West Nile virus cases running higher than normal, prompting health warnings

Chicago's average life expectancy bounced back to 78.7 years in 2023, nearly hitting its prepandemic peak—though large gaps remain between races and neighborhoods, according to the city health department.

The first ever trial of microsurgical suture repair vs. nerve alignment for digital nerve injuries suggests suture repair does not improve outcomes.

Patients begin lining up before dawn at Operation Border Health, an annual five-day health clinic in Texas' Rio Grande Valley. Many residents in this predominantly Latino and Hispanic region spanning the Mexican border lack insurance, making the health fair a major source of free medical care in South Texas for more than 25 years.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration released draft guidance to advance safe and effective nonopioid treatment options and reduce risks tied to prescription opioid misuse.

Australian public health authorities have been urged to prepare for a possible increase in severe COVID-19 cases during the local bushfire season, following a QUT-led study that suggests there was a strong link between wildfire smoke exposure and increased COVID-19 hospitalizations in New York State after the 2023 Quebec wildfires.

Psychedelics, a class of psychoactive drugs that typically induce peculiar mental states and hallucinations, are still prohibited for recreational use in most countries worldwide. In recent years, some neuroscientists and medical researchers have been exploring the potential therapeutic effects of these drugs, focusing on the treatment of depression, anxiety and various substance use disorders.

Duke-NUS Medical School, working with an international team of experts, has contributed to a new evidence-based plan to tackle anemia—a condition affecting nearly two billion people worldwide and a persistent obstacle to achieving global health goals.

Multisystemic smooth muscle dysfunction syndrome (MSMDS) is a rare condition associated with stroke, aortic dissection (tearing) and death in childhood. Currently, there is no effective treatment or cure for MSMDS.

Although Latinos and Hispanics are at elevated risk for Alzheimer's disease and account for almost half of Los Angeles County's population, a recent UCLA Health study finds that accessible digital resources for these communities remain in short supply since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The latest survey from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the fourth of its kind, confirms that Candidozyma auris (formerly Candida auris) continues to spread quickly across European hospitals, posing a serious threat to patients and health care systems.

Implementing artificial intelligence (AI) into NHS hospitals is far harder than initially anticipated, with complications around governance, contracts, data collection, harmonization with old IT systems, finding the right AI tools and staff training, finds a major new UK study led by UCL researchers.

Research led by Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Program shows that over half of hospital patients with breathlessness had died within a year of admission (51%), as opposed to just 26% of those without the symptom.

Spinal cord injuries caused by external trauma, such as traffic accidents or falls, often lead to the permanent loss of motor and sensory functions. This is because the spinal cord—the central pathway connecting the brain and the rest of the body—harbors a "brake" mechanism that halts repair. For the first time, the molecular mechanism behind this braking system has been revealed.

Death rates from chronic diseases have fallen in four out of five countries around the world in the last decade—but progress has slowed, suggests an analysis led by researchers at Imperial College London and published in The Lancet.

Existing approaches to behavioral programs targeted at parents with children up to age 12 months and that aim to combat childhood obesity are insufficient to improve body mass index (BMI) at approximately two years of age, according to the largest study to date on the topic, published in The Lancet.

Early detection of even the slightest motor function changes can be critical to slowing the progression of Parkinson's disease. Yet these subtle signs often go unnoticed. Now, UF researcher Diego L. Guarín, Ph.D., is harnessing AI to spot these subtle changes from video recordings before clinical symptoms become evident to the clinician's eyes.

Older adults are increasingly discontinuing benzodiazepines soon after hospital discharge, but a significant number continue use for months, putting them at risk for serious health problems, according to new research published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Scientists at Scripps Research have developed a novel method that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced imaging techniques to more accurately and efficiently identify therapeutic antibodies to treat infectious diseases.