Health News

EU calls for regular virus tests on mink farms

Europe’s mink farms should regularly test their animals for Covid-19 and carry out sequencing until the risk of the virus spreading to humans is eliminated, two EU agencies said Thursday. The European Commission ordered the report following coronavirus outbreaks on mink farms in several European countries in 2020, with confirmed cases of the virus being […]

Health News

Simple tests to check your feet health at home

Feet can make a lot of people squirm. But it’s important to pay attention to them – just like you’d check every other part of your body – in case there are signs that something is wrong. Roslyn Miller, a foot and ankle surgeon at King Edward VII’s Hospital, tells Metro.co.uk about some simple tests […]

Health News

Mailing free home HIV tests helps detect more infections

Mailing free home HIV tests to high-risk men offers a potentially better strategy for detecting infections than usual care. That’s according to a U.S. government study that resulted in many more infections found—including among friends with whom recipients shared extra kits. The yearlong experiment recruited 2,600 men from online social network and music sites. Those […]

Health Problems

Researchers compare visceral leishmaniasis diagnostic tests

Accurate and timely diagnosis of the tropic disease visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is one of the pillars for reducing VL deaths. Currently available serological tests for diagnosing VL vary widely in their performance and may, as a whole, be inadequate for VL diagnosis, researchers report in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. Visceral leischmanisis is the most severe […]

Health Problems

Side-by-side comparison on point of care tests for blood’s ability to clot

During big procedures like open heart surgery, patients need anticoagulants to prevent dangerous blood clot formation and regular bedside monitoring to make sure the drugs aren’t also causing problems like excessive bleeding. Investigators comparing some common bedside testing platforms to quickly determine how fast blood is clotting, called activated clotting time, or ACT, suggest other […]

Health News

Eliminating routine but low-value preoperative tests for cataract surgery patients associated with cost savings

UCLA researchers found that eliminating routine but unnecessary procedures before people undergo cataract surgery has the potential to save costs and resources for hospitals serving lower-income patients. Forgoing routine chest x-rays, electrocardiograms and other preoperative procedures—which studies have found to have no clinical benefit prior to cataract surgery—was associated with a savings of $67,241 over […]

Health Problems

Poliolike illness tests an overstretched public health system

The mysterious, poliolike disease that has struck 414 people—mostly young children—across the United States since 2014 comes at a time when the public health system already is overstretched. Reported in 39 states and Washington, D.C., acute flaccid myelitis, known as AFM, causes muscle weakness and in some cases paralysis in the arms or legs, terrifying […]

Health News

Cannabis really DOES ruin your memory, study finds

Cannabis really DOES ruin your memory: Young men scored much better in mental tests within a WEEK of giving up, study shows Researchers in Boston followed 88 men aged 16-25 who smoked marijuana at least once a week Some cut down, others went cold turkey, in the first study to measure the effects of marijuana […]