Debate rages over Alzheimer’s drug lecanemab as UK limits approval

The medicine is being assessed by agencies including the European Union regulator, but the community is divided on its efficacy and safety.

. . . One reason for this difference in perspective lies in how people look at the data, says Sebastian Walsh, a public-health researcher at the University of Cambridge, UK. The 27% reduction represents the relative difference in the amount of cognitive decline experienced in the drug group versus the placebo group. The absolute difference in cognitive function is much smaller: 0.45 points on an 18-point scale. “People can extract from the effect size what they want,” says Walsh. “If they want to sell the drug, you could stick to the relative changes — and if you’re very sceptical, you could talk about the absolute differences.” Nature.

Should You Take Paxlovid?

The treatment can help prevent mild or moderate cases of Covid-19 from becoming more severe. Here’s what to know.

… People who are 65 or older, are immunocompromised or have chronic conditions like cancer, diabetes and obesity are considered among those at highest risk, and should consider the medication even if they don’t have symptoms, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. NYT.

Government Announces More Free COVID-19 Tests Can Be Ordered Through Mail

On the heels of a summer wave of COVID-19 cases, Americans will be able to get free virus test kits mailed to their homes, starting in late September. U.S. households will be able to order up to four COVID-19 nasal swab tests when the federal program reopens, according to the website, COVIDtests.gov. The U.S. Health and Human Services agency that oversees the testing has not announced an exact date for ordering to begin. AP.

Fauci Recovering At Home Following Hospitalization For West Nile Virus Infection

Anthony Fauci, former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is recovering at home after being hospitalized for nearly a week for West Nile virus infection. Fauci, a leader of the U.S. Covid-19 response, spent six days in hospital as doctors tried to figure out what was responsible for his illness. It was thought he had a bacterial infection, or had been infected with a tick-borne disease, until a blood test showed he was “strongly positive” for West Nile virus. STAT.

Deadly mosquito virus has Mass. towns urging people to stay in at night

The virus spread by mosquitoes is rare, but serious: about 30 percent of people with the virus die, and many survivors have ongoing neurological problems.

… Massachusetts health officials this month confirmed the state’s first human case of the eastern equine encephalitis virus this year — a man in his 80s exposed in Worcester County, west of Boston. Ten communities are now designated at high or critical risk for the virus, health officials said Saturday. Plymouth, about 40 miles south of Boston, closed all public parks and fields from dusk until dawn, when mosquitoes are most active. Nearby, Oxford banned all outdoor activities on town property after 6 p.m. … WashPost.

Why Mpox Vaccines Are Only Just Arriving In Africa After Two Years

The first 10,000 mpox vaccines are finally due to arrive next week in Africa, where a dangerous new strain of the virus – which has afflicted people there for decades – has caused global alarm. The slow arrival of the shots – which have already been made available in more than 70 countries outside Africa – showed that lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic about global healthcare inequities have been slow to bring change, half a dozen public health officials and scientists said. Reuters.

Mpox Has No Link To COVID-19 Vaccines | Fact Check 

The claim: Mpox is a reaction to COVID-19 vaccines. An Aug. 17 Instagram post includes a video of a woman making an assertion about the real nature of mpox.  “Everyone needs to detox now!!” the post reads in part. “This is NOT a virus!! This is a side effect of the Covid Vaccines.” … Our rating: False. COVID-19 vaccines have nothing to do with mpox, which is caused by a virus identified more than 60 years ago. The mRNA COVID-19 vaccines were first administered in late 2020. USAToday.

Diabetes took over her life, until a stem cell therapy freed her

Scientists are making progress replacing the critical insulin-producing cells that are destroyed by the disease.

… Smith is one of a dozen patients who have received a full dose of islet cells generated in a laboratory from stem cells. Eleven of the patients in the clinical trial drastically reduced taking insulin or stopped altogether, according to data presented at an American Diabetes Association meeting in June. Despite the promise, the therapy developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals remains in early stages, and many experts consider it a major step forward, not the finish line. WashPost.

Kamala Harris, Tim Walz Lean Into Erasing Medical Debt

The economic plan Harris released last week called for Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), to work with states to erase medical debt for millions of Americans “to help them avoid accumulating such debt in the future, because no one should go bankrupt just because they had the misfortune of becoming sick or hurt.” TheHill.

Scientists to use AI to analyse 1.6m brain scans to develop tool predicting dementia risk

Researchers will use artificial intelligence to match image data of patients from Scotland with linked health records

… The team will use AI and machine learning to match the image data with linked health records to find patterns that could help doctors better determine a person’s risk of developing dementia … The scientists aim to create digital tools that radiologists can use when scanning patients to determine their risk of dementia and diagnose the disease and related conditions earlier. Guardian.

A banned promoter of cancer ‘cures’ was hijacked by genAI. Now the internet is ‘flooded with garbage’

Australian Barbara O’Neill’s ‘natural self-healing’ remedies found a certain audience through her own efforts. But her image has run wild thanks to unaffiliated groups exploiting her name on social media

… O’Neill, whose website describes her as “an international speaker on natural healing”, was found by the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) in 2019 to have given highly risky health advice to vulnerable people, including the use of bicarbonate soda as a cancer treatment… Clips of O’Neill’s health teachings, often dating as far back as 2012, now feed a voracious economy of unaffiliated Facebook pages and groups – more than 180 at one point – that are branded with her name and share lecture clips and recipes but are outside the control of O’Neill. Many are controlled by accounts based in Morocco, but attempts to contact administrators went unanswered. Guardian.