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America’s first severe case of bird flu confirmed in Louisiana
A patient in Louisiana has been hospitalized with a severe case of H5N1 bird flu, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, the first such case in the United States.
How do people catch bird flu?
As bird flu infections rise in dairy cattle and chickens, human cases are ticking up too, leaving many people to wonder whether they might be at risk from this recently arrived virus.
Bird flu virus isolated from hospitalized Canadian teen shows signs of human adaptation
The avian flu virus isolated from a hospitalized teenager in Vancouver has mutations in key areas that could help the virus spread more easily in humans, scientists say.
More health-care workers in contact with Missouri bird flu patient report respiratory symptoms
Four more health-care workers who tended to a person hospitalized with H5N1 bird flu have revealed that they had respiratory symptoms after their exposures, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Helene is here. Do these 14 things now to prepare
If you haven’t prepared already, the time is here. Hurricane Helene is expected to make landfall Thursday night along the Florida Gulf Coast near Tallahassee and then veer north, maintaining hurricane- and tropical storm-force winds and torrential rainfall into North Georgia and up to Tennessee. Up to 18 inches of rain is expected into the Carolinas, the National Weather Service said Thursday.
The NFL embraced soft-shell helmet covers to protect players from concussions. Here’s what the science says about them
Crack! The sound of football helmets colliding on the field is an audible sign that fall is just around the corner. But that sound also comes with a darker side. Mounting scientific evidence shows that repeated hits to the head — even if they don’t result in concussions — may cause lasting damage in the brain and perhaps progressive neurodegeneration called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.
An experimental pill cut hot flashes and improved sleep for women in menopause — without using hormones
An experimental once-a-day pill that works without hormones significantly reduced the number of hot flashes experienced by women going through menopause and improved their sleep compared to a placebo, according to two new trials from drugmaker Bayer.
Alcohol’s healthy halo dims as study finds drinking may be harmful for older adults, even at low levels
Americans, and especially those under age 35, are changing their tune on alcohol use, with a growing share endorsing the view that moderate drinking is bad for health — and a new study backs them up.
The US is experiencing its largest summer Covid wave in at least two years
It may be time to dust off the face masks and air purifiers. The US is in the midst of a significant Covid-19 wave, and when the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updates its wastewater dashboard on Friday, experts expect it to confirm that viral activity levels are the highest they’ve been during a summer surge since the CDC began publicly tracking such data in January 2022.
Long Covid risk has dropped over time but remains substantial, study shows
With a summer wave of Covid-19 infections sweeping the country, a timely new study has looked at the risk of getting long Covid and whether those odds have changed over time.