Trump to declare opioid crisis a ‘public health emergency’
President Trump on Thursday will announce he is directing his Department of Health and Human Services to declare the opioid crisis a public health emergency
Public health & disease
Scientists have successfully reversed advanced heart failure in mice
The discovery, which involves “silencing” the Hippo pathway in the heart, could lead to better treatments for those at risk of heart failure potentially ones that could eliminate the condition entirely.
Breast-cancer death rate in the United States drops almost 40 percent, saving 322,000 lives
Breast cancer death rates declined almost 40 percent between 1989 and 2015, averting 322,600 deaths, the American Cancer Society reported Tuesday.
Cambodia and Laos wipe out trachoma as a public health problem
Trachoma is an eye disease caused by infection with Chlamydia trachomatis bacteria. It is the leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide.
Scientists invented a pen that can screen for cancer in seconds rather than weeks
In lab settings, using mice and human tissue samples, researchers were able to correctly identify lung, ovary, thyroid, and breast cancers and do so with around 93% accuracy.
U.S. wind and solar power helped prevent up to 12,700 deaths
The lower carbon emissions were worth billions of dollars as a result of the avoidance of the range of problems caused by fossil fuels.
U.K. pledges £100m to global efforts to eradicate polio
Money will fund vaccination of 45 million children annually until 2020, when the world could finally be declared polio-free
FDA announces comprehensive regulatory plan to shift trajectory of tobacco-related disease, death
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced a new comprehensive plan for tobacco and nicotine regulation that will serve as a multi-year roadmap to better protect kids and significantly reduce tobacco-related disease and death.
Scientists report a rare case of H.I.V. remission
For the third time in recent years, a child born with H.I.V. has been found free of the virus for a long period after a high dose of treatment early in life.
World’s first malaria vaccine will be given to thousands of babies in Africa
Last week WHO announced that one of several potential malaria vaccines in development has made it through a crucial phase of trials and is now ready to be tested in the field.