Month: December 2021

Christmas shoppers in London on Dec. 23, 2021. Hasan Esen | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images LONDON — People are far less likely to be admitted to hospital with the omicron Covid variant than the previous delta strain, according to a U.K. government study published Thursday. The U.K. Health Security Agency said individuals with omicron
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Patients with severe generalized pustular psoriasis (GPP) had rapid clearance of skin lesions when treated with an investigational interleukin (IL)-36 inhibitor, a small randomized trial showed. One week after treatment with intravenous spesolimab, more than half of patients with GPP had complete clearance of skin pustules. In contrast, only 6% of placebo-treated patients met clinical
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A team led by scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine, Scripps Research and the University of Chicago has identified an important site of vulnerability on influenza viruses—a site that future influenza vaccines and antibody therapies should be able to target to prevent or treat infections by a broad set of influenza strains. The scientists, whose results
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A new medRxiv* preprint study awaiting peer review found that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was correlated with a 30% lower risk of COVID-19 infection and hospitalization than the AstraZeneca two-dose vaccines. The findings were robust for at least six months when Delta was the dominant strain, showing that there were no differences in waning immunity between
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Marley Majcher, better known as the Party Goddess,  plans events big and small, often for celebrities such as Pierce Brosnan (James Bond, Mamma Mia) and Sofia Vergara (Modern Family, America’s Got Talent). But COVID has thrown her—as well as we everyday hosts and hostesses—a frustrating curveball. The burning seasonal question is: How to host a
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“Each year over a million people have new ankle sprains, and these are just the people who came to seek medical help,” says Dr. Glenn Shi, a Mayo Clinic orthopedic surgeon. “There are far more [sprains] that people are treating at home.” The ankle is quite a well-engineered joint, actually. But, because it’s a balancing
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Pregnant women exposed to higher levels of endocrine-disrupting plasticizers experienced steep increases in blood pressure late in pregnancy and elevated BP up to 6 years postpartum, researchers have found. Urine samples from 892 pregnant women contained traces of nine phthalates, a ubiquitous class of synthetic chemicals used in food production and packaging, as well as
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Flight attendants hand out refreshments to a packed Delta Airlines flight traveling from Ronald Regan National Airport to MinneapolisSaint Paul International Airport on Friday, May 21, 2021. Kent Nishimura | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images A trade group representing major U.S. airlines urged the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to halve its recommended
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It felt like watching a train go by with no control over its destination and no way to stop it. We simply had to watch our loved one as he made his way towards death. The doctor said he had a traumatic brain injury with herniation. His pupils were fixed and dilated on arrival to
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HSE academics joined researchers from the Turner Scientific Research Institute for Children’s Orthopaedics to study how the brains of children with arthrogryposis control elbow flexion after muscle transplantation. They found that in such patients, more motor neuron activity occurs, which means that the start of a new movement requires more effort from the brain. The
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A study recently published in the journal Nature has revealed that an activated pre-exposure innate interferon response in airways together with significantly reduced systemic interferon-stimulated populations are associated with relatively milder severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in children. Study: Local and systemic responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and adults. Image Credit:
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Sodium glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors have been described as revolutionary advances in the management of patients with type 2 diabetes, particularly in people with comorbid cardiovascular and kidney disease. But this relatively new class of drugs recently has made the leap into cardiology practice, with approvals by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of
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The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved inclisiran (Leqvio) as an adjunct to statins for further reduction of LDL cholesterol levels, the drug’s developer, Novartis, announced today. The first-in-class small interfering RNA (siRNA) agent is also novel among peer drug therapies for its administration by injection initially, at three months, and thereafter twice
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When you hear “environmental allergies,” trees, grasses, and weeds might be the first allergens that come to mind. Just when you breathe a sigh of relief from waning outdoor allergens, prepare for sneaky indoor environmental allergens. Mold and dust mites trigger allergies throughout the year. But, as winter rolls around and you begin spending more
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A doctor monitors a Covid-19 patient in the Covid-19 intensive care unit of the community hospital in Germany on April 28, 2021. RONNY HARTMANN | AFP | Getty Images Local governments can now take a more targeted approach to restrictions to help slow the spread of Covid while still keeping many businesses up and running,
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FDA finally approved inclisiran (Leqvio), making it the first small interfering RNA (siRNA) therapy to hit the market for reducing LDL cholesterol, Novartis announced on Wednesday. The PCSK9 inhibitor was handed an indication as an adjunct to diet and maximally-tolerated statin therapy for the treatment of adults with clinical atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease or heterozygous familial
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In a study posted to the bioRxiv* pre-print server, a team of researchers evaluated potential public health implications of the emerging severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variant of concern (VOC) Omicron, using a rapid computational prediction platform. Study: SARS-COV-2 Omicron variant predicted to exhibit higher affinity to ACE-2 receptor and lower affinity to
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