Health

If it feels like you’re suddenly seeing ticks everywhere, it’s not in your head. The U.S. tick population has exploded in recent years, largely driven by climate change, which means spotting one of these blood-sucking pests is an unfortunately routine event for people in many parts of the country. Ticks are best known for spreading Lyme disease, an illness that can cause flu-like symptoms, body aches, fatigue, and more. By some estimates, almost half a million people in the U.S. are diagnosed with Lyme each year, with the blacklegged ticks that spread the condition particularly prevalent in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and parts of the Midwest and Pacific Coast. Lyme isn’t the only tick-associated illness to know about, though. The creatures’ bites can spread a range of rarer illnesses, in...

Hendersonville, N.C. — A North Carolina aquarium that said it had a pregnant stingray with no male companion now says the fish has a rare reproductive disease.Thursday's statement from the Aquarium and Shark Lab in Hendersonville did not say what disease the stingray, Charlotte, has or comment on the status of her pregnancy. The aquarium did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking more information.“Charlotte has developed a rare reproductive disease that has negatively impacted her reproductive system," the aquarium said. “The findings are truly a sad and unexpected medical development. Our priority is to focus on Charlotte’s health and well being.”The aquarium in the Blue Ridge Mountains had announced Charlotte's pregnancy in February, stating that she hadn't...

Washington — A woman who received a pig kidney transplant is back on dialysis because surgeons had to remove the gradually failing organ after just 47 days.Lisa Pisano was the second person to receive a kidney from a gene-edited pig, and NYU Langone Health announced that she is stable after an operation to remove the organ earlier this week.The first patient to receive a pig kidney transplant, Richard “Rick” Slayman at Massachusetts General Hospital, died in early May, nearly two months after his transplant. Doctors there said there was no indication he died as a result of the experimental transplant.Pisano’s heart and kidneys were failing when, in a dramatic pair of surgeries in April, doctors implanted a mechanical pump to keep her heart beating and then the pig kidney.At first she seeme...

The bird flu outbreak in U.S. dairy cows is prompting development of new, next-generation mRNA vaccines—akin to COVID-19 shots—that are being tested in both animals and people.Next month, the U.S. Agriculture Department is to begin testing a vaccine developed by University of Pennsylvania researchers by giving it to calves. The idea: If vaccinating cows protects dairy workers, that could mean fewer chances for the virus to jump into people and mutate in ways that could spur human-to-human spread.Meanwhile. the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has been talking to manufacturers about possible mRNA flu vaccines for people that, if needed, could supplement millions of bird flu vaccine doses already in government hands.“If there's a pandemic, there's going to be a huge demand for va...

Bottles of beer emblazoned with the five Olympic rings are already rolling off the production line at Anheuser-Busch InBev NV’s brewery in Belgium, in preparation for the games in Paris this summer.It has been 100 years since the French capital last hosted the summer Olympics, and the city wants to make a mark after Covid meant the Tokyo Games were held in virtually empty stadiums. And now, for the first time ever there will be a beer sponsor for an event that showcases the pinnacle of human sporting achievements.But in this case, the drink—Corona Cero—doesn’t have any alcohol.The world’s biggest brewer has chosen to advertise to billions of sports fans a zero-alcohol product only launched in Europe two years ago. AB InBev hopes to use the Paris Games—expected to be one of the biggest mark...

A third dairy worker in the U.S. has tested positive for the bird flu infection that is causing outbreaks in cattle in at least nine states.The farmworker, from Michigan, was exposed to infected cows and is the first of the three recently confirmed cases to have respiratory symptoms, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. The previous two people—another in Michigan and one in Texas—did not show any respiratory symptoms but experienced discharge from the eyes. The dairy worker in the latest case worked on a different farm in Michigan than the previous case reported in the state.According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the dairy worker in the latest case also experienced “watery discharge” from the eyes, but also reported coughing (w...

Kenneth Luczko works remotely as an engineer for a tech company—which means his fingers dance across his keyboard all day. One might assume that's the extent of his on-the-clock exercise. But by the time 5 p.m. rolls around, he’s logged at least 15,000 to 25,000 steps without even leaving his apartment.Luczko, 26, is a walking pad fanatic. He bought one about a year and a half ago after seeing a TikTok video, and he now uses it every day. It’s basically a portable under-desk treadmill: less bulky than the kind you might have in your basement, and without any handrails. Walking pads have more limited speed options than regular treadmills, and they usually have a smaller incline, so you’re walking on a flat surface. Sometimes Luczko slowly plods along at 0.5 or 1 mile per hour on his, and ot...

Seoul, South Korea — North Korea flew hundreds of balloons carrying trash and manure toward South Korea in one of its most bizarre provocations against its rival in years, prompting the South’s military to mobilize chemical and explosive response teams to recover objects and debris in different parts of the country.The balloon campaign came as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un urged his military scientists to overcome a failed satellite launch and continue developing space-based reconnaissance capabilities, which he described as crucial for countering U.S. and South Korean military activities, state media said Wednesday.In his first public comments about the launch failure, Kim also warned of unspecified “overwhelming actions” against South Korea over an exercise involving 20 fighter jets ne...

Introducing peanut butters, soups and other products made from peanuts into your child’s diet early on may help prevent them from developing an allergy later in adolescence, a new study found.Published in NEJM Evidence on Tuesday, the study found that feeding kids peanut products regularly from infancy to the age of five reduced the rate of peanut allergy in adolescence by 71%. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), whose National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) sponsored and co-funded the study, said that the results “provide conclusive evidence that achieving long-term prevention of peanut allergy is possible through early allergen consumption.”“Today’s findings should reinforce parents’ and caregivers’ confidence that feeding their young children peanut products b...

Des Moines, Iowa — More than 4 million chickens in Iowa will have to be killed after a case of the highly pathogenic bird flu was detected at a large egg farm, the state announced Tuesday.Crews are in the process of killing 4.2 million chickens after the disease was found at a farm in Sioux County, Iowa, making it the latest in a yearslong outbreak that now is affecting dairy cattle as well. Last week, the virus was confirmed at an egg farm west of Minneapolis, Minnesota, leading to the slaughter of nearly 1.4 million chickens.Overall, 92.34 million birds have been killed since the outbreak began in 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.Although bird flu has become somewhat common among poultry, its spread to cattle has added to worries about the disease. In May, a second d...