But shortages mean that new antivirals and other drugs may be hard to come by Two years into the COVID pandemic, as the highly contagious Omicron variant pushes infections to record highs, U.S. physicians have a growing arsenal of therapies to keep mild disease from worsening. At the same time,Continue Reading
Experts predict that such nonhuman-to-human “xenotransplants” may become a viable option within the next decade It’s an exciting time to be an organ transplant physician. Just two weeks ago, doctors in Baltimore reported completing the first successful transfer of a pig heart into a living human patient. Now pig kidneysContinue Reading
The viruses were bacteriophages, meaning viruses that infect bacteria. A woman’s oozing wound failed to heal after nearly two years of antibiotic treatments intended to vanquish the bacterial infection. So her doctors unleashed viruses to slay the superbug. The experimental therapy specifically involved viruses that infect bacteria, known as bacteriophages,Continue Reading
This goes against one of the key assumptions of the theory of evolution. Genetic changes that crop up in an organism’s DNA may not be completely random, new research suggests. That would upend one of the key assumptions of the theory of evolution. Researchers studying the genetic mutations in aContinue Reading
Vaccine makers worry yet another variant will start dominating in the months it takes to roll out shots against this one All the vaccines we use to ward off SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, share one crucial feature: they were designed to protect against its ancestral form, which surfacedContinue Reading
In the other states, only a select group of adults are currently eligible. Adults in California and Colorado can receive a COVID-19 booster shot if it has been at least six months since their second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, according to the states’ public health departments. ThisContinue Reading
He had a less than 1% chance of survival. A baby born at 21 weeks gestation in Alabama last year is the most premature baby in the world to survive, according to Guinness World Records. Curtis Means and his twin sister, C’Asya Means, were born on July 5, 2020, atContinue Reading
Unless you’re prepping for a colonoscopy, probably not. Cleaning out the colon is sometimes necessary — for example, before a medical procedure, such as a colonoscopy. But some people do it in the belief that the process will rid their colon of excess toxins that accumulate over time from theContinue Reading
Complex interplay: the gut-immune-brain axis The early development of the gut, the brain and the immune system are closely interrelated. Researchers refer to this as the gut-immune-brain axis. Bacteria in the gut cooperate with the immune system, which in turn monitors gut microbes and develops appropriate responses to them. InContinue Reading
Calls to poison control centers regarding exposure to ivermectin have increased five-fold in recent months. Thousands of Americans may be taking potentially dangerous doses of an anti-parasitic drug because of misinformation that it will prevent or treat COVID-19, according to a new warning from the Centers for Disease Control andContinue Reading