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The Great Chinese Famine (1959-1962) was probably the greatest man-made disaster in history resulting in tens of millions of deaths. The responses to the famine and that to COVID-19 are all to similar, characterized by false claims, misinformation and, most of all, political posturing at the expense of public health. The importation of Russian sparrows helped lead to ending the great famine. We await the arrival of the sparrows in the the form of a vaccine.
BOSTON- New research from Boston Medical Center shows that routine Hepatitis C (HCV) testing at federally qualified health centers (FQHC) improves diagnosis rates and health outcomes for people with HCV infections in the United States, and is cost-effective. The formerly recommended targeted testing approach was shown to provide worse outcomes at a higher cost when compared to routine testing.
One of the biggest social media sites -- Facebook -- has allowed "anti-vaxxers" to gain a stronger voice against the use of the human papillomavirus, or HPV, vaccine, according to a new study from a media expert at the University of Missouri.
Differences in lung physiology and immune function in children could be why they are more often spared from severe illness associated with COVID-19 than adults, according to pediatric and adult physicians at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) and Baylor College of Medicine, who teamed up to investigate the disparity.
The perspectives paper was recently published in American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology.
July 8, 2020 - "Nurse-initiated and managed antiretroviral therapy" (NIMART) is an innovative approach to making effective medications more accessible to people living with HIV (PLWH) in low-resource countries. A new study identifies challenges and opportunities to promoting nurse- and midwife-led HIV services in eastern and southern Africa, reports the July/August issue of
8 July 2020: A follow-up study of almost 20,000 young women who had a first cycle of IVF in Denmark between 1995 and 2014 indicates that those who responded poorly to treatment, with few eggs collected, are at a significantly increased risk of later age-related diseases. The findings, says investigator Mette Wulf Christensen from Aarhus University in Denmark, suggest an "association with early ovarian ageing and an accelerated ageing process in general".(1)
The American Cancer Society (ACS) has updated its guideline for HPV vaccination, adapting a 2019 update from the Federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). The ACS first issued a guideline for routine use of the HPV vaccine in 2007, with an update issued in 2016. This third version of the guideline is published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, the ACS's flagship medical journal.
A ringing bell vibrates simultaneously at a low-pitched fundamental tone and at many higher-pitched overtones, producing a pleasant musical sound. A recent study, just published in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences by scientists at Kyoto University and the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, shows that the Earth's entire atmosphere vibrates in an analogous manner, in a striking confirmation of theories developed by physicists over the last two centuries.
New research published in the journal BMJ Open Sport and Exercise Medicine indicates that men and younger adults have been less physically active during the COVID-19 lockdown.
The study, led by Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) and Ulster University, includes data from 911 UK adults who took part in an online survey which began on 17 March.
In a clinical trial of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, treatment with a drug called upadacitinib provided greater benefits than methotrexate, the most commonly used initial therapy for rheumatoid arthritis.
Upadacitinib inhibits certain proteins called Janus kinase enzymes that are involved in inflammation. It's approved for treating patients with rheumatoid arthritis, but only after they've tried methotrexate.
Children who are relatively tall for their age have a higher risk of developing obesity, according to a new study published in Obesity.
In the study, investigators examined the health records of 2.8 million children who were initially examined between 2 and 13 years of age. When they were re-examined an average of 4 years later (but up to 13 years later), taller children were more likely to have a higher body mass index than shorter children.
Pancreatic cancer carries a poor prognosis, and it often goes undetected until advanced stages. A new BJS (British Journal of Surgery) study indicates that a certain cocktail of chemotherapy drugs may be a safe and effective treatment option for patients with a metastatic form of the disease.
New research found that, compared with a father's traits related to allergies and asthma, a mother's traits create a higher risk that a child will develop these same traits in early childhood. By the time the children were 6 years old, however, both parents presented the same risk. This suggests that non-genetic factors related to mothers--such as factors present in the uterus during pregnancy--may confer an added risk of allergies and asthma to children.
In 2010, Professor Patrick Kwan from Monash University's Department of Neuroscience, led an international team researching the causes and outcomes of epilepsy patients in rural China. A decade later the results indicate that at least one million Chinese people with epilepsy could be candidates for a standard operation that may leave them seizure-free.