Life expectancy in the U.S. dropped for the second consecutive year in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which blamed the COVID-19 pandemic for about half the decline in 2021.
Over the course of the first two years of the pandemic, the estimated U.S. life expectancy has shorted by nearly three years.
COMBO 'POLYPILL' CUTS HEART DISEASE DEATHS, NEW STUDY FINDS
Deaths from accidental injuries, primarily from drug overdoses, were the second largest contributor.
Other contributing factors include heart disease, suicide and chronic liver disease.
Life expectancy had risen for decades, but progress stalled before the pandemic.
While it was 78 years and 10 months in 2019, last year it fell to about 76 years and one month.
For women, it dropped about 10 months and a full year for men.
Life expectancy is the approximate number of years a baby born in a given year might expect to live, given current death rates.
The new report is based on provisional data.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Steroids are able to change the structure of the brain and affect a person's mood, according to a new study.
Dutch researchers conducted the study by examining the brains of nearly 25,000 steroid users and non-users. The team found that those who inhaled or orally took glucocorticoids, a steroid that is prescribed to decrease inflammation, experienced changes to their brain's white and grey matter.
"This study shows that both systemic and inhaled glucocorticoids are associated with an apparently widespread reduction in white matter integrity," said the study's co-author Merel van der Meulen, who works at Leiden University Medical Center, in the paper published on Tuesday in the journal BMJ Open. Moreover, white matter is essential for the brain because it connects the cells with the body's entire nervous system. An individual may have trouble processing information and remembering events if they have a lower than white matter. The study also linked white matter shortages to depression and anxiety.
Patients have often been treated for diseases such as asthma, arthritis, and eczema with steroids, even though symptoms like depression and anxiety. However, more research is still needed to prove that steroids are to blame, the researchers note, but do "neuropsychiatric side effects observed in patients using glucocorticoid."
GET BETTER SLEEP AT NIGHT WITH THE HELP OF 10 SMART PRODUCTS
The Dutch academics conducted the study by analyzing brain data of 24,885 people from UK Biobank, a population-based cohort study of adults recruited in the United Kingdom from 2006 until 2010. The database included only approximately 800 volunteers who used medicated steroids, while the vast majority of the database were non-steroid users.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER
The most significant drop of white matter that affected the brain's structure occurred through the usage of glucocorticoids by injection or tablets for long-term periods. Yet, even those who inhaled the steroids were still linked to lower processing speeds, and users had smaller amygdala grew matter volume.
To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest study to date assessing the association between glucocorticoid use and brain structure, and the first to investigate these associations in inhaled glucocorticoid users," the study concludes. "Since these medications are widely used, awareness of these associations is necessary across medical specialties and research into alternative treatment options is warranted.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Wednesday that it has authorized updated coronavirus booster shots targeting the highly-contagious omicron variant.
"Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration amended the emergency use authorizations (EUAs) of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine to authorize bivalent formulations of the vaccines for use as a single booster dose at least two months following primary or booster vaccination," it said in a statement.
The new shots, which the FDA is referring to as "updated boosters," contain "two messenger RNA (mRNA) components of SARS-CoV-2 virus, one of the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and the other one in common between the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2."
FIRST LADY JILL BIDEN RECOVERS FROM COVID AGAIN, RETURNING TO WASHINGTON
"The COVID-19 vaccines, including boosters, continue to save countless lives and prevent the most serious outcomes (hospitalization and death) of COVID-19," FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said in a statement. "As we head into fall and begin to spend more time indoors, we strongly encourage anyone who is eligible to consider receiving a booster dose with a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine to provide better protection against currently circulating variants."
The FDA says the updated Moderna single dosage boosters are authorized for individuals 18 years or older, while the Pfizer-BioNTech one is for individuals 12 years or older.
UNVACCINATED NBA PLAYERS AND STAFF MUST TAKE WEEKLY COVID-19 TEST
Both kinds of booster shots will provide "better protection against COVID-19 caused by the omicron variant," it added.
"The BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the omicron variant are currently causing most cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. and are predicted to circulate this fall and winter," the FDA said.
The FDA also announced that it "will work quickly to evaluate future data and submissions to support authorization of bivalent COVID-19 boosters for additional age groups as we receive them."
"The FDA has been planning for the possibility that the composition of the COVID-19 vaccines would need to be modified to address circulating variants," said Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. "We sought input from our outside experts on the inclusion of an omicron component in COVID-19 boosters to provide better protection against COVID-19. We have worked closely with the vaccine manufacturers to ensure the development of these updated boosters was done safely and efficiently."
Ethan Andrew started smoking marijuana during his sophomore year of high school in Colorado to help with his anxiety.
Like many teens, he said he thought it was "just weed" and did not see the harm in smoking the popular drug containing THC, the active chemical found in cannabis that produces a "high."
His causal marijuana use turned to smoking potent cannabis flower and concentrates, known as dabs, which contain high levels of THC. Andrew said he smoked every day from morning to night.
"I couldn't think or sleep without it," the 23-year-old told Fox News. "When you're a stoner, you think, ‘I'll be fine. In the future, I'll clean myself up.’"
However, it was too late. Two years after becoming an avid marijuana user, Ethan was only 18 when he developed cannabis-induced psychosis, a condition including severe hallucinations, delusions and paranoia.
"I had to quit my job because the voices in my head were so distracting," Ethan said, adding that the worst symptom was confusing dreams with reality. "I'd wake up and tell my friends, 'Yeah, remember when we hung out and did that?' And they would have no idea what I'm talking about."
NIH STUDY FINDS YOUNG AMERICANS USING MORE MARIJUANA AND HALLUCINOGENIC DRUGS THAN EVER BEFORE
A recent study review published by Lancet Psychiatry found high-cannabis-potency products are associated with a greater risk of psychosis and addiction called cannabis use disorder (CUD).
"The content of THC not many decades ago was 2%-3%," Dr. Nora Volkow, the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, told Fox News, adding that marijuana is considered high in potency if the product contains more than 10% THC.
"Now, the average content of THC in the United States is 14-16%," she said. "There are [cannabis] varieties that have a content that goes to 30% THC."
Today, manufacturers have found ways to add marijuana into vaping devices, edibles and wax that can contain nearly 100% pure THC.
"We're seeing more and more young men with these type of episodes because the cannabis that they are consuming has higher contents of THC that have the highest risk for triggering a psychotic episode and becoming addicted," Dr. Volkow said. "It’s much more widely available and a larger percentage of them smoking."
Currently, 19 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational marijuana, while 37 states have approved medical use. That, Dr. Volkow said, does not mean cannabis use is harmless, especially on adolescent brain development.
MISSOURI VOTERS TO VOTE ON RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA IN NOVEMBER BALLOT
"The consumption of marijuana as a young person modifies the brain in ways that make it more susceptible later on to that rewarding and addictive effects of other drugs," she said. "So, you start to mess around by smoking marijuana, you're going to interfere with that process, which is crucial because ultimately who we are very much is a reflection of how our brain works."
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., alongside Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., recently introduced the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act aiming to legalize cannabis on a federal level and establish a federal cannabis tax.
States including Massachusetts, Colorado and California, where cannabis is legal, are already benefiting from state and local taxes by the billions, said Beau Whitney, one of the nation’s leading experts on the economics of cannabis, adding that a federal tax would only embolden the illicit, dangerous market.
"Last year, only $25 billion worth of cannabis was sold legally while $75 to $80 [billion] was sold in the illegal market," Whitney said. "Pricing plays a key role in incentivizing consumers to participate legally. If the price is too high, they'll go back onto into the illicit market."
After seeing firsthand how marijuana affected her son and husband, Aubree Adams moved her family out of Colorado – one of the first states that made it legal, which she described as "ground zero for the marijuana expansion movement" – to Texas where it is still illegal to possess any substance containing THC. She started Every Brain Matters, an advocacy group supporting and educating families on the harmful effects of cannabis.
NARCAN VENDING MACHINES ARE THE LATEST WEAPON AGAINST OPIOID OVERDOSES
"In the state of Colorado, the number one drug found in completed suicides ages 10 to 18 is marijuana," she said. She added that she believed families like hers have been "fed a bag of lies that cannabis is harmless."
Adams went on, "THC is the perfect drug to hijack our kids' brains and lead them down a path of addiction and mental illness."
It has been five years since Ethan Andrew made a full recovery from cannabis-induced psychosis.
"I got so paranoid that my brain was damaged that I got an MRI, and they did find some damage to my white matter. I'm too traumatized to even smoke weed again."
The federal government cannot force Christian medical organizations to perform abortions or gender transition surgeries under the Affordable Care Act, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.
In a unanimous ruling, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s permanent order shielding the Christian groups from anti-discrimination lawsuits under a provision known as Section 1557 in the ACA.
Those groups in the lawsuit were Christian Medical and Dental Associations, Specialty Physicians of Illinois, and Catholic hospital system Franciscan Alliance Inc. Each said performing an abortion or gender reassignment surgery would violate their religious freedoms.
The judges wrote that the providers faced harm because the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had "repeatedly refused to disavow enforcement" against them.
CNN, NBC PANELS ON GOP MIDTERM ROE V. WADE IMPACT: REPUBLICANS CAUGHT ‘FLAT-FOOTED’
"In its brief on appeal, HHS simply says it ‘has not to date evaluated’ whether it will enforce Section 1557 against Franciscan Alliance – in other words, it concedes that it may," Circuit Judge Don Willett wrote in rejecting the government’s argument. "We have repeatedly held that plaintiffs have standing in the face of similar prosecutorial indecision."
Joe Davis of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represented the Christian groups, called the ruling "a major victory for conscience rights and compassionate medical care in America."
The case, Franciscan Alliance v. Becerra began when the groups sued in a federal court in Wichita Falls, Texas, challenging an Obama-era HHS rule, which interpreted Section 1557 as requiring health care providers to perform abortions or gender reassignment surgery if they receive federal funding or participate in ACA exchanges.
In 2019, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor vacated parts of the ruling but declined to enter an injunction. A year later, the Trump administration rescinded the rule.
The plaintiffs appealed to the 5th Circuit, asking for an injunction. The court remanded the case to O’Connor for further consideration. He then entered a broad injunction against enforcing 1557 against the Christian groups to require the abortion and gender reassignment services.
HHS appealed the injunction, culminating in Friday’s ruling, in which the 5th Circuit sided with the lower court order.
Reuters contributed to this report.
After doctors diagnosed Paula Estrada with breast cancer in 2009, the then 41-year-old Argentine decided she would not only beat the disease, but would do so without losing her long blonde hair to the ravages of chemotherapy.
At her home in Buenos Aires, Estrada, a graphic designer by profession, set about creating a makeshift cooling cap out of ice packs to keep her scalp cold - and ward off hair loss.
It worked, and "nobody realized that I was undergoing chemotherapy," said Estrada, now 54.
BREAST CANCER SURVIVOR'S INCLUSIVE LINGERIE BRAND CATERS TO DIAGNOSED WOMEN
Scalp cooling, a way to constrict blood vessels and keep chemotherapy drugs from reaching hair follicles, has existed in some form for decades. The Paxman Scalp Cooling cap, for example, was introduced in Britain in 1997 and earned U.S. FDA approval in 2017.
But in 2009, cooling caps were an unknown in Argentina, Estrada said.
"When I finished, I said 'I'm not going to keep this for myself, I want everyone to have this as a possibility," she recalled.
Estrada's 'Quimo con pelo' cap can be made with gels that cost as little as $2 - a lifesaver in a country facing economic struggles and where alternative cooling caps can cost $100 a session.
On social media, patients in Argentina and around the world share instructions on how to make the caps and donate them when they're finished.
The caps must be used beginning with the first chemo session, kept at -4 degrees Fahrenheit (-20 degrees Celsius), and changed every 30 minutes.
COOLING CAPS HELP WOMEN KEEP HAIR DURING BREAST CANCER CHEMO
"It's worth it," said Mariangeles Fernandez, a 48-year-old liver cancer patient. "It lets you fight the disease in a different way."
Estrada, who is now writing a book about her experience, says she hears from patients every day whose cancer journeys have been improved by the caps.
"I think the (cap) has been the key to my state of mind," said Elsa Ram, a 64-year-old retiree with breast cancer. "This is a big part of a good treatment."
ID checks for whipped cream are rolling out at stores in New York as more retailers begin to enforce a year-old state law banning the sale of whipped cream canisters to anyone under 21.
The law passed last year amid concern that teenagers are increasingly getting high by inhaling the nitrous oxide used as a propellant in the canisters, according to the Albany Times Union.
The first offense of selling whipped cream canisters to someone under 21 comes with a $250 fine, with fines of up to $500 for subsequent violations.
Nitrous oxide, or "laughing gas," is a dissociative anesthetic that can be inhaled by discharging nitrous gas cartridges known as "whippets," according to the Alcohol and Drug Foundation. In addition to short-lived euphoria, the drug can also cause loss of blood pressure, fainting, heart attack and sudden death. Potential long-term effects include memory loss and psychosis.
NIH STUDY FINDS YOUNG AMERICANS USING MORE MARIJUANA AND HALLUCINOGENIC DRUGS THAN EVER BEFORE
The bill banning the sale of whipped cream canisters to teenagers was sponsored by state Sen. Joseph Addabbo (D-Queens), who said he supported the measure after he became aware of the detrimental effect nitrous oxide was having on his district.
"This new law is an important step in [combating] a significant problem for many neighborhoods throughout my district," Addabbo said when the legislation passed last fall. "The need to limit the access and sale of [whippets] first became apparent [to me] after [I had been] receiving constituent complaints about empty canisters on neighborhood streets. Used [whippets] piling up in our communities are not only an eyesore, but also indicative of a significant nitrous oxide abuse problem."
NEW YORK'S CHELSEA RESIDENTS SAY DRUG USERS ARE TAKING OVER THEIR ONCE UPSCALE NEIGHBORHOOD
Kent Sopris, who serves as president of the New York Association of Convenience Stores, told the Times Union that he let members of his organization know to enforce the law when he became aware of it just two months ago, which he attributed to a likely issue regarding how the law was tracked.
"I think that there is some sort of reporting mechanism that just didn't go the way it was supposed to," he said. "We had been tracking the bill last year and when I looked in the bill tracking file, there is just no indication that it was signed."
A spokesperson for the Schenectady-based supermarket chain Price Chopper told the Albany newspaper that self-checkouts in their stores would begin flagging whipped cream canisters as age-restricted products beginning Sept. 1. Other food retailers have taken similar steps.
More than 107,000 Americans died from drug overdose deaths last year, the highest number on record and a notable increase from the 93,655 Americans who died in 2020.
One pill may be better than three.
A heart medication known as a "polypill" reduced the chance of a secondary adverse cardiovascular event in individuals who previously had a heart attack, according to the findings of a study announced on Friday, August 26, at the European Society of Cardiology Congress (ESC 2022) in Barcelona, Spain.
The cardiovascular mortality rate was lowered by 33%, the study found.
HYPERTENSION, THE SILENT KILLER: WHAT IS IT?
Published in The New England Journal of Medicine, the study found that the drug, bearing the commercial name Trinomia, contains three medications: aspirin (100 mg), the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor ramipril (2.5, 5, or 10 mg) and atorvastatin (20 or 40 mg), according to a news release.
The Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) and Ferrer developed the polypill.
Currently, the polypill is not available in the United States.
Dr. Valentin Fuster, M.D., director of Mount Sinai Heart and physician-in-chief of Mount Sinai Hospital as well as general director of CNIC, led the trial.
The study's results demonstrate "for the first time that the polypill — which contains aspirin, ramipril and atorvastatin — achieves clinically relevant reductions in the recurrent cardiovascular events among people who have recovered from a previous heart attack," he said in the release.
That's "because of better adherence to this simplified approach with a simple polypill, rather than taking [pills] separately as conventional," he went on.
Typically, after a patient recovers from a heart attack, doctors prescribe several medications, which may include an anti-platelet agent (such as aspirin), medication to control blood pressure and a lipid-reducing drug, such as a statin, the release said.
HERBAL SUPPLEMENTS AND THEIR SIDE EFFECTS: HERE'S HOW TO STAY SAFE
The problem is that less than half of patients consistently adhere to their medication regimen, according to the study's authors.
"Although most patients initially adhere to treatment after an acute event such as an infarction, adherence drops off after the first few months," Dr. Fuster said in the release.
He also explained, "Our goal was to have an impact right from the start, and most of the patients in the study began taking a simple polypill in the first week after having a heart attack."
The study’s first author, Dr. José MarÃa Castellano, M.D., said in the report, "Adherence to treatment after an acute myocardial infarction is essential for effective secondary prevention."
Castellano also said in the release, "The polypill, [which is] a very simple strategy that combines three essential treatments for this type of patient, has proved its worth … The improved adherence means that these patients are receiving better treatment and therefore have a lower risk of recurrent cardiovascular events."
HEART ATTACK RISK CAN BE FOUND THROUGH NON-INVASIVE CALCIUM SCORE SCREENING SCAN
In a previous study that was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), CNIC scientists showed that patients treated with the polypill showed significant improvement when it came to adhering to treatment.
The CNIC team of researchers investigated if the improved adherence to treatment with the polypill would lead to a reduction in cardiovascular events.
The study used an international randomized clinical trial that included 2,499 patients from seven European countries recovering from a heart attack.
The participants were randomly assigned the CNIC polypill or standard treatment medications. Participants averaged 76 years of age — and the study included individuals with a history of hypertension (77.9%), diabetes (57.4%) and smoking tobacco (51.3%).
The team of researchers followed the patients for an average of three years.
They analyzed the occurrence of four major cardiovascular events: death from a cardiovascular cause, non-fatal stroke, non-fatal myocardial infarction and need for emergency coronary revascularization, the report said.
They found that the patients taking the polypills had a 24% lower risk of these four cardiovascular events than patients taking the three drugs separately, according to the release.
TWIN SISTERS HELP SAVE WOMAN WITH MEDICAL EMERGENCY ON FLIGHT FROM BOSTON TO FORT MYERS, FLORIDA
The researchers found that there were 71 deaths in the group that received standard treatment, compared to 48 in the polypill group.
Patients in the polypill group also had a higher level of treatment adherence than those in the control group — which may explain the benefits of the polypill, the release said.
"The 33% reduction in cardiovascular mortality demonstrates the efficacy of treatment with Trinomia compared to standard treatment" Oscar Pérez, marketing chief and business development officer at Ferrer, said in the release.
The treatment has the "potential to reduce the risk of recurrent cardiovascular disease and death on a global scale."
"These results ratify our purpose of making a positive impact in society and represent an important step in our mission to provide significant and differential value to people who suffer from serious health conditions."
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER
The polypill could become part of a worldwide treatment strategy, said Fuster, to help prevent recurrent cardiovascular events in patients who have had a heart attack.
Fuster also said, "By simplifying treatment and improving adherence," this approach has the "potential to reduce the risk of recurrent cardiovascular disease and death on a global scale."
A Mount Sinai Health Systems spokesperson told Fox News Digital that Fuster plans to present the findings to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
While herbal supplements are extremely popular today, they may not be right for everyone.
And there are caveats attached to them from doctors and nutritionists.
Attractively packaged and promising a world of health benefits, many of the herbal supplements available on the market are extremely potent, say doctors and nutritionists — and should be taken with care and medical advice.
Americans spend $35 billion a year on herbal supplements, vitamins and minerals, according to Preventative Medicine Reports.
HERBAL SUPPLEMENTS BLAMED FOR TEXAS WOMAN'S LIVER FAILURE
A cautionary case in point: Lori McClintock, 61, wife of California Republican Rep. Tom McClintock, died back in December after suffering "adverse effects" from consuming the white mulberry leaf herbal supplement, a Sacramento County coroner’s report found.
The specific cause of death was listed as "dehydration due to gastroenteritis due to adverse effects of white mulberry leaf ingestion," according to reports.
Lori McClintock "was found unresponsive in her locked residence by her husband" — and the day prior to her death, "she had complaints of an upset stomach," the coroner's report said.
There were no suspicious circumstances found.
NARCAN VENDING MACHINES ARE LATEST WEAPON AGAINST OPIOID OVERDOSES
People "commonly use white mulberry for diabetes," as WebMd.com has pointed out.
They also say it is used for high cholesterol and high blood pressure, the common cold and many other conditions, "but there is no good scientific evidence to support these uses."
Medical professionals weighed in on whether people should take over-the-counter herbal remedies and supplements — and if they do, what precautions they should take.
"Herbal supplements don’t have a lot of research to back them up," registered dietitian and personal trainer Jenny Champion, of Red Bank, New Jersey, told Fox News Digital via email.
"If you’re putting something into your body on a regular basis and at moderate to higher doses, having solid research supporting its health claims is a must," she added.
Nothing that "everything you eat or drink" gets processed by "your body’s filter — your liver," she said that if you’re "constantly overloading it with supplements," you could actually do more harm to your body than good.
Champion also said that herbs can interfere with certain medications by "increasing or decreasing your prescription’s efficacy."
Either way, she continued, "the results can be deadly. Always talk to your doctor about herbal supplements before trying them."
Dr. Taylor Arnold is a registered dietitian and nutritionist in Gilbert, Arizona, who shares information on his website, GrowingIntuitiveEaters.com.
She told Fox News Digital by email that when considering supplements, it's best to "use a reliable brand of that conducts third party testing and adheres to good manufacturing practices (called GMPs)."
She continued, "Studies examining the purity of herbal supplements frequently find that they are mislabeled or contain substances not on the label."
Recommending that people "always talk with your doctor if you are taking any herbal supplements," Arnold noted that "many supplements interfere with medications or are contraindicated in certain medical conditions."
Cautioning that there is "very limited safety data about herbal supplements in pregnancy and in children," she advised people to "use extra caution in this population — or just avoid altogether."
She added, "The placebo effect is very powerful and applies to everyone. This likely plays a role in many supplements — not just herbal."
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House chief medical adviser, warned against making assumptions regarding the global monkeypox outbreak, citing choices made during the early days of the HIV-AIDS epidemic.
In a piece written in the New England Journal of Medicine, Fauci and Dr. H. Clifford Lane wrote that the emerging epidemiologic pattern of the cases bears a "striking resemblance" to early cases of HIV/AIDS – including that most monkeypox cases in this outbreak have been detected among men who have sex with men.
The virus typically spreads from direct lesion-to-skin contact, and the researchers noted that evidence suggests transmission requires prolonged or repeated exposure.
People can also become infected through contact with infected clothing or bedsheets.
BRITISH SCIENTISTS BEHIND CRUCIAL COVID TRIAL PIVOT TO MONKEYPOX TREATMENT RESEARCH
Notably, health officials have stressed that the virus is not considered to be a sexually transmitted infection, although men considered at high risk of the disease are recommended to reduce their number of sexual partners and refrain from group or anonymous sex.
During the HIV-AIDS pandemic, the pair noted that the microorganism causing the disease was unknown and, unlike today, no countermeasures like vaccines were available.
"Given how little we know about the epidemiologic characteristics of the current outbreak, it is prudent to heed an observation made during the first year of the HIV/AIDS pandemic: ‘… any assumption that it will remain restricted to a particular segment of our society is truly an assumption without a scientific basis.’ Thus, additional detailed epidemiologic and observational cohort studies, serosurveys and ongoing surveillance for new cases are of critical importance," Fauci and Lane, who serves as the NIAID Deputy Director for Clinical Research and Special Projects, urged. Fauci is leaving his position as White House chief medical adviser and NIAID director in December.
WILL MONKEYPOX BECOME AN 'ESTABLISHED STD'? WHY ONE INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT THINKS SO
They said that the challenge going forward is to ensure efficient and equitable availability and distribution of countermeasures, as well as to conduct rigorous studies needed to define what the clinical efficacy may be, identify any potential safety concerns and guide proper utilization.
"Lessons learned during the responses to AIDS and COVID-19 should help us to marshal a more efficient and effective response to monkeypox, and the response to monkeypox should, in turn, help to inform our response to the inevitable next emerging or reemerging infectious disease of pandemic potential," the pair concluded.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are nearly 17,000 confirmed cases of monkeypox and orthopoxvirus in the U.S. and 46,724 cases worldwide.
The number of cases reported globally dropped 21% in the last week, according to the World Health Organization.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Vending machines that distribute lifesaving shots of Narcan represent the latest effort to combat the wave of opioid overdose deaths plaguing the country.
Across the U.S., cities including San Diego, Las Vegas and New York are installing vending machines and locker kiosks stocked with nasal sprays that contain naloxone, a medication that can be used in emergencies for someone who has overdosed on opioids, including fentanyl.
Often referred to as Narcan, the spray medication can bring back someone from the brink of death, instantly enabling them to breathe.
MOTHERS WHO LOST CHILDREN TO FENTANYL POISONINGS DEMANDING ACTION
"I would say it’s pretty effective. It's been accessed nearly 400 times since it's been installed. I'm probably out restocking it twice a week," Charlie Nolan, a harm reduction specialist with the City of Philadelphia’s Department of Public Health, told Fox News.
The city agency recently installed a naloxone tower in front of the Blackwell Library in the West Philadelphia neighborhood.
"I think we're reaching a pretty good number of people that either didn't have access to it before, didn't know where to get it or might have been uncomfortable talking to someone to get it," Nolan said.
The tower holds a total of 44 Narcan shots.
Each of the 22 lockers contains a kit with two doses of Narcan Nasal Spray, a face shield for rescue breathing, gloves and a quick guide on how to administer the shot.
Nolan says he restocks the kiosk often.
"We get a fair amount of people completing the survey that's available to take on there as well," he says. "I think it's been very effective in getting naloxone into the hands of more people."
FENTANYL OVERDOSE DEATHS CLAIMING THOUSANDS OF AMERICAN LIVES; WHAT IS BEHIND THE RISE?
Since it was installed in February of this year, the tower has been accessed nearly 400 times.
Of those, nearly half of the users filled out an anonymous survey that collects their zip code, gender and ethnicity.
Andrew Best, director of the Department of Public Health, said the department is unable to determine how many of these doses have been used to save someone from an overdose — but he believes the pilot program is effective.
"People are forgetting that individuals are overdosing in their homes," Best told Fox News. "So, having access to that lifesaving medication — it may be difficult to quantify, but we know that individuals are accessing the naloxone and using it."
The pilot program for this locker is part of a wider initiative to distribute lifesaving Narcan throughout a city that has been hit particularly hard by the opioid crisis.
In 2020, the city recorded over 1,200 overdose deaths. The city estimates data will show an increase in 2021.
The Philadelphia Department of Public Health also provides harm reduction training with fentanyl testing strips and instructs people on how to administer Narcan shots in addition to addiction recovery treatments.
FAMILIES WHO HAVE LOST KIDS TO FENTANYL SHARE MIXED FEELINGS ABOUT TODAY'S TEST STRIPS
"I think it's very important because as we're seeing with just the trends and what's happening, we haven't finalized the numbers for 2021, but we can already estimate that [overdose deaths] may possibly be higher," Best said.
"So, we want to make sure that we provide this lifesaving medication wherever we can to all different groups of people and all different types of communities."
Plans are already in the works to install a second tower near the intersection of 60th and Market streets, and the department is hoping to install more if they continue to prove effective.
FENTANYL CRISIS HITS ALASKA: ‘WE’RE SEEING GROWING ADDICTION'
With over 100,000 overdose deaths across the U.S. in 2021 alone, according to a recent CDC report, many cities and other municipalities across the country have been looking for ways to provide easier access to lifesaving Narcan to lower those numbers in 2022.
In Michigan, Wayne State University is installing 15 machines across the state, including on its campus in Detroit.
The free kiosks look like a more traditional vending machine and can be accessed anonymously by anyone who needs the overdose reversal drug.
"For our program, it does not require any payment or any kind of access identification," Matt Costello, the program manager for the Center for Behavioral Health and Justice at Wayne State University, told Fox News.
"The payment mechanism has been shut off on all the machines that we've distributed. So, an individual just goes and hits B7 and the kit drops out and then they go on their way."
WALGREENS CONTRIBUTED TO SAN FRANCISCO OPIOID CRISIS: JUDGE
Costello said the program was modeled after an initiative launched by the Los Angeles County Jail system, where vending machines stocked with Narcan were installed.
"We wanted to make Narcan available to individuals as they were released from the jail," Costello said.
"The data shows us that the risks of overdose post-incarceration are extraordinarily high. So we've placed eight of the machines in county jails, seven in community settings, like a harm reduction agency or other kinds of treatment facilities where they can distribute the Narcan in a more efficient and easy manner."
Wayne State has applied for a grant with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services that will allow it to purchase and install 20 more machines throughout the state this October.
To date, Costello says over 19,000 individual doses of Narcan have been distributed through the 15 machines across the state.
"It's never been as bad as it is now. And sadly, it's probably going to get a lot worse before it gets better," Jim Crotty, a former deputy chief of staff for the Drug Enforcement Administration said in an interview with Fox News.
"This is unlike anything we've seen before. Synthetic opioids, especially fentanyl, have contaminated the drug supply. It can be found in just about everything these days. And that's what's driving this spike in overdose deaths."
He added, "We should be carpet-bombing our cities with naloxone. That's how dire this crisis is."
Crotty said he believed that while these vending machines could be effective in distributing doses of Narcan to those in need, it would provide only a stopgap measure for the larger issue of drug addiction and abuse.
"This is certainly the quickest, easiest thing we can do to try to lower the overdose death rate," he said. "But again, that's just the first step in solving the real problem, which is illicit drug use and drug trafficking. Vending machines and Narcan aren't going to do that for us."
He also said, "It's really the illicit drugs themselves that are the problem. I think that's where we should be focusing our efforts. Certainly, we don't want to see more Americans dying."
Young adults in America are using marijuana and hallucinogenic drugs at higher rates than ever before, but are taking fewer opioids, according to a National Institutes for Health study published this week.
The proportion of Americans between the ages of 19 and 30 who reported using marijuana in the past month rose to 29% in 2021, an increase from 21% in 2016 and just 17% in 2011. Daily marijuana use nearly doubled over the past decade, with 11% of young adults reporting marijuana as part of their daily routines in 2021, compared to 6% in 2011.
The use of hallucinogens – such as psilocybin mushrooms, LSD, mescaline, and peyote – is also on the rise. Last year, 8% of young adults reported using hallucinogens, up from 5% in 2016 and 3% in 2011. MDMA, also known as ecstasy, is the only hallucinogenic drug that declined in use.
Opioid use, meanwhile, has been on the decline in recent years. Heroin was used by .2% of young adults in 2021, roughly half of the .4% who reported using heroin in 2011. Prescription opioids like vicodin and oxycontin have also been on the decline among young adults over the last decade.
"We need to know more about how young adults are using drugs like marijuana and hallucinogens, and the health effects that result from consuming different potencies and forms of these substances," National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Dr. Nora Volkow said in a statement.
FENTANYL OVERDOSE DEATHS CLAIMING THOUSANDS OF AMERICAN LIVES; WHAT IS BEHIND THE RISE?
"Young adults are in a critical life stage and honing their ability to make informed choices," she continued. "Understanding how substance use can impact the formative choices in young adulthood is critical to help position the new generations for success."
Despite decreased use of opioids among young adults, overdose deaths are hitting records highs, a trend that has been attributed to synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
More than 107,000 Americans died from drug overdose deaths last year, the highest number on record and a notable increase from the 93,655 Americans who died in 2020.
Fentanyl was responsible for 71,238 of last year’s drug overdose deaths, according to the CDC a jump from 57,834 in 2020.
You might be less willing to help another person if you are deprived of quality sleep, according to a new study.
Through three different experiments, Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, found that a lack of sleep may affect how humans treat each other. The study, which was published Tuesday in the journal PLOS Biology, noted a selfish effect that altered behavior due to sleep deprivation.
On average, the CDC notes that adults need at least seven hours of sleep every night in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. However, more than 30% of Americans report getting far less than the necessary sleep time.
The first experiment found that due to daylight savings, even a loss of an hour has a significant effect on a person's behavior. Researchers discovered that charitable donations fell by 10% in states a week after the change took effect. However, in states that did not adjust their clocks, there was no decrease.
GET BETTER SLEEP AT NIGHT WITH THE HELP OF 10 SMART PRODUCTS
In the second experiment, researchers analyzed the neurological activity of participants who had eight hours of sleep before comparing their brain activity after they had no sleep at all. The areas of the brain that were affected the most dealt with an individual's ability to show empathy to a fellow human.
Moreover, the final test conducted by the scientists observed the quality of sleep of more than 100 participants for 3-4 nights. In this study, researchers noticed that quality ultimately mattered more than the quantity of sleep in determining an individual's selfishness. A questionnaire was reportedly completed by the participants to determine how long and how well they slept.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER
"Helping is a core, fundamental feature of humankind. This new research demonstrates that a lack of sleep degrades the very fabric of human society itself," said the study's co-author Matthew Walker in a statement to Forbes. "How we operate as a social species—and we are a social species—seems profoundly dependent on how much sleep we are getting."
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Switzerland plans to procure 40,000 doses of monkeypox vaccine as well as 500 units of an antiviral drug, the government said on Wednesday.
The army simultaneously aims to procure 60,000 vaccine doses and 500 drug doses as part of readiness measures, as the vaccine can also be used in the event of an outbreak of other smallpox viruses, it said.
The drugs and vaccines, and their use in civilian health care, will cost approximately 8.6 million Swiss francs ($8.90 million), the government said in a statement.
MONKEYPOX: WHAT YOU MUST KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS — AND HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF
There have been more than 400 monkeypox cases registered so far in Switzerland, the statement said. The government expects about 20,000 people will want a vaccine, though it added that estimates are difficult.
Regular daily fitness may curve risk of severe Covid-19 infections, hospitalization, and even death from the disease, according to a new study.
Approximately 20 minutes of daily exercise may protect against Covid-19 along with its severe symptoms, according to a new study published Monday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Researchers indicate that a total of 150 minutes of moderate exercise as well as intense physical activity is a healthy defense against the disease.
However, researchers noted that the study should be read with caution due to its limitations. The team quantified the minutes of necessary physical exercise by analyzing global data from sixteen different studies completed between November 2019 and March 2022.
The total number of participants from the examined data included 1.8 million people, with an average age of 53. The pooled data showed that regularly exercised individuals had an 11% lower risk of catching Covid-19. Moreover, they had a 36% lower likelihood of being hospitalized, a 44% lower chance of developing serious symptoms, and a 43% fewer chance of death.
COVID-19 INFECTION CAUSES MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES, EATING DISORDERS: STUDIES
"Regular physical activity seems to be related to a lower likelihood of adverse Covid-19 outcomes," the study states. "Our analysis reveals that individuals who engage in regular physical activity have a lower likelihood of Sars-CoV-2 infection, Covid-19 hospitalization, severe Covid-19 illness and Covid-19-related death than physically inactive individuals, independent of design and instrument used."
The pooled data that the researchers, who are based in Spain, examined came from nine studies conducted in England, Canada, Iran, Brazil, Spain, Palestine, South Africa, Sweden, and South Korea.
DEATHS AMONG ALZHEIMER'S PATIENTS INCREASED BY 26% DURING FIRST YEAR OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC: STUDY
"The link between regular physical activity and COVID-19 outcomes is poorly understood but likely involves both metabolic and environmental factors," the researcher added. "A growing body of evidence from several studies has suggested that increased physical activity may modulate the disease course and reduce the development of negative outcomes in confirmed cases of COVID-19."
Individuals who regularly exercise also lower their chances of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.
Late-stage cervical cancer is on the rise among white and black women in the United States, according to a new study.
Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology believe one of the factors leading to the rising cases is that younger women are receiving fewer screenings. Although the cancer type is declining in the U.S. overall, a growing number of white and black women are suffering from the deadly disease, according to a study published in the International Journal of Gynecological Cancer.
The researchers conducted the study by analyzing data of over 29,000 women from 2001 to 2018 and found a 1.3% annual increase in advanced cervical cancer. White women located in the South between the ages 40 and 44 had the highest increase at a rate of 4.5% annually. White females had an overall annual increase of 1.69%.
The second-highest yearly increase was found in black women at 0.67%. However, the disease was found to be greater in black women, with 1.55 per 100,000 Black women being diagnosed with cervical cancer against 0.92 per 100,000 women, according to the study.
MEN'S SKIN CANCER DEATHS ARE HIGHER THAN WOMEN'S: NEW ANALYSIS
Advanced stages of this cancer can be very deadly if left untreated or undetected for a prolonged period. Stage 4 cervical cancer has a five-year survival rate of 17%.
Dr. Alex Francoeur, an OBGYN resident at UCLA and the study's author, hypothesizes that the increase in the disease may be correlated to women who do not get an HPV vaccination.
"In previous research, we saw a steeper decline in cervical cancer in women who would have been eligible for the vaccine, indicating a possible association between the vaccine and cervical cancer rate," said Francoeur in a statement to UPI.
US LIFE EXPECTANCY IN 2020 SAW BIGGEST DROP SINCE WWII
"We feel confident that HPV vaccination is overall decreasing total cervical cancer incidence in the U.S.,"she added. "I think we need to further investigate how to screen our underinsured, rural and minority populations, and continue to educate people on the importance of vaccination."
The American Cancer Society recommends that screenings for cervical cancer should take place every five years between the age of 25 and 65.
The British scientists behind one of the major therapeutic COVID-19 trials have turned their focus to treatments for monkeypox, a viral disease that has been labeled a global health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The team from Oxford University behind the so-called RECOVERY trial - which honed in on four effective COVID treatments - on Tuesday unveiled a new trial, dubbed PLATINUM, to confirm whether SIGA Technologies' tecovirimat is an effective treatment for monkeypox.
Although there are vaccines developed for the closely related smallpox that can reduce the risk of catching monkeypox, there are currently no treatments that have been proven to help hasten recovery in those who develop the disease.
MONKEYPOX: WHAT YOU MUST KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS — AND HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF
More than 40,000 confirmed cases of monkeypox - including a handful of deaths - in over 80 countries where the virus is not endemic have been reported since early May. Over 35% of the current global case count is in the United States, while the UK has over 3,000 confirmed cases.
The virus is transmitted chiefly through close contact with an infected person. It typically causes mild symptoms including fever, rash, swollen lymph nodes and pus-filled skin lesions. Severe cases can occur, though people tend to recover within two to four weeks, according to the WHO.
Siga's drug, branded Tpoxx, has been cleared to treat diseases caused by the family of orthopoxvirus that includes smallpox, monkeypox and cowpox by the European Union and United Kingdom, but due to limited trial data it is generally only used in severe cases in Britain.
In the United States and Canada, the drug is only approved to treat smallpox.
Since smallpox has been eradicated, and cases of monkeypox and cowpox typically occur sporadically, studies to assess the effectiveness of the drug in infected people have so far not been carried out.
Instead, its effectiveness is based on studies in animals infected with lethal doses of orthopoxviruses, as well tests of the medicine's effects in healthy humans.
The PLATINUM trial, funded by a 3.7 million pound ($4.35 million) UK government grant, aims to recruit at least 500 participants. Participants will either be given a 14-day course of tecovirimat twice daily, or a placebo.
To assess the drug's effectiveness, the rate at which lesions heal, the time taken until patients test negative for the virus, and the proportion of patients who require hospitalization due to complications will be tracked.
EU SIGNS MONKEYPOX VACCINE DEAL WITH BAVARIAN NORDIC
"I'm hoping that we can have a result before Christmas, but it depends on the rate of recruitment," said Sir Peter Horby, Professor of Emerging Infections and Global Health at the University of Oxford and the director of the new Pandemic Sciences Institute.
Earlier this month, U.S. officials indicated they were planning a randomized clinical trial in the country to determine whether tecovirimat should secure U.S. approval for monkeypox.
Siga, which sells an oral and intravenous formulation of the drug, has already received $60 million worth of orders for oral tecovirimat this year.
Meanwhile, the only approved monkeypox vaccine - made by Danish company Bavarian Nordic - is in short supply, pushing countries to stretch existing supplies.
First, it was COVID-19 that drove some Las Vegas scientists to the sewers.
Now, it’s monkeypox.
Turns out, what goes down the toilet can tell us a lot about diseases spreading in an area.
That's how scientists at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas know how widespread the monkeypox virus is, even before the health department.
SCIENTISTS CAN DETECT COVID-19 IN WASTEWATER WEEKS BEFORE ANYONE TESTS POSITIVE
They were one of the first in the nation to study human waste to detect cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus before any cases were officially reported in the area.
They're doing it again with monkeypox, as the number of cases rises above 14,000 nationwide.
Dr. Edwin Oh, an associate professor at the UNLV School of Medicine, said they were the second in the nation, following San Francisco, to use a wastewater surveillance program to detect monkeypox.
"We're seeing about something like three to 17 days in which an individual may be asymptomatic," Dr. Oh said. "We're not going to be able to see lesions on individuals during this time. But when we look into the wastewater, we're going to be able to detect that virus there."
WILL MONKEYPOX BECOME AN 'ESTABLISHED STD'? WHY ONE INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT THINKS SO
Dr. Oh heads the UNLV wastewater surveillance program.
He and his students concentrate in areas where there may be a lot of people, such as schools, bars, shelters and hotels.
They use an automated machine to pull samples from the sewers.
Then, they head back to the lab for analysis.
"It's a conversation that we have to have now and not necessarily wait until we have infections that are at the level of 70,000 or seven million before we start doing anything."
They expect the amount of the virus will increase in the next month in the Las Vegas area.
"We have sort of had this sense of déjà vu again with COVID-19, right, in that there is this infectious disease that's circulating," Dr. Oh said. "We don't really know too much about it, but using a program like this, we can at least track where this virus might be emerging in various communities."
Right now, the CDC reports the most cases in New York with 2,744 and California with 2,663.
Wyoming is the only state right now to have zero reported cases.
A cap used to zap the brain with electrodes appeared to improve short-term memory for adults older than 65, according to a new study.
Researchers who published the study in the journal Nature Neuroscience on Monday believe the technology may have the potential to curve the risk of dementia and other memory loss diseases. However, despite the enthusiasm from scientists, more research is still needed before it can be widely distributed.
The study used 150 participants between ages 65-88 who had not been diagnosed with a neurological disorder. While asking them to recall five lists of 20 words, the participants were zapped with a mild electrical current to their brain using the cap. The process took 20 minutes and was done over the course of four consecutive days.
The memory of the participants improved by over 50% compared to the placebo group who did not receive the treatment. The study found that the group was able to recall four to six more words than the placebo participants of a similar age.
DEATHS AMONG ALZHEIMER'S PATIENTS INCREASED BY 26% DURING FIRST YEAR OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC: STUDY
"It’s an unfortunate fact of life that as we age we all become a little more forgetful," said the study's author Dr. Robert Reinhart in a statement to NBC News. "Memory deficits impair our activities of daily living, planning, decision making, cognition, learning, and that can generally have a negative effect of diminishing quality of life."
Improvements were shown in both the working and long-term memory of the participants who had their brains zapped. However, the research is still in its early stages, and more studies are needed to examine how long the benefits may last.
US LIFE EXPECTANCY IN 2020 SAW BIGGEST DROP SINCE WWII
Researchers are not sure if this technique can help patients suffering from severe memory disorders such as Alzheimer's.
The CDC estimates that approximately 16 million people in the United States suffer a form of cognitive impairment, especially in adults older than 65.
A new case of Ebola virus has been confirmed in the city of Beni in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the country's National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB) said on Monday.
Testing showed the case was genetically linked to the 2018-2020 outbreak in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, which killed nearly 2,300 people, said a statement from Placide Mbala, chief of the Pathogen Genomics Laboratory at INRB.
Another flare-up from that outbreak killed six people last year. Congo's most recent outbreak was in a different part of the country, and was declared over in July after five deaths.
WHO RECOMMENDS TWO MONOCLONAL ANTIBODY MEDICATIONS TO TREAT EBOLA
Ebola can sometimes linger in the eyes, central nervous system and bodily fluids of survivors and flare up years later.
The case was confirmed in a woman who died on Aug. 15 after being admitted to a hospital in Beni on July 23, the statement said.
"Our initial findings indicate that this case likely represents a new flare-up of the 2018-2020 Nord Kivu/Ituri outbreak, initiated by transmission of Ebola virus from a persistently infected survivor or a survivor who experienced a relapse," it said.
Investigations are ongoing to determine the source.
At least 131 contacts of the woman have been identified including 60 front-line healthcare workers, 59 of whom are vaccinated against Ebola, said the statement.
The World Health Organization said on Saturday that authorities were investigating a suspected Ebola case in Beni after a 46-year-old woman died.
Congo's dense tropical forests are a natural reservoir for the Ebola virus, which causes fever, body aches, and diarrhea.
WHY ARE WE SO AFRAID OF EBOLA?
The country has recorded 14 outbreaks since 1976. The 2018-2020 outbreak in the east was Congo's largest and the second largest ever recorded, with nearly 3,500 total cases.
A new test developed by researchers from Columbia University in New York City may help pregnant women learn if their developing fetus is at increased risk of miscarriage.
The test is called the Short-read Transpore Rapid Karyotyping (STORK), and it’s a less expensive, less time-consuming test than those that use samples collected from standard prenatal tests.
The samples come from tests such as amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling.
GESTATIONAL DIABETES IS ON THE RISE: HERE ARE NUTRITION TIPS TO PREVENT AND TREAT IT
The study was led by scientists at the Columbia University Fertility Center and Columbia University Irving Medical Center — and is supported by the National Institutes of Heath.
The test, currently awaiting authorization from the New York State Department of Health, would detect extra or missing chromosomes.
"Overall, the study shows that STORK is comparable to standard clinical tests and has many advantages," the NIH noted in a press release.
"STORK is faster, providing results within hours versus several days," the NIH also said.
"It is also cheaper, with the study team estimating STORK to cost less than $50 per sample, if 10 samples are run at the same time, or up to $200 if a sample is run on its own. STORK can also be done at the point-of-care for a patient, eliminating the need to ship a sample to a clinical laboratory."
It could also be used to assess embryos produced via in vitro fertilization before they are implanted, HealthDay News noted.
A Connecticut wife and mother who suffered one miscarriage told Fox News Digital, "This would be so helpful in terms of really making yourself take it easy if you are at greater risk."
"For example, if this test comes back as a high-risk for miscarriage, maybe you take time off from work, or reevaluate your commitments outside of work and the home," she added.
EXPERTS WARN PRE-NATAL SCREENINGS CAN LEAD TO FALSE POSITIVE RESULTS IN SOME CASES
Current prenatal genetic tests cost thousands of dollars and take days or even weeks to deliver results — adding to the stress, both emotional and financial, of fertility treatment and pregnancy, noted eMedNews.
Currently, genetic testing is only recommended if a person has had multiple miscarriages, but STORK can be offered after a single miscarriage, the same outlet reported.
"We are developing the most advanced technologies to solve some of the most ancient of afflictions — infertility and pregnancy loss," said one of the study's leaders, Zev Williams, M.D., Ph.D., according to Science Daily.
NEWS ANCHOR PARENTS GO VIRAL WITH ‘BABY NEWS NETWORK’ VIDEO OF 6-WEEK-OLD DAUGHTER
Williams is an associate professor of women’s health and chief of the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Columbia University.
"Our hope is that this test will help improve women’s health, lower costs and improve access to treatment," Williams continued.
Testing 218 samples, the researchers found that STORK had an accuracy rate of 98 - 100%, the NIH said. In another set of 60 samples, STORK agreed 100% with results from standard clinical testing.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The Connecticut mom said that anything that helps alleviate "the sorrow of a miscarriage" is welcome.
"I can’t imagine women who have had to endure multiple miscarriages," she said. "If this can help a baby survive in the womb, I hope the results continue to be positive."
The study's authors say that STORK "may be particularly useful in identifying genetic causes of miscarriage."
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER
"Currently, professional societies only recommend genetic testing if a person has had multiple miscarriages, but an easy, cost-effective test like STORK can potentially be offered after the first miscarriage. STORK can also be used to streamline the IVF process," said the NIH in its press release.
It adds, "More work is needed to validate STORK, but if results continue to show promise, STORK could improve the quality of reproductive healthcare."
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is offering free COVID-19 testing for pets who may have been exposed to the virus.
Los Angeles health officials announced the initiative on Aug. 20, stating that it has recently received funding to conduct the free COVIS-19 testing on pets.
"Your pet may be eligible for free SARS-CoV-2 testing if they were exposed to a human or animal with COVID-19 or has symptoms of COVID-19," the health department tweeted.
Funding comes from the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to its website, which states that it will "support surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 in animals in Los Angeles County."
LOS ANGELES REQUIRES YOUTH BASKETBALL PARTICIPANTS TO WEAR MASKS, CRITIC CALLS POLICY 'DANGEROUS'
The department says that it plans to offer free testing to animal care facilities and centers throughout Los Angeles County, and states that animals including "deer, bats, raccoons…dogs, cats, hamsters, pocket pets…seals," will be tested.
Pet owners can request a free COVID-19 test for their pet if it is experiencing symptoms of the coronavirus or has been exposed to another animal, or human, who has the coronavirus.
Out of the 177 animals tested so far, including dogs, cats, bats, raccoons, skunks, rats, and sea lions, none have tested positive for COVID-19.
Former White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx praised the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for its rare admission of missteps in how the agency responded to COVID-19.
"A lot of directors would have just tried to tweak [it], and tweaking the agency at this point was not going to be successful," Birx said during an appearance on "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "This is an inflection point."
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky last week ordered a "reset" of the agency, which will focus on creating a faster dissemination of information and response to new health threats. Some moves include internal staffing changes and steps that will streamline the data release process.
Birx previously touted the partnership between private and federal agencies as the best way to achieve these same goals – a point she reiterated Sunday, saying the private sector is "willing to help us."
CDC DIRECTOR SAYS IT'S ‘FRUSTRATING’ WHEN HEALTH DECISIONS ARE ‘POLITICAL
"All of our data that I use to warn Americans of who was at risk for severe disease, hospitalization and death came from our European colleagues," Birx noted. "That in itself should be an indictment of our system."
"Secondly, reporting was coming in extraordinarily slow from hospitals through a system that CDC had created, And I know this created controversy, but for three months, I asked the CDC to fix its system and develop a partnership with clinics and hospitals and laboratories, and they wouldn't," she continued. "So that's why I asked all the hospitals to start reporting, and they did."
’CDC INVESTIGATING ‘FAST-MOVING’ E. COLI OUTBREAK IN MICHIGAN AND OHIO THAT HAS INFECTED NEARLY 30 PEOPLE
Birx also claimed that the data used to form decisions on COVID-19 policy relied on flawed information, using "convenience data" rather than looking at the total body of Americans: In most cases, people still shed the virus even after the suggested five days of isolation before returning to work.
However, she rejected the suggestion that the White House and CDC issued guidance simply to deal with a worker shortage. She insisted the guidance aimed to make sure Americans "can both survive and then thrive."
WILL MONKEYPOX BECOME AN ‘ESTABLISHED STD’? WHY ONE INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT THINKS SO
"The way you rebuild public trust is to be transparent, and I think that's in the report: better data, better accountability, better transparency," she said.
The CDC may need to rely on those tools sooner than later as monkeypox continues to spread through the country. Birx raised a few similarities between the response to monkeypox and the response to COVID-19, including "not adequate testing early on" and not providing vaccines early enough.
"So, five months had gone by just like what happened with COVID: Lack of preparation, lack of engagement, lack of utilization of the tools that we had in real time to prevent this 14,000 - and probably it's well over 20,000 now," Birx said.
Fox News’ Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shared how "frustrating" it is when health decisions are politically driven.
"It's frustrating when people are making health based decisions through a political lens." Walensky told Fox News' Dr. Marc Siegel. "We've done everything that we can, and I continue to put my head down to steer the ship to steer. What I believe with science is the foundation science leading the way. Our policies are driven by science and they, of course, have to be interpreted in the context of all of health, [for] all of all of society."
From the beginning, the CDC has floundered with messaging about the virus and has been up against vocal and influential politicians from both parties.
Walensky shared her desire in the future to be consistent, truthful and transparent in the face of political pressure and public health crises.
"We need to show our work. We need to inform policymakers. We need to update things along the way as we proceed to that finish line. We need practical, timely recommendations that take early peeks of the data and adjust along the way."
FED-UP PHILADELPHIA MOM TO SUE SCHOOL DISTRICT AS MASK MANDATE REMAINS IN PLACE
Throughout COVID-19, a culture war erupted with many calling into question the CDC's efforts to mitigate the spread of the virus as well as its insistence on vaccine mandates, asserting that such public health measures intrude on individual rights.
"What this pandemic taught us and showed us is that now we need to talk to the American people. We need to say what we know when we know and provide timely data and give people updates along the way. And yes, that also means telling people what we don't know as we're making decisions." Walensky admitted.
The CDC has also faced backlash over the effectiveness of vaccines against the virus.
"When delta came along, we saw that they were working less well against infection. But what I will say, and similarly with omicron, is that they continue to show durable effect in preventing severe disease and death" Walensky said. "That's where we are right now. And, of course, data forthcoming on what will happen with our new booster's in the fall."
At the beginning of August, the CDC shifted its approach and eased COVID-19 guidelines, including not recommending masks unless testing positive for the virus or living in areas that have high rates of COVID-19 infection or hospitalization.
"Masks have been a challenging message. What I will say is we have seen time and time again, data after data that demonstrate that masks have decreased infection and that they work to decrease infection, especially higher quality masks." Walensky said.
In May, the monkeypox virus first appeared in the United States and the CDC began to navigate the new outbreak's effect.
The CDC moved more nimbly in response compared to its response to COVID-19, with the agency quick to publish online details about monkeypox to aid in the public's understanding on the virus.
"One of the things that we did with monkeypox, we put our testing, our details on testing online immediately because we had those tests available within a week of that first case in Massachusetts."
Alcohol, smoking and a high body mass index (BMI) are the preventable risk factors attributable to nearly half of all global cancer deaths, according to a new study funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The study, published in The Lancet on Thursday, examined cancer cases from 2019 and found that 44% of cancer deaths were caused by preventable risk factors. The three leading risk factors were smoking, drinking large amounts of alcohol and having a high BMI. Both male and female patients experienced the same risk factors.
Across the world, the study indicated that 42% of disability-adjusted life years, or healthy years an individual loses due to cancer, were also attributable to those risk factors.
However, the risk factors did vary when adjusted for the income brackets of certain regions. For lower-income countries, unsafe sex was one of the leading risk factors, while higher-income regions experienced the original three global risk factors.
US LIFE EXPECTANCY IN 2020 SAW BIGGEST DROP SINCE WWII
The study used data collected by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation's Global Burden of Disease project to analyze global deaths and disabilities from cancer.
"To our knowledge, this study represents the largest effort to date to determine the global burden of cancer attributable to risk factors, and it contributes to a growing body of evidence aimed at estimating the risk-attributable burden for specific cancers nationally, internationally, and globally," said researchers from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in the study.
"Although some cancer cases are not preventable, governments can work on a population level to support an environment that minimizes exposure to known cancer risk factors," researchers said. "Primary prevention, or the prevention of a cancer developing, is a particularly cost-effective strategy, although it must be paired with more comprehensive efforts to address cancer burden, including secondary prevention initiatives, such as screening programs, and ensuring effective capacity to diagnose and treat those with cancer."
The researchers also noted that government policies such as the high taxation and regulation of tobacco products are making "substantial progress."
MEN'S SKIN CANCER DEATHS ARE HIGHER THAN WOMEN'S: NEW ANALYSIS
"Behavioral risk factors are strongly influenced by the environment in which people live and individuals with cancer should not be blamed for their disease," the researchers clarified.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday recommended two monoclonal antibody treatments against Ebola, saying the use of such drugs combined with better care had "revolutionized" the treatment of a disease once seen as a near-certain killer.
The drugs - Regeneron's Inmazeb (REGN-EB3) and Ridgeback Bio's Ebanga (mAb114) - use laboratory-made monoclonal antibodies that mimic natural antibodies in fighting off infections.
DEADLY EBOLA-LIKE MARBURG VIRUS COULD ‘SPREAD FAR AND WIDE’ IF NOT STOPPED: WHO
"Advances in supportive care and therapeutics over the past decade have revolutionized the treatment of Ebola. Ebola virus disease used to be perceived as a near certain killer. However, that is no longer the case," said Robert Fowler, a professor at the University of Toronto, Canada, and co-chair of WHO's guideline development group. Effective care and the use of these treatments now leads to the recovery of the "vast majority" of people from Ebola, he said, without giving specific data.
EBOLA MAY HAVE LINGERED IN A SURVIVOR FOR 5 YEARS BEFORE SPARKING NEW OUTBREAK
The new recommendations follow trials of the drugs against the hemorrhagic fever in Democratic Republic of Congo during a 2018-2020 outbreak there. Dr Janet Diaz, lead of the clinical management unit in WHO's Health Emergencies program, told journalists the drugs were currently available in Congo but more work was needed to improve affordability.
The Nigerian doctor who treated the 2017 monkeypox outbreak in Nigeria told Fox News in an interview that the virus now "shows all of the signs of becoming an established STD," as more U.S. cases arise and the Biden administration has called the outbreak a public health emergency.
Infectious disease physician Dr. Dimie Ogoina treated the first monkeypox case in Nigeria in nearly 40 years. That year of 2017, an 11-year-old boy came to him with a chickenpox-like rash.
The doctor said he had "never seen a monkeypox case in my life — I [had] only seen pictures," Ogoina told Fox News.
MONKEYPOX VACCINE AUTHORIZATION EXPANDED BY FDA TO INCREASE DOSE SUPPLY
Doctors discovered the first documented cases of monkeypox in humans in the 1970s among children from Congo, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Prior to that, scientists detected the first cases among monkeys in an animal facility in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1958 — giving the disease the name "monkeypox."
But in 2017, Dr. Ogoina — a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at Niger Delta University in Nigeria — noticed that the 11-year-old boy did not have contact with animals. The virus spread among his family, first infecting his uncle, then spreading to his mother, father and younger brother.
After sending samples of the boy’s lesions to a lab in Senegal, Dr. Ogoina confirmed his suspicions: The boy had contracted the first case of monkeypox in Nigeria in 38 years.
The outbreak in 2017 grew to 200 confirmed cases in Nigeria. Since then, the monkeypox virus went from a rare disease to an endemic status in Africa — with cases spreading primarily among young, gay and bisexual men.
While the virus is not an endemic in the U.S., Dr. Ogoina told Fox News that in his opinion, it does show signs of becoming "an established STD" — meaning it is spreading among the U.S. population like other diseases such as chlamydia, gonorrhea or HIV.
In 2021, the U.S. confirmed two cases of monkeypox from travelers coming from Nigeria.
The CDC cited contract tracing efforts and "strong collaboration between CDC, state and local health departments, airline and airport partners" as reasons for containing the spread.
Now, less than one year later, monkeypox cases are growing.
There are 14,115 confirmed monkeypox (orthopoxvirus) cases in the U.S. as of Thursday afternoon, Aug. 18, 2022, according to the CDC.
In response to a query, the CDC told Fox News that while the virus can be sexually transmitted, it has not reached sexually transmitted infection (STI) status.
"[The] current outbreak has led to questions about whether monkeypox is a sexually transmitted infection (STI). Monkeypox can more accurately be described as ‘sexually transmissible.’ In other words, sex is one of the ways that monkeypox can be spread, but not the only way," the agency said.
"In the current monkeypox outbreak," it added, "the virus is spreading primarily through close contact with someone who has monkeypox. This includes contact with monkeypox sores or respiratory secretions via close, sustained skin-to-skin contact that occurs during sex."
With cases on the rise, states have scrambled to distribute vaccines and boost testing efforts as HHS expands the monkeypox vaccine to more than 1.1 million doses.
The Biden administration is looking to lower doses, making the vaccine one-fifth as potent.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU GET MONKEYPOX: SYMPTIONS, VACCINATIONS AND TREATMENTS
On August 9, 2022, the White House released the following statement, in part, about it.
"The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a Section 564 declaration, allowing FDA to use its authority to allow health care providers to administer up to five times the number of vaccine doses per vial of JYNNEOS vaccine."
It went on, "Following last week’s public health emergency declaration, today HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra issued a determination under the Section 564 declaration of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act that allows for emergency use authorization of vaccines to prevent monkeypox and prevent severe disease from the virus. This action paves the way for the federal government to get up to five times the amount of doses administered out of a single vial of the JYNNEOS vaccine."
It went on, "The EUA now allows for 0.1ml of the JYNNEOS vaccine to be administered between layers of the skin (intradermally), as opposed to 0.5ml of the vaccine that is administered under the skin (subcutaneously)."
Vaccine distribution is one factor in halting the monkeypox outbreak. Other experts point to other measures.
Dr. Robert Malone, co-inventor of the mRNA vaccine, told Fox News that in his view, vaccination should not be the first line of defense.
"The best way to contain this risk is not through vaccination," said Malone. "It is through contact tracing, abstinence and isolation until these people are no longer infectious."
He also said, "We don't even have any idea how effective this vaccine really is. It was not designed for monkeypox … What's being done right now is very, very analogous to what happened early in the coronavirus crisis."
Public health officials are also looking to battle the stigma surrounding the name of the disease and the population affected.
The WHO is looking to rename monkeypox, releasing a statement that said, "Current best practice is that newly identified viruses, related disease and virus variants should be given names with the aim to avoid causing offense to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic groups, and minimize any negative impact on trade, travel, tourism or animal welfare."
WHO TO RENAME MONKEYPOX TO AVOID DISCRIMINATION AND STIGMATIZATION
Regarding the spread of monkeypox, Dr. Malone also told Fox News, "It's a very small global cohort … and it's a sexually transmitted disease within that global cohort of people that often have very multiple sex partners."
He also said, "In public health, I think that we have to be really careful about situations in which we are restricting our ability to communicate effectively to the people that are at the highest risk."
Despite the surge in cases, American voters are not concerned about monkeypox, according to Fox News polling. Fifty-four percent of registered voters polled between August 6-9 said they were not concerned about monkeypox.
There is an urgency, however, among the global community to contain the virus.
"It is an infection that has spread so fast in more than 50 countries in less than two months and is still spreading," said Dr. Ogoina.
