by Bob Yirka , Medical Xpress A trio of researchers, two with Facebook, the other the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has found that posts that feature elements considered harmful to people at risk of committing suicide are prevalent on shared social media sites, but those with protective elements are rare. In their paper...
by Queensland University of Technology A plea issued by 239 scientists from around the world to recognize and mitigate airborne transmission of COVID-19 addressed to international health authorities is to be published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. The 239 signatories from 32 countries come from many different areas of science and engineering, including virology,...
Children with COVID-19 may present with new neurological symptoms involving the central and peripheral nervous systems, and splenial changes on imaging, according to a study published online July 1 in JAMA Neurology. Omar Abdel-Mannan, M.D., from Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, and colleagues reported neurological manifestations of children with COVID-19 in a...
by Matthew McKenzie, University of Manchester A little-known non-toxic antiseptic developed in the Soviet Union during the Cold War has enormous potential to beat common infections, say University of Manchester scientists. Miramistin, developed for the Soviet Space Program and little known in the West, can inhibit or kill influenza A, human papilloma viruses that cause...
By SHARON BEGLEY @sxbegleJULY 2, 2020 Workplaces do it. Newly reopened public libraries do it. LAX does it. Some restaurants, bars, and retail stores started doing it when governors let them serve customers again: Use temperature checks — almost always with “non-contact infrared thermometers” — to identify people who might have, and therefore spread, the...
by La Jolla Institute for Immunology Flashback to mid-March: the novel coronavirus had reached San Diego, California. Few people could get tested, and even less was known about how the virus mutated as it spread from person to person. Scientists now know that two variants of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) were circulating at that time....
By Jocelyn KaiserJul. 1, 2020 , 1:20 PM Can the red devil be defanged? Doxorubicin, an old chemotherapy drug that carries this unusual moniker because of its distinctive hue and fearsome toxicity, remains a key treatment for many cancer patients. But a new study reports the drug can be tweaked to reduce its most punishing...
James Cook University researchers are warning microorganisms previously thought to be benign are becoming more dangerous worldwide – and especially in the tropics. Professor John Miles from JCU’s Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine said diseases caused by non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) have been steadily increasing globally. “NTMs are the lesser-known cousins of tuberculosis. They...
by British Medical Journal Major weaknesses exist in the evidence base for COVID-19 antibody tests, finds a review of the latest research published by The BMJ today. The evidence is particularly weak for point-of-care tests (performed directly with a patient, outside of a laboratory) and does not support their continued use, say the researchers. Serological...
by Johannes Angerer, Medical University of Vienna As the population ages, the prevalence of chronic disease increases. As a result, more drugs are prescribed. Around 25% of the population aged 65+ are affected by so-called “polypharmacy,” i.e., they regularly take at least five drugs. This results in an increased risk for drug interactions and adverse...
