Month: September 2021

Scientists in Japan have reported a case in which a patient seems to have developed "restless anal syndrome" after suffering from COVID-19, with initial findings indicating that the syndrome may be related to the coronavirus, according to a case report published last week in the BMC Infectious Diseases journal. The scientists reported that the patient, age 77, experienced insomnia and anxiety while infected with the virus and, several weeks after discharge, began to experience restless, deep anal discomfort. The patient experienced an urge to move which worsened with rest and improved with exercise and worsened in the evening in the anal region. A colonoscopy revealed internal hemorrhoids.  cnxps.cmd.push(function () { cnxps({ playerId: '36af7c51-0caf-4741-...

(Adds details from study) Sept 29 (Reuters) - At least one long-term COVID-19 symptom was found in 37% of patients three to six months after they were infected by the virus, a large study from Oxford University and the National Institute for Health Research showed on Wednesday. The most common symptoms included breathing problems, fatigue, pain and anxiety, Oxford University said, after investigating symptoms in over 270,000 people recovering from COVID-19. The symptoms were more frequent among people who had been previously hospitalised with COVID-19 and were slightly more common among women, according to the study. The study ...

Novant Health, a massive hospital system in North Carolina that has made the COVID-19 vaccine mandatory for its employees, suspended 375 employees across 15 hospitals and 800 clinics last week for not complying with the mandate. But over a five-day period, 200 employees agreed to get the vaccine, Megan Rivers, the hospital's director of media & influencer relations, said in a tweet. More than 99% of the hospital system's 35,000 employees are vaccinated, Rivers said.  The remaining 175 who were suspended last week have been fired, according to CBS affiliate WWAY.  Update: Last week, nearly 200 additional team members came into compliance with vaccine mandate, increasing that rate across @NovantHealth to over 99%.— Megan Rivers (@MeganMRivers) September 27, 2021 No...

The man, who was in his 80s, woke up last month and found a bat on his neck in his Lake County, Illinois, home. After the bat tested positive for rabies, the man declined postexposure treatment, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) said in a news release. About a month after his exposure, the man started suffering from neck pain, headache, numbness in his fingers, difficulty controlling his arms and trouble speaking, health officials said. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday confirmed the man's diagnosis after testing at its lab. Wildlife experts found a bat colony in the man's home, IDPH said. "Rabies has the highest mortality rate of any disease," IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said in the news release. "However, there is life-saving treatm...

Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, overruled her own advisory panel on Friday and recommended COVID-19 boosters not only for Americans over 65 and adults with underlying health conditions but also for a much broader group of people: anyone who considers themselves at high risk of exposure and says so the next time they swing by a CVS. “What we are doing now is self-attestation,” Walensky explained. Officially, the only healthy Americans under 65 who are supposed to “self-attest” at this point are those who face “increased risk for COVID-19 exposure and transmission because of occupational or institutional setting,” according to the CDC. Think nurses, teachers, incarcerated individuals and people in homeless shelters. CDC Director Rochelle Wal...

Tyler Gilreath, 20, had just started his sophomore year at North Carolina-Wilmington when he tested positive for the virus in late August, local NBC affiliate WECT reported. Gilreath had promised his mom, Tamra Demello, that he would get the shot after he got to school, but his positive test came two days after arrival.

An Illinois man died this month in the state's first human case of rabies since 1954, according to health officials on Tuesday.  The Lake County man, in his 80s, awoke in mid-August to find a bat on his neck.  The bat was captured and tested positive for rabies, but when health officials told the man he needed to start post-exposure rabies treatment, he declined, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) said in a statement.  3 MEN CHARGED AFTER NATIONAL PARK INCIDENT INVOLVING BROWN BEARS A grey-headed Flying-fox (Pteropus poliocephalus), a native Australian bat, stretches its leathery wings as it flies high over Sydney's Botanical Gardens, 17 August 2005. (GREG WOOD/AFP via Getty Images) A month later, the man started experiencing symptoms of rabies, includ...