https://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. If Texans are typing "bedbug treatment" into Google more often, North Texas appears to be doing it the most. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-bedbugs-experts.html Wed, 07 Jan 2026 23:20:01 EST news686992735 Air pollution is one of the world's leading health risks, contributing to nearly one in eight deaths globally. A new study published in Science Advances by the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC) shows that stringent climate policies designed to avoid temporarily exceeding 1.5°C warming could prevent hundreds of thousands of premature deaths while avoiding trillions of dollars in economic damages. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-10-stringent-climate-policies-major-health.html Fri, 17 Oct 2025 14:00:04 EDT news679849087 In one of the first studies of its kind, a team of researchers from Keck School of Medicine of USC has found that proteins and pathways involved in inflammation are associated with changes in bone mineral density (BMD) over time. Findings from the study were published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-03-inflammation-proteins-linked-bone-density.html Fri, 14 Mar 2025 08:03:22 EDT news661158196 A new international study provides a shortlist of the wildlife species present at the market from which SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, most likely arose in late 2019. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-samples-huanan-seafood-evidence-covid.html Thu, 19 Sep 2024 11:00:01 EDT news645955057 The seventh cholera pandemic, which began in 1961, has annually afflicted millions and claimed tens of thousands of lives. Recognized by the World Health Organization as the longest-lasting pandemic in history, cholera spreads through contamination of household water sources by the Vibrio cholerae bacterium, often from poor sanitation infrastructure. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-08-smartphone-app-effectively-cholera.html Tue, 13 Aug 2024 11:58:31 EDT news642769107 A new study has revealed the increased home death ratio in Japan during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. High population density, large numbers of patients infected with COVID-19, and areas with numerous enhanced home care support clinics and hospitals were all factors associated with increased home deaths. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-04-japanese-home-death-ratio-covid.html Thu, 25 Apr 2024 12:46:54 EDT news633268010 Using a web application to qualify individuals for treatment with a non-prescription statin closely matched the results of clinician assessments in determining a person's eligibility for taking statins to lower cholesterol, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's Annual Scientific Session. Participants who were given access to a 5 mg dose of rosuvastatin using this technology-assisted approach experienced a 35.5% reduction in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, on average, six months after starting treatment. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-04-web-app-effective-access-statins.html Mon, 08 Apr 2024 14:30:01 EDT news631802387 Every year, more than one million deaths globally occur because of exposure to short-term (hours to days) fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in air pollution, according to a new report, with Eastern Asia reporting more than 50% of deaths attributable to short-term PM2.5 globally. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-03-short-term-exposure-high-air.html Tue, 05 Mar 2024 18:30:01 EST news628878507 How many neurosurgeons are needed worldwide? Recent reports have suggested that a neurosurgeon ratio of approximately 1 neurosurgeon per 65,000 individuals may not be adequate. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-01-neurosurgeon-density-global-unmet.html Tue, 16 Jan 2024 13:00:02 EST news624630942 Breast density information aims to increase awareness of breast density and its risks and inform future breast screening decisions. Breast density notifications (BDN) advise women to discuss breast density with their clinicians, but prior research shows less than half of women in the general population have those conversations and little is known about the content of conversations that do occur. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-11-breast-density-discussions-clinicians-varies.html Mon, 27 Nov 2023 12:50:23 EST news620311820 The French government said Friday it was launching a concerted effort to fight bedbugs that have appeared in numbers in public transport, cinemas and hospitals. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-09-france-bedbug-invasion.html Fri, 29 Sep 2023 06:21:32 EDT news615187289 The risk of cardiovascular diseases, including myocardial infarction and stroke, has been shown to be roughly twice as high in people living with HIV than the general population, creating an urgent need to test prevention strategies to ensure healthier, longer lives. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-07-daily-statin-medication-major-cardiovascular.html Mon, 24 Jul 2023 12:11:04 EDT news609419461 A new paper sets out key research done by scientists at the University of Liverpool with partners to show that disease may be more likely to jump from animals to humans in parts of a city hosting high densities of people, livestock and urban-adapted wildlife such as rats. The paper, "Epidemiological connectivity between humans and animals across an urban landscape," is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-07-disease-outbreaks-urban-areas.html Mon, 17 Jul 2023 10:05:04 EDT news608807102 Osteoporosis is a degenerative, debilitating bone disease that is increasingly prevalent in postmenopausal women. Despite its being classified as one of the four most dangerous health issues today, a new study demonstrated that many women either misunderstand it or underestimate its potential effects. As a result, the disease often remains undetected and undertreated. Study results are published online today in Menopause. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-06-osteoporosis-misunderstood-health-consequences.html Wed, 07 Jun 2023 16:28:06 EDT news605374082 Over the past few years, the Department of Family Medicine and the Department of Psychiatry in UNC's School of Medicine have been working together to spearhead the development of a new "enhanced primary care" model to provide better primary care for patients who have severe mental illnesses. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-04-primary-effective-patients-severe-mental.html Tue, 11 Apr 2023 03:51:13 EDT news600403868 From the widespread outbreak of mpox (formerly called monkeypox) in 2022, to the evolving bird flu situation, to recent cases of Marburg virus in Equatorial Guinea, COVID isn't dominating the headlines as much as it used to. Instead, we've been regularly hearing about outbreaks of newly emerging or re-emerging viruses. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-03-covid-bird-flu-mpox-virologist.html Wed, 15 Mar 2023 14:30:01 EDT news598105974 COVID-19 came as an unexpected challenge for humanity. Countries adopted different, sometimes diametrically opposed approaches to minimizing the pandemic's impact: from hard lockdowns to no restrictions at all, as in Sweden. It was only last week that China began to relax its zero-tolerance policy. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-01-scientists-regional-factors-affect-covid-.html Mon, 23 Jan 2023 13:40:04 EST news593703601 Fresh fruit and vegetables prescribed by doctors could be an effective way to improve the health of Australians with type 2 diabetes, according to a new study published today in the Journal of Nutrition. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-08-apple-day-doctors-ill-health.html Mon, 22 Aug 2022 09:17:52 EDT news580378667 Disproportionately high COVID-19 mortality rates among Black populations in Louisiana parishes are the result of longstanding health vulnerabilities associated with institutional and societal discrimination, according to research conducted by an interdisciplinary team under the mentorship of University of Maryland (UMD) Clark Distinguished Chair Deb Niemeier and UMD Associate Professor of Kinesiology Jennifer Roberts in the School of Public Health. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-06-racism-higher-covid-death-louisiana.html Mon, 27 Jun 2022 15:00:04 EDT news575541758 Children who are born severely ill or who develop serious illness in the first few weeks of life are often difficult to diagnose, with considerable implications for their short and longer-term care. But whole genome sequencing (WGS), carried out rapidly, can provide an accurate diagnosis and therefore lead to improvements in their clinical care. Results from an Australian study of such a use of WGS presented to the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics on June 12 show how the integration of genomic, transcriptomic, and functional data can accelerate rare disease diagnosis on a national scale. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-06-rapid-genome-sequencing-diagnosis-critically.html Mon, 13 Jun 2022 12:32:56 EDT news574342373 Breast density notifications aim to educate women about the risks of high breast density, defined as having more fibroglandular tissue than fatty tissue, as visualized on a mammogram. Prompted by activists whose own breast density had obscured breast cancers on their mammograms, 38 U.S. states and Washington, DC, have enacted legislation requiring written notification of a patient's breast density (DBN) after a mammogram and language for a federal notification is forthcoming from the U.S.A. Food and Drug Administration. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-03-size-regard-breast-density.html Mon, 21 Mar 2022 10:46:43 EDT news567078400 Hong Kong's "zero-COVID" policy was on the ropes Saturday as authorities announced a record number of new infections, sending officials scrambling to ramp up testing capacity and warning that a tightening of virus-control measures could be needed. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-02-covid-infections-hong-kong-high.html Sun, 06 Feb 2022 05:29:40 EST news563347770 Academics and data scientists from Durham University and UN Global Pulse (UNGP) have developed an agent-based model to simulate the spread of COVID-19 in the Cox's Bazar refugee settlement in Bangladesh. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-10-simulation-covid-world-largest-refugee.html Thu, 28 Oct 2021 14:00:05 EDT news554622961 Despite high volumes of SARS-CoV-2 tests and the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines, and increased use of electronic health records, little is known about whether the data in those records can predict SARS-CoV-2 test positivity. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-10-income-code-affect-covid-positive.html Wed, 20 Oct 2021 12:38:55 EDT news553952329 During the "first wave" of COVID-19 in the United States, Rajan Chakrabarty, the Harold D. Jolley Career Development Associate Professor at Washington University in St. Louis, learned that African Americans made up 47% of the population in St. Louis, but nearly three quarters of COVID-19 cases. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-10-environmental-injustice-population-density-covid-.html Wed, 20 Oct 2021 07:00:30 EDT news553932025 More than 200 million U.S. residents have gotten at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine with the expectation that the vaccines slow virus transmission and save lives. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-10-coronavirus-vaccines.html Fri, 15 Oct 2021 09:56:54 EDT news553510608 Combining data on antibody prevalence, PCR test results, genomic surveillance and population mobility from smartphones has allowed infectious disease modelers to explain the evolution of the first three COVID-19 waves that have affected Kenya since the start of the pandemic. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-10-covid-kenya-socio-economic-differences-introduction.html Tue, 12 Oct 2021 09:24:46 EDT news553249482 Some blood lipid biomarkers linked to cardiovascular disease risk are also associated with a lower risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) suggest the findings of a large epidemiology study published online in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-09-blood-lipoprotein-linked-future-als.html Mon, 13 Sep 2021 18:30:02 EDT news550755612 People's social behavior, reflected in their mobility data, is providing scientists with a way to forecast the spread of COVID-19 nationwide at the county level. Researchers from Florida Atlantic University's College of Engineering and Computer Science and collaborators have developed the first data-driven deep learning model with the potential to predict an outbreak in COVID-19 cases two weeks in advance. Findings from this study have important implications for managing the current pandemic as well as future pandemics. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-08-covid-outbreak-weeks.html Thu, 05 Aug 2021 10:48:23 EDT news547379299 The presence of a state prison in a county was associated with 11% more COVID-19 cases through July 1, 2020, according to a new study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-06-counties-state-prisons-first-wave-covid-.html Tue, 29 Jun 2021 16:00:02 EDT news544197463