New Flu Strain H3N2 Causes Alarm As Some Nations Are Swamped With Cases
The strain emerged in June after the makeup of this year's flu shots had already been determined. Cases in the U.K. are already triple from the same time last year, and cases in Japan have surged to nearly six times from last year. In the U.S., experts warn of uncertainty because the CDC has not released a national flu report since Sept. 26 due to the government shutdown.
As flu season gets underway, global health experts are increasingly worried about a new strain of the virus that popped up in June 鈥 four months after the makeup of this year鈥檚 flu shots had been decided. The new strain, a version of H3N2, is causing outbreaks in Canada and the U.K., where health officials are warning about the early wave that鈥檚 sending people to the hospital. (Edwards, 11/12)
As flu season begins in the US, following the deadliest flu outbreak in children outside of a pandemic since record-keeping began in 2004, pediatricians are taking the lead on vaccine messaging. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not plan to resume its 鈥渨ild to mild鈥 flu vaccination campaign, which was halted in the midst of the record-breaking flu season. (Schreiber, 11/11)
More health and wellness news 鈥
The rate of children and teenagers living with high blood pressure globally has nearly doubled because of a toxic combination of unhealthy diets, mass inactivity and soaring levels of obesity, according to the largest review of its kind. Experts said 114 million children who have developed hypertension even before reaching adulthood were facing potentially deadly and lifelong harm, including cardiovascular disease, kidney disease and a myriad of serious health complications. (Gregory, 11/12)
Food, stress, sleep and weather may not be the only triggers to consider when preventing migraines鈥攈ow stable your daily routine is could play an important role too. Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital researchers used a total 鈥渟urprisal score鈥 to measure the unexpectedness of a participant鈥檚 daily experiences, revealing it was associated with risk of an upcoming migraine attack. (Millington, 11/12)
At an international conference, researchers at the forefront of animal-human transplantation compared notes and allowed themselves the first real optimism in decades. (Rabin, 11/12)
On the use of ChatGPT 鈥
The latest AI models powering ChatGPT just learned to be friendlier, improving the experience for people who use chatbots responsibly. It could be a problem for those who don't or can't. As chatbots become more human-like in their behavior, it could increase the risks of unhealthy attachments, or a kind of trust that goes beyond what the products are built to handle. (Morrone, 11/13)
What do people ask the popular chatbot? We analyzed thousands of chats to identify common topics discussed by users and patterns in ChatGPT鈥檚 responses. (De Vynck and Merrill, 11/12)
