The world has changed a lot since the COVID-19 pandemic started. Now, the focus is on making the most of the resources available for vaccination programs. This is because the way the disease spreads and the money available for vaccines have both shifted. So, it's crucial to think carefully about how to use these resources wisely. The COVID-19 virus has become som...
In 2010, a new way to think about food was born in Brazil. This system, called Nova, sorts food into four main groups. It looks at how much a food has been changed from its natural state. Some foods are hardly changed at all. Others go through a lot of processing. The most changed foods are called ultra-processed. These are the ones to watch out for. Why? Because eat...
Why is checking research quality important? It helps us trust the findings. This is especially true in fields like health geography and spatial epidemiology. These fields study how places affect health. To make sure the research is solid, experts created a new tool. It is called SMART, which stands for Spatial Methodology Appraisal of Research Tool. This tool has 16 ...
Zoonotic diseases, those nasty illnesses that jump from animals to humans, are a big deal. They spread quickly. They kill lots of people. To tackle them, we need to think about how men and women experience these diseases differently. This is what a recent study in Bundibugyo district, Uganda, set out to do. In Bundibugyo, people live close to animals. This closeness...
Cluster headaches are a type of headache that can be very severe. They are not as common in children as they are in adults. This makes them tricky to spot and treat. Doctors are still trying to figure out the best ways to handle them in young patients. The way cluster headaches work in kids is still a bit of a mystery. Doctors know that they are linked to some chang...
In 2024, a significant effort took place to better understand how avian coronavirus, or bird flu, spreads among poultry in China. This involved collecting samples from various locations across the country. Over 7, 600 samples were gathered from 153 different sites spread across 13 provinces. The results showed that about 20. 60 percent of these samples tested positiv...
In Vietnam, the spread of hepatitis A virus (HAV) is heavily influenced by the living conditions of people. This includes having access to clean water and proper sanitation. Over the last 20 years, there hasn't been much data collected on HAV in Vietnam. This makes it hard to understand how the virus is spreading. To fill this gap, a recent effort focused on comparin...
The spread of plant diseases can be quite complex. One disease that affects banana plants is caused by a fungus called Pseudocercospora fijiensis. This fungus can travel long distances, which makes it hard to control. To understand how it spreads, researchers studied the fungus in Martinique over a year and a half. They set up trap plants in six different spots a...
Pompe disease is a genetic condition. It is caused by problems in the GAA gene. This leads to a lack of an enzyme called lysosomal acid α-glucosidase. This enzyme is crucial for breaking down glycogen in cells. Without it, glycogen builds up and causes harm. The number of people with Pompe disease is not clear. This is because different places use different ways to ...
The fight against leukemia in South Africa is a tough one. It's not as talked about as some other cancers, but it's a big deal. Leukemia is the 11th most common cancer worldwide. It's a type of blood cancer that can affect people of all ages. In South Africa, there's not much recent data on how often it happens or how many people die from it. This is a problem becaus...