CNN – Health

By Ben Tinker, CNN Respiratory viruses including flu and RSV are circulating across the United States at high levels, overwhelming children’s hospitals and prompting concern among parents of young children. Most kids who get sick this season will recover quickly with home care, but some will need medical attention. What should parents watch for, and

By Jen Christensen, CNN A new study estimates that 1 in 50 deaths of otherwise healthy children under age 5 around the world is due to a common virus that’s currently surging in the US: respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. And in high-income countries, 1 in 56 babies who are born on time and are

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN A deadly outbreak of listeria in six states has been linked to contaminated deli meat and cheese, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced. But what can you do reduce your risk of becoming infected? What to know Listeria is a hardy germ, so determined to stick around

By Jacqueline Howard, CNN With Thanksgiving just two weeks away, people who are eligible for an updated Covid-19 vaccine booster but still haven’t received the shot will need to roll up their sleeves Thursday to get as much protection as possible before the holiday. Health officials are worried about a possible surge in respiratory illnesses

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN High blood pressure is a known risk factor for a bout of Covid-19 severe enough to raise the specter of hospitalization and death. In fact, research has shown having high blood pressure doubles the risk of having a severe case of Covid, even if you are fully vaccinated and boosted. Blood

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN Americans are failing In their endless quest for adequate slumber, leading to deficits that can impact health, according to a new study on sleep habits in the United States. The study, which authors called the the first to separately evaluate sleep duration between workdays and free days, analyzed sleep data on

By Ian Kerner, CNN A lot of heterosexual male clients are coming into my practice admitting they picked their partner without considering sexual attraction. During couples therapy sessions with his partner in the room, the man will claim that he doesn’t know why he isn’t experiencing desire. Maybe it’s stress, low testosterone or feeling anxious.

By Carma Hassan, CNN Average daily screen use by children during the Covid-19 pandemic increased by more than an hour and twenty minutes, according to an analysis published in JAMA Pediatrics on Monday. Researchers looked at screen time and the types of devices used between January 1, 2020, and March 5, 2022, by extracting data

By Katia Hetter and Stephen Mays, CNN It’s almost time for clocks to “spring forward” one hour. On the second Sunday of March, at 2 a.m., clocks in most of the United States and many other countries move forward one hour and stay there for nearly eight months in what is called Daylight Saving Time.

By Jen Christensen, CNN Pfizer and BioNTech said Friday that the immune responses against Omicron BA.4/BA.5 subvariants were “substantially higher” in people who got its new bivalent booster compared with people who received the companies’ original Covid-19 vaccine. The bivalent booster that targets the original coronavirus strain and the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants became

Opinion by Dr. Tom Frieden and Precious Matsoso In late June of this year, Ghana’s health authorities received some disturbing news: Two cases of viral hemorrhagic fever were detected in the country. Blood samples from the infected individuals came back positive for Marburg virus, a deadly disease that can kill most of those infected. The

By Jen Christensen, CNN A preventive treatment for lower respiratory tract infections caused by RSV got the go ahead from the European Commission on Friday, according to one of the companies that make it. The treatment is the first of its kind to protect all infants in their first year of life. A spokesperson from

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN Deaths caused by alcohol use in the United States spiked during the Covid-19 pandemic, killing more than 49,000 people in 2020, according to data published Friday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The alcohol-induced death rate has been steadily increasing in recent decades, but it jumped 26% between

By Brenda Goodman, CNN The first new type of antibiotic developed in more than 20 years to treat urinary tract infections (UTIs) appears to be so effective that the pharmaceutical company stopped testing and will soon submit its data to the US Food and Drug Administration for approval. Drug company GSK said Thursday the new

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN A single dose of a synthetic version of the mind-altering component of magic mushrooms, psilocybin, improved depression in people with a treatment-resistant form of the disease, a new study found. The randomized, double-blind clinical trial, which authors called “the largest of its kind,” compared results of a 25-milligram dose to a

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN The average travel time to an abortion facility increased significantly for women in the United States after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and revoked the federal right to an abortion, according to a new study published Tuesday in JAMA. More than a dozen states enacted complete or partial bans

By Madeline Holcombe, CNN After nearly three years of the pandemic, national test scores for students aren’t where educators hoped they would be — does that mean it’s time to break out the math and vocabulary drills? Maybe not, experts say. The National Center for Education Statistics, a branch of the US Department of Education,

By Jen Christensen, CNN A monoclonal antibody treatment for Alzheimer’s disease that showed promise in a Phase 3 trial may have contributed to a study participant’s death, according to an adverse events report obtained by the digital health publication Stat. Eisai, the company that makes the experimental drug lecanemab, said in a statement to CNN

By Brenda Goodman, CNN The Omicron BA.5 subvariant is no longer the dominant cause of Covid-19 infections in the United States, according to estimates released Friday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Instead, a host of new sublineages — offshoots of BA.2, BA.4 and BA.5 — are now responsible for the majority

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN Flu season has ramped up early in the United States, and flu hospitalizations are worse than usual for this time of year, according to data published Friday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s been more than a decade — since the H1N1 swine flu pandemic — since

By Jen Christensen, CNN Amid a surge of respiratory infections, children’s hospitals across the United States are so busy that some had to set up tents to handle patient overflow. The viruses are partly to blame for overwhelmed hospitals and packed emergency rooms, but for some, the problem is staffing: Many hospitals have empty beds,

By Katherine Dillinger, CNN In a possible warning sign for the US and other Northern Hemisphere countries, Chile’s 2022 flu season started much earlier than usual and brought more hospitalizations than during the pandemic, but the effectiveness of the vaccine against hospitalization was estimated to be almost 50%, according to a new study published by

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN People of color — especially Black and Hispanic people — were less likely to receive Paxlovid and other Covid-19 treatments, according to a study published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Throughout the pandemic, Black and Hispanic people have been about two times more likely than White

By Deidre McPhillips and Jacqueline Howard, CNN The United States is dealing with a unique season of respiratory virus transmission: Flu cases are on the rise earlier than usual, and RSV case rates are extra high, even after an “unprecedented” early surge this summer. And Covid-19 is still a public health emergency. Public health experts

By Carma Hassan, CNN Monkeypox can have “devastating outcomes” on severely immunocompromised patients such as those with untreated HIV, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New research published Wednesday in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report examined clinical case data for 57 patients hospitalized with monkeypox complications and found that

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN The social media platform TikTok has helped spread yet another potentially dangerous idea: taping your lips shut to stop mouth breathing at night. “If you have obstructive sleep apnea, yes, this can be very dangerous,” said sleep specialist Dr. Raj Dasgupta, an associate professor of clinical medicine at the Keck School

By Jen Christensen, CNN The measures that helped keep us safe from Covid-19 over the past 2½ years — lockdowns, physical distancing, wearing masks, washing hands — also helped limit the spread of other viruses. As people return to school and work and take off their masks, those viruses, including respiratory syncytial virus and flu,

By Brenda Goodman, CNN The updated Covid-19 booster shots appear to work about as well against the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants as the original boosters they replaced, according to two new studies from research teams at Harvard and Columbia universities. The research suggests that our bodies have been well-trained to fight the original virus,

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN For nearly two decades, Kristin Friberg has been a librarian with the Princeton Public Library in New Jersey, where one of her many roles is to lead local book groups. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, she worried about the book club participants who had become friends over the years and the

By Jacqueline Howard, CNN New ads promoting the Covid-19 vaccines are making their debut this week, targeting specific communities that have had a slow uptake of the updated shots. Black audiences are encouraged to get vaccinated in the “On Point” video, released by the US Department of Health and Human Services on Monday. A Spanish-language

By Steve Almasy and Sara Turnbull, CNN Hundreds of students missed class Monday at a northern Virginia high school where “a number of students have tested positive for influenza A” and others have symptoms consistent with the flu. The number of students who stayed home from Stafford High School in Fredericksburg dropped from about 1,000

By Jacqueline Howard, CNN People who reported experiencing side effects to the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines such as fever, chills or muscle pain tended to have a greater antibody response following vaccination, according to new research. Having such symptoms after vaccination is associated with greater antibody responses compared with having only pain or rash

By Jen Christensen, CNN In September, an 8-month-old baby came into Dr. Juanita Mora’s office in Chicago with an infection the doctor hadn’t expected to see for another two months: RSV. Like her peers across the country, the allergist and immunologist has been treating little ones with this cold-like virus well before the season usually

By Faith Karimi, CNN Eris Eady was scrolling through social media this week when she saw a news headline linking hair-straightening chemical products to an increased risk for uterine cancer. She paused. In the early 2000s, she worked as a cosmetologist and frequently used the products to straighten her hair and other women’s as well.

By Raja Razek, CNN As US health officials are becoming increasingly concerned about the impact of this year’s flu season, nearly half the students at a Virginia high school were absent with flu-like and gastrointestinal symptoms this week, according to the school district. “There are approximately 1,000 students absent with flu-like/gastrointestinal symptoms at Stafford High