The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the mpox outbreak in parts of Africa a public health emergency of international concern.
The highly contagious disease — formerly known as monkeypox — has killed at least 450 people during an initial outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
It has now spread across parts of central and east Africa, and scientists are concerned about how fast a new variant of the disease is spreading and its high fatality rate.
Research reveals distinct mechanisms underlying neonatal and post-pubertal social behaviors, providing valuable insights for developing targeted early interventions.
Researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and Hirosaki University have unveiled significant findings on the development of social behaviors in fragile X syndrome, the most common genetic cause of autism spectrum disorder. The study, published in Genomic Psychiatry, highlights the effects of a specific prenatal treatment on social behaviors in mice.
The researchers found that administering bumetanide—a drug that regulates chloride levels in neurons—to pregnant mice restored normal social communication in newborn pups with the fragile X mutation. However, they also discovered an unexpected outcome: the same treatment reduced social interaction after puberty in both fragile X and typical mice. These findings shed light on the complex and developmental-stage-specific effects of interventions for fragile X syndrome.
Ebola is a deadly hemorrhagic disease caused by a virus that is endemic in parts of East-Central and West Africa. Most people are aware that a primary route for person-to-person transmission is through contact with bodily fluids from an infected person. But more recent outbreaks, including the 2013–2016 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, demonstrated that infectious Ebola virus (EBOV) is also found on the skin’s surface of those who have succumbed to infection or at late times during infection.
Although evidence suggests that EBOV can be passed on from skin contact with a person in the later stages of the disease, very little is known about how the virus makes its way out of the body and onto the skin’s surface.
Researchers at University of Iowa Health Care and colleagues at Texas Biomedical Research Institute and Boston University have traced a cellular route the virus uses to traverse the inner and outer layers of skin and emerge onto the skin’s surface.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has proposed updates to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) to secure patients’ health data following a surge in massive healthcare data leaks.
These stricter cybersecurity rules, proposed by the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and expected to be published as a final rule within 60 days, would require healthcare organizations to encrypt protected health information (PHI), implement multifactor authentication, and segment their networks to make it harder for attackers to move laterally through them.
“In recent years, there has been an alarming growth in the number of breaches affecting 500 or more individuals reported to the Department, the overall number of individuals affected by such breaches, and the rampant escalation of cyberattacks using hacking and ransomware,” the HHS’ proposal says.
Research led by Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University in China has performed a metadata investigation into the presence of microplastics in humans. They report a concerning relationship between micro and nanoplastic (MNP) concentrations in damaged tissues and links with multiple health conditions.
Plastic usage soared from 1.5 million metric tons in the 1950s to nearly 390.7 million in 2021. With the increased use in consumer products came elevated microscopic plastic pollution circulating in soil and waterways, eventually accumulating in the environment, food webs and human tissues.
Consistent methods to pinpoint and quantify MNPs in human tissues are lacking. Reliable data linking MNPs to human diseases are necessary for assessing potential risks and developing mitigation measures.
Earlier, Director of the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology Alexander Gintsburg told TASS that the vaccine’s pre-clinical trials had shown that it suppresses tumor development and potential metastases.
MOSCOW, December 15. /TASS/. Russia has developed its own mRNA vaccine against cancer, it will be distributed to patients free of charge, General Director of the Radiology Medical Research Center of the Russian Ministry of Health Andrey Kaprin has told Radio Rossiya.
The vaccine was developed in collaboration with several research centers. It is planned to launch it in general circulation in early 2025.
The active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, a drug called semaglutide, can have direct beneficial effects on the heart within weeks, in addition to the longer-term benefits of losing weight, an animal study has shown.
The finding suggests that people with heart disease who don’t have type 2 diabetes or obesity, which semaglutide is primarily used to treat, might also benefit from taking this kind of drug. “It may be that we’re missing a large population of people that could benefit,” says Christopher Stone at Brown University in Rhode Island.
The findings also suggest that people undergoing heart surgery could benefit if given GLP-1 agonists, the class of drugs that semaglutide belongs to, for at least a few weeks after their operation.
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A cardiovascular surgeon has set the record straight about whether or not eggs are bad for your health. Full story.
It’s an age old debate – are eggs bad for your heart?
Dr Jeremy London, a cardiovascular surgeon from the US, posed the question to more than one million of his followers on social media and his answer may be surprising to some.
Dr London told Fox News that “eggs took a really bad rap” through the years, in large part because the American Heart Association (AHA) “came down hard on eggs” for being a poor dietary source and a heart risk.
Vitamin D supplements with or without calcium, while necessary for overall health, have no effect on preventing falls or fractures in older adults, according to a new draft recommendation from the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force.
By analyzing 20 unique randomized, controlled studies in 54 different publications, reviewers determined that additional vitamin D supplementation for postmenopausal women and older men — given that those populations had normal vitamin D levels, no previous fractures, and no issues with bone density — was unnecessary and had no bearing on the severity of injuries from falls.
The finding was an update from a 2018 recommendation that postmenopausal women should not supplement with 400 units or less of vitamin D and 1,000 milligrams or less of calcium for the primary prevention of fracture; men were not included in that recommendation.
Sit all day at the office? You might want to rethink that. Long hours in the chair are bad for your health. WebMD explains why it’s time to get up and stretch your legs.
