In March 2020, weeks before the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic, its director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus delivered a speech in which he emphasized the importance of testing: “… the most effective way to prevent infections and save lives is breaking the chains of transmission. And to do that, you must test and isolate. You cannot fight a […]

Photo: Peter Shen Some artificial intelligence experts have been worrying publicly that recent, high-profile AI programs are starting to get too good at passing as human – which could have the effect of eroding trust in the technology. Peter Shen, the head of the digital and automation business at Siemens Healthineers, worries about the risk a loss of trust could […]

New World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for the treatment of drug resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) are shaping as a game changer for the estimated 500,000 people diagnosed with DR-TB each year, and the longer-term goal to end the global TB pandemic by 2035. The guidelines are based on findings of a five-year trial called TB PRACTECAL which found that an all-oral […]

Looking down at my beautiful daughter Amy lying on a hospital bed hooked up to life support, tears rolled down my cheeks.  How had it come to this?  Just hours earlier, she’d been chatting away to me on Facetime. Now, she was lifeless in front of my eyes as family and friends leaned in to kiss her forehead and say their final goodbyes. For years, I’d watched Amy […]

Metabolic pathways consist of a series of biochemical reactions in cells that convert a starting component into other products. There is growing evidence that metabolic pathways coupled with external stress factors influence the health of cells and tissues. Many human diseases, including retinal or neurodegenerative diseases, are associated with imbalances in metabolic pathways. Elisabeth Knust leads a team of researchers […]

The relatively recent innovation of heart transplantation after circulatory death of the donor is increasing the number of donor hearts available and leading to many more lives on the heart transplant waiting list being saved. Experts agree it’s a major and very welcome advance in medicine. However, some of the processes involved in one approach to donation after circulatory death […]

A new study published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology examines mortality related to pregnancy during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and compares these rates to pre-pandemic rates. Study: Changes in pregnancy-related mortality associated with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the United States. Image Credit: cristinarosepix / Shutterstock.com What did the study show? There were rises in maternal mortality and […]

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SAN JOSE/SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) – The Inter-American Court of Human Rights on Wednesday began hearing the historic case of a Salvadoran woman who was denied an abortion in 2013 despite doctors’ calls to terminate her high-risk pregnancy. The case of the woman, a domestic worker known only as Beatriz, became a symbol of El Salvador’s blanket ban on abortion, which […]

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