CNN – Health

By Jacqueline Howard, CNN Early in the coronavirus pandemic, health officials closely monitored sewage samples for signs of the virus to track where it could be circulating. Now, that technique is being used to detect other infectious diseases: polio and monkeypox. Some disease detectives in the United States are narrowing their wastewater surveillance efforts to

By Kristen Rogers, CNN Suicide is a leading cause of death among children and adults, but spotting risk factors and warning signs isn’t easy. It’s National Suicide Prevention Week September 4 through September 10, part of Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. Nearly 46,000 people in the United States died by suicide in 2020, which is about

By Jen Christensen, CNN The organizers of Atlanta Black Pride, an LGBTQ celebration held each Labor Day weekend, have big plans. There will be parties and performances, workshops and financial literacy classes, brunches and a boat ride. This year also brings an event that no one ever expected would be necessary: a vaccination clinic. “We

By Jacqueline Howard and Jorge Engels, CNN Three people have died and several others in Argentina have become sick after developing pneumonia with no clear cause, the World Health Organization said Friday. Cases in eight health care workers and one other patient are linked to a private clinic in San Miguel de Tucumán, WHO spokesperson

By Brenda Goodman, CNN There’s a new kind of Covid-19 shot coming to a pharmacy or clinic near you. The US Food and Drug Administration and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed off on updated boosters that target the original strain of the coronavirus as well as the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.

By Naomi Thomas and Brenda Goodman, CNN The US Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorized updated Covid-19 vaccine booster shots from Moderna and Pfizer. This is the first time updated Covid-19 vaccines have received emergency use authorization in the United States. Both are bivalent vaccines that combine the companies’ original vaccine with one that

By Jack Guy, CNN African American adults who participate in frequent religious activities, or hold deeper spiritual beliefs, are more likely to score higher in indicators linked to good heart health than those who don’t, according to new research. More religious participants had better scores for blood pressure, cholesterol and other metrics known to influence

By Melissa Mahtani, CNN If you’ve ever been bitten by a mosquito, you know how frustrating their bites can be. The little red bumps swell up almost immediately, creating an itch that once you start scratching only seems to get worse. The more you scratch, the more they itch — starting a vicious cycle that

By Jen Christensen, CNN Billionaire Elon Musk tweeted, not for the first time, that “population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming.” Climate change is a serious problem facing the planet and experts say it’s difficult to compare problems. What is clear, demographers say, is that

By Amanda Sealy and Brenda Goodman, CNN Moderna on Friday filed patent infringement lawsuits against Pfizer and BioNTech “for infringing patents central to (its) mRNA technology platform,” the company said in a news release Friday. “Moderna believes that Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty infringes patents Moderna filed between 2010 and 2016 covering Moderna’s foundational

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN As the coronavirus evolves, the number of treatment options that remain effective against new variants has dwindled. Pfizer’s antiviral pill Paxlovid is one of the few that remain. However, some people who take Paxlovid — and some who don’t — experience a rebound case of Covid-19, with a resurgence of symptoms

By Jen Christensen, CNN Photographs by François Brunelle Sometimes when Charlie Chasen or Michael Malone would be out and about on their own in Atlanta, people would mistake one for the other. The long-time friends who live in Atlanta are not related. Their ancestors don’t even come from the same part of the world. Malone’s

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN The psychedelic compound psilocybin, commonly known as “shrooms” or magic mushrooms, may help people who struggle with alcohol dependence better manage their drinking, a new study found. In what researchers are calling the first published randomized trial to examine the effects of psilocybin on any type of addiction, people who underwent

By Daniella Diaz and Jen Christensen, CNN Trump administration officials had a “crusade against (the US Food and Drug Administration that) resulted in damaging consequences for the coronavirus response,” the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, led by Democrats, said in a report released Wednesday. In its second wide-ranging investigation on the coronavirus pandemic,

By Carma Hassan and Brenda Goodman, CNN Moderna submitted its application to the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization of its updated Covid-19 vaccine booster for use in people age 18 and older, the company said in a news release on Tuesday. The move came one day after Pfizer and BioNTech submitted

By Amanda Sealy, CNN Pfizer and BioNTech have submitted their application to the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization of their bivalent Covid-19 vaccine for use in people age 12 and older, the companies said in a statement on Monday. This updated formulation will combine the original vaccine with one that targets

By Brenda Goodman, CNN Health This fall, the health of the nation will depend in large part on vaccines. Health officials are banking on vaccinations to contain monkeypox and polio before those become standing threats in the United States. They’re counting on updated boosters to restore waning immunity against Covid-19. With influenza expected back in

By Jen Christensen, CNN The Biden administration announced new plans Thursday that should make it a lot easier for millions of kids to get access to mental and physical health services at school. The announcement specifically impacts the tens of millions of children who get their health care through Medicaid, but all school age children

By Jen Christensen, CNN Boston Children’s Hospital, which calls itself “home to the first pediatric and adolescent transgender health program in the United States,” says it has faced a “large volume” of threats of violence for offering that kind of care. The hospital said in an emailed statement Wednesday that its clinicians and staff have

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN Most monkeypox cases in the current outbreak have been linked to sexual activity, but research published Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers new insight into other ways it may be spreading. A man noticed his first lesion and subsequently developed a rash about two weeks after

By Chris Boyette, CNN Two human cases of West Nile virus have been reported in New York as the virus has been detected in a record number of mosquitoes in the city, health officials said Tuesday. Across the city’s five boroughs, 1,068 mosquito pools have tested positive for the virus, according to the New York

By Madeline Holcombe, CNN One teen pulls around a suitcase full of drugs, another is the victim of statutory rape, and many sex scenes show full-frontal nudity. That’s “Euphoria,” which might be your favorite show — but it’s understandable if it is not the model you want for your own teens. So what do you

By Rachel Fadem, CNN Whether you are afraid of being ripped off or just feel out of your depth in conversations with auto mechanics, taking your car in for maintenance can be stressful. Jessica Chou knows that stress — and how it can be compounded by gender stereotypes around car knowledge. When she was younger,

By Kristina Sgueglia and Jen Christensen, CNN Poliovirus has been detected in wastewater samples in New York City, suggesting likely local circulation of the virus, according to state and local health officials. “We are dealing with a trifecta. Covid is still very much here. Polio, we have identified polio in our sewage. And we’re still

By Brenda Goodman and Elizabeth Cohen, CNN The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the nation should move away from restrictive measures such as quarantines and social distancing and focus on reducing severe disease from Covid-19. In new guidelines released Thursday, the agency no longer recommends staying at least 6 feet away from