Nuzzo says it’s very possible that the Louisiana patient’s preexisting health conditions contributed to the severity of their illness, but also points to the case of a teenager in Canada who was hospitalized with bird flu in November. The 13-year-old girl was initially seen at an emergency department in British Columbia for a fever and […]
Like many other respiratory viruses, Williams says that hMPV tends to impact those with chronic lung diseases or existing conditions such as asthma and cancer. But despite this, he has found that many doctors are unaware that it’s a threat, largely because until relatively recently, no one was testing for it outside of academic studies. […]
If the bars look a bit emptier this month, it may be because more people are trading happy hour for Dry January. The tradition, in which people abstain from alcohol for the entire month, is growing in popularity. In 2022, nearly one in five US adults said they would give Dry January a try, up […]
We’re all inured to sensationalist headlines about some disaster or another on the horizon. So I don’t blame anyone who was exhausted when they saw last month that dozens of scientists were warning in the journal Science that mirror bacteria could bring about a catastrophic ecosystem collapse and even mass extinction. After all, we already […]
We read with great interest your Feature on laypeople helping to treat mental-health issues in Africa (Nature 635540–542; 2024). The global shortage of mental-health support that it lays bare is even more acute in conflict zones and after natural disasters, when people face the trauma of displacement and loss of life and livelihood. Competing Interests […]
Public health is under pressure. Across health care systems around the world, funding is declining, exhausted professionals are leaving the field, and in the US state legislatures are pulling back needed legal authorities. At the same time, outbreaks of diseases such as measles and dengue are increasing, adding more urgency and responsibility to the work. […]
It’s that time of year. As Future Perfect has in the past, we’re rounding up our most read stories of the year. This little trip down memory lane can give us a sense of the breadth and depth of Future Perfect’s coverage — and a sense of what stories and subjects you, the audience, are […]
outbreaks of Oropouche virus have flared up in the Amazon for decades, but historically the pathogen has little troubled the rest of the world. But this seems to be changing. In 2024, the virus showed that it can travel. Most of this year’s 11,000-plus cases occurred in Brazil and Peru, where the virus is an […]
The United States has now seen dozens of human bird flu cases this year, all of them mild—until now. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Wednesday that a patient in Louisiana has been hospitalized with a severe case of avian influenza caused by the H5N1 virus. This marks the first instance of severe […]
In the West, where herds of thousands of cattle are common, researchers are seeing cases rise at poultry and dairy operations. More than 50 workers have contracted the virus.
