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Showing posts from June, 2022

You may not know if you have one: STI’s and infections during pregnancy - News24

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Karen Wilmot aka 'The Virtual Midwife' is a midwife, prenatal yoga teacher and founder of The Due Date Club , a private online community for pregnant women.  Testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, is part of routine antenatal care and should be done at your first antenatal visit. Testing won't harm your baby, but getting tested is essential as STIs often have no symptoms, so you may not know if you have one. Early treatment and counselling are necessary because many STIs can affect your baby's health during pregnancy and after birth. If left untreated, STIs can pass from the mother to her baby, causing congenital disabilities like blindness, deafness, and bone deformities and infections that may harm your baby's development. Read:  What is hyperemesis gravidarum? Bacterial Vaginosis Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is a common cause of vaginal discharge, and although it's not considered an STD, it has been linked to sexual

Smartphone App Measures Neonatal Jaundice; Efficacy Comparable to Conventional Methods - AJMC.com Managed Markets Network

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A smartphone application designed to identify jaundice in newborns was found to have a similar success rate as the most commonly used conventional screening method. Researchers found that Neonatal Scleral-Conjunctival Bilirubin (neoSCB)—a sclera-based smartphone application—was comparable to the Drager Jaundice Meter (JM-105) and serves as a potential affordable, contactless, and lifesaving screening tool for neonatal jaundice. These findings were published in Pediatrics . The authors explained that the application is used to identify severe jaundice in newborn babies by scanning their eyes and measuring the yellowness of the sclera. Following an initial study involving 37 newborn babies, this study initially included 724 infants in the optimization and validation phases, and included 336 newborns with no history of jaundice treatment to compare the effectiveness of the neoSCB app with conventional screening methods. In this group of 336 newborns aged younger than 28 days, 79 of them h

Interim Analysis of Acute Hepatitis of Unknown Etiology in Children Aged 10 Years — United States, October 2021–June 2022 | MMWR - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (.gov)

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Jordan Cates, PhD 1, *; Julia M. Baker, PhD 1 ,2, *; Olivia Almendares, MSPH 1 ; Anita K. Kambhampati, MPH 1 ; Rachel M. Burke, PhD 1 ; Neha Balachandran, MBBS 1 ,3 ; Eleanor Burnett, MPH 1 ; Caelin C. Potts, PhD 1 ; Sarah Reagan-Steiner, MD 4 ; Hannah L. Kirking, MD 1 ; David Sugerman, MD 1 ; Umesh D. Parashar, MD, MBBS 1 ; Jacqueline E. Tate, PhD 1 ; Hepatitis of Unknown Etiology Group (View author affiliations) View suggested citation Summary What is already known about this topic? During October 2021–February 2022, a cluster of children with hepatitis of unknown etiology and adenovirus infection was identified in the United States. On April 21, after reports of similar cases in other countries, CDC advised clinicians to report patients aged <10 years with hepatitis of unknown etiology to public health authorities. What is added by this report? During October 1, 2021–June 15, 2022, a total of 296 U.S. pediatric patients received a diagnosis of hepatitis of unknown e

How Baby Formula Became a Replacement for Breastfeeding - Eater

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If you're under six months old, there's usually only one thing on the menu: milk, either human or formula. These days, by the time they reach that six-month mark, three-quarters of all American babies receive at least some formula as part of their diet. But, as you've probably noticed, recently that's become harder to score than a table at the hottest restaurants. For the young, helpless segment of the population that relies on formula, this is a genuine food crisis. So, how did we get here? In this week's episode of Gastropod , hosts Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley tell the story of how formula milk was invented, how it came to compete with breast milk as a first food, and what we can and should do to make it easier and safer for parents to feed their babies. If you were an American parent in the early 1900s, odds were pretty good that you had a book called The Care and Feeding of Children on your shelves. Written by eminent physician Luther Emmett Holt, the

Microfluidics show promise as safer, simpler treatment option for severe neonatal jaundice - Oregon State University

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CORVALLIS, Ore. – Research by the Oregon State University College of Engineering has led to a promising potential therapy for neonatal jaundice that's more safe, simple and convenient than the blood transfusions currently given to babies suffering from the most dangerous forms of the condition. The study led by Adam Higgins, associate professor of bioengineering, suggests microfluidics and high-intensity light can correct a dangerous bloodstream buildup of bilirubin. Bilirubin is the pigment that's responsible for the yellow skin color associated with jaundice and, at high enough levels, puts the afflicted infant at risk of sometimes irreversible neurological damage or even death. Findings were published in Biomicrofluidics. Neonatal jaundice is a common condition among newborns, whose bodies are busy breaking down the red blood cells used in the uterus and making new ones as the infant transitions to breathing ambient air once outside the womb. Blood's

Paediatrics: What is bilirubin encephalopathy (kernicterus)? - Emergency Live International

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Home Health and Safety Bilirubin encephalopathy (kernicterus): neonatal jaundice with bilirubin infiltration of the brain

John H. 'Jack' Boland Jr. | News, Sports, Jobs - Nashua Telegraph

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John H. "Jack" Boland Jr., 90, of Nashua, passed away Thursday evening, June 23, 2022, after a brief period of declining health. Born in Concord, New Hampshire, on Jan. 22, 1932, he was the son of the late John Henry and Elma (Wallace) Boland. Jack was a graduate of the Concord High School class of 1949, and served with the U.S. Navy for four years during the Korean War. Following his military service, he continued his education at the University of New Hampshire, graduating in 1958 with a bachelor's degree in business administration. After moving to Nashua in 1958, Jack began his career with the former Edgcomb Steel of New England, where he served as treasurer, vice president and chief financial officer for 26 years. He continued working at Law Motor Freight and Law Warehouses as their chief financial officer for eight years until his retirement in 1992. Jack was a longtime member and past president

Liviah’s New Liver: A Family Grapples With a Girl’s Puzzling Hepatitis - The New York Times

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A 4-year-old in Ohio is one of hundreds of children worldwide who have developed unexplained liver problems in recent months. It was three days before Christmas, and Elizabeth Widders was perched in her upstairs bathroom, fastening red and green bows in the hair of her 4-year-old daughter, Liviah. But as Liviah stood in the morning light, her mother noticed that the whites of her eyes had turned yellow. She hustled Liviah downstairs to ask her husband, Jack, for a second opinion. He saw the yellow tint, too. Liviah and her two siblings all had jaundice as babies, and their parents, from Mason, Ohio, were familiar with the telltale signs. "I knew: This is liver stuff," Mrs. Widders recalled. They took Liviah to the emergency room, where she was diagnosed with acute hepatitis, an inflammation of the liver. Less than two weeks later, doctors removed her failing liver and replaced it with a new one. Over the past eight months, hundreds of other families have been caught in simila