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Tag: Public Health

Exclusive-WHO to Consider Adding Obesity Drugs to ‘Essential’ Medicines List
29Mar By Jobber WikiNo Comments
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Exclusive-WHO to Consider Adding Obesity Drugs to ‘Essential’ Medicines List

LONDON (Reuters) - Drugs that combat obesity could for the first time be included on the World Health Organization's "essential medicines list," used to guide government purchasing decisions in low- and middle-income countries, the U.N. agency told Reuters.   A panel of advisers to the WHO will review new requests for drugs to be included next month, with an updated essential medicines list due in September.The request to consider obesity drugs was submitted by three doctors and a researcher in the United States. It covers the active ingredient liraglutide in Novo Nordisk's obesity drug Saxenda, which will come off patent soon, allowing for cheaper generic versions.    The panel could reject the request or wait for more evidence. A decision by the WHO to include Saxenda and eventual gen...
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Sheep As Urban Lawn Mowers Improve Environmental And Human Health
24Feb By Jobber WikiNo Comments
Health

Sheep As Urban Lawn Mowers Improve Environmental And Human Health

Sheepmowers provide environmentally-friendly and cost-effective urban landscape maintenance, whilst also reducing stress and promoting human mental health and well-being © Copyright by GrrlScientist | hosted by Forbes If you’re one of the lucky students at the University of California at Davis (UC Davis), then you may have met the sheepmowers. These are the university’s flock of domestic sheep that have been occupied as campus lawnmowers since 2021, when COVID-19 masking and social-distancing protocols were widely adopted, dramatically altering campus life. Besides keeping the lawns neatly trimmed, the sheep have proved to be a powerful mood boost for students, staff, faculty and visitors. Sheepmowers boost campus morale In addition to grazing on invasive weeds and keeping the gras...
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Amid Apparent Drop in Drug Overdose Deaths, States See Varied Success | Healthiest Communities Health News
15Feb By Jobber WikiNo Comments
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Amid Apparent Drop in Drug Overdose Deaths, States See Varied Success | Healthiest Communities Health News

Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention points to a sustained dip in overall drug overdose deaths in the U.S., though the potential trend has played out unevenly.According to provisional counts of reported deaths from the CDC’s National Vital Statistics System, more than 100,500 people in the United States died due to drug overdose in the 12-month period through September 2022, down 7.2% from the 12-month peak reached as of February 2022.Yet that decline may be overstated. Because drug overdose deaths can require “lengthy investigations” to determine a precise cause or manner of death, according to the CDC, the agency publishes an adjusted value known as predicted deaths, which attempts to account for this type of reporting shortcoming.These estimates point to a ...
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CDC: New Omicron Subvariant XBB.1.5 Responsible for Majority of U.S. Coronavirus Cases | Health News
27Jan By Jobber WikiNo Comments
Health

CDC: New Omicron Subvariant XBB.1.5 Responsible for Majority of U.S. Coronavirus Cases | Health News

The highly contagious omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 is responsible for the majority of new coronavirus infections in the U.S., according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Agency estimates show that XBB.1.5 caused over 61% – or more than 3 in 5 – new coronavirus cases this week. That’s up from about 50% of infections last week.While experts raised alarm over the strain, with the World Health Organization warning that it “may contribute to increases in case incidence globally,” coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the U.S. are on the decline after worries over a potential surge due to holiday travel.The CDC this week published what it characterized as the first estimate of the updated booster shot’s efficacy against symptomatic infection with XBB.1.5, f...
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FDA Authorizes Updated COVID-19 Booster Shots for Children as Young as 6 Months | Health News
8Dec By Jobber WikiNo Comments
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FDA Authorizes Updated COVID-19 Booster Shots for Children as Young as 6 Months | Health News

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday expanded access to the updated COVID-19 booster shot to children as young as 6 months old.“More children now have the opportunity to update their protection against COVID-19 with a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine, and we encourage parents and caregivers of those eligible to consider doing so – especially as we head into the holidays and winter months where more time will be spent indoors,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said in a statement.The FDA said that children 5 years old and younger who received two doses of Moderna’s vaccine more than two months ago are eligible for the company’s updated booster shot. Children 4 years old and younger who haven’t yet received the third dose in Pfizer’s three-shot program will receive its updated booster as t...
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Protests of Strict Lockdown Hit Shanghai, Other China Cities
27Nov By Jobber WikiNo Comments
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Protests of Strict Lockdown Hit Shanghai, Other China Cities

By HUIZHONG WU, Associated PressTAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A protest against China's strict “zero-COVID” policies resurfaced in Shanghai on Sunday afternoon even after police cleared away hundreds of demonstrators in the early morning with force and pepper spray.Crowds stood and filmed as police started shoving at people who had gathered in the street and shouted, “We don't want PCR tests, we want freedom!” according to an witness who did not want to be named for fear of retribution.Since Friday people have held protests across China, where street demonstrations are extremely rare. But anger and frustration have flared over the deaths from a fire in an apartment building in Urumqi that the public believes was caused by excessive lockdown measures that delayed rescue.A crowdsourced list on so...
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Omicron Subvariants BQ.1, BQ.1.1 Rise to Dominance as BA.5 Declines | Health News
18Nov By Jobber WikiNo Comments
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Omicron Subvariants BQ.1, BQ.1.1 Rise to Dominance as BA.5 Declines | Health News

A pair of rapidly spreading omicron subvariants have overtaken BA.5 as the dominant COVID-19 strains circulating in the U.S., according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.BQ.1 is now the top strain. It was responsible for more than 25% of new coronavirus infections this week, according to CDC’s weekly variant update. That’s up from just 7% of infections a month ago. The subvariant is also increasing globally, going from 13% of cases to 16% last week, according to the World Health Organization.And BQ.1.1 is close behind, causing over 24% of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. this week. That’s up from 5% of infections a month ago. The pair raises concerns because they appear to be highly contagious and adept at evading previous immunity, but they don’t seem to be more sev...
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U.S COVID Public Health Emergency to Stay in Place
11Nov By Jobber WikiNo Comments
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U.S COVID Public Health Emergency to Stay in Place

By Jeff Mason and Ahmed Aboulenein-The United States will keep in place the public health emergency status of the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing millions of Americans to still get free tests, vaccines and treatments until at least April of next year, two Biden administration officials said on Friday.The possibility of a winter surge in COVID cases and the need for more time to transition out of the public health emergency to a private market were two factors that contributed to the decision not to end the emergency status in January, one of the officials said.The public health emergency was initially declared in January 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic began, and has been renewed each quarter since. But the government in August began signaling it planned to let it expire in January.The ...
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What’s Behind Worrying RSV Surge in US Children’s Hospitals?
24Oct By Jobber WikiNo Comments
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What’s Behind Worrying RSV Surge in US Children’s Hospitals?

By CARLA K. JOHNSON, AP Medical WriterChildren's hospitals in parts of the U.S. are seeing a surge in a common respiratory illness that can cause severe breathing problems for babies.RSV cases fell dramatically two years ago as the pandemic shut down schools, day cares and businesses. With restrictions easing in the summer of 2021, doctors saw an alarming increase in what is normally a fall and winter virus.Now, it's back again. And doctors are bracing for how RSV, flu and COVID-19 could combine to stress hospital resources.“I'm calling it an emergency,” said Dr. Juan Salazar of Connecticut Children’s Hospital, where RSV has caused a shuffling of patients into playrooms and other spaces not normally used for beds. The institution explored using a National Guard field hospital, but has s...
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