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Dupilumab (Dupixent) became the first drug approved to treat eosinophilic esophagitis in adults and pediatric patients ages 12 and older weighing at least 40 kg (~88 lb), the FDA announced. Eosinophilic esophagitis is a chronic, progressive disease in which the esophagus becomes inflamed due to a buildup of eosinophils, creating difficulty swallowing and eating. Dupilumab

The FDA has opened the public comment period for the agency’s proposed ban on menthol cigarettes. Epidemiology and global health professor Rafael Meza studies data modeling in disease prevention and cancer risk. David Mendez, who studies smoking cessation and tobacco control policies, is an associate professor of health management and policy. These University of Michigan

Patients who self-report as Black or Hispanic appear more likely than White patients to experience occult hypoxemia during anesthesia, a large retrospective cohort study suggests. Dr Matthew Levin “The rate of occult hypoxemia — arterial blood oxygen saturation less than 88% despite a pulse oximetry reading greater than 92% — was significantly higher in patients

The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic in March 2020. But it’s only in recent days, in May 2022, that the secretive Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) has reported its first confirmed cases of the virus. While it may seem somewhat astounding that a country has managed to get so far into

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, signed off today on an advisory panel’s recommendation that children ages 5 to 11 years should receive a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine booster dose at least 5 months after completion of the primary series. The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted 11:1 Thursday

Similar to their older peers, children ages 5 to 11 should get a third dose of Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnaty), the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) said on Thursday. In an 11-1 vote, with one abstention, the committee agreed that children ages 5 to 11 should receive an additional dose of the mRNA

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is a struggle, especially when you’re surrounded by temptations and distractions. It may be easier at first to say that you’re switching to a healthy lifestyle or diet, but it can become more difficult during the process. You need to adapt to a new lifestyle, change your diet, and follow a

President Joe Biden took steps on Wednesday to deal with the nationwide shortage of powdered baby formula.  He used the Defense Production Act to require suppliers to direct resources to baby formula makers before other customers, the White House said in a fact sheet. “Directing firms to prioritize and allocate the production of key infant

Imagine walking into the Library of Congress, with its millions of books, and having the goal of reading them all. Impossible, right? Even if you could read every word of every work, you wouldn’t be able to retain or comprehend everything — even if you spent a lifetime trying.  Now let’s say you somehow had

[embedded content] In this video, Mikhail Varshavski, DO — who goes by “Dr. Mike” on social media — watches painful TikTok gym accidents. Following is a transcript of the video (note that errors are possible): Varshavski: We all want to go to the gym and get swole, but how many of us have had accidents

WIESBADEN, Germany — To differentiate temporary or even long-lasting symptoms, such as in the back, from one of the 100 or so “actual” rheumatologic conditions is not easy, even for specialists. “Inflammatory conditions of the connective tissue, which pervades the body, can be found throughout, in joints, muscles, vessels, organs,” explained Ulf Müller-Ladner, MD, chair

Gastroenterologists, like many other physicians, fared better financially in 2021 than during the height of the pandemic in 2020, according to the 2022 Medscape Gastroenterology Compensation Report. Gastroenterologists’ average annual income rose from $406,000 in 2020 to $453,000 in 2021 — an increase of 12% over the prior year, second only to otolaryngologists (+13%). “Compensation

Our profession often sends the message that we are invincible heroes. Here’s my vulnerable and honest admission: I lapped that up. There was something so seductive about denying pesky human requirements, like sleep, regular exercise, and time to decompress. I liked being needed more than I liked having needs. I sublimated mine under my superhero

May 17, 2022 – The FDA expanded an emergency use authorization (EUA) today allowing the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 booster shot for children between the ages of 5 to 11 who are at least 5 months out from their first vaccine series. According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 28.6%

As of May 2022, the U.S. is experiencing another uptick in the number of COVID-19 cases. High rates of infection in Europe and Asia, along with the continued emergence of new sub-variants, such as omicron BA.4 and BA.5, raise concerns that another surge could be on the way. Even though demand for COVID-19 tests greatly

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. Regardless of the severity of their initial illness, 89% of people who were hospitalized with COVID-19 had returned to their original work 2 years later, a new study shows. The burden of persistent COVID-19 symptoms appeared to improve over time, but

Four trained dogs detected people who were positive for SARS-CoV-2 with similar accuracy to PCR tests, according to a randomized trial and real-life study at a busy international airport earlier in the pandemic. In the validation trial, the dogs had 92% accuracy, with 92% sensitivity (95% CI 89-94) and 91% specificity (95% CI 89-93) compared

Reduced levels of the cholinergic-system enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) may provide another piece of the puzzle for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), preliminary data from Australian researchers suggested. A small case-control study led by Carmel T. Barrington, PhD, a sleep medicine expert and honorary research fellow at the Children”s Hospital at Westmead (Australia), found that measurements

Well over two years into the pandemic, hundreds of thousands of COVID cases continue to be recorded around the world every day. With the rise of new variants, the symptoms of COVID have also evolved. Initially, the NHS regarded a fever, cough, and loss or change in sense of smell or taste as the main

Calling the death of 75-year-old patient Charlene Murphey a “terrible, terrible mistake,” a Tennessee judge sentenced former nurse RaDonda Vaught, RN, to 3 years of supervised probation on Friday. Before sentencing, a tearful Vaught, 38, asked for leniency and apologized for the first time to the Murphey family. “I’m sorry I haven’t said this sooner.

NEW ORLEANS — Robot-assisted radical cystectomy with intracorporeal urinary diversion compared with open radical cystectomy among patients with non-metastatic bladder cancer resulted in a statistically significant increase in days alive and out of the hospital, according to results from the iROC trial. Within 90 days of surgery, patients undergoing robotic surgery spent a median of

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that among vaccinated people who died in January and February less than a third had a booster shot. Those who got a single round of the COVID-19 vaccine but not a booster shot are three times more likely to die. The difference in the death rate between vaccinated

The number of men with prostate cancer who opted for active surveillance (AS)   doubled nationally between 2014 and 2021, according to experts who say the dramatic increase reflects a growing understanding among both researchers and patients that low-grade prostate tumors can be safely watched for years without requiring treatment. Dr Matthew Cooperberg Roughly 60% of

About 450 cases and 11 deaths linked to a mysterious hepatitis outbreak in children have been reported worldwide so far this year. About 105 of the cases were identified in the European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA), noted the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in an update Wednesday. While most of the countries, such as

The “Twincretin” era for treating patients with type 2 diabetes has begun, with the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) approval of tirzepatide for this indication on May 13, making it the first approved agent that works as a dual agonist for the two principal human incretins. Tirzepatide represents “an important advance in the treatment

NEW ORLEANS — Formal medical studies of vibrators have revealed positive effects on multiple sexual and urinary outcomes in women, a review of published literature showed. Though limited in number, the studies induced favorable changes in blood flow and muscle tone of genital tissues, improved multiple aspects of sexual arousal and satisfaction, increased orgasmic response,

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc worldwide, medical experts have been taking a more active approach to better understanding long COVID. But to this day, there is still not enough research on how the condition affects children.  Because the gravity of long COVID in kids remains unknown, there is still no official guidance

Pre-procedure urinalysis can be skipped before certain office-based urology procedures, such as prostate biopsy and cystoscopy, according to the results of a randomized trial. Some centers perform the pre-procedure test to avoid urinary tract infections (UTIs), a feared iatrogenic complication, but the new findings indicate the step is unnecessary. These results “will alter screening urinalysis