Health & Fitness

Scientists in Australia have found that some babies at risk of sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, have low levels of an enzyme called butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) in their blood. Their study, published May 6 in the journal eBioMedicine, could pave the way for newborn screening and interventions if the results are corroborated by further research. “It’s the first time we’ve ever had a potential biomarker for SIDS,” said Dr. Carmel Harrington, who led the research at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, in Sydney, Australia. Researchers have been trying to chip away at the biological underpinnings of the puzzling syndrome for decades. And while public health campaigns have drastically reduced the incidence of SIDS, it remains a leading cause of sudden and unexpected death in infants un...

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently updated their original Health Advisory on May 11 regarding their investigation of the mysterious worldwide outbreak of hepatitis in children. The World Health Organization (WHO) said a case-control study that will be completed this week should provide more clarity if adenovirus or COVID-19 is causally linked to the mysterious condition, according to multiple reports. "As of May 5, 2022, CDC and state partners are investigating 109 children with hepatitis of unknown origin across 25 states and territories, more than half of whom have tested positive for adenovirus with more than 90% hospitalized, 14% with liver transplants, and five deaths under investigation," the CDC said. Appr...

Gabriella Barboza's professor found disturbing signs of neck cancer during a med school simulation.  Barboza, 22, had papillary thyroid carcinoma, the most common type of thyroid cancer.  After having her thyroid removed and other treatments, Barboza is cancer-free.  Loading Something is loading. Gabriella Barboza was a third-year medical student in Brazil when her professor asked her to help demonstrate how to check for neck tumors. But Barboza played the patient...

San Francisco is in a new pandemic place: It no longer has COVID-19 case rates that are lower than those of the nation overall, a reversal of its status throughout the pandemic. Legislation aimed at getting more people to get vaccinated against COVID-19 seems to have fallen out of vogue among California lawmakers. Masks, on the other hand, are being strongly recommended by health officers from around the Bay Area as coronavirus infections continue to climb. As new infections surge, USPS offers another round of free coronavirus tests Residential households in the U.S. are now eligible for another order of free at-home tests on USPS.com. Each order now includes eight rapid antigen coronavirus tests, which are supposed to arrive in two separate packages of fo...

Photo: Spencer Platt (Getty Images) Recent preliminary research might offer some comfort to the many vaccinated Americans who came across Omicron this past winter. A pair of studies suggest that vaccinated people who caught the variant went on to develop a strong and diverse immune response to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in general—more so than people who were vaccinated and boosted or people who were only infected with Omicron. The findings could also indicate that an updated booster, perhaps specific to Omicron, will be more effective at ensuring longer-term immunity moving forward. The results come from two preprint papers released on the website bioRxiv in April and May: one from University of Washington researchers and the other from researchers at BioNTech, the company that, al...

Hospital patients that are prescribed antibiotics are more likely to get fungal infections because of disruption to the immune system in the gut. Immune-boosting drugs could reduce the health risks from complex infections. Patients prescribed antibiotics in the hospital are more likely to get fungal infections because of disruption to the immune system in the gut. Using immune-boosting drugs alongside the antibiotics could reduce the health risks from these complex infections, according to a new study from the University of Birmingham and the National Institutes of Health. The life-threatening fungal infection invasive candidiasis is a major complication for hospitalized patients who are given antibiotics to prevent sepsis and other bacterial infections that spread quickly aro...

DENVER (KDVR) — The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment says five cases of viral hepatitis with an unknown origin have been identified in children from our state. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and health departments around the country have been monitoring the cases in children under 10-years-old since October of 2021. On May 6, about two dozen states reported suspected cases after the CDC put out a call for doctors to be on the lookout for surprising cases of hepatitis.  Colorado reports cases of severe liver disease in kids CDPHE said there have been five cases that meet the CDC’s criteria as of May 12. Four of those cases were identified by CDPHE on May 6. Significant spread of COVID-19 in Boulder County ...

The latest COVID-19 variant – dubbed BA.2.12.1 – has been linked to 43% of total coronavirus cases in the U.S., a jump from 7% in April. And, as more data about the variant becomes known, a pattern in early symptoms is emerging. BA.2.12.1 is a descendant of the BA.2 virus, a subvariant of the omicron strain of COVID. It has the ability transmit easier than its predecessors and expect it to become the dominant strain of COVID-19 within a few weeks. Like previous COVID omicron strains, BA.2.12.1 often presents with upper respiratory symptoms that can appear like the flu. Experts said BA.2.12.1 is triggering mild breakthrough cases in vaccinated individuals with people feeling like they are suffering from a cold or seasonal allergies. These early symptoms include scratchy or sore throat...

By UNC Health Talk Editor's note: This article originally appeared on UNC Health Talk. Doctors around the world are trying to understand what is causing children to develop severe hepatitis (liver inflammation) that in some cases results in liver failure. These puzzling cases have been linked to a common adenovirus that typically causes colds, conjunctivitis (pinkeye), and stomach cramps and diarrhea. The number of known cases is very small, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Still, both organizations are asking doctors to report any cases of otherwise healthy children who develop liver disease. In North Carolina, two school-age children with seve...

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) accounts for about 37% of sudden unexpected infant deaths a year in the U.S., and the cause of SIDS has remained largely unknown. On Saturday, researchers from The Children's Hospital Westmead in Sydney released a study that has identified the first biochemical marker that could help detect babies more at risk of SIDS while they are alive. SIDS refers to the unexplained deaths of infants under a year old, and it usually occurs while the child is sleeping. According to Mayo Clinic, many in the medical community suspected this phenomenon could be caused by a defect in the part of the brain that controls arousal from sleep and breathing. The theory was that if the infant stopped breathing during sleep, the defect would keep them from startling...