November 7, 2023
(New York Times) – Doctors say they are performing surgeries without anesthesia after weeks of Israeli bombings and siege left severe shortages of medicine, water, food and fuel. “We choose who gets ventilation by deciding who has the best chance … Read More
November 7, 2023
(Wall Street Journal) – For its entire 100-year existence, the pharmaceutical manufacturer has stayed linked to its home country due to a particular Danish brand of capitalism. Like almost half of the country’s 28 largest companies, including global players like brewer … Read More
November 7, 2023
(The Hill) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Monday it will be expanding its respiratory viral surveillance of international travelers. In 2022, the CDC launched its Traveler-based Genomic Surveillance program (TGS), a public-private partnership to serve … Read More
November 6, 2023
(Forbes) – French President Emmanuel Macron said recently he wants to enshrine abortion in his country’s constitution. If the revision is adopted, France will be the first country to explicitly designate access to abortion as a constitutional right. (Read More)
November 3, 2023
(Wall Street Journal) – Wu Zunyou, China’s top epidemiologist, never wanted the spotlight, believing that a successful public-health professional should be “invisible.” His last role, as the face of China’s draconian Covid-19 restrictions, was anything but. In China, the decisions … Read More
November 2, 2023
(Wired) – Yesterday, 28 countries including the US, members of the EU, and China signed a declaration warning that artificial intelligence is advancing with such speed and uncertainty that it could cause “serious, even catastrophic, harm.” The declaration, announced at … Read More
November 1, 2023
(BBC) – For months now, Zimbabwe has been battling to stem the spread of deadly cholera in its cities and villages because the country simply lacks clean water. “If the water comes at all it’s often dirty,” Regai Chibanda, a … Read More
November 1, 2023
(TIME) – President Xi Jinping underscored his concerns — and more conservative social views — about China’s shrinking population in a speech calling on a key women’s organization to help bolster the nation’s birthrate by promoting a “culture” of childbirth. … Read More
November 1, 2023
(MIT Technology Review) – Chinese authorities also may be more willing to spend in this area given the fact that, at least in this one application of gene therapy, the country has raced ahead of its competitors in the West. … Read More
October 31, 2023
(STAT News) – The stethoscope — compared to 3M’s Littman stethoscopes in a validation study — became the inaugural device of the Glia Project, a group founded by Loubani in 2016 that 3D prints open-source medical equipment for low-resource areas. … Read More
October 30, 2023
(The Atlantic) – Paramyxoviruses, meanwhile, have mostly been “simmering in the background,” says Raina Plowright, a disease ecologist at Cornell. Unlike flu viruses and coronaviruses, which have already clearly “proven themselves” as tier-one outbreak risks, paramyxoviruses haven’t yet been caught causing … Read More
October 27, 2023
(NPR) – It’s a part of getting older that many people worry about: The increased chance of developing diseases like Alzheimer’s that cause dementia. In wealthy countries, getting an early diagnosis can at least help a person’s family understand and … Read More
October 25, 2023
(NBC News) – Japan’s top court ruled on Wednesday that a legal clause requiring people to undergo sterilization surgery if they want to legally change their gender is unconstitutional. Several international organizations including the European Court of Human Rights, the … Read More
October 25, 2023
(The Atlantic) – Ensitrelvir, a drug made by the Osaka-based pharmaceutical company Shionogi, was conditionally approved in Japan last November. Like Paxlovid, ensitrelvir works by blocking an enzyme that the SARS-CoV-2 virus uses to clone itself inside the human body. … Read More
October 25, 2023
(Associated Press) – A cruise operator that failed to cancel a voyage from Sydney that led to a major COVID-19 outbreak was ruled negligent in its duty of care to passengers in an Australian class-action case Wednesday. The Ruby Princess … Read More
October 25, 2023
(BBC) – Hospitals in the Gaza Strip are taking emergency cases only, the UN says, amid fears fuel supplies will run out across the territory in the coming hours. UN facilities are also overwhelmed by 600,000 displaced Palestinians seeking shelter … Read More
October 24, 2023
(Science) – In a major analysis in Africa, the first vaccine approved to fight malaria cut deaths among young children by 13% over nearly 4 years, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported last week. The huge evaluation of a pilot … Read More
October 24, 2023
(Reuters) – Several people were hospitalised in Austria after using suspected fake versions of Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drug Ozempic, the country’s health safety body said, the first report of harm to users as a European hunt for counterfeiters widened. The … Read More
October 23, 2023
(Nature) – For the first time, scientists have deliberately infected people with Zika virus to learn whether such a strategy could help to test vaccines against the pathogen. The virus can cause severe birth abnormalities in babies born to parents … Read More
October 23, 2023
(Associated Press) – The AP analyzed more than a dozen videos from the moments before, during and after the hospital explosion, as well as satellite imagery and photos. AP’s analysis shows that the rocket that broke up in the air … Read More
October 19, 2023
(Wired) – Even before this week’s deadly hospital blast, Gaza’s health system was already on the brink of collapse. At least 3,700 Palestinians in Gaza have been declared dead since the beginning of the Israeli-Hamas war, and an estimated 12,000 … Read More
October 18, 2023
(Science) – An industry-academic initiative announced today aims to create the largest ever database of genomes exclusively from people with African ancestry. Four biopharma companies contributing $80 million have teamed up with Meharry Medical College to launch the effort, which … Read More
October 18, 2023
(Wired) – Yesterday evening around 7 pm local time, an explosion rocked the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City. Within minutes, information about what had happened was distorted by partisan narratives, disinformation, and a rush to be first to post … Read More
October 18, 2023
(The Guardian) – Shifa is not just Gaza’s largest medical facility, but the nerve centre of its entire healthcare system, and the Israeli assault on the territory has brought it to breaking point. Local authorities and aid groups in Gaza … Read More
October 17, 2023
(Wall Street Journal) – An explosion rocked a hospital in Gaza on Tuesday, killing hundreds in one of the deadliest single incidents of violence in the strip—hours before President Biden was expected to visit Israel in a show of support. … Read More