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☆ Officials Look to Tracking System to Help Prevent Baby-Formula Crises
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Kristina Peterson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A nationwide baby-formula shortage had some desperate parents driving hours in search of supplies. Dr. Steven Abrams, a pediatrician at the University of Texas at Austin, explained what parents should and shouldn’t do amid the crisis. Photo illustration: Laura KammermannIn a bid to help prevent another infant-formula crisis, U.S. health officials are expected to vote next month on a change designed to better warn of any uptick in bacterial infections in babies. The action would add infections from cronobacter, the bacteria that sickened four babies and fueled last year’s shortage, to a list of roughly 120 nationally notifiable diseases. Federal officials believe that designation will more quickly alert them to possible outbreaks and gather more information, including genetic data, to help them better understand and prevent the infections.

☆ Meet the urban investor combining real estate, venture capital, and private equity to spend $5.5 billion making cities more liveable
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Urban Partners will combine real estate, venture capital, private equity, and credit under one company. "We started thinking about what real estate investing can do beyond just a piece of investment," Claus Mathisen, CEO of Urban Partners, told Insider. "You start thinking about servicing customers – the stakeholders who actually use the real estate – and you design around them." Urban Partners is working with mayors to figure out what they need to make their cities more livable. Cobe ArchitectsInstead of focusing on financial return on investment, Urban Partners is also using environmental impact as a KPI.

☆ Prebiotic soda Olipop approaches $200 million in annual sales — and CEO says Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have already come knocking
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Amelia Lucas | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Prebiotic soda maker Olipop is set to cross $200 million in annual sales this year, just five years after it arrived on grocery store shelves. Olipop had raised $55.4 million as of Jan. 2, at a reported valuation of $199.8 million, according to Pitchbook data. Consumers are also increasingly interested in "gut health," one of the latest wellness trends. Both Olipop and Poppi have leaned into influencer marketing on TikTok, where gut health became a trending topic last year. But Olipop's Goodwin is confident that consumers are willing to pay more for the drinks he formulates.

☆ US FDA approves Pfizer's next-generation pneumococcal vaccine
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Pfizer Inc's (PFE.N) next-generation vaccine to prevent pneumococcal disease in children aged six weeks to 17 years, the company said late on Thursday. The vaccine, Prevnar 20, offers more protection against the disease versus the company's widely-used Prevnar 13 vaccine, by targeting seven more serotypes of the streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria that causes those infections. The pneumococcal disease can lead to infections in several parts of the body including the lungs, where they can cause pneumonia. The approval is based on results from mid-stage and late-stage studies that showed the vaccine's safety and tolerability was similar to Prevnar 13. Reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu SahuOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ 10 ‘spring-cleaning’ tips to help you feel better in your body
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Dana Santas | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Imagine how great you would feel if you took that same spring-cleaning approach to your body — your living, breathing home. But what about taking a closer look at how you fuel and move your body — and making healthy changes to clean up those areas? That’s why I enlisted the help of two nutrition and human movement experts to provide 10 “spring-cleaning” tips to avoid injury, move pain-free, reduce inflammation, maintain a healthy weight and generally feel better in your body. Breathe better to move better and feel betterBreathing plays a vital role in how you think, feel and move. Just like the physical and mental benefits of traditional spring-cleaning within your home, these 10 tips will refresh and revitalize your body and mind in noticeably positive ways.

☆ Life in ocean's 'twilight zone' threatened by climate change
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The ocean’s mesopelagic zone, also called the “twilight zone,” is located between 656 feet and 3,280 feet (200 meters to 1,000 meters) below the surface. The twilight zone also a crucial habitat for marine life that dives in search of prey, like sharks, or lanternfish that hide in the twilight zone during the day and swim to the surface waters to feed at night. Small crustaceans known as Megacalanus princeps live in the ocean's twilight zone at a depth of 1,000 meters in the Northeast Atlantic. Natural Visions/Alamy Stock PhotoNew research warns that the climate crisis could reduce life in the twilight zone between 20% and 40% by the end of the century. “What we really need to protect the (twilight zone) is to stop, or at least slow down, the high rate of change that we are subjecting our planet’s climate to.”

☆ Congress Considers Paying Developers of New Antibiotics
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Dominique Mosbergen | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

New antibiotics are needed to confront the growing threat of drug-resistant bacteria and fungi. Photo: Associated PressA bipartisan group of U.S. senators and representatives plans to introduce legislation aimed at encouraging drugmakers to develop antibiotics and antifungal drugs to address a growing public-health threat. Bills that lawmakers plan to propose in the House and Senate on Thursday would commit $6 billion to purchasing new drugs to treat drug-resistant bacteria and fungi that federal officials designate as critically important targets.

☆ Why You Really Should Clean Your Trash Can
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Jancee Dunn | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

I, like many others, clean around this time each year. But when I told Dr. Kathleen May, president of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, that one of my favorite pastimes is thoroughly washing all of my bedding, she said something that will haunt me forever. “If your blanket has been sitting on a bed all winter, it may be loaded with dust mites,” Dr. May said. “If you shake it, the dust mites are going to be airborne for one to two hours.”She added that airborne dust mites, while gross, are a problem only for people who are allergic to them. Dr. May’s tidbit made me think beyond the usual spring-cleaning tasks.

☆ Worms get the munchies, too, study reveals
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Katie Hunt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

It turned out the worms did respond, and cannabinoids made them hungrier for their favored foods and less hungry for their non-favored food. The research ultimately revealed that the worms, like humans, engage in hedonic feeding — a phenomenon more commonly known as the munchies. Fluorescent wormsBy measuring the swallowing rate of the worms, Lockery and his team determined that the cannabinoids were increasing how much of a particular bacteria blend the worms ate, making them hungrier. At the molecular level, the cannabinoid system in these worms looks a lot like that in people and other animals. Despite having a small number of neurons (302 neurons versus 86 billion neurons in humans), the worms have a nervous system that includes a primitive brain.

☆ Risks of Tupperware and other plastic containers
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Kristen Rogers | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Figuring out the answer to that question for any type of reusable plastic food storage products — not just Tupperware — often comes down to understanding what they’re made of. Risks of container wear and tearPutting stress on plastic food containers by washing them in the dishwasher or with rough scrub brushes “increase the ability of that plastic to leach whatever it was made out of,” Vandenburg said. The “microwave safe” label on some plastic containers doesn’t mean the product is totally safe from a health standpoint, she added. “Some of the plasticizers and chemicals can transfer from the plastic containers into the food during heating,” Rogers said. “If you can’t afford to replace everything all at once, replace them one at a time.”Glass food storage containers are a safer option.

☆ 12 Best Gifts for a First-Time Dad
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

Here are 12 of the best first Father’s Day gift ideas. For the stylish dadFew things are more adorable than teeny baby shoes—especially when they’re paired up with a practically identical pair of kicks for Dad to wear as well. For the sentimental dadGo ahead, pull on the heartstrings—a sentimental gift makes perfect sense, especially for an occasion like Father’s Day. The cap comes in 14 color combinations and can even be personalized with a different word or phrase of your choice. “It’ll make a great prop or photo opp, and you can’t have too many cute new parent pictures!” she says.

Persons: Sarah Grossbart, Rachel Simon You, ”, Paul Zahn, they’re, Adidas Stan Smith, Lindsay Roberts Schey, “ it’s, Alison Deyette, Josh McBride, Nick Guy, Steve Greenberg, it’s, Kimberly Wolf, Roberts Schey, Beau, —, Elisabeth Jones, Hennessy, GiftMeChic, Hannah Redmond, “, Comfort, Deyette, ” Wolf Organizations: Polaroid, Adidas Locations: Los Angeles, New York City, Houston, Kiehl’s

☆ A dolphin 'bullied' by other dolphins refuses to leave a freshwater creek in Virginia. Staying there could lead to its death.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( Hannah Getahun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

It's been living in a freshwater creek for three weeks. The scientist who has been trying to get it out told WAVY that dolphins are not supposed to be in freshwater. Costidis said that lesions began to appear on its skin — a sign of freshwater skin disease, which could prove fatal. "The freshwater is our biggest concern," Costidis told WAVY. In January, 28 researchers in Clearwater, Florida formed a human chain to guide a dolphin back to the ocean after it got stuck in a freshwater creek.

☆ Harvard gut doctor: Avoid these 8 foods if you always feel bloated after eating—what to eat instead
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Dr. Jacqueline Wolf | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

But one common cause is related to what we eat, particularly foods that are poorly absorbed by the gut. Carbonation can cause bloating, so opt for flat water or vegetable juices. Black beans, navy beans, kidney beans, pinto beans and soy beans are most likely to give you gas. Stevia and monk fruit extract are healthier and less likely to cause gas or bloating. GrainsFoods that contain gluten can cause bloating in people who are intolerant.

☆ Fact Check-Alkaline hydrolysis, or liquid cremation, does not mean human remains are ‘fed to the living'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Alkaline hydrolysis is a form of flameless cremation where a human body can be liquified and turned into wastewater after death. An alkaline hydrolysis machine is used to perform a “bio-cremation,” (also known as aquamation or water cremation) (here). The video shows Fisher explaining how the alkaline hydrolysis machine called the Resomator works. The NFDA’s model guidelines for states to base laws governing alkaline hydrolysis can be seen (here). Experts say liquid from alkaline hydrolysis is sterilized with no trace of human DNA and is then treated at water treatment facilities before entering common households.

☆ U.S. baby formula supply is still vulnerable, former FDA official tells lawmakers
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The U.S. supply of infant formula industry is still vulnerable to safety issues and supply disruptions more than a year after a nationwide shortage that left parents scrambling to feed their children, a former Food and Drug Administration official told U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday. The FDA announced a nationwide recall on that day of Abbott Nutrition 's popular Similac, Alimentum and EleCare baby formulas that sparked the nationwide shortage. The infant formula was recalled after several infants became sick with bacterial infections and two died. The plant was shuttered for months, sharply reducing formula supply across the U.S. He pointed to structural and cultural issues within the agency, a failure to monitor the food supply chain and inadequate public health surveillance of the fatal bacteria, Cronobacter sakazakii, that contaminated Abbott's formula.

☆ Three People Have Died From Bacteria Outbreak Linked to Eye Drops
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Jennifer Calfas | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria, seen through a microscope. A strain of a multidrug-resistant bacterium possibly linked to certain nonprescription eye drops has led to newly reported deaths and infections, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Three people have died and eight have experienced vision loss, the CDC said Tuesday. The agency said there have also been four reports of enucleation, in which the eyeball is surgically removed.

☆ Does bottled water go bad? When it's safe to drink expired water and what to do with a contaminated bottle
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Emily Swaim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Bottled water can have an expiration date, though it's legal in the US to sell expired water. Drinking expired water probably won't harm you, especially if the water was stored properly. So while an expired water bottle from the fridge may be safe to drink, the bottle you forgot in your hot car trunk or on a sunny shelf probably isn't. What to do with an expired water bottleIf you suspect your water is bad, boil it to kill off any potential pathogens. Oliver Rossi / Getty ImagesIf you're a frugal or environmentally-conscious person, you may wonder how to salvage your expired bottled water.

☆ Meet the 'methane man' with a mission: Using microbes to eat up the greenhouse gas
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Most recently, he's zeroed in on the idea of using methane-eating microbes to combat climate change. The startup was founded in 2022 and sells methane-eating microbes, or methanotrophs, to its pilot customers, farmers. "If you only look at the long term, and you don't spend anything on short term, you end up tripping over your feet," Silverman told CNBC. Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards Windfall’s propriety methane-eating microbes seen here under a microscope. First, they will move to other types of livestock farms, like cows, pigs and chickens, Silverman told CNBC.

☆ Candida auris is just one infection fueled by rising temperatures. See how extreme climate helps spread disease, in 3 simple charts.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Climate change may be driving the rapid spread of Candida auris, a deadly fungus, across the US. Three charts show how extreme weather and environmental changes help spread disease. Nicolas Armer/picture alliance via Getty ImagesA leading theory on this fungus's sudden emergence and wide spread is that it's fueled by climate change. Whatever survives, however, is adapted to extreme heat — including the fever our bodies produce to kill off pathogens. David Ryder/Getty ImagesHumans and their infrastructure are more vulnerable to the devastating impacts of disease when they're compromised by extreme weather.

☆ Some Gerber Baby Formula Recalled Due to Possible Contamination
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Colin Kellaher | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

No distributed Gerber brand baby formula has tested positive for the presence of the bacteria, says Perrigo. Perrigo Co. is recalling several batches of Gerber brand baby formula because of the possible presence of a common bacteria. The Dublin-based company said the recall involves certain lots of Gerber Good Start SoothePro powdered formula that were made in January at its plant in Eau Claire, Wis.

☆ Over-the-counter eye drop has been linked to infections leading to eyeball removal, vision loss, and one death: CDC
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( Aidan Pollard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

EzriCare eye drops were recalled in February over possible bacterial contamination. The CDC recommends avoiding EzriCare and Delsam Pharma Artificial Tears. EzriCare Artificial Tears, an over-the-counter eye drop made by Global Pharma Healthcare, was recalled in early February, NBC News reported. According to the CDC, most patients reported using eye drops — and many reported using EzriCare specifically. EzriCare and Delsam Pharma drops were distributed across the US over the internet, according to Global Pharma Healthcare.

☆ The man in charge of deporting Pablo Escobar's 'cocaine hippos' explains how he plans to fly 70 of them across the world
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Crystal Raypole | Jessica Orwig | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Authorities plan to relocate 70 of the hippos living wild in Colombia, but it's not an easy task. Very carefully, according to David Echeverri López, head of Biodiversity Management, Protected Areas, and Ecosystem Services at Cornare in Colombia. So, authorities will continue pursuing other options, from sterilization to searching for other zoos and sanctuaries willing to take hippos. The thickness of a hippo's skin, and the density of their subcutaneous tissue, also makes it challenging to deliver enough anesthesia to keep them asleep for the right amount of time. Cornare has sterilized 13 hippos, López said, and relocated seven to zoos in Colombia.

☆ With positive combo meningococcal vaccine data, GSK eyes US approval
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

If approved, the combo vaccine could simplify the immunisation schedule in the United States and likely expand GSK's already dominant market share there for vaccines used to prevent illnesses caused by meningococcal bacteria. These responses were compared to participants who received GSK's approved vaccines, Bexsero and Menveo. In the United States, a four-shot regimen of Bexsero and Menveo is needed to protect against the five most common strains of meningococcal bacteria. There is no combination vaccine on the market - a gap GSK intends to fill with the new combination. GSK has the world's largest vaccine R&D department and has a broad portfolio of shots, including its blockbuster shingles vaccine Shingrix.

☆ As African kids died, doctors fought for ban on toxic Indian syrup
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Maiden Managing Director Naresh Kumar Goyal told Reuters he had "not done anything wrong" and did not respond to further questions. In December, India’s health regulator said it did its own tests and found no toxins in the syrups. Yet even as the doctors’ evidence of toxins mounted, Gambian government officials told Reuters they wanted more proof. “We took their histories and asked them if they took the drugs, and we just knew” that the syrup was the culprit. If tests for toxins had been done in late July or early August, a sales ban could have saved dozens of children, she said.

☆ Scientists revived a 'zombie' virus frozen for 48,500 years in ice. They learned it could still infect other cells.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Chris Panella | Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Scientists revived a 48,500-year-old 'zombie' virus from permafrost and found it was still infectious. Some scientists are concerned that climate change thawing permafrost could reawaken ancient viruses. A carcass of an Ice Age cave bear found on Great Lyakhovsky Island, in northern Russia, unearthed by thawing permafrost. How 'zombie' viruses could infect hosts once they emergeThis isn't the first time Claverie has revived ancient viruses, or "zombie viruses" as he calls them. The current research on frozen viruses like Claverie's 'zombie' virus is helping scientists understand more about how these ancient viruses function and whether, or not, they could potentially infect animals or humans.

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