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Widely used surgical masks are putting health care workers at serious risk

With medical supplies in high demand, federal authorities say health workers can wear surgical masks for protection while treating COVID-19 patients — but growing evidence suggests the practice is putting workers in jeopardy.

28 Apr 2020

International collaborators propose a new ranking scheme to classify SARS-CoV-2

In November of 2019--likely, even earlier--a tiny entity measuring just a few hundred billionths of a meter in diameter began to tear apart human society on a global scale.

28 Apr 2020

Recommendations for reducing impact of COVID-19 on people living in urban slums

Government-enforced social isolation may help relatively affluent populations limit the spread of COVID-19, but these measures can be devasting for the nearly 1 billion people around the globe currently dwelling in urban slums, where physical space is scarce, and many rely on daily wage labor for survival.

27 Apr 2020

Four drugs that could halt preterm labor identified

As the number of preterm births in the U.S. continues to rise, there is an increasing need for new approaches to prevent preterm labor from progressing to preterm birth. Researchers have discovered a common molecular pathway in women who experience preterm labor and are using this insight to develop new treatments for woman who experience early labor.

27 Apr 2020

Born into a pandemic: Virus complicates births for moms and babies

Mallory Pease's contractions grew stronger as her husband, Mitchell, drove her to Oaklawn Hospital in Marshall, Michigan, to give birth to their second child. It had been a routine pregnancy, but she told her doctor she'd recently developed a sore throat, aches, coughing and shortness of breath — symptoms her provider knew could indicate COVID-19.

24 Apr 2020

Top biochip firms speed up development of fast, reliable COVID-19 test

Surfix B.V., together with its shareholders Qurin Diagnostics B.V. and LioniX International B.V., already successfully developing bio-photonic nanochips for cancer detection and other applications, today announces an accelerated development plan to allow mass-scale COVID-19 diagnosis and immunity detection with the financial support and in close collaboration with PhotonDelta.

24 Apr 2020

Low-cost, portable detector takes about 30 minutes to identify pathogens

Most viral test kits rely on labor- and time-intensive laboratory preparation and analysis techniques; for example, tests for the novel coronavirus can take days to detect the virus from nasal swabs.

23 Apr 2020

Biden says OSHA isn’t doing enough to protect workers’ from COVID-19

During an April 15 virtual town hall meeting with front-line workers, former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democrats' presumptive nominee for the White House, was asked by a meat processing worker what he would do to protect workers like her from COVID-19.

23 Apr 2020

OSHA probing health worker deaths but urges inspectors to spare the penalties

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has in recent weeks launched investigations into deaths of workers at 34 health care employers across the U.S., federal records show, but former agency officials warn that the agency has already signaled it will only cite and fine the most flagrant violators.

22 Apr 2020

Study reveals surprising findings on gene involved in human pregnancy

From an evolutionary perspective, human pregnancy is quite strange, says University at Buffalo biologist Vincent Lynch.

22 Apr 2020

Overuse of emergency room could be prevented through primary care

David Slusky keeps hearing the same comments from other parents who are isolating with young children.

17 Apr 2020

Pregnancy and fetal outcomes with COVID-19

A new study published preprint in the non-peer-reviewed journal medRxiv in April 2020 provides a systematic review of maternal and fetal outcomes in pregnancy affected by COVID-19, as well as the risk of vertical transmission of the virus.

16 Apr 2020

Screening blood samples for COVID-19 using artificial intelligence

A promising new study published in the preprint online journal medRxiv in April 2020 shows the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) for developing a patient classifier that can separate patients likely to be negative for COVID-19 from among a pool of suspected patients visiting an emergency room (ER).

15 Apr 2020

Contactless measurement method helps detect people infected with coronavirus

An innovative measurement method is helping to detect people infected with coronavirus from a safe distance.

15 Apr 2020

UB biologist investigates how foxglove plants create medicinal compounds

Foxglove plants, found in many gardens, are known for the showers of bell-shaped flowers they produce.

13 Apr 2020

Sanders: In coronavirus relief effort, Congress fell short on paid sick leave

The pressure is building for Congress to pass a fourth coronavirus relief bill, beyond the roughly $2.2 trillion already approved to keep people and businesses viable during an unprecedented viral attack.

13 Apr 2020

A remote military surgical team can offer insights for U.S. medical centers to tackle COVID-19

As the number of people infected with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) rises in the U.S. and around the world, hospitals are faced with difficult decisions for how to best provide care for a growing number of patients.

10 Apr 2020

Researchers identify protein that plays critical role in cancer treatment-related heart damage

Many cancers can be successfully treated, but treatment itself often comes with risks as well. Cancer therapy that uses anthracyclines--a class of commonly used chemotherapy drugs--has been associated with heart damage that can eventually result in heart failure. It is thought to be the reason why heart disease is a leading cause of death in cancer survivors, immediately following cancer recurrence.

9 Apr 2020

Newsom’s ambitious health care agenda crumbles in a ‘radically changed’ world

This was supposed to be a big health care year for California.

9 Apr 2020

Novel intervention improves outcomes for opioid-dependent mothers and their children

The rate of pregnant women with opioid use disorder, or OUD, when giving birth more than quadrupled from 1999 to 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

8 Apr 2020