Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Latest Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Study highlights importance of RSV vaccination for high-risk populations

Since their introduction last year, researchers have been monitoring the real-world impact of the new respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines.

28 Oct 2024

How a proposed federal heat rule might have saved these workers’ lives

On a sweltering afternoon in July 2020, Belinda Ramones got a call that her brother was in the hospital. The call was from a woman at the Florida landscaping business that he had joined that week, the Davey Tree Expert Co., Ramones said. By the time she arrived, she said, "My brother was swollen up from hands to toes."

28 Oct 2024

Black Americans still suffer worse health. Here’s why there’s so little progress

One morning in late April, a small brick health clinic along the Thurgood Marshall Highway bustled with patients.

28 Oct 2024

Expanded access to weight-loss drugs could save thousands of lives

Researchers explore the potential benefits of expanding access to novel weight loss drugs to enhance survival rates in overweight and obese individuals.

28 Oct 2024

Long-term PM2.5 exposure increases asthma risk

Asthma is currently an incurable disease that severely impairs quality of life, with recurring symptoms such as wheezing, coughing, and shortness of breath.

26 Oct 2024

MHRA greenlights donanemab for early stage Alzheimer’s disease

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has today, 23 October 2024, approved a license for the medicine donanemab (Kisunla) for use in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, following a thorough review of the benefits and risks.

26 Oct 2024

Political polarization poses serious risks to public health

News coverage of the 2024 election season has often centered on how partisan division has affected our politics.

25 Oct 2024

Exclusive: Emails reveal how health departments struggle to track human cases of bird flu

Bird flu cases have more than doubled in the country within a few weeks, but researchers can't determine why the spike is happening because surveillance for human infections has been patchy for seven months.

25 Oct 2024

Masks and smart seating cut COVID-19 risks on flights, review finds

Air travel review reveals sporadic SARS-CoV-2 transmission, with mask use and seating proximity key to infection risk.

24 Oct 2024

Study finds minority patients less likely to refuse vaccines

Throughout the Covid pandemic, media widely reported that Black patients were more likely than White patients to refuse vaccines, including the influenza and Covid vaccines.

24 Oct 2024

Researchers decode MRSA biofilm structure to combat antibiotic resistance

Imagine falling seriously ill with an infection. Normally, we visit the doctor, are prescribed antibiotics, and after 7-10 days, we're back on our feet.

24 Oct 2024

New technology enables targeted delivery of antibiotics

Researchers from the University of Waterloo have developed a new technology that can hold an entire course of antibiotics in one tiny dose and deliver on demand just the right amount of medication that a particular patient needs to fight an infection.

24 Oct 2024

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Less than two weeks to go

As abortion and other reproductive issues gain more prominence in the looming election, some Republicans are trying to moderate their anti-abortion positions, particularly in states where access to the procedure remains politically popular.

24 Oct 2024

New pro-oxidant supplement shows promise in slowing prostate cancer progression

Prostate cancer is a quiet killer. In most men, it's treatable. However, in some cases, it resists all known therapies and turns extremely deadly.

24 Oct 2024

High-sensitivity wastewater surveillance correlates with COVID-19 infections

Wastewater surveillance has gained attention as an effective method for monitoring regional infection trends. In July 2024, the National Action Plan for Novel Influenza, etc. included the regular implementation of wastewater surveillance during normal times, with results to be published periodically in Japan.

24 Oct 2024

New antibody platform targets evolving viruses

Scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in collaboration with colleagues in the field, have developed an innovative antibody platform aimed at tackling one of the greatest challenges in treating rapidly evolving viruses like SARS-CoV-2: their ability to mutate and evade existing vaccines and therapies.

23 Oct 2024

Breakthrough research reveals neural basis of eating behavior

Speaking, singing, coughing, laughing, yelling, yawning, chewing-;we use our jaws for many purposes. Each action requires a complex coordination of muscles whose activity is managed by neurons in the brain.

23 Oct 2024

Vaccination of young children could dramatically reduce mpox deaths in DRC

Vaccinating children under five-years-old in endemic mpox regions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) would significantly reduce the number of deaths in the country, according to a new analysis by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health.

22 Oct 2024

New CDC report highlights disparities in flu hospitalization and vaccination

Black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) adults in the United States are more likely to be hospitalized with flu, as well as less likely to be vaccinated against flu, according to a new CDC Vital Signs report.

22 Oct 2024

Real world data highlights effectiveness of RSV vaccine

A multi-state study, published in The Lancet, is one of the first real world data analyses of the effectiveness of the RSV -- short for respiratory syncytial virus -- vaccine.

18 Oct 2024