Health

Credit: CC0 Public Domain "People Supremacy, Life Supremacy" reads the sign at a Wuhan exhibition, where visitors are greeted by a paean to China's triumph over the pandemic and the agility of its communist leadership in a crisis. Saturday marks one year since the start of a 76-day lockdown of Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the coronavirus was first detected before sweeping across the world and killing more than two million people. With China's official death toll from the virus under 5,000, Beijing is on a prolonged victory lap to promote its narrative of h...

Earlier this week, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Alex Azar announced that coronavirus vaccine distribution would be changed to accommodate demand. The whole supply of vaccines, he said, would become available, not just first doses. He said HHS was telling state governments to allow the most vulnerable individuals, besides the elderly in nursing homes, to provide the vaccine. “We’re telling states they should open vaccinations to all of their most vulnerable people,” said Mr. Azar.  Initially, the vaccine was only available to healthcare workers, people living in nursing homes, and nursing home staff. Now, anyone 65 or older, and adults with one risky co-morbidity can get the vaccine. Mr. Azar's guidelines include people as young as 16, Pfizer's vaccine is approved f...

The immune system works by making sure foreign invaders are detected and eradicated from the body to prevent infection. Antibodies are developed after the body gets invaded by a pathogen, such as a virus or bacteria. They work by scouting these pathogens to neutralize and kill them. Amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, one of the questions often raised is: how long will immunity against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) last? Previous studies have shown that the body’s antibody response and the production of neutralizing antibodies last for about 4 to 6 months. A new study, which was published in the journal Nature, shows that the memory B cell response to SARS-Cov-2 evolves between 1.3 and 6.2 months after infection in a...

Patients with type 2 diabetes who follow a low carbohydrate diet (LCD) for at least 6 months appear to have significantly higher remission rates than those following other diets, although the benefits diminish by 12 months, suggests a new analysis of trial data from over 1300 individuals. "Based on other evidence, it is likely the degree of weight loss would have been a contributing factor, combined with the lower intake of dietary carbohydrates," study coauthor Grant D. Brinkworth, PhD, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Sydney, Australia, told Medscape Medical News. He acknowledged, however, that "Diets in general can be difficult to sustain over the long term...We need to provide patients with easy-to-use support tools and con...

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States. There is compelling evidence that screening to detect CRC early to find and remove precancerous polyps can reduce CRC mortality. However, screening has associated harms, including procedural complications, and inherent limitations. For example, colonoscopy, the most common screening tool in the US, is less effective in preventing cancers of the right, or ascending side, of the colon compared with cancers of the left, or descending, side of the colon. Moreover, only 60% of US adults recommended for screening actually follow through. Even under the best circumstances, screening is resource-intensive, requiring time, equipment, and a trained ...

A Senior Consultant in the Institute of Liver Transplantation and Regenerative Medicine at Medanta, Gurgaon, Dr. Prashant Bhangui has over 16 years of rich professional experience in the field of Hepatobiliary Surgery and Liver Transplantation. His areas of clinical and research interest include hepatocellular carcinoma, colorectal liver metastases and living donor liver transplantation.Common Interview Questions On Liver TransplantationHere are some questions answered by Dr.Prashant Vilas Bhangui.Question: Are there different types of techniques for performing liver transplantation?Answer: When we talk about techniques, there are two types of liver transplants. In case of deceased donor liver transplantation, the whole liver is retrieved from a brain dead patient if the family is willi...

Earlier this week DTx company Pear Therapeutics inked a deal with adherence tool etectRx to potentially develop a product that combines the former’s digital therapeutics with a digital pill offering. As part of the deal the two companies will meet quarterly to discuss potential collaborations with the pharma industry. “Here we are talking about how can we bring this to pharma... we are going to quarterly, and we are going to talk about the market: 'Hey, what is pharma doing out there in clinical trials?' Combing clinicaltrials.gov and approach them, and say could a combined solution like ours advance our clinical trials?” Valerie Sullivan, CEO of etectRx told MobiHealthNews. The exact details of what a combined product will look like is still forthcoming. However, we do know it will be ...

Black Americans are receiving covid vaccinations at dramatically lower rates than white Americans in the first weeks of the chaotic rollout, according to a new KHN analysis. About 3% of Americans have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine so far. But in 16 states that have released data by race, white residents are being vaccinated at significantly higher rates than Black residents, according to the analysis — in many cases two to three times higher. In the most dramatic case, 1.2% of white Pennsylvanians had been vaccinated as of Jan. 14, compared with 0.3% of Black Pennsylvanians. The vast majority of the initial round of vaccines has gone to health care workers and staffers on the front lines of the pandemic — a workforce that’s typically racial...

Pharma giant Pfizer is trying to ease concern in Europe about the deliveries of the coronavirus vaccine it developed with German firm BioNTech Pharma giant Pfizer tried to ease concerns in Europe about deliveries of its coronavirus vaccine as nations across the world doubled down on restrictions to fight the rampaging pandemic. The coronavirus pandemic is showing no signs of slowing down, with infections surging past 94 million and more than two million deaths, and Europe among the hardest-hit parts of the world. Worries have grown that delays in the delivery of Pf...