• Congo Ebola case count rises as Uganda health workers vaccinated

    In the latest weekly situation report on the ongoing Ebola outbreak in North Kivu and Ituri provinces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the World Health Organization (WHO) said half of all recent deaths are taking place in the community—a worrisome sign. Community deaths, which occur outside of a hospital or Ebola treatment center, threaten to extend the transmission chain of a given case and further accelerate the mounting case count.

  • Lax state gun laws linked to more child, teen gun deaths

    States with strict gun laws have lower rates of gun deaths among children and teenagers, and laws to keep guns away from minors are linked with fewer gun suicides in this age group, a Stanford study found.

  • Pittsburgh trauma surgeon: “Stop the Bleed” training saved lives after shooting, but stopping the need must be next

    I am a trauma surgeon who cared for many of the critically wounded victims of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting. As we raced to find the source of blood loss in one of the most severely injured patients, one of my trauma surgeon partners, a U.S. Army veteran of multiple tours, joined me in the operating room to assist. His first comment upon seeing the injuries that we were managing struck me. He said he last saw such destruction from military weaponry when he was serving in Afghanistan.

  • “Terrorism does not terrorize”: Study

    The impact of terrorism on post-traumatic stress may be less significant than we thought, argue the authors of a significant new study. A major review of over 400 research articles studying the association between acts of terrorism and mental health has reached the significant conclusion that “terrorism isn’t terrorizing” – at least not in a way that causes increases in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) greater than would be expected from any other distressing event.

  • Suicide more prevalent than homicide in U.S. Most Americans don't know it.

    In the United States, suicide is twice as common as homicide — and more often involves firearms — but public perception is just the opposite. News reports, movies and TV shows may contribute to the perception of a high risk of firearm homicide, authors of a new study say, leaving a substantial gap between ideas and reality and potentially leading to further danger.

  • Annual emergency room, inpatient charges cost of gunshot wounds in children: $270 million

    A new Johns Hopkins study of more than 75,000 teenagers and children who suffered a firearm-related injury between 2006 and 2014 pinpoints the financial burden of gunshot wounds and highlights the increasing incidence of injury in certain age groups.

  • U.K. parliament urges making antimicrobial resistance a priority

    The British parliament is urging the government of Prime Minister Theresa May to make antimicrobial resistance (AMR) a “top five policy priority” in a new report. The report by members of the House of Commons’ Health and Social Care Committee warns that “modern medicine will be lost” if the government does not take more aggressive action to reduce inappropriate use of existing antibiotics and promote development of new antibiotics.

  • Mothers’ exposure to terror attacks during pregnancy increases risk of schizophrenia in their children

    The children of mothers exposed to terror attacks during pregnancy are 2.5 times more likely to develop schizophrenia than mothers not to exposed to terror during pregnancy. This was the finding of a comprehensive new study. “It is possible that the psychosocial stress of terror attacks in the mothers occurred during a critical period of fetal brain development. Insults during such a critical period of neurodevelopment were so potent that years later the risk of schizophrenia increased.” explained Prof. Stephen Levine, one of the authors of the study.

  • Insects as potential weapons in biological warfare

    Owing to present-day armed conflicts, the general public is well aware of the terrifying effects of chemical weapons. Meanwhile, the effects of biological weapons have largely disappeared from public awareness. A project funded by a research agency of the U.S. Department of Defense is now giving rise to concerns about being possibly misused for the purpose of biological warfare.

  • Rapidly identifying antibiotic-resistant “superbugs”

    When you get sick, you want the right treatment fast. But certain infectious microbes are experts at evading the very anti-bacterial drugs designed to fight them. A simple and inexpensive new test developed by UC Berkeley researchers can diagnose patients with antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria in a matter of minutes. The technique could help doctors prescribe the right antibiotics for each infection, and could help limit the spread of antibiotic-resistant “superbugs,” which kill as many as 700,000 people worldwide each year.

  • Sales of vet antibiotics in Europe decline

    A report yesterday from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) shows a significant drop in overall sales of veterinary antibiotics across Europe. The data from the EMA’s eighth European Surveillance of Veterinary Antimicrobial Consumption (ESVAC) report show a 20.1 percent decline in sales of antibiotics for food-producing animals in 25 European Union (EU) countries from 2011 through 2016, with notable decreases in the sales of antibiotics that are critically important in human medicine.

  • Measuring global cost of animal diseases

    Across the globe, families depend on livestock animals for milk, meat, eggs, even muscle power. But when a valuable cow or sheep gets sick, farm families face a stark burden affecting not just their herd’s survival, but human health and potential losses for years to come.

  • As Ebola spreads in Congo, WHO weighs emergency declaration

    The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) recorded six more cases of Ebola over the weekend, including three community deaths, which raise more concern about the spread of the disease in the region. The new cases lift the outbreak total to 211, including 135 deaths. Twenty-four suspected cases are still under investigation.

  • The 1800s Global Famine could happen again

    Researchers have completed the most thorough analysis yet of The Great Drought — the most devastating known drought of the past 800 years — and how it led to the Global Famine, an unprecedented disaster that took 50 million lives. She warns that the Earth’s current warming climate could make a similar drought even worse.

  • DRC Ebola cases mount, with in-school infection a new worry

    As the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) reaches 194 cases and deaths hit 122, a humanitarian group yesterday added a new concern—the virus has now spread within a school. The group also said response efforts were again interrupted by regional violence. A World Health Organization (WHO) official says the epidemic will likely carry well into 2019.