Last month was the second-hottest September ever recorded; it came after the world’s warmest summer ever, in a year that is on track to be the most searing in recorded history. There’s only so much the human body can take. Heat killed 60,000 people in Europe alone in 2022, and …
Read More »C.D.C. Now Recommends Pneumonia Vaccine for Adults 50 and Up
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has lowered the recommended age from 65 to 50 for adults to get vaccinated against a type of bacteria that causes pneumonia and other illnesses. The shots protect against a cluster of infections known as pneumococcal disease, including a common form of pneumonia; …
Read More »Malaria Is Surging in Ethiopia, Reversing a Decade of Progress Against the Disease
Malaria infection rates are soaring in Ethiopia, where a combination of armed conflict, climate change and mosquitoes’ growing resistance to drugs and insecticides has accelerated the spread of a disease the country once thought it was bringing under control. More than 6.1 million malaria cases, and 1,038 deaths, have been …
Read More »Is It Covid or the Flu? New Tests Can Check for Both
Yet again this winter, millions of Americans will wonder if a nagging cough or body aches is a sign they’re coming down with Covid or the flu. This time, they’ll have an expanded array of tools to get an answer without leaving the house. There are now nine at-home tests …
Read More »As Bird Flu Spreads, Additional Human Infection Is Reported in Missouri
A Missouri resident who shared a home with a patient hospitalized with bird flu in August was also infected with the virus, federal officials reported on Thursday. But symptomatic health care workers who cared for the hospitalized patient were not infected, testing showed. The news eased worries among researchers that …
Read More »Opinion | Finger-Pointing if Trump Beats Harris
More from our inbox: Deluged in PennsylvaniaSpeech on CampusThe Fight Against Malaria To the Editor: Re “If Trump Wins, Who, or What, Will Liberals Blame?,” by Bret Stephens (column, Oct. 23): I can answer Mr. Stephens’s query about who or what liberals will blame should Donald Trump win the presidential …
Read More »New Stroke Recommendations Call Out Risks Unique to Women
New guidelines for preventing strokes spell out for the first time the risks faced by women, noting that pre-term births and conditions like endometriosis and early menopause can raise the risk. “Prior guidelines tended to be sex-agnostic,” said Dr. Brian Snelling, director of the stroke program at Baptist Health South …
Read More »Opinion | Polio Threatens Gaza Today. Tomorrow, It Could Be Cholera.
In August, health officials recorded the first case of polio in Gaza in more than 25 years, in an unvaccinated 10-month-old baby whose lower left leg became paralyzed by the virus. Sadness and frustration washed over me when I first heard the news. It is outrageous that polio — which …
Read More »What Does It Mean to Be Immunocompromised?
Kaley Karaffa had just turned 28 when the reality of having a weakened immune system as a cancer patient started to sink in. A few weeks earlier, at an annual medical exam, Ms. Karaffa had expressed concern to her doctor about enlarged lymph nodes near her collarbone. Testing showed that …
Read More »Deadly Marburg Virus Hits Rwanda’s Doctors and Nurses Hard
Rwanda’s fragile health care system could become overwhelmed by the deadly Marburg virus, doctors fear, because most of those currently infected are medical professionals, and some have already died. Since the first outbreak in the country last month, at least 30 medical workers have been infected, and at least four …
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