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Federal regulators on Tuesday said that samples of pasteurized milk from around the country had tested positive for inactive remnants of the bird flu virus that has been infecting dairy cows. The viral fragments do not pose a threat to consumers, officials said. “To date, we have seen nothing that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe,” the Food and Drug Administration said in a statement. Over the last month, a bird flu virus known as H5N1 has been detected in more than 30 dairy herds in eight states. The virus is also known to have infected one farmworker, whose only symptom was pink eye.

Persons: “ Organizations: and Drug Administration, Agriculture Department

was exemplary, slashing the country’s death rate by nearly 90 percent from 1990 to 2019. Now a sweeping law enacted last year, the Anti-Homosexuality Act, threatens to renew the epidemic as L.G.B.T.Q. It also requires all citizens to report anyone suspected of such activity, a mandate that makes no exceptions for health care providers tending to patients. Under the law, merely having same-sex relationships while living with H.I.V. Scores of Ugandans have been evicted from homes and fired from jobs, according to interviews with lawyers and activists.

Organizations: H.I.V

☆ How Viral Infections Cause Long-Term Health Problems
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( Apoorva Mandavilli | More About Apoorva Mandavilli | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

By the end of the chore, she is exhausted and has to sit or lie down, sometimes falling asleep wherever she happens to be. “Anything beyond that is truly excruciating,” Ms. Wynn, 42, said. Ever since, her bloodwork has indicated that she is experiencing extreme inflammation, a hallmark of autoimmune disease. Infection with the coronavirus is known to leave behind a long legacy of health problems, many of which are characterized as long Covid. But mounting evidence suggests that independent of that syndrome, the coronavirus also befuddles the immune system into targeting the body, causing autoimmune disorders in some people.

Persons: Davida Wynn, Ms, Wynn, bloodwork Locations: Atlanta

☆ Why We’re Still Breathing Dirty Indoor Air
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-20 | by ( Apoorva Mandavilli | More About Apoorva Mandavilli | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

In early 2020, the world scrubbed down surfaces, washed hands and sneezed into elbows, desperate to avoid infection with a new coronavirus. The virus was wafting through the air, set adrift in coughs and conversation, even in song. The pandemic raged for six months before global health authorities acknowledged that it was driven by an airborne pathogen. With that revelation came another: Had indoor air quality ever been a priority, the pandemic would have exacted a far lighter toll in the United States. Most Americans are still squeezing into offices, classrooms, restaurants and shops with inadequate, often decrepit ventilation systems, often in buildings with windows sealed shut.

Locations: countertops, United States

☆ Gonorrhea Is Becoming Drug Resistant. Scientists Just Found a Solution.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( Apoorva Mandavilli | More About Apoorva Mandavilli | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

About half of infected people show no symptoms, but in others gonorrhea can lead to painful joints and burning urination. It has become resistant to azithromycin and is increasingly resistant to another antibiotic called ceftriaxone, which is now the standard of care. Based on previous research, the drug is unlikely to be as effective in the throat and rectum, said Dr. Marrazzo. In studies, zoliflodacin appears to be effective against a wide range of resistant strains of gonorrhea. The partnership’s agreement minimizes that chance: The nonprofit plans to manage how the drug is distributed, and to see that it is used only to treat gonorrhea.

Persons: gonorrhea, ”, Manica Balasegaram, “ I’ll, that’s, Ramanan Laxminarayan, Jeanne Marrazzo, Marrazzo, zoliflodacin, Margaret Koziel Organizations: Global, Research, Development, Pharmaceutical, European Union, Therapeutics, Princeton University, National Institute of Allergy Locations: American

☆ Infants Are Born With Syphilis in Growing Numbers, a Sign of a Wider Epidemic
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-07 | by ( Apoorva Mandavilli | More About Apoorva Mandavilli | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Syphilis during pregnancy can lead to miscarriage and stillbirth, and infants who survive may become blind or deaf, or have severe developmental delays. In 2022, the disease caused 231 stillbirths and 51 infant deaths. Nearly 90 percent of the new cases could have been prevented with timely testing and treatment, according to the agency. “Syphilis in babies continues to increase, and the situation is dire,” Dr. Laura Bachmann, chief medical officer at the agency’s division for prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, said in an interview. “We need to do things differently.”

Persons: Dr, Laura Bachmann, ” Organizations: Centers for Disease Control Locations: United States

☆ CUNY Halts Investigation of Alzheimer’s Researcher
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-28 | by ( Apoorva Mandavilli | More About Apoorva Mandavilli | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

From the start, some scientists were skeptical of simufilam’s purported mode of action and later of Cassava’s reports of improvements among its clinical trial participants. Following accusations in 2021 that Dr. Wang and Cassava may have manipulated data, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Institutes of Health began investigating the research. A committee convened by CUNY also began an investigation into Dr. Wang’s work and his lab’s finances over two decades. CUNY declined to comment on the document at the time but said it would formally release the report this month. Since then, critics have questioned the objectivity of the investigators and the veracity of their descriptions of Dr. Wang’s responses to the inquiry.

Persons: Wang, Wang’s, Burns Organizations: Securities and Exchange Commission, National Institutes of Health, CUNY, Science

☆ Covid Shots May Slightly Raise Stroke Risk in the Oldest Recipients
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( Apoorva Mandavilli | More About Apoorva Mandavilli | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Covid vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna may be linked to a slight increase in the risk of stroke when administered along with a high-dose flu vaccine, according to a new analysis by the Food and Drug Administration. The high-dose flu vaccine is usually given to older people, and the risk association is clearest in adults aged 85 and older. But that increase, if real, seems very small, and it is possible that the risk may stem from the flu vaccine alone. A separate analysis by the agency points to a small increase in the incidence of seizures after Covid vaccinations in children ages 2 to 5. Flu and Covid themselves both raise the risk of stroke.

Organizations: Pfizer, BioNTech, Food and Drug Administration

☆ Covid Continues to Rise, but Experts Remain Optimistic
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-07 | by ( Apoorva Mandavilli | More About Apoorva Mandavilli | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Governor Kathy Hochul of New York has announced that the state will send high-quality masks and rapid tests to school districts that request them. But in interviews, experts offered reassurances that the country will not see a return to the nightmarish scenarios of previous years. And although hospitalizations and deaths are increasing week by week, the numbers remain low, noted Gigi Gronvall, a biosecurity expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Hospital admissions for Covid increased by about 16 percent in the week ending Aug. 26, compared with the previous week. But the 17,400 new admissions were less than half the number in the same period last year, and about one-fifth the number in 2021.

Persons: Jill Biden, Kathy Hochul, Gigi Gronvall, Gronvall Organizations: Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security Locations: New York, Kentucky, Texas

☆ Covid Closed the Nation’s Schools. Cleaner Air Can Keep Them Open.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-27 | by ( Apoorva Mandavilli | More About Apoorva Mandavilli | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On a sunny afternoon in a cluttered music room at East High in Denver, two sophomores practiced violin while their music teacher, Keith Oxman, labored over a desk in an adjoining office. East High is Denver’s largest high school and among the oldest, and there is no modern ventilation system. As the pandemic broke out, Mr. Oxman, 65 and a cancer survivor, feared getting sick or carrying the virus to his 101-year-old father. So he left the school when it first closed, in March 2020, and did not return for more than a year, staying home during later virus surges. “But the windows don’t open.”Poorly ventilated spaces offer ideal transmission conditions for the coronavirus, and at the height of the pandemic, schools like East High were a searing point of controversy.

Persons: Keith Oxman, Oxman, ” Organizations: East High Locations: Denver

☆ Expert Panel Recommends New Options for H.I.V. Prevention
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( Apoorva Mandavilli | More About Apoorva Mandavilli | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

An influential expert panel has given its highest recommendation to an expanded menu of H.I.V. prevention strategies for adults and adolescents, a move that will require private insurers to cover the drugs without a co-pay or deductible under the Affordable Care Act. The recommendation arrives as the Biden administration is fighting to preserve no-cost coverage of all preventive services under the A.C.A., after a Texas judge ruled the mandate to be unconstitutional. The ruling was aimed in particular at medications approved for use as pre-exposure prophylaxis (or PrEP) to prevent H.I.V., arguing that requiring its coverage violated the religious rights of employers. In the new recommendations, published on Tuesday in JAMA, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force gave its highest or “grade A” recommendation to three medications approved for PrEP.

Persons: Biden Organizations: Affordable, U.S . Preventive Services Task Force, PrEP Locations: Texas, U.S

☆ Heat Singes the Mind, Not Just the Body
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( Apoorva Mandavilli | More About Apoorva Mandavilli | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

If you find that the blistering, unrelenting heat is making you anxious and irritable, even depressed, it’s not all in your head. Soaring temperatures can damage not just the body but also the mind. As heat waves become more intense, more frequent and longer, it has become increasingly important to address the impact on mental health, scientists say. “It’s really only been over the past five years that there’s been a real recognition of the impact,” said Dr. Joshua Wortzel, chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s committee on climate change and mental health, which was set up just two years ago. “Our understanding of the basic biology of why this association exists is still in its infancy,” he added.

Persons: It’s, there’s, ”, Joshua Wortzel Organizations: Psychiatric

☆ Amid Signs of a Covid Uptick, Researchers Brace for the ‘New Normal’
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Apoorva Mandavilli | More About Apoorva Mandavilli | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Echoing patterns in prior years, coronavirus infections are slowly ticking up in parts of the country, the harbinger of a possible fall and winter wave. But the numbers remain low for now, and are unlikely to reach the horrific highs seen in previous winters, experts said in interviews. Wastewater analyses point to the highest increases in the Northeast and the South, followed by the West and Midwest. After hitting a trough at the end of June, hospitalizations are inching upward again, but fortunately very slowly. Test positivity has risen to 7.6 percent, a level last seen in November 2021, and that summer, just before the Delta variant swept the nation.

Persons: hospitalizations Organizations: West Locations: Northeast, Midwest

☆ Leprosy May Be Endemic in Central Florida, Scientists Report
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Apoorva Mandavilli | More About Apoorva Mandavilli | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The authors described a 54-year-old man who was diagnosed with the illness but had no known risk factors and had never traveled outside Florida. Other people have similarly become infected without obvious explanation, suggesting that leprosy is now endemic in the state, the researchers said. Still, there is no rising tide of leprosy in Florida. In the United States, the number of infections plummeted after peaking in 1983 but began a slow rise again about 20 years ago. The number of cases in the United States is fewer than 200 each year, and it is not rising.

Persons: ”, Charles Dunn Organizations: Leprosy, Disease Control Locations: Florida, United States

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