Health | WPN World People News

Researchers funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI) have reversed congenital blindness in mice by changing supportive cells in the retina called Müller glia into rod photoreceptors. The findings advance efforts toward regenerative therapies for blinding diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. NEI is part of the National Institutes of Health.

In the past 15 years, two outbreaks of severe respiratory disease were caused by coronaviruses transmitted from animals to humans. In 2003, SARS-CoV (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus) spread from civets to infect more than 8,000 people, leading to a year-long global public health emergency.

An interim analysis of data from a randomized clinical trial of patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive oropharyngeal cancer found that treatment with radiation therapy and cetuximab is associated with worse overall and progression-free survival compared to the current standard treatment with radiation and cisplatin. The trial was designed to see if cetuximab with radiation would be less toxic than cisplatin with radiation without compromising survival for patients with the disease.

Colorized scanning electron micrograph of a B cell from a human donor.

April 3, 2017: Study volunteer receives an inoculation at Redemption Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia on the opening day of PREVAC, a Phase 2 Ebola vaccine trial in West Africa.

Following the launch of the vaccination campaign against the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) by the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on August 8th, UNICEF has mobilized communication specialists to inform and engage communities affected by the disease as the vaccination campaign is being rolled-out.

The number of pregnant women with opioid use disorder (OUD) at labor and delivery more than quadrupled from 1999 to 2014, according to a new analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This first-ever multi-state analysis of trends – reveals significant increases in the 28 states with available data.

Illustration of membrane-bound vesicles containing clusters of viruses, including rotavirus and norovirus, within the gut. Rotaviruses are shown in the large vesicles, while noroviruses are shown in the smaller vesicles.

Healthy first-time mothers whose labor was induced in the 39th week of pregnancy were less likely to deliver by cesarean section, compared to those who waited for labor to begin naturally, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. Researchers also found that infants born to women induced at 39 weeks were no more likely to experience stillbirth, newborn death or other severe complications, compared to infants born to uninduced women.