13 Ways the World Got Better in 2023
As in most years, much of the media focus in 2023 was on the myriad crises people all over the world faced, from horrific wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East to devastating natural disasters (many climate-change-related) in Turkey, Southeast Africa, Hawaii, Canada, and more. At the end of this long year, though, it’s worth taking a step back and considering some of the ways things improved. Here are some examples, gathered together by TIME’s climate and health journalists: [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] COVID-19 death numbers plummeted… Since the pandemic began, COVID-19 has b...
Source: TIME: Health - December 26, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: TIME Staff Tags: Uncategorized climate change Climate Is Everything feature healthscienceclimate Source Type: news

2023 NIH Research Highlights - Basic Research Insights
Noteworthy NIH advances in basic research include detailed cellular maps of human and nonhuman animal brains, a contraceptive that disables sperm, and a vaccine that could provide broad protection against microbes. (Source: NIH Research Matters from the National Institutes of Health (NIH))
Source: NIH Research Matters from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) - December 19, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news

Science ’s 2023 Breakthrough of the Year: Weight loss drugs with a real shot at fighting obesity
Show / hide sections navigation 2023 Breakthrough of the Year Runners-up Breakdowns Video Obesity plays out as a private struggle and a public health crisis. In the United States, about 70% of adults are affected by excess weight, and in Europe that number is more than half. The stigma against fat can be crushing; its risks, life-threatening. Defined as a body mass index of at least 30, obesity is thought to power type 2 diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, fatty liver disease, and certain cancers. Yet drug treatments...
Source: ScienceNOW - December 14, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news

Improving Livestock Health Is a Net Positive Move Towards Net Zero
Reducing global livestock disease levels by just 10% through vaccination and other preventative health measures would bring down greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 800 million tonnes. Credit: Guilhem Alandry/HealthforAnimalsBy Carel du Marchie SarvaasBRUSSELS, Belgium, Nov 21 2023 (IPS) The recent downturn in sales of alternative meat products is only the latest evidence that the world is unlikely to give up animal protein completely in the long run. In fact, all forecasts suggest global consumption of meat, milk, fish and eggs will continue to rise, with some parts of the world relying on animal agriculture to make...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - November 21, 2023 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Carel du Marchie Sarvaas Tags: Climate Action Climate Change Environment Food and Agriculture Food Sustainability Global Headlines Health TerraViva United Nations IPS UN Bureau Source Type: news

Roche launches automated serology hepatitis E virus tests, including a test to detect acute HEV infections, recommended in the new WHO 2023 Essential Diagnostics List
It is estimated that one third of the global population could be at risk for infection with Hepatitis E virus.1The new tests allow clinicians to diagnose acute and chronic infections amongst patients presenting with or without signs of the illness as recommended by the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL).2The tests complete Roche ’s panel used for the differential diagnosis of acute viral hepatitis caused by the hepatitis A, B, C and E viruses.Basel, 16 November 2023 - Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced today the launch of the Elecsys ®Anti-HEV IgM and Elecsys Anti-HEV IgG immunoassays for t...
Source: Roche Investor Update - November 16, 2023 Category: Pharmaceuticals Source Type: news

Roche launches automated serology hepatitis E virus tests, including a test to detect acute HEV infections, recommended in the new WHO 2023 Essential Diagnostics List
It is estimated that one third of the global population could be at risk for infection with Hepatitis E virus.1The new tests allow clinicians to diagnose acute and chronic infections amongst patients presenting with or without signs of the illness as recommended by the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL).2The tests complete Roche ’s panel used for the differential diagnosis of acute viral hepatitis caused by the hepatitis A, B, C and E viruses.Basel, 16 November 2023 - Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced today the launch of the Elecsys ®Anti-HEV IgM and Elecsys Anti-HEV IgG immunoassays for t...
Source: Roche Media News - November 16, 2023 Category: Pharmaceuticals Source Type: news

There ’s a Shortage of RSV Treatments. Here’s What Doctors Recommend
A recently approved treatment was supposed to protect babies from RSV, but demand is outpacing the supply of the medication.  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved nirsevimab, an antibody that sticks to and prevents Respiratory Syncytial Virus from infecting cells, in July. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) then recommended the medication for all babies either born during the RSV season or those up to eight months old entering their first RSV season, which runs from about November to March. RSV can be a dangerous and potentially deadly disease, especially for infants; about 58,000 to 80,...
Source: TIME: Health - November 2, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alice Park Tags: Uncategorized healthscienceclimate Source Type: news

A chikungunya vaccine is nearing approval. Who will get it?
The first vaccine against the mosquito-borne viral disease chikungunya will likely come to market next month. With the debilitating disease now afflicting more than half the countries in the world and threatening to spread further, the imminent U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the vaccine is “great news,” says Scott Weaver, a virologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch whose own lab started to work on a chikungunya vaccine nearly 2 decades ago. The vaccine, made by the French company Valneva, will likely be recommended mainly to U.S. travelers at first. But many expect an FDA approval ...
Source: ScienceNOW - October 30, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news

This new malaria vaccine will transform our battle with the deadliest creatures on Earth | Devi Sridhar
The breakthrough has come just in time: malaria has re-emerged in my home state of Florida, and will spread further thanks to climate changeWant to guess the most dangerous animal in the world? When my team asked children in Edinburgh during a public outreach event with schools, they said sharks, alligators, spiders and lions. All good guesses, but none on target. The deadliest animal is the mighty mosquito, which kills more than1 million people a year. Almost 700 million people contract a mosquito-borne illness each year. Mosquitoes carry serious diseases like malaria, dengue fever, West Nile virus, Zika virus and chikung...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - October 26, 2023 Category: Science Authors: Devi Sridhar Tags: Malaria Health World news Africa Science Source Type: news

Potent strain of bluetongue virus is spreading in northern Europe, threatening sheep and cattle
A dreaded pathogen is spreading rapidly among livestock in the Netherlands for the first time in 14 years, killing sheep and sickening cattle. Bluetongue virus (BTV), which is endemic in tropical and subtropical regions, is transmitted by biting insects called midges. It does not infect humans, but the new outbreak is especially concerning because Dutch livestock have been stricken with a potent strain for which no vaccine is available in Europe. Within 2 weeks of its first detection in the country, the virus had been confirmed in 18 flocks of sheep and 55 cattle herds. And this week a sheep on a farm across the bord...
Source: ScienceNOW - October 11, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news

Rabies Vaccines Airdropped From Planes Throughout The Southeastern States In October
The US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is now airdropping millions of doses of oral rabies vaccines (ORV) throughout several Southeastern states, as wild raccoons and other…#orv #southeastern #usda #northcarolina #ncdhhs #buncombe #haywood #transylvania #ericaberl #epochtimes (Source: Reuters: Health)
Source: Reuters: Health - October 9, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news

How Old Do You Have to Be To Receive Yellow Fever Vaccine?
Discussion In the United States, Yellow Fever (YF) is rare and usually due to traveler’s coming to the US from Africa (34 countries) or South America (13 countries, see maps here) This wasn’t always true. There were numerous outbreaks in the past few centuries. However, after the Spanish-American War, a YF commission was sent to Cuba that proved YF was mosquito-borne and 1 year later major improvement was seen due to a multi-pronged mosquito control program. “In May 1900, the U.S. Army,…formed the U.S. Army Yellow Fever Commission to gather data in Cuba that might inspire improvements in the publi...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - October 9, 2023 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Pediatric Education Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news

Immunity-enhancing cocktail protects mice against multiple hospital germs
Some people in hospital die not from the illness or accident that got them admitted but from germs they catch once there. In the United States alone, there are hundreds of thousands of hospital-acquired infections each year, leading to tens of thousands of deaths. Seeking to lower this toll, researchers have now come up with an immune-boosting cocktail that increases the survival of mice exposed to the microbes responsible. The three-compound formulation, which the researchers unusually refer to as a vaccine, provided up to 28 days of protection from the notorious hospital bacterium Pseudomonas aerugin...
Source: ScienceNOW - October 4, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news

Nobel Prize Awarded to mRNA Pioneers Who Paved the Way for COVID-19 Vaccines
It was an unlikely collaboration, and it began in an unlikely place, but the partnership that Katalin Kariko and Dr. Drew Weissman formed in the 1990s at the University of Pennsylvania has now led to a shared Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. Kariko and Weissman were awarded the Nobel for their work in tweaking the genetic material mRNA to make it more amenable to working in vaccines. Their discovery led to the first approved mRNA vaccines, targeting the COVID-19 virus, in 2020. And that success is seeding mRNA-based strategies across a number of different conditions, including other infectious diseases as well as...
Source: TIME: Health - October 2, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alice Park Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news