Latest news with #infectiousDiseases
The Independent
3 days ago
- Health
- The Independent
At-home health tests are here. But they aren't always the best option
The doctor is in — the mailbox, that is. You can now do self-administered tests for everything from thyroid function to HIV in the privacy of your own home — and that list continues to grow, as the Food and Drug Administration recently approved the first at-home cervical cancer test. While the tests can make it easier for people to access health care and can be helpful for those who have extreme anxiety about sensitive or invasive medical exams, experts warn that most of the tests cannot replace an actual in-person visit. Here's what doctors say you can test for at home, and when you should make the trek to your physician's office. What kinds of at-home tests are available? There are two kinds at 'at-home tests.' In one type, the patient collects the sample and sends it off to a lab; the new cervical cancer test is like this. The other gives an instant result — think COVID-19 and pregnancy tests. What are the benefits of at-home tests? HIV home-testing kits can improve rates of diagnosing sexually transmitted infections in rural communities and help people who are nervous about going to the doctor to seek a sensitive test, said Dr. Joseph Cherabie, an infectious diseases specialist in St. Louis. 'You really want to get people to care as quickly as possible, but some people could be very anxious about that results as well," Cherabie said. "And they have very negative reactions.' Labs are required to report a positive HIV test, instead of putting the onus on the patient who took the test, Cherabie said, and and, often, the patient is matched up with HIV support services. 'If you are part of a sexual and gender minority community, going to a doctor's office can be full of a lot of historical trauma, and you may prefer to just do testing at home without anyone judging you or asking you invasive questions about your sex life,' Cherabie said. The new cervical cancer test — which tests for strains of human papillomavirus, or HPV — involves a testing swab that's like a tampon, said Dr. Susan Modesitt, a gynecologic oncologist at Emory University in Atlanta. It is not, Modesitt said, a replacement for a Pap smear, the exam in which a metal speculum is inserted in the vagina to scrape cervix cells. A doctor's visit also involves a pelvic exam, a chance to talk about abnormal bleeding — a sign of endometrial cancer — and other symptoms and issues, like menopause or STIs. 'There are so many other reasons to see your doctor and get an exam outside of a cervical cancer screening,' she said. I live in a rural area — can I take an at-home test? Some at-home tests can replace a trip to the doctor's office. That's especially true in rural areas, where it can be difficult to get a colonoscopy. 'The colonoscopy requires a pre-op, and you have to drive maybe 70 miles for it,' said Dr. Steven Furr, board chair of the American Academy of Family Physicians who practices in rural Alabama. 'You get anesthesia. It's actually almost like a surgical procedure in many ways. "So, for a lot of people, that's pretty arduous. That's where an at-home test can come in handy.' But, Furr said, if your test reveals issues, you need to go to your doctor. Plus, patients should always discuss test results with their physician instead of interpreting them on their own, he said. Who shouldn't do at-home tests? If you have symptoms of what you're testing for, go to the doctor. At-home colon cancer tests aren't the right option for people with a history of colon cancer or high-risk conditions, such as inflammatory bowel disease, said Dr. Zachariah Foda, a gastroenterologist at Johns Hopkins. He added that they're also not recommended for people who are having GI symptoms. While there are tests for many things — running anywhere from $15 to $400, depending on what is being evaluated — Furr said it's essential to make sure that your test is FDA-approved so you can better trust the results. 'Anytime we get people involved in their own health care and help them understand what's going on, I think that's a good thing and it gives us a chance to talk,' he said. 'Any kind of screening is better than no screening.' ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Associated Press
3 days ago
- Health
- Associated Press
At-home health tests are here. But they aren't always the best option
The doctor is in — the mailbox, that is. You can now do self-administered tests for everything from thyroid function to HIV in the privacy of your own home — and that list continues to grow, as the Food and Drug Administration recently approved the first at-home cervical cancer test. While the tests can make it easier for people to access health care and can be helpful for those who have extreme anxiety about sensitive or invasive medical exams, experts warn that most of the tests cannot replace an actual in-person visit. Here's what doctors say you can test for at home, and when you should make the trek to your physician's office. What kinds of at-home tests are available? There are two kinds at 'at-home tests.' In one type, the patient collects the sample and sends it off to a lab; the new cervical cancer test is like this. The other gives an instant result — think COVID-19 and pregnancy tests. What are the benefits of at-home tests? HIV home-testing kits can improve rates of diagnosing sexually transmitted infections in rural communities and help people who are nervous about going to the doctor to seek a sensitive test, said Dr. Joseph Cherabie, an infectious diseases specialist in St. Louis. 'You really want to get people to care as quickly as possible, but some people could be very anxious about that results as well,' Cherabie said. 'And they have very negative reactions.' Labs are required to report a positive HIV test, instead of putting the onus on the patient who took the test, Cherabie said, and and, often, the patient is matched up with HIV support services. 'If you are part of a sexual and gender minority community, going to a doctor's office can be full of a lot of historical trauma, and you may prefer to just do testing at home without anyone judging you or asking you invasive questions about your sex life,' Cherabie said. The new cervical cancer test — which tests for strains of human papillomavirus, or HPV — involves a testing swab that's like a tampon, said Dr. Susan Modesitt, a gynecologic oncologist at Emory University in Atlanta. It is not, Modesitt said, a replacement for a Pap smear, the exam in which a metal speculum is inserted in the vagina to scrape cervix cells. A doctor's visit also involves a pelvic exam, a chance to talk about abnormal bleeding — a sign of endometrial cancer — and other symptoms and issues, like menopause or STIs. 'There are so many other reasons to see your doctor and get an exam outside of a cervical cancer screening,' she said. I live in a rural area — can I take an at-home test? Some at-home tests can replace a trip to the doctor's office. That's especially true in rural areas, where it can be difficult to get a colonoscopy. 'The colonoscopy requires a pre-op, and you have to drive maybe 70 miles for it,' said Dr. Steven Furr, board chair of the American Academy of Family Physicians who practices in rural Alabama. 'You get anesthesia. It's actually almost like a surgical procedure in many ways. 'So, for a lot of people, that's pretty arduous. That's where an at-home test can come in handy.' But, Furr said, if your test reveals issues, you need to go to your doctor. Plus, patients should always discuss test results with their physician instead of interpreting them on their own, he said. Who shouldn't do at-home tests? If you have symptoms of what you're testing for, go to the doctor. At-home colon cancer tests aren't the right option for people with a history of colon cancer or high-risk conditions, such as inflammatory bowel disease, said Dr. Zachariah Foda, a gastroenterologist at Johns Hopkins. He added that they're also not recommended for people who are having GI symptoms. While there are tests for many things — running anywhere from $15 to $400, depending on what is being evaluated — Furr said it's essential to make sure that your test is FDA-approved so you can better trust the results. 'Anytime we get people involved in their own health care and help them understand what's going on, I think that's a good thing and it gives us a chance to talk,' he said. 'Any kind of screening is better than no screening.' ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
National Post
25-05-2025
- Health
- National Post
Northern Alberta epicenter for rare coyote-borne tapeworm: U of A doctor
A forty-fold increase in a Canadian strain of coyote-borne tapeworm that can cross to the human population is causing concerns for doctors in northern Alberta. Article content Echinococcus multilocularis is a zoonotic parasite that resides quite harmlessly in coyotes, foxes, wolves— even domestic dogs and cats, but the symptoms in humans are enough to make you wash your hands, rinse, and repeat if you shake a paw. Article content Article content Dr. Dave Waldner is an infectious diseases physician affiliated with the University of Alberta. Article content 'We haven't had it as an issue in Alberta and Canada for too long, but over the last several years, it's certainly been emerging and concerning,' Waldner said. Article content Current diagnosed cases put the risk as low — one in 100,000 Albertans. Article content The first was identified in 2013 in Edmonton, and the majority of Alberta cases are in the northern half of the province. Article content Mice and voles perpetuate the disease by eating eggs shed in canid dung and then being consumed by a predator. Article content The disease was probably inadvertently imported from Europe in a dog or fox, which aren't required to be dewormed, and does not cause obvious symptoms in the host coyote, fox, dog, or cat. Article content 'We've now identified over 40 cases in Alberta, and there's several more throughout other parts of Canada, but Alberta seems to be a bit of a hot spot,' Waldner said. Article content 'We have the majority of the cases in Canada.' Article content Article content According to a May 2022 bulletin from Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health, posted on Alberta Health's MyHealth website, the disease caused by the tapeworm, alveolar echinococcosis (AE) spreads animal-to-person but not person-to-person. Article content Article content 'People can be infected by E. multi by accidentally swallowing tapeworm eggs from contaminated food or water, or from handling infected animals,' it reads. Article content Alberta Health said the common ways of getting AE include eating foods (usually wild berries and herbs) or drinking water that has been contaminated with the stool of an infected coyote, fox, dog, or cat.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Kids infected with measles face long-term health consequences, but one thing can prevent all of them
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Measles kills between 1 and 3 out of every 1,000 children infected with the viral disease. But even for those who survive the illness, the long-term consequences of measles can be serious. Long after a person recovers from their acute infection, their immune system is compromised — and in rare cases, the measles virus can hide out in the nervous system, roaring back to cause a fatal disease years later. In the short term, measles, caused by a highly contagious virus, usually causes fever, respiratory symptoms like coughing, and a distinctive rash that spreads from the hairline down the body. It appears as if a "bucket of rash" is poured over the head, according to Patsy Stinchfield, an infectious disease nurse practitioner and the most recent past president of the non-profit National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID). Because the two-shot measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine is 97% effective at preventing measles, many U.S.-based medical professionals have never seen the disease that's now causing a major outbreak in Texas and bordering states, experts told Live Science. Cases have been so low in the U.S. that measles was declared eliminated from the country in 2000. However, Stinchfield responded to a 2017 measles outbreak in Minnesota and saw multiple kids affected. "The kids that come into the emergency room and get to go home, even those kids look like rag dolls over their parents' shoulders," Stinchfield told Live Science. "They're miserable." Related: Are you protected against measles? Do you need a booster shot? Everything you need to know about immunity An estimated 1 out of every 5 kids who catch measles will be hospitalized, and 1 in 20 will get pneumonia, which is what kills most children who die of the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Some of these hospitalized children will need to be put on a ventilator to recover, Stinchfield said. In about 1 in 1,000 cases, measles causes brain swelling, or encephalitis, which can cause seizures. When it's not fatal, the swelling itself can subside, but it can cause permanent brain damage and other lasting side effects, such as blindness or deafness. Even patients with milder cases of measles can suffer long-term knock-on effects. Measles binds to a receptor that happens to be present on several important immune cells: T lymphocytes, B lymphocytes, and long-lived plasma cells. These are cells that "remember" past infections for decades, thus enabling the immune system to rapidly mount a defense if it encounters a pathogen again. It does this by making protective proteins called antibodies, along with summoning other immune defenders. But a 2019 study found that, after a measles infection, people lose between 11% and 73% of the antibodies they had to previous infections. To recover from this so-called immune amnesia, a person would have to catch all those diseases again, said Stephen Elledge, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School and the senior author of that 2019 research. In the meantime, that means they're vulnerable to a whole host of infections after contracting measles. Furthermore, a 2015 study led by Elledge's collaborator, epidemiologist Dr. Michael Mina, found that kids who got measles had a higher death rate from other infectious diseases in subsequent years. These infectious diseases, including measles, are the primary reason that nearly 1 in 5 children died before their fifth birthday in the U.S. back in 1900. A 2024 study published in The Lancet estimated that vaccination has saved at least 154 million lives since 1974, alone. "The vaccine is much more important than we thought it was," Elledge told Live Science. "It doesn't just save from the 0.1% or 0.2% of children that die [of measles]. It may be the 0.5% to 1% of the kids that get measles [and] might succumb to another infection. That starts to get a little bit bigger." The measles virus is capable of replicating in the brain, said Ross Kedl, a professor of immunology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. In some cases, the immune system beats the virus back and the person seems to recover, but measles still lurks in their nervous system. The nightmarish effect of this long-term persistence is a condition called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE). This is a progressive neurological disorder that might start with mood changes and muscle tremors; then, as it progresses, the person starts losing speech, vision and hearing. After about two years, the person falls into a coma and dies. "The person you knew transforms in front of you and wastes away and then they're gone," Kedl told Live Science. The risk of SSPE is highest in kids who catch measles before the age of 2, at about 1 in 1,000, Kedl said. For older patients, the risk is closer to 1 in 10,000, which is still twenty times higher than the risk of serious side effects from any vaccine on the market, he said. (1 in 10,000 is 20 in a million, whereas serious adverse events from vaccines occur at a rate of roughly 1 to 2 per million, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.) Because SSPE is most common in kids who catch measles before age 2, and it tends to emerge about seven years after their acute infection, the victims are typically around the age of 9 or 10. SSPE happens because the measles virus can go dormant within the nervous system, similar to how the chickenpox virus — called varicella — can go dormant and cause shingles decades later. One benefit of the varicella vaccine is helping prevent the chickenpox infections that can lead to shingles down the line; similarly, the MMR vaccine prevents SSPE. The MMR vaccination has effectively cratered the annual number of U.S. measles cases — which totalled 3 million to 4 million before vaccines were introduced, according to the CDC. Because of the vaccine's success, people forget how bad the disease can be, said Dr. Michelle Barron, senior medical director of infection prevention and control at UCHealth, a medical system in Colorado. With vaccination rates sliding in various jurisdictions, there are now active measles outbreaks in Texas, New Mexico, Kansas and Ohio, with scattered cases in 16 other states, Barron told Live Science. There are also outbreaks in Mexico and Canada. It's important to be vaccinated to protect both yourself and those who can't be vaccinated, including babies under 1 year old, she said. RELATED STORIES —US measles outbreak tops 300 cases — what to know about the disease —'A political division, not a physical one, determined who got measles and who didn't': Lessons from Texarkana's 1970 outbreak —2nd measles death reported in US outbreak was in New Mexico adult There are no treatments for measles that can reduce the risk of the disease's knock-on complications, Barron said. The "natural" remedies that have been pushed by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and others, such as vitamin A, are not measles treatments. Rather, they are treatments for malnutrition that are often used to help support kids with measles in places with extreme poverty and childhood malnourishment, Barron said. What does cut the risk of knock-on effects of measles? Not catching the disease in the first place. "Vaccine is protective against all of these complications," Barron said. Editor's note: This article was originally published on April 3, 2025.
