Author: Claudinne Miller

Long covid may cause cognitive decline of about six IQ points, study finds

Washington Post It’s more than four years since the first cases of covid-19 were identified — but many of its longer-term effects, including for those living with long covid, remain unclear. Now, a new study has some worrying findings that suggest covid may have longer-term effects on cognition and memory — and that these lead to measurable […]

Mar 6, 2024

CDC director on new COVID guidance ending 5-day isolation

PBS Newshour Video – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has changed its COVID guidance for when people need to isolate, return to school or work and get a booster shot. It’s part of broader recommendations on respiratory illnesses. CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen joined Amna Nawaz to discuss the changes. Full transcript at […]

Mar 5, 2024

Avian flu spreading to marine mammals grows concern of potential risk to humans, study says

CBS News Concern is growing about the avian flu now spreading to marine mammals and a new study says that it increases the potential risk to humans. The danger to humans is low right now, but as long as the avian flu is spreading to other animals, there’s a risk it could spread to people, […]

Mar 5, 2024

When you have covid, here’s how you know you are no longer contagious

Washington Post The United States has entered a different stage in the pandemic. Four years after the virus emerged, the covid-19 landscape has changed dramatically. The virus is no longer the emergency it once was, when the population had no protection against the novel pathogen SARS-CoV-2. By the end of 2023, 98 percent of people […]

Mar 5, 2024

SARS CoV-2 Is a Very Weird Virus

Medscape Welcome to Impact Factor, your weekly dose of commentary on a new medical study. I’m Dr F. Perry Wilson of the Yale School of Medicine. In the early days of the pandemic, before we really understood what COVID was, two specialties in the hospital had a foreboding sense that something was very strange about this […]

Mar 5, 2024

With a million cases of dengue so far this year, Brazil is in a state of emergency

NPR It was 3 a.m. on Feb. 6 when the dengue field hospital in Brasília temporarily shut its doors. The generator powering the medical facility had blown and the 29 members of the Brazilian Air Force in charge had to change it before they could see patients again. Medical professionals who’d been trained to care […]

Mar 5, 2024

New antibodies target “dark side” of influenza virus protein

NIH NIH researchers explore hidden, vulnerable region of influenza neuraminidase. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have identified antibodies targeting a hard-to-spot region of the influenza virus, shedding light on the relatively unexplored “dark side” of the neuraminidase (NA) protein head. The antibodies target a region of the NA protein that is common among […]

Mar 5, 2024

COVID-19 Tied to Increased Risk for Rheumatic Disease

MedPageToday Rates of new-onset autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic disease (AIRD) such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus were significantly increased following bouts of COVID-19 in South Korea and Japan, researchers found. With data from large repositories in the two countries, AIRD rates were 25% higher in South Korea (95% CI 18-31) and 79% greater in […]

Mar 5, 2024

Latest COVID Shots Protect Against Serious Outcomes

MedPageToday The recently updated COVID vaccines showed protection against serious virus-related outcomes in immunocompetent adults, data from the CDC’s IVY and VISION networks showed. From September 2023 to January 2024, vaccine effectiveness (VE) against COVID-related emergency department or urgent care encounters landed at 47% (95% CI 44-50), while protection against hospitalizations associated with the coronavirus […]

Mar 5, 2024

Livestock Markets Shuttered in Rift Valley Fever Crackdown

Libya Update In a bid to contain the outbreak of the highly contagious Rift Valley fever across the nation, authorities in Benghazi took sweeping action on Tuesday, ordering the closure of several major livestock markets in the city. The move came as part of a coordinated interagency campaign spearheaded by Benghazi’s Municipal Guard working in […]

Mar 5, 2024