The usual broken bones and other trauma are being treated this winter at the emergency department of St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children. But one category of medical complaints has all but disappeared: infectious disease. Take influenza, for example. Typically between December and April, nurses and doctors at the Philadelphia hospital see hundreds of children with […]
Children’s Hospitals Are Partly to Blame as Superbugs Increasingly Attack Kids
COLUMBIA, Mo. — A memory haunts Christina Fuhrman: the image of her toddler Pearl lying pale and listless in a hospital bed, tethered to an IV to keep her hydrated as she struggled against a superbug infection. “She survived by the grace of God,” Fuhrman said of the illness that struck her oldest child in […]
Why a mask and social distancing are still needed even if you get the shot
It was a long struggle to adopt a new normal of wearing face masks, maintaining physical distance, handwashing and on-and-off lockdowns. Then, with the approval of two vaccines, came the expectation that the world will soon be cured of COVID-19, and that we all will resume our old normal life. But—not so fast. We must […]
Pregnant or postpartum Black women are 45% more likely to die in the hospital and are at higher risk for heart problems
In her last trimester, in the midst of dealing with family and work issues as well as preparing for a new baby, Michelle Emebo felt stressed. “I didn’t realize how much it was impacting me until I went to see my health care provider and my blood pressure was up,” she said. Doctors monitored her […]
COVID-19, cold, allergies and the flu: What are the differences?
If you have signs or symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), it’s important that you contact your health care provider right away for medical advice. But COVID-19, the common cold, seasonal allergies and the flu (influenza) cause many similar symptoms. So how can you tell if you have COVID-19? COVID-19 is a contagious respiratory disease […]
Fauci: Vaccinations are ramping up in a ‘glimmer of hope’
The U.S. ramped up COVID-19 vaccinations in the past few days after a slower-than-expected start, bringing the number of shots dispensed to about 4 million, government health officials said Sunday. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, also said on ABC’s “This Week” that President-elect Joe Biden’s pledge to administer 100 million shots of […]
Child care facilities can be safe and are essential, says new study
Child care programs can be safe within the context of low community transmission of COVID-19, according to new research from Case Western Reserve University, based on data from child care programs throughout Ohio. The study took place from Aug. 15 to Nov. 20, during a timeframe of relatively low community transmission of COVID-19. The team […]
A matter of balance: Asymmetric divisions are crucial to form a functional retina
Researchers at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência and the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany, have discovered that in the developing retina, and important part of the central nervous system, the divisions leading to the first differentiating neurons are asymmetric and that this asymmetry is necessary to generate the […]
tRNA fragments are involved in poststroke immune reactions
Sebastian Lobentanzer of Goethe University, Frankfurt, has been studying small RNA dynamics in various contexts using bioinformatic methods. Recently, small RNAs have become more and more interesting for researchers, primarily because of their extensive regulatory functions. To examine these functions in stroke, Lobentanzer joined Katarzyna Winek of Hebrew University, Jerusalem, to study microRNAs and tRNA […]
COVID-19 found in the cornea: Are transplants a transmission risk?
COVID-19 has been found in conjunctival swabs and tears of infected patients, according to a new study published in The Ocular Surface. The discovery prompted a research team including Shahzad Mian, M.D., an ophthalmologist at Kellogg Eye Center, to analyze the prevalence of COVID-19 in human post-mortem ocular tissues. The results: the virus can infiltrate […]