public health – The News Desk

Wegovy Slashes the Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke in a Landmark Trial

11Nov

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Wegovy Slashes the Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke in a Landmark Trial

The current trial was sponsored by Novo Nordisk, the maker of Wegovy and Ozempic, and tracked patients for two years at locations worldwide. Half of the participants received weekly injections of semaglutide while the other half received a placebo. Neither group knew which they were getting. More than three-quarters of the patients had previously experienced a heart attack, and close to a quarter had chronic heart failure. The average age of the volunteers was 61.6, and about three-quarters were men.In patients taking semaglutide, heart rate, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and a biomarker of inflammation dropped by a larger degree than in those getting a placebo. But what the trial investigators were most interested in was whether semaglutide could reduce the risk of major cardiovasc...

Inside the Race to Crush Paris’ Bedbug Crisis

17Oct

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Inside the Race to Crush Paris’ Bedbug Crisis

And even if a dog can sniff the insects out, it can’t get rid of them. This has to be done by humans. Parisian pest control companies are doing a healthy trade too.For Hygiène Premium, which specializes in insect and rat control, traditionally about 40 to 50 percent of people calling them have trouble with bedbugs. “Now, that’s eight people out of 10,” says Sacha Krief, its associate manager. Overall, his company has seen a 30 percent increase in the number of bedbug-treatment cases.According to Anses, France’s national health security agency, the average cost to get rid of bedbugs is 890 euros ($937), and the price is often even higher in Paris. “It can go up to 1,000, 2,000, even 3,000 euros. Not many people can get this out of their bank accounts overnight,” says Antoine Demière, an ad...

The Climate Crisis Is Driving People to Substance Abuse

27Sep

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The Climate Crisis Is Driving People to Substance Abuse

Kamal Sonavane knew she’d pass out if she chewed smokeless tobacco one more time. It was a scorching April afternoon in the middle of another of India’s brutal heat waves, and with no job to go to, the farmworker had already chewed tobacco five times that day. “Even an addicted person avoids doing this in extreme heat because there’s a risk of fainting,” she says.Yet Sonavane repeated the familiar ritual: adding the slaked lime to the tobacco leaves, then putting the mixture in her mouth. “I would have anyway collapsed, either because of the heat waves or the mounting stress,” she says, sitting in her two-room brick house in Bhadole in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Anxious about money, her lack of work, and the extreme heat, she turned to the tobacco once again.Climate change is making...

Inside the Race to Stop a Deadly Viral Outbreak in India

23Sep

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Inside the Race to Stop a Deadly Viral Outbreak in India

On the morning of September 11, critical care specialist Anoop Kumar was presented with an unusual situation. Four members of the same family had been admitted to his hospital—Aster MIMS in Kozhikode, Kerala—the previous day, all similarly sick. Would he take a look?He gathered his team of doctors to investigate. Soon they were at the bedsides of a 9-year-old boy, his 4-year-old sister, their 24-year-old uncle, and a 10-month-old cousin. All had arrived at the hospital with fever, cough, and flulike symptoms. The 9-year-old was in respiratory distress, struggling to breathe properly, and had needed to be put on a noninvasive ventilator, with air pumped through a mask to keep his lungs expanded.Their symptoms were concerning and mysterious—none of the team could pinpoint what was wrong. Bu...

High Blood Pressure Is the World’s Biggest Killer. Now There’s a Plan to Tackle It

19Sep

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High Blood Pressure Is the World’s Biggest Killer. Now There’s a Plan to Tackle It

The World Health Organization (WHO) is taking on the world’s worst killer, laying out its first plan to conquer hypertension—a level of high blood pressure that affects one in every three adults globally. That figure has doubled since 1990. It’s now up to 1.3 billion people.High blood pressure might sound like a disease of rich nations, but in a report released today during the United Nations General Assembly, the WHO said that three-fourths of people living with hypertension reside in low- and middle-income nations. Nearly half of them have no idea they have the condition, which causes heart attacks, kidney disease, and stroke. Four-fifths of them, including both people with a diagnosis and those who don’t know they are affected, aren’t getting adequate treatment to control it.If that co...

Yes, There’s a New Covid Variant. No, You Shouldn’t Panic

12Sep

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Yes, There’s a New Covid Variant. No, You Shouldn’t Panic

It’s scariant season—again.A new offshoot of Omicron, BA.2.86—nicknamed Pirola—has popped up in Israel, the US, South Africa, and the UK after it was first recorded in Denmark in late July. Pirola initially set off alarm bells because it was spotted in four countries at the same time—and because, having majorly curtailed our viral surveillance systems, we don’t know how long it’s been making the rounds. Plus, the sheer number of mutations it has was reason enough to be spooked—BA.2.86 boasts more than 30 new mutations, compared to the most recently dominant variant, XBB.1.5.“The only other time we’ve seen such a large genetic shift was the initial transition from Delta to Omicron, which led to the most hospitalizations and the most deaths of any surge in the pandemic,” says Dan Barouch, h...

The Best N95, KF94, and KN95 Face Masks (2023)

3Sep

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The Best N95, KF94, and KN95 Face Masks (2023)

It's incredibly important to get a mask that fits your face. A big part of the reason cloth or even surgical masks can be less effective is due to the gaps between the mask and the face. These areas can allow unfiltered air to get through and enter your nose and mouth. N95 masks are generally designed to fit snugly, which is why they're safer. However, the CDC advises those with heart or lung problems to talk to their doctor before using an N95 since wearing these masks can make it harder to breathe.What Are Workplace Performance Masks?Most of the CDC and Food and Drug Administration's mask guidance and standards were initially designed with medical settings like doctors' offices and hospitals in mind. However, the pandemic has made it much more common and necessary for people to wear mas...

15Aug

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YouTube to prohibit false claims about cancer treatments under its medical misinformation policy

New York CNN — YouTube announced Tuesday that it will start removing false claims about cancer treatments as part of an ongoing effort to build out its medical misinformation policy. Under the updated policy, YouTube will prohibit “content that promotes cancer treatments proven to be harmful or ineffective, or content that discourages viewers from seeking professional medical treatment,” Dr. Garth Graham, head of YouTube Health, said in a blog post Tuesday. “This includes content that promotes unproven treatments in place of approved care or as a guaranteed cure, and treatments that have been specifically deemed harmful by health authorities,” he said, such as the misleading claim that patients ...

Extreme Heat Threatens the Health of Unborn Babies
| WIRED

2Aug

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Extreme Heat Threatens the Health of Unborn Babies | WIRED

And hot weather may affect a baby’s development in other ways: A 2021 analysis found a higher incidence of anomalies, such as cardiac defects, spina bifida, or cleft lip, at higher temperatures. A 2019 study took existing research that linked heat exposure to congenital heart defects and extrapolated how many such cases we can expect in the coming years: The authors estimated that over an 11-year period, an additional 7,000 babies will be born with congenital heart defects in the eight US states they studied. According to Bonell, there’s also early evidence from animals that heat stress may be triggering epigenetic changes linked to long-term adult chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.And in the United States, any potential harm to a fetus brings with it other concerns. Pre...