• Unfounded myths used to justify policies of exclusion: Lancet

    Public health protection and cost savings are often used as reasons to restrict migrants’ access to healthcare or to deny them entry. Yet, as the new report lays out, the most common myths about migration and health are not supported by the available evidence and ignore the important contribution of migration to global economies.

  • Flu vaccine supply gaps may intensify flu seasons, make pandemics deadlier

    More than 50 million people died in the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-19. Its 100th anniversary this flu season serves as a reminder to close flu vaccine supply gaps that may be costing hundred to thousands of lives now and could cost many more when the next “big one” strikes, researchers say.

  • Drinking water safety guidelines in the U.S. vary widely from state to state

    Analysis of existing state and federal guidelines shows discrepancies in recommended safe levels of toxic contaminants PFOA and PFOS in drinking water. The findings of a new study highlight the need for enforceable federal standards and more health protective limits on these contaminants in drinking water to safeguard the health of millions of people whose water supplies have been contaminated.

  • Problems using mobile technologies in public health care

    Many health care providers in remote locations around the world are actively using newer mobile technologies like text messaging and fingerprint identification to deliver important services and timely information to their patients. While the efforts are well-intended, two new studies find that such approaches need to be closely monitored to make sure they are meeting targeted goals. The two recently published studies identified multiple problems integrating mobile technologies into public health care.

  • It’s the prices, stupid: Americans spend a lot on health care, but get less care

    Americans on average continue to spend much more for health care—while getting less care—than people in other developed countries. The researchers determined that the higher overall health care spending in the U.S. was due mainly to higher prices—including higher drug prices, higher salaries for doctors and nurses, higher hospital administration costs and higher prices for many medical services.

  • No link found between violent video games and behavior

    Researchers at the University of York have found no evidence to support the theory that video games make players more violent. In a series of experiments, with more than 3,000 participants, the team demonstrated that video game concepts do not ‘prime’ players to behave in certain ways and that increasing the realism of violent video games does not necessarily increase aggression in game players.

  • DRC Ebola total tops 600; vaccination team attacked

    With 10 new Ebola infections reported on New Year’s Day and today, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Ebola outbreak passed the 600-case mark, as a fresh round of violence—this time in Komanda—injured a member of a health ministry vaccination team.

  • Russia undermines trust in science by spreading lies about genetic editing

    Genetic editing has been a hot topic of conversation lately. There are arguments on ll sides of the issue, but Jesse Kirkpatrick and Michael Flynn – in an important article in Slate, titled “Don’t Let Russia Undermine Trust in Science” — are drawing attention to a growing threat in the debate: Russian disinformation.

  • Firearms play widespread, persistent role in death of children, teens in U.S.

    America lost 20,360 children and teens in 2016 — 60 percent of them to preventable injuries, a new study shows. More than 4,100 of them died in motor vehicle crashes, though prevention efforts and better trauma care have cut the death rate of young people from such crashes in half in less than two decades. Meanwhile, firearms—the No. 2 cause of death in youth—claimed the lives of more than 3,100 children and teens in 2016, according to the new findings from a University of Michigan team.

  • U.S. health worker monitored as DRC Ebola nears 600 cases

    A U.S. healthcare worker has been flown to the United States for observation after potential Ebola exposure in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the Ebola outbreak has now grown to 598 cases amid violent protests.

  • AI advancement opens health data privacy to attack

    Advances in artificial intelligence have created new threats to the privacy of health data, a new study shows. The study suggests current laws and regulations are nowhere near sufficient to keep an individual’s health status private in the face of AI development.

  • Major drop in antibiotics for food animals in U.S.

    New data released the other day by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) shows the amount of medically important antibiotics sold for use in food-producing animals in the United States is on the decline. The FDA report shows that domestic sales and distribution of medically important antibiotics for use in livestock decreased by 33 percent from 2016 through 2017, and by 43 percent since sales peaked in 2015.

  • Widespread, occasional use of antibiotics linked to resistance

    The increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistance in the U.S. appears more closely linked to their occasional use by many people than to their repeated use among smaller numbers of people. A new study also found that antibiotic use varies across the nation, and that in areas where particular antibiotics are used more frequently, resistance to those antibiotics is higher.

  • Developing concepts for escape respirator

    DHS S&T announced the Escape Respirator Challenge, a $250,000 prize competition that seeks new concepts for an escape respirator solution. This challenge invites the innovation community to submit relevant, useable, effective, and feasible concepts that protects the user against aerosolized chemical, biological, and radiological (CBR) hazards and provides oxygen.

  • Medical problems of U.S. Havana embassy personnel explained

    A medical team has released the first report of acute symptoms and clinical findings in 25 personnel living in the U.S. Embassy in Havana. The researchers did not attempt to determine the cause of the symptoms in the U.S. Embassy residents, the authors noted that intense ultrasonic radiation can produce “a syndrome involving manifestations of nausea, headache, tinnitus, pain, dizziness, and fatigue,” based on occupational health literature.