Public Health

It's hard to believe opioid deaths are dropping when you're walking on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, where B.C.'s drug crisis is most visible.

It's hard to believe opioid deaths are dropping when you're walking on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, where B.C.'s drug crisis is most visible.

Question Is a multicomponent vaccine against seasonal influenza and SARS-CoV-2 (mRNA-1083) immunogenic and well-tolerated in adults 50 years and older?

Downward trend in deaths appears stalled due to lack of urgency among doctors, patients, along with healthcare barriers

Titanium dioxide is the most widely used whitening pigment in the world and has been linked to adverse health effects, particularly genotoxicity and intestinal inflammation. It is applied as food coloring and a whitening agent to a wide variety of foods, including chewing gum, cakes, candies, breads and ice cream.

Abstract

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/43123056

At least 156 million Americans, about 46 percent of the population, live with unsafe levels of ozone, particulate pollution or both, according to the American Lung Association’s annual State of the Air report.

In the summer of 1982, seven heroin users were admitted to a California hospital paralyzed and mute. They were in their 20s, otherwise healthy — until a synthetic drug they had manufactured in makeshift labs left them frozen inside their own bodies. Doctors quickly discovered the cause: MPTP, a neurotoxic contaminant that had destroyed a small but critical part of the brain, the substantia nigra, which controls movement.

Just a reminder that one of the biggest promoters of the lab leak theory is Trump's former CDC director Robert Redfield.

An increase in pregnancy-related deaths has been observed in the United States between 2018 and 2022, according to a recent study published in JAMA Network Open.

More evidence for an immune model of dementia onset

Since Spring of 2020, there have been ongoing convoluted political attacks against "dangerous" gain of function research. This includes attacks against American scientists, with many accusers citing the still unproven COVID lab leak theory.

Some fungal diseases in humans no longer respond to medicines, which increases the risk of severe illness and death as well disease spread, according to a new report.

What does it mean that religion, not porn use, predicts porn-related problems?

The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a new report, Dementia in refugees and migrants: epidemiology, public health implications and global health responses, which synthesizes the latest global evidence on the factors affecting the health and care of displaced populations and offers policy considerations to address these challenges. This is the sixth report in the Global Evidence Review on Health and Migration (GEHM) series.

In October 2024, the global stockpile of oral cholera vaccine (OCV) ran dry yet again, leaving no unallocated doses for new or worsening outbreaks. This underscores the ongoing shortfall of tens of millions of doses, driven by growing need, with both cases and deaths increasing globally in recent years, and lack of supply, with only one manufacturer currently serving the global stockpile. Meanwhile, however, pharmaceutical companies are reaping profits from a booming parallel market for OCV for a much lower-risk population: travelers from high-income countries (HICs). The current situation, where a tourist from a HIC at essentially zero risk of dying from cholera has more ready access to vaccines than a resident of the endemic country they will visit, exemplifies the chasm between commercial priorities and global health needs.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/31932470

When a person dies, clinicians often look at the cause of death to determine whether it could have been avoided, either by medical prevention such as vaccines or by treatments like antibiotics. These types of deaths are known as avoidable mortalities, and in most high-income countries around the world, the number is going down.

There's a sizzling debate on social media over seed oils, with some people adamantly claiming they are unhealthy.

I'm unfamiliar with this topic so I don't want to comment further, here are some key excerpts from the article:

Excerpt of the summary:

The study, which analysed data from 26 countries, found that if international support declines, an additional 4.43 to 10.75 million new HIV infections – including up to 880 000 in children – could occur by 2030. In the same period, 770 000 to 2.93 million more people could die from HIV-related causes, with up to 120 000 of these deaths affecting children.

Author:

Kim’s son Zack was diagnosed with a glioblastoma multiforme. It is a brain tumour that is very rare in children and is usually seen in adults over 45.

Community partners advocated for research queries to support greater policy impact

We might be on the precipice of a pivotal moment in Alzheimer’s disease research. In clinical trial data released this week, scientists have presented early evidence that it’s possible to delay symptoms in people genetically fated to develop Alzheimer’s at a young age.

I'm not sure what the best community for this is, but it felt relevant to public health

Finasteride — or Propecia, its most popular brand name — was invented by Merck. The pharmaceutical company insists that it's rare for men on the medication to experience side-effects, and has long maintained they vanish once the medication is stopped.

Hello,

Gambella, Ethiopia – The World Health Organization (WHO) has intensified its response efforts to combat a cholera outbreak in Ethiopia’s Gambella region, which has infected more than 1,200 people. The outbreak, first detected in Akobo Woreda on February 11, has since spread to eight woredas and four refugee camps.

Alcohol is the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States, following tobacco and obesity. While 90 percent of Americans know tobacco causes cancer, fewer than half realize alcohol does as well. Like tobacco warnings, alcohol warning labels would help consumers make more informed health choices.

Abstract: Individuals with diabetes mellitus frequently develop severe skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) that are recalcitrant to antibiotic treatment. We examined how diabetes affects the emergence of antibiotic resistance in a Staphylococcus aureus SSTI. We determined that S. aureus evolves antibiotic resistance rapidly in diabetic mice, while resistance did not occur in nondiabetic mice over the course of infection. Diabetes-associated immune cell dysfunction plays a minor role in the emergence of resistance, while hyperglycemia plays a dominant role facilitating the expansion and takeover of resistant mutants in diabetic infections. Furthermore, vancomycin intermediate resistant isolates display a pronounced fitness defect in nondiabetic mice but not in diabetic mice. Together, these data suggest that the diabetic infection environment represents an ideal reservoir for the emergence and proliferation of antibiotic resistance. Controlling the blood sugar of diabetic mice with insulin resulted in significantly decreased incidence of antibiotic-resistant S. aureus.

My first memorable experience with vaccines happened when I was in grammar school. For several summers, my mother worried that I would acquire polio at my swimming lessons. In the 1950s, more than 15 000 individuals developed paralytic polio each year in the US, some died, and a number were left with severe complications.1 Everyone knew someone who had contracted polio. For me, it was my classmate’s brother who had polio-related hypoxia and was left with lifelong disabilities. To support vaccine development, I filled March of Dimes cards and solicited my neighbors to do the same. I recall going to my grade school on Sunday with hundreds of others to receive a sugar cube containing live attenuated oral polio vaccine. Everyone was eager to be vaccinated. At a young age, I realized the power of prevention when the disease disappeared with widespread vaccination. That science could be publicly supported and conquer contagion was an early lesson for me.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — There’s no question that people are living longer today than centuries or even decades ago. However, in what might seem like a cruel irony, a new study finds people may not be living very well in those extra years.

People with weakened immune systems—most of whom were vaccinated—made up 4% of a random sample of more than 12 million people in England in 2023 yet represented 22% of both COVID-19 hospital admissions and deaths, according to new findings from the INvestigation oF cOvid-19 Risk among iMmunocompromised populations (INFORM) study.

A meta-analysis of 37 studies involving 3 million people suggests that those with long COVID are much more likely to experience chest pain, heart palpitations, and high blood pressure than their uninfected counterparts.

However, the authors observed that some of these antibody responses in the skin originated from de novo germinal center–like structures that centered around hair follicles. Thus, the skin has the capacity to independently facilitate B cell maturation and generate an immune response to bacterial colonization.

London's Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) is transforming children's journeys to school by making streets safer, improving perceptions of air quality and encouraging children to live healthier lives. A new study published today in BMJ Open, and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), highlights its benefits, with many families noticing cleaner air and safer roads. However, it also reveals challenges, particularly for those living in outer boroughs who are more reliant on the car and may struggle to adapt.