https://medicalxpress.com/common-illnesses-prevention-news/ en-us Latest health news and information about Common Illnesses & Prevention Health authorities in the Northern Territory have issued warnings for residents and visitors to avoid mosquito bites after two people from Alice Springs died from Murray Valley encephalitis. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-murray-valley-encephalitis-fatal-vaccine.html Sat, 30 May 2026 18:30:02 EDT news699192847 Osteoporosis is a silent disease where bone loss develops gradually before fractures occur. Current clinical screening recommendations mainly focus on older women and selected high-risk groups, leaving some men, younger adults, and individuals with normal body weight completely outside routine screening pathways. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-ai-repurposes-routine-chest-rays.html Sat, 30 May 2026 17:00:02 EDT news699274705 Chikungunya virus, which is transmitted to people by infected Aedes mosquitoes and characterized by high fever and intense joint swelling and pain, has made a resurgence in many countries around the world in recent years. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-chikungunya-virus-infections-chronic.html Sat, 30 May 2026 16:00:02 EDT news699190591 New results from the Phase III SUNRISE clinical trial show that tezepelumab significantly reduced the need for long-term oral corticosteroid use in adults with severe oral corticosteroid-dependent asthma while maintaining asthma control and improving key clinical outcomes. The findings were published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-tezepelumab-severe-asthma-patients-oral.html Sat, 30 May 2026 14:00:01 EDT news699274281 Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbots respond to everyday health-related questions from general users with nearly 76% accuracy, which raises concerns about their trustworthiness in real-world client-facing applications, according to a new study led by Penn State researchers. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-doctor-gpt-ai-responses-health.html Sat, 30 May 2026 11:00:04 EDT news699191570 Dr. James Mu had braced for the call that came in late January. A patient from his rural Northern California county had measles, a disease so rare there that many physicians have never treated a case. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-vaccine-skeptical-california-county-potential.html Fri, 29 May 2026 18:20:02 EDT news699262807 An estimated 1 in 8 women live with polycystic ovarian syndrome, commonly referred to as PCOS. However, the name is a bit of a misnomer; it suggests that the condition affects only the ovaries. In actuality, the condition is a broader metabolic and hormonal disorder. After years of research and patient advocacy, a recent report in The Lancet announced a new designation to reflect the condition's whole-body impact: polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS). https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-ovaries-pcos-condition-multisystem-nature.html Fri, 29 May 2026 16:00:01 EDT news699268441 People with celiac disease and dermatitis herpetiformis have a slightly increased risk of cardiovascular disease, certain types of blood cancer, and premature death. This is shown by a large U.S. registry study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet. The results are published in the journal The Lancet Regional Health—Americas. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-celiac-disease-heart-early-death.html Fri, 29 May 2026 14:00:03 EDT news699279721 Long-term residential exposure to traffic-related and industry-related pollutants is associated with increased chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) risk, according to a study published online May 28 in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-traffic-industrial-pollutants-chronic-rhinosinusitis.html Fri, 29 May 2026 13:51:45 EDT news699281433 A Kenyan court has reportedly shut down a plan set in motion by the Trump administration to quarantine Ebola-exposed Americans in Kenya. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-kenyan-court-blocks-trump-quarantine.html Fri, 29 May 2026 13:40:03 EDT news699279301 Moving more and sitting less could lower the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-movement-pregnancy-linked-complications.html Fri, 29 May 2026 12:20:03 EDT news699274223 A new study by researchers at the University of Sydney has shown that taking cannabidiol (CBD) can significantly reduce chronic neuropathic pain in those suffering from it. The findings of the randomized placebo-controlled trial, published in eClinicalMedicine, demonstrated that taking CBD over a six-week period reduced pain by approximately 14%, compared to 6.5% from the placebo. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-cannabidiol-significantly-chronic-pain-nerve.html Fri, 29 May 2026 12:00:02 EDT news699268613 Uganda confirmed two new Ebola cases on Friday, bringing the total to nine—including one fatality—since the outbreak was declared on May 15 in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-uganda-ebola-cases-health-ministry.html Fri, 29 May 2026 12:00:01 EDT news699274518 A News and Perspectives expert analysis on consumer wearable platforms' forays into the clinical health care space. Authored by MedTech expert Blythe Karow, MBA, "Meet the New Health Care Gatekeeper: Your Wearable" lays out the implications of wearable tech companies owning the first conversation about a patient's health, as well as the potential impacts on patient trust, policy, and regulation. The analysis appears in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-analysis-reveals-consumer-wearables-emerge.html Fri, 29 May 2026 11:20:03 EDT news699268837 A University of California, Riverside-led study has found that heavily used high-puff electronic cigarettes may contain higher levels of harmful chemicals than fresh e-cigarettes, raising concerns about potential health risks for users. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-high-puff-cigarettes-toxic.html Fri, 29 May 2026 10:00:04 EDT news699267181 The UN health chief was on Friday in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where authorities are struggling to contain the spread of a deadly Ebola outbreak but the recovery of a patient, the first since the crisis began, was confirmed. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-chief-ebola-dr-congo-recovery.html Fri, 29 May 2026 09:20:05 EDT news699263649 It's quick to spot a tick, but harder to know if that tick carries Lyme disease. Emergency room visits for tick bites provide important data for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but doctors often cannot immediately confirm whether a patient has Lyme disease. Blood tests depend on antibodies that typically take about two weeks to develop after infection. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-what-tick-tests-can-and.html Fri, 29 May 2026 09:00:09 EDT news699263295 There is good news for patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Research from Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital may have opened the door to an entirely new way of reducing inflammation in the joints. The study is published in the journal EULAR Rheumatology Open. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-treatment-rheumatoid-arthritis.html Thu, 28 May 2026 21:00:03 EDT news699183640 For the first time, researchers found blood biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease that correlated with minor cognitive differences in midlife adults who did not have dementia. The study, led by UC San Francisco, also found that the biomarkers, which measure tau and amyloid plaque, were associated with a greater chance of cognitive decline in these participants. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-blood-biomarkers-reveal-subtle-midlife.html Thu, 28 May 2026 18:30:05 EDT news699205741 A collaborative study out of Mass General Brigham and RTI International has examined which opioid crisis-fighting strategies help communities achieve the highest return on investment in terms of lives saved. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-qa-high-strategies-communities-front.html Thu, 28 May 2026 17:00:06 EDT news699202681 Researchers at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine have found that patients who continue to smoke ahead of lung cancer surgery have a higher risk of pulmonary complications, but their short-term mortality rate is similar to patients who were able to stop smoking before surgery. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-lung-cancer-patients-dont-surgery.html Thu, 28 May 2026 16:20:07 EDT news699202561 A training initiative to improve UK health workers' vaccine conversations is proving so successful that a University of Bristol-led spinout has been created to continue the important work. Generating more informed, empathetic conversations with patients and parents that also address misinformation about vaccines has strong potential to improve uptake and reverse the gradual reduction in childhood vaccination coverage nationally over the past decade. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-health-worker-vaccine-communication-spinout.html Thu, 28 May 2026 15:40:03 EDT news699199982 A vaccine against the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus will be ready by the end of the year, the head of Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said Thursday. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-african-union-health-agency-vows.html Thu, 28 May 2026 14:40:03 EDT news699193603 More than a quarter of women buying menstrual products also purchase pain relief at the same time—and those in lower-income areas are significantly less likely to do so—according to a new study published this week in PLOS Digital Health by Dr. Victoria Sivill of the University of Bristol, UK, and colleagues. The work used supermarket loyalty card data to map menstrual pain disparities across England. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-supermarket-receipts-trends-menstrual-pain.html Thu, 28 May 2026 14:00:01 EDT news699182197 A dangerous sedative called medetomidine has been quietly spreading through New York's illicit drug supply. A new analysis shows how, over several years of careful tracking and coordination, public health agencies in New York State executed a data-driven response to alert the public, make health practitioners aware of the emergent substance, distribute test strips and ultimately save lives. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-dangerous-drug-adulterant-health-response.html Thu, 28 May 2026 13:42:24 EDT news699194463 Obesity may change how early-stage breast cancer becomes invasive, according to a study by University of Oklahoma researchers published in The American Journal of Pathology. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-obesity-breast-cancer.html Thu, 28 May 2026 13:00:04 EDT news699189662 Researchers at the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG) and the University Hospital of Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH) have made a significant breakthrough in the treatment of severe heart failure: For the first time, a clinical trial has demonstrated that laboratory-grown heart muscle tissue can improve the pumping function of damaged hearts. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-lab-grown-heart-patch-boosts.html Thu, 28 May 2026 12:40:05 EDT news699187501 The 2026 FIFA World Cup is the biggest ever edition of the world's most watched sporting tournament. The 48 teams taking part in Canada, the US and Mexico may find their toughest opponent is the extreme heat. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-world-cup-games-evenings-isnt.html Thu, 28 May 2026 12:20:04 EDT news699185821 New evidence shows that sticking to five lifestyle recommendations improves survival after a later cancer diagnosis. The findings provide encouraging evidence that simple, achievable habits established before a cancer diagnosis can play a role in improving long-term health and the health of those following a cancer diagnosis. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-healthy-lifestyle-shown-death-cancer.html Thu, 28 May 2026 11:00:01 EDT news699183840 According to researchers at Semmelweis University, not only inflammation, but also sleep disorders, depression, obesity, and smoking may sustain persistent rheumatic symptoms. In their publications in the journals Nature Reviews Rheumatology and The Lancet Rheumatology, they also proposed a model that can help identify and treat the true causes of symptoms in time. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-depression-consequence-rheumatoid-arthritis.html Thu, 28 May 2026 10:40:06 EDT news699180361