Teens may be more likely to use marijuana after legalization for adult recreational use

Adolescents who live in California may be more likely to use marijuana since adult recreational marijuana use was legalized in 2016, according to a new report in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. “The apparent increase in marijuana use among California adolescents after recreational marijuana legalization for adult use in 2016 is surprising […]

Flu and other infections are down, likely due to COVID-19 social distancing

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 […]

Three-quarters of U.S. adults likely to get COVID-19 vaccine

(HealthDay)—More than three-quarters of U.S. adults report being “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to get the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a study published online Jan. 3 in the Journal of Community Health. Jagdish Khubchandani, M.B.B.S., Ph.D., from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, and colleagues conducted an online survey of 1,878 U.S. adults to […]

COVID-19 likely lingered longer than reported in Wuhan: study

Wuhan City in China was the first place to report COVID-19 in the world and—between December 2019 and May 2020—caused nearly two-thirds of all COVID-19 cases in China. Now, researchers reporting in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases have tested more than 60,000 healthy individuals in China for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and concluded that thousands of Wuhan residents […]

Antibody testing likely undercounts past covid infections by 28%

Antibody testing likely undercounts the number of people who have had COVID-19: More than 25% of infected health care workers had NO signs of it in their blood work 60 days later CDC researchers found that 6% of more than 3,000 health care workers they tested had antibodies to coronavirus  Within 60 days, when they […]

Blood test picks out cancers likely to benefit from targeted drugs

A simple and inexpensive blood test could pick out patients with stomach or oesophageal cancer who are likely to benefit from targeted treatment, a new study shows. The test, known as a liquid biopsy, detects cancer DNA in the bloodstream to reveal if stomach and oesophageal cancers are being driven by the presence of too […]

Homeless more likely to die after heart attack

(HealthDay)—Homeless people are three times more likely to die after a heart attack than other patients, a new study finds. “Our study shows a dramatically higher rate of mortality after heart attacks in people experiencing homelessness compared to non-homeless patients,” said researcher Dr. Samantha Liauw of the University of Toronto. “More research is needed to […]

Female surgeons perform less complex cases than male peers, likely due to systemic bias

Female surgeons at a large academic medical center perform less complex surgical procedures than their male counterparts, according to a new study by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). This study, published in Annals of Surgery, is one of the first to measure the problem of underemployment among female surgeons in the United States, which […]