Health & Fitness

The Riveras waited for that phone call. And waited. And waited. But the call never came. "I was shocked," said Rivera, a nurse who has since recovered from her bout with the virus. Despite claims that Florida traces every case of Covid-19, a CNN investigation found that health authorities in Florida, now the nation's No. 1 hotspot for the virus, often fail to do contact tracing, long considered a key tool in containing an outbreak. Florida set a record for most coronavirus cases in the US in a single day on Saturday, with a total of 11,458, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, and on Sunday, the state surpassed 200,000 Covid-19 cases. Florida's contact tracing challenges are indicative of how hard it is for states hard hit by Covid-19 to do proper contact tracin...

Health officials issue warning after Florida resident is infected with a rare and usually deadly brain-eating amoeba According to the statement from the Department of Health in Florida, the patient contracted Naegleria fowleri in Hillsborough County The amoeba can cause a rare infection of the brain called primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) that destroys brain tissue and is usually fatal   The amoeba is found in warm freshwater such as lakes, rivers, ponds and canals Infections can happen when contaminated water enters body through the nose By Valerie Edwards For Dailymail.com Published: 20:43 EDT, 5 July 2020 | Updated: 21:03 EDT, 5 July 2020 Florida health officials have revealed that a person has been infected with a rare and usually deadly brain-...

San Antonio Fire Department's Mobile Integrated Health program personnel packaged a swab at a COVID walk-up testing site at Burbank High School, Friday, June 19, 2020. The MIH team joined with San Antonio Metro Health to condu...

NEW YORK — After more than three months of shutdowns, mandatory quarantines, self-imposed exile from society and working from home, nature-lovers looking for a well-earned breath of fresh air could face a possible collision course between coronavirus and tick-borne illnesses this summer. A "perfect storm," warns Eva Sapi, a University of New Haven biology professor and group director for the Lyme Disease Research Group. Noting the mild winter on the East Coast, Sapi says, "We do have a bad year for the ticks." Hikers, campers and anyone else eager for an escape could "just explode into the outdoors. And there may not be the same thoughtful approach" to preventing exposure, explains Dr. Sorana Segal-Maurer, director of the Dr. James J. Rahal, Jr. Division of Infectious Diseases at NewYork-...

Stocks in Asia Pacific were higher in Monday morning trade, with stocks in mainland China leading gains regionally. The Shanghai composite soared 3.97% in morning trade while the Shenzhen component rose 2.949%. The Shenzhen composite also jumped 2.781%  Amber Hill Capital's Jackson Wong told CNBC in an email that "bull sentiment" in mainland Chinese shares was "driving the markets." Wong, who is an asset management director at the firm, said the "sudden surge" in trading volume as well as a break out for the Shanghai composite last week raised investor expectations that "another bull run is coming." Some of the reasons he suggested for the uptick in sentiment included the country currently being less affected by the coronavirus outbreak. Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Hang Seng in...

Marin County officials will suspend indoor dining for at least three weeks amid an influx in new coronavirus infections, reversing course one week after giving restaurants the green light to serve customers inside. The decision, effective at midnight Monday, comes days after the state added Marin County to its watch list, which closely tracks counties struggling to clamp down on a surge in cases and hospitalizations. The county’s decision was based on a lack of improvement in case counts, officials said in a release Sunday. Marin had 2,861 total coronavirus cases and 21 deaths as of Sunday af...

Authorities in a city in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia issued a warning on Sunday, one day after a hospital reported a case of suspected bubonic plague. The health committee of the city of Bayan Nur issued the third-level alert, the second lowest in a four-level system. The alert forbids the hunting and eating of animals that could carry plague and asks the public to report any suspected cases of plague or fever with no clear causes, and to report any sick or dead marmots. Sunday's warning follows four reported cases of plague in people from Inner Mongolia last November, including two of pneumonic plague, a deadlier variant of plague. The bubonic plague, known as the "Black Death" in the Middle Ages, is a highly infectious and often fatal disease that is spread most...

And during a pandemic when parents are especially crunched for time, it's even harder to ensure that happens. But one solution could be lying right at your feet, said a study published Sunday in the journal Pediatric Research. Owning, walking and playing with a family dog could encourage your toddler's social and emotional development. In fact, toddlers from dog-owning families who participated in the study were 30% less likely to have conduct and peer problems in comparison to preschoolers from families who didn't own dogs, the researchers found. Even at this age, toddlers could indeed benefit from interacting with a pet while supervised. "Regular physical activity plays an important role during early childhood, contributing to young children's development and decreasing thei...

Until recently, most public health guidelines have focused on social distancing measures, regular hand-washing and precautions to avoid droplets. But the signatories to the paper say the potential of the virus to spread via airborne transmission has not been fully appreciated even by public health institutions such as the WHO. The fact that scientists resorted to a paper to pressure the WHO is unusual, analysts said, and is likely to renew questions about the WHO’s messaging. “WHO’s credibility is being undermined through a steady drip-drip of confusing messages, including asymptomatic spread, the use of masks, and now airborne transmission,” said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University who provides technical assistance to the organization. He prais...

Orange County reported 663 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 and three more deaths Sunday, bringing the county's totals to 16,854 cases and 366 deaths. The county's cases included 1,218 residents of skilled nursing facilities, 406 jail inmates and 111 homeless people, according to the OC Health Care Agency. Of the three deaths announced Sunday, one was a resident of a skilled nursing facility and two were residents who were not living in a care facility. The total number of fatalities include 191 residents of skilled nursing facilities and 14 residents of assisted-living facilities. The number of hospitalized patients in Orange County rose from 594 Saturday to 624, with the number of patients in intensive care rising from 193 to 197. County officials reported that...