Health & Fitness

As Fairmont High School deals with recent positive tests for Legionella bacteria in its water, the school confirmed Thursday that a former Fairmont custodian died 14 months ago, also with links to Legionella. Keith “Casey” Chaffin died in May 2019. Kettering City Schools spokeswoman Kari Basson confirmed that Chaffin worked as a custodian at Fairmont...

The total number of COVID-19 tests conducted in Orange County was mistakenly inflated for more than a month beginning in late April in data released to the public, an error that may have painted a rosier picture of the pandemic than the reality in the region. For roughly five weeks, county staff incorrectly added 30,000 serology tests to its “cumulative tests to date” figure, which made it appear that more testing for the virus was happening than was the case. The cumulative testing figure reported by the county is supposed to be a count of how many diagnostic tests — which detect whether someone was infected with the virus at the moment of testing — were conducted countywide, Dr. Clayton Chau, director of the Orange County Health Care Agency and the county’s interim health officer, sai...

The variation of COVID-19 currently dominating global cases is more infectious than the original strain that emerged in China, according to a new study published Thursday in thescientific journal Cell. Results of lab-based research published in the journal suggested that the current mutation is more transmissible between people than the previous iteration of the virus, though the finding remains to be proven. "I think the data is showing that there is a single mutation that actually makes the virus be able to replicate better, and maybe have high viral loads," top US infectious disease specialist Anthony Fauci told the Journal of the American Medical Association about the study, which he was not involved in. "We don't have a connection to whether an individual does worse with this...

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Washington (AFP) - Test monkeys infected with the novel coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic were protected from reinfection for up to 28 days later, a Chinese study out Thursday in the journal Science said. While the monkeys displayed initial immunity, it's unclear how long such immunity will last in humans - it will be necessary to wait months, or even years, to know if the millions of people infected at the start of the pandemic are protected from re-infection. Scientists from Peking Union Medical College performed an experiment on rhesus macaques, often used because of their similarities to humans, to find out if they have a short-term immunity to the virus. Six rhesus macaques were infected in their trachea with a dose of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. They developed mild to mode...

The genetic variation of the novel coronavirus that dominates the world today infects human cells more readily than the original that emerged in China, according to a new study published in the journal Cell on Thursday.   ​The lab-based research suggests this current mutation is more transmissible between people in the real world compared to the previous iteration, but this hasn't yet been proven. ​"I think the data is showing that there is a single mutation that actually makes the virus be able to replicate better, and maybe have high viral loads," Anthony Fauci, the United States's top infectious disease specialist, who wasn't involved in the research, commented to Journal of the American Medical Association. ​"We don't have a connection to whether an individual does worse with thi...

The number of new daily coronavirus cases soared to record-breaking heights for the second consecutive day on Thursday with 375 cases, topping Wednesday’s 281. Disclosure of the cases comes as outbreaks continue throughout central and eastern Oregon. Umatilla County, with a population of just under 78,000 residents, had the highest case count on Thursday with 88. The county in eastern Oregon averaged 40 cases per day in the last week for the second highest count in the state behind Multnomah County and just ahead of Washington County, which has 500,000 more residents. The record case count underscores the need for Oregonians to continue practicing physical distancing and wear masks as infections spread in rural and urban areas alike, the Oregon Health Authority said on Twitter. The incre...

At least 171 students living at the University of Washington's Greek Row test positive for COVID-19 and hundreds of results are still pending 'after fraternities threw dozens of parties without masks' At least 171 students living on Greek Row at the University of Washington in Seattle have tested positive for COVID-19 as of Thursday University first learned that three fraternity residents had symptoms Saturday By Thursday UW reported 66 students tested positive for the virus The Interfraternity Council said at least 105 students living in 15 fraternity houses self-reported that they tested positive for the virus  University spokeswoman Michelle Ma said more than 800 students have been tested since Monday and the IFC asked fraternities to stop social events  By Marlene Le...

A team at Henry Ford Health System in Southeast Michigan said Thursday its study of 2,541 hospitalized patients found that those given hydroxychloroquine were much less likely to die. Dr. Marcus Zervos, division head of infectious disease for Henry Ford Health System, said 26% of those not given hydroxychloroquine died, compared to 13% of those who got the drug. The team looked back at everyone treated in the hospital system since the first patient in March. "Overall crude mortality rates were 18.1% in the entire cohort, 13.5% in the hydroxychloroquine alone group, 20.1% among those receiving hydroxychloroquine plus azithromycin, 22.4% among the azithromycin alone group, and 26.4% for neither drug," the team wrote in a report published in the International Journal of Infectious Disea...

The Google Flu Trends algorithm, as it is known, performed poorly. For instance, it continually overestimated doctor visits, later evaluations found, because of limitations of the data and the influence of outside factors such as media attention, which can drive up searches that are unrelated to actual illness. Since then, researchers have made multiple adjustments to this approach, combining Google searches with other kinds of data. Teams at Carnegie-Mellon University, University College London and the University of Texas, among others, have models incorporating some real-time data analysis. “We know that no single data stream is useful in isolation,” said Madhav Marathe, a computer scientist at the University of Virginia. “The contribution of this new paper is that they have a good, wid...