Health & Fitness

The Hawaii Department of Health said it is investigating a report of acute pediatric hepatitis of unknown origin in a child living on Maui under the age of 10. DOH said the child was hospitalized for several days with abdominal pain and fever at the end of April. “An extensive medical investigation was performed and there are a number of laboratory test results outstanding,” said DOH in a statement. “At this time, no cause has been determined. DOH is collaborating with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to identify the cause of the hepatitis case.” The CDC is investigating more than 100 children’s hepatitis cases with no known cause that have been reported in 24 U.S. states and Puerto Rico, according to Bloomberg News, including five death...

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- After two years, the Texas Medical Center announced they provided their final COVID-19 data update on the dashboard on Monday. "With advancements in treatment and the successes in vaccination, we are now able to effectively manage with the virus in our community. On Monday, May 9, TMC will publish a final set of dashboards to conclude this collective effort. We thank all of the teams across the TMC member institutions who have been supplying this data for over two years," TMC said on their website. In the last data set, TMC reported an average of 645 new cases being reported daily during the week of May 2 compared to 377 the previous week. Daily hospitalizations were down to 59 cases from 62 the previous week. "I don't think that anyone is ready to raise the flag...

By Nancy Lapid (Reuters) - The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that has yet to be certified by peer review. Old cancer diagnosis not linked with worse COVID-19 outcomes Patients diagnosed with cancer more than a year before contracting COVID-19 and those not receiving active treatment may be no more vulnerable to worse COVID outcomes than those without cancer, according to a new study. "We found that recent cancer diagnoses were associated with a 17% increased risk for death and 10% increased risk for hospitalization," said Youngran Kim of UT Health Houston in a statement. "However, a history of cancer more than one year before COVID-19 diagnosis was not significantly associated wi...

It’s pretty clear why it’s getting more contagious. It’s less clear why it’s getting less deadly. Yesterday the White House’s new COVID coordinator, Ashish Jha, shared some rare good news about the virus. Cases have been rising in the northeast for almost two months. But deaths haven’t. If you look at the case-fatality rate now in places like NY or MA Down to 0.3% (that’s deaths today divided by cases 3 weeks ago) And given we’re missing lots of cases (because of home testing) CFR is even lower Remember, throughout the pandemic, CFR has been closer to 1.6% — Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH (@AshishKJha46) May 8, 2022 The picture is the same nationally. Between April 1 and April 27, cases in the U.S. roughly doubled. Deaths fell by half over the same period. There’s been hardly any increase in...

Earlier in the pandemic, contact tracing data showed us where COVID-19 was predominantly spreading. Unfortunately, because our contact tracing efforts have slowed down, we don’t have as clear of a picture regarding where people are mostly likely to contract omicron and its subvariants. What we do know is that, while the virus has evolved to be much more transmissible than previous variants, the way COVID-19 spreads hasn’t changed. “Nothing has changed in terms of how any individual right now, regardless of their day-to-day activity, can pick this virus up,” Mark Cameron, infectious disease researcher at Case Western Reserve University, told HuffPost. Because of that, we can assume there are some hot spots for BA.2 and other omicron subvariants compared to others. Here are common places...

Photo: Odua Images (Shutterstock) Ugh, here it comes. You feel kind of hot and sticky. Your stomach churns. Your mouth tastes funny. You know you’re going to throw up—imminently. Can you stop it before it happens? Or at least make it less terrible than it needs to be? Whether you’re battling morning sickness, food poisoning, or a stomach virus, here’s what to do the next time to feel a vomit session fast approaching. Get to the bathroom if you can, obviously Usually, step number one in combating any problem is to figure out the root cause and do a little self-assessment. Not this time! Your first priority needs to be getting to the bathroom, whether you succeed in your quest to stop this from happening or not. Throw your typical germaphobe behavior away momentarily and embrace the c...

A Connecticut man is recovering at home after suffering a case of the rare Powassan virus, state officials reports. The Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) confirmed last week that a man between 50 and 59 years old fell ill in March, and suffered a severe illness that affected his central nervous system and required hospitalization. It is the second high profile case of the rare, tick-borne, virus in the region, with Maine reporting a death from the Powassan virus just three weeks ago. The highly deadly virus attacks a person's brain and nervous system, and has no vaccine or known effective treatments or cures. Connecticut officials report that a man in his 50s in the state suffered from a rare case of the Powassan virus in March. They confirmed that he was ...

Photo: comzeal images (Shutterstock) If you and your partner ready to start a family, you might be wondering what you can do to increase your chances of getting pregnant sooner rather than later. From taking care of your own health to the timing (and position) of sex, here’s what you need to know as you start trying to conceive. Are certain sex positions better for getting pregnant? The short answer is: no. “There is no scientific evidence to support the idea that one sex position over the other increases the chances of conception,” says Dr. Jill McDevitt, resident sexologist at CalExotics and author of Sex Positions for Every Body. “Pregnancy is possible in any sex position, and there’s no empirical evidence that the position changes the probability one way or the other.” She n...

Earlier in the pandemic, contact tracing data showed us where COVID-19 was predominantly spreading. Unfortunately, because our contact tracing efforts have slowed down, we don’t have as clear of a picture regarding where people are mostly likely to contract omicron and its subvariants. What we do know is that, while the virus has evolved to be much more transmissible than previous variants, the way COVID-19 spreads hasn’t changed. “Nothing has changed in terms of how any individual right now, regardless of their day-to-day activity, can pick this virus up,” Mark Cameron, infectious disease researcher at Case Western Reserve University, told HuffPost. Because of that, we can assume there are some hot spots for BA.2 and other omicron subvariants compared to others. Here are common places...

The rise in these severe and mysterious cases has led the CDC to issue a health advisory to clinicians so that health care providers can be on the lookout and report cases accordingly. What should parents know about the cases of hepatitis in kids? How worried should they be, and what are the symptoms they should be looking out for? Is there a link between the cases of hepatitis and Covid-19? To help answer these questions, I spoke with CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and professor of health policy and management at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. She is also author of " Lifelines: A Doctor's Journey in the Fight for Public Health" and the mother of two young children. CNN: Let's start at the beginning. What is hepatitis...