Health

The New York State Health Department released guidance for residents to identify a flesh-eating bacterium that has claimed the lives of one New York resident and two Connecticut residents over the summer. The state Department of Public Health said that there are three people known to have been infected with …

With a new school year on the horizon, it’s a critical time for parents and caregivers to talk to kids and teens about the risks of drug use, experts say. At least one in eight teens reported abusing an illicit substance in the last year, according to data from the …

Researchers are proposing using artificial intelligence technology to help diagnose autism spectrum disorder. In a recent article published in Scientific Reports, researchers from Brazil, France and Germany reportedly used magnetic resonance imaging to train a machine learning algorithm.  The work – in which the “quantitative diagnostic method” is proposed – …

A Rhode Island woman is dead after contracting a rare case ot the tick-borne Powassan virus disease.  The Rhode Island Department of Health said the virus had been detected in a Washington County resident over 80.  She developed neurological symptoms and passed away in mid-July. Laboratory testing had been conducted …

In early February 2020, Kirsten St. George and her team at New York state’s public health lab received a test developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to diagnose people infected with the new, rapidly spreading coronavirus. But, like many labs around the country, it quickly found the …

Florida health officials have placed Broward County under a mosquito-borne illness alert this month as dengue virus cases spread.  Broward County – home to Fort Lauderdale – joins Miami-Dade County as the illness continues to spread.  The Florida Department of Health reported two cases of locally acquired dengue in Broward …

The average American spends nearly 2½ hours per day on social media, and that number more than doubles for teens, studies have shown. For many people, the reliance on social media can feel much like an addiction — and many experts believe that’s exactly what it is. “Social media addiction …

Nearly 188,000 dementia cases in the U.S. each year may have been caused by air pollution, researchers estimate, with bad air quality from wildfires and agriculture showing the strongest links to a person’s risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other kinds of dementia later in life.  Published Monday in the journal …

A new variant called Eris has entered the COVID scene, but experts don’t expect it to have a substantial impact on health protocols just yet. Eris, a subvariant of Omicron, is a fast-spreading variant that is responsible for more than 17% of cases in the U.S., making it the most …

To provide women at a high risk of breast cancer with more frequent screenings between mammograms, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are developing a wearable ultrasound scanner designed to be attached to a bra. The goal is to help women detect breast cancer tumors in the early …