic plague was confirmed in Mongolia’s capital here on Tuesday, according to the country’s National Center for Zoonotic Diseases (NCZD). The infected man ate marmot meat last week, the NCZD said, adding that he and five others in close contact with him are now being isolated and treated. While hunting marmots […]
Aug 8, 2023
Covid Didn’t Take a Summer Vacation
New York Times Many people don’t want to think about the virus, but an increase in cases means it’s time for a refresher on how to protect yourself and others. You’re not imagining it: Covid-19 cases are on the rise again. Fortunately, since a vast majority of Americans have some sort of immunity, either from vaccination or […]
Aug 8, 2023
A Crucial Early Warning System for Disease Outbreaks Is in Jeopardy
Wired Internal dissent within the mostly volunteer disease-news network known as ProMED—which alerted the world to the earliest cases of Covid, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and SARS—has broken out into the open and threatens to take down the internationally treasured network unless an external sponsor can be found. The struggle for the future of the low-tech site, which […]
Aug 8, 2023
Long-running ProMED email service for alerting world to disease outbreaks is in trouble
Science Money woes and a staff strike threaten dispatches valued by researchers and public health experts. The first news about the COVID-19 pandemic came not from a government or a scientific publication, but in an email from a disease-alert system called ProMED. This fateful missive in December 2019 about a few cases of a mysterious pneumonia […]
Aug 8, 2023
Covid or a summer cold? Without free tests, many won’t know.
Washington Post The United States is experiencing a bump in coronavirus transmission for the first time since the public health emergency ended in May, exposing the challenges of avoiding the virus when free testing is no longer widely accessible. The Biden administration stopped mailing test kits to households in June. The ones Americans stockpiled over […]
Aug 8, 2023
How the pandemic messed with our perception of time
Vox A neuroscientist explains how history, mood, and surprise can make life feel like a slog — or go by in a blur. It’s tempting to imagine memory as a videotape that stores and plays back the past just as it happened. But the workings of the mind are not so simple. Memory is more of a […]
Aug 8, 2023
E.R. Visits for Teenage Girls Surged During the Pandemic
New York Times The proportion of teen girls visiting emergency rooms in mental health crisis rose 22 percent in the pandemic’s second year, while the proportion of teen boys visiting declined. As the coronavirus pandemic dragged through its second year, an increasing number of American families were so desperate to get help for depressed or […]
Aug 1, 2023
Scientists develop breath test that rapidly detects COVID-19 virus
Washington University School of Medicine Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have developed a breath test that quickly identifies those who are infected with the virus that causes COVID-19. The device requires only one or two breaths and provides results in less than a minute. The study is available online in the journal ACS […]
Aug 1, 2023
Cases of leprosy, ‘historically uncommon’ in US, surge in central Florida, CDC says
Fox News Florida The letter said that the number of reported leprosy cases in southeastern states has more than doubled in the last decade. Citing the National Hansen’s Disease Program, it said 159 new cases were reported in the U.S. in 2020, with Florida among the top reporting states. Central Florida accounted for 81% of […]
Aug 1, 2023
NIH Opens Phase II Clinical Trials on Four Potential Treatments for Long COVID
Inside Precision Medicine On Monday, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that it opened phase II clinical trials on four potential treatments for long COVID spanning drugs, medical devices, biologics, and other therapies. The trials are a part of the NIH’s Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative, a $1.5 billion research program launched in 2021 to […]
Aug 1, 2023