Many available pain medications aren’t effective in reducing this often-debilitating type of chronic pain. However, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), in collaboration with UT Dallas and the University of Miami, may have advanced the treatment of neuropathic pain by discovering a molecule that reduces mechanical hypersensitivity in mice.
In February, 45 companies and organizations in Europe’s largest economy will introduce a 4-day workweek for half a year. Employees will continue to receive their full salary. Advocates argue that a 4-day workweek would increase worker productivity and, by consequence, help alleviate the country’s skilled labor shortage.
Hereditary angioedema, or HAE, is a rare disease that affects about one in 50,000 people. It is caused by a genetic mutation that leaves patients with leaky blood vessels, causing erratic bouts of swelling. Dr. Hilary Longhurst, the principal investigator at New Zealand’s Te Toka Tumai, Auckland City hospital, said the new single-dose therapy appeared to provide a permanent cure for her patients’ “very disabling symptoms”.
Miami-Dade county is set to receive nearly $20 million from the Environmental Protection Agency to help cover the costs of 50 new electric school buses and 16 DC fast chargers, bringing the public school district’s total to 100 electric buses. Miami-Dade county is one of four school districts selected to receive a total of $33,175,000 through the EPA’s first Clean School Bus Program’s Grants Competition.
A recent trial of 786 people – conducted by Dr. Nicholas Ashton at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and colleagues – found the new test to be as accurate at detecting the signs of Alzheimer’s as painful lumbar punctures, and better than a range of other tests currently being worked on. Experts say it could pave the way for national screening programs for people 50 and over, and that current treatments could work better with the cases picked up earlier.
Malaria vaccine rollout reached a historic milestone in January 2024 when Cameroon became the first country to administer the RTS,S vaccine, also known as Mosquirix, as part of a routine national immunization program. More than 662,000 doses began reaching children across the country, targeting a disease responsible for 95% of global malaria deaths, most among children under five. The moment caps over 35 years of development and a successful WHO recommendation in 2021. With 19 additional African countries planning to follow, the rollout could eventually protect millions of children each year.
The city is working with RIP Medical Debt, a nonprofit that buys medical debt in bulk from hospitals and debt collectors for pennies on the dollar. The group targets the debt of people with low incomes or financial hardships and then forgives the amounts. Under the program, the city will spend $18 million over three years.
A new study from Public Health Scotland has found that no cases of cervical cancer have been detected in young women who have been fully-vaccinated as part of the HPV immunization program, concluding that the vaccine was “highly effective” in preventing the development of the cancer. Scotland’s HPV vaccination program started in 2008 with girls offered the vaccine in their first year at secondary school.
The vaccine- developed by Dr. Thomas Wagner of U.S.-based Orbis Health Solutions – has already been tested in hundreds of patients with advanced forms of melanoma in Phase 2 clinical trials. The most recent data showed nearly 95% of people given only the vaccine were still alive three years after starting treatment and 64% were still disease-free. Among the most advanced forms of melanoma, disease-free survival after three years for people with stage III disease was 60% in the vaccine-only group, compared to about 39% in the placebo group.
Cape Verde, an island nation off the coast of West Africa, was given the status by the World Health Organization (WHO) as it has not reported a single case of local transmission in three years. Experts have hailed this as a major achievement. It’s the first time a sub-Saharan African nation has been declared malaria-free in 50 years.
