Imagine waking up in a hospital, seeing surreal creatures like pink and green grasshoppers, and a massive crow trying to break in! That's what happened to Nnedi Okorafor when she was 19. But the real shock came later—she couldn’t move her legs. Paralysis from nerve damage after a scoliosis surgery t
In northeastern Brazil, scientists are looking at marmosets to understand how viruses spread. These small primates live close to humans, making them a good indicator of virus activity. In 2018, researchers studied 47 marmosets from urban and suburban areas in the semiarid region. They checked for si
You know what kills more people than car crashes or wars? Air pollution from cars, trucks, and factories. But there's a new worry, and it's coming from the sky. Wildfires are becoming more common and intense due to climate change, and the smoke they create is packed with dangerous pollutants like ti
Meet Marianna, a Texan who did something extraordinary: she received all her childhood vaccines again. Why? A series of life-threatening health issues, including aplastic anemia and post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder, made her immune system as weak as a newborn's. Doctors had to rebuild he
Hospitals all over the world are facing a big challenge: more people need help, but there's only so much space and time. This problem is often made worse by patients who no longer need intensive care but can't leave yet – we call them ALC patients. They take up beds and create crowds, which isn't go
When COVID-19 hit, Quebec had to quickly find the best ways to handle the situation. Now that the pandemic is behind us, it's time to improve how we deal with crises in the future. The main goal of a recent project was to create a plan for quickly finding and using the best evidence during health cr
Ever wondered how we can create wise public health policies? It all begins with solid research, but putting it into practice fairly isn't always a breeze. Let's take a page from doctors and hospitals. They rely on evidence to make crucial treatment decisions. We can borrow from their approach and ap
Imagine you're a Medicare beneficiary in the US, eagerly waiting for lower drug prices. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is supposed to make that happen. But how does it all work? Well, let's dive into it. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has been busy crafting guidelines for t
Have you ever stopped to think about how scientists ensure that the medicines we take won’t harm our livers? They use a clever method involving human liver cells. Our livers have a tiny waste-removal system with workers called bile salt efflux transporters that send waste out through tiny tubes call
In San Bernardino, California, Joseph Journell lost two of his cats after they drank recalled raw milk. The milk, from Raw Farm in Fresno, was recalled in December due to the risk of bird flu. His 14-year-old tabby, Alexander, and 4-year-old Tuxsie, a tuxedo cat, died within days of drinking the mil
