Months before U.S. health officials warned that tainted eye drops were causing vision loss and even death, a Cleveland woman lost the sight in her eye in a case that puzzled her doctors. The 72-year-old went to an outpatient eye clinic last November complaining of blurry vision. She was sent to a hospital emergency department from there. Ophthalmologists evaluated her eye, cultured the infection and sent the woman home with a combination of strong antibiotic eye drops. But the next day her eye was worse, and she saw yellow discharge on her pillow. This time she saw a cornea specialist, and eventually she was referred to microbiologists and infectious disease experts. “We wondered if she’d accidentally touched something, or there was some freak accident,” said lead study author Dr. Morgan Morelli, an infectious disease fellow at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center. “It required a lot of thinking and digging to figure out what was going on,” Morelli said. “And we never thought it was related to a global manufacturing issue,” she added in a news release from the American Society for Microbiology. But that was the cause — tainted EzriCare Artificial Tears. Eye infections linked to the contaminated artificial tears have caused devastating infections for U.S. patients, leading to a warning by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in February. By March, the…  read on >  read on >

The first U.S. cases of drug-resistant ringworm infection have been reported in New York City. The cases of two women with highly contagious skin infections caused by Trichophyton indotineae are reported in the May 12 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report . The fungus causes widespread, very itchy, and very hard-to-treat tinea infections. (Tinea is also known as ringworm, which can be misleading since no actual worm is involved.) “These are the first reported cases in the United States, but the infection is now spanning the globe,” said researcher Dr. Avrom Caplan, a dermatologist at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City. It has been spreading widely in India over the last decade and was termed “indotineae” in a report of two 2020 cases, he noted. “The name should not imply that it is only in India,” Caplan said. “We may see more of this infection over time.” The infection can be transmitted by direct contact; by contact with particles of dead skin, nails and hair shed by the host, usually animals and pets; or by contact with fungal spores. The infection is easily spread from person to person. Caplan said doctors should be aware of this infection and that topical antifungal creams aren’t going to be enough to treat it. “We also know that…  read on >  read on >

It’s easy to keep your skin safer in the summer sun if you have the right sunscreen. UCLA Health offers some tips for picking the best type and SPF level. Getting sunburned just five times in a lifetime doubles the risk of getting melanoma, the most serious skin cancer, so making sure you’re protected is worth the effort, the experts at UCLA Health said in a news release. Types of sunscreens can be divided into two categories: mineral and chemical. Each type has its pros and cons. Mineral sunscreen sits on the skin’s surface. It physically blocks ultraviolet (UV) light before those rays can penetrate the skin. While offering instant protection, it can be harder to rub in, needs to be applied more frequently and tends to leave a white film on the skin. Yet, it’s also gentler than chemical sunblock, making it a good choice for sensitive skin, according to UCLA Health. Mineral sunscreen contains titanium dioxide and zinc oxide, both recognized as safe and effective by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Chemical sunscreens allow UV light to penetrate skin, after which the chemicals convert the UV light into heat. This is released from the skin. The downsides are that chemical sunscreens need to be applied at least 20 minutes before sun exposure and there are concerns about the ingredients in chemical sunscreens,…  read on >  read on >

As the seasons change and the weather shifts, it’s not uncommon to experience symptoms like sneezing, coughing and congestion. But how do you know if you’re dealing with a common cold or allergies? The two can have similar symptoms, making it tough to tell an allergy from a cold. Here, experts offer tips on how to discern the difference. Cold vs. allergy symptoms: What are the differences? Understanding allergy versus cold symptoms is vital in determining which one you’re dealing with. While the two can share some similarities, there are also some differences to watch out for. Based on information from the Mayo Clinic and Atlantic Health System, here’s a list of common symptoms of a cold and allergies to help you differentiate between the two: Symptoms of a common cold include: Runny or stuffy nose Congestion Cough Sore throat Sneezing Headache Fatigue Body aches Symptoms of allergies include: Runny or stuffy nose Sneezing Itchy or watery eyes Congestion Postnasal drip Headache Fatigue “Both allergies and colds can cause inflammatory responses in the nasal passages and upper airways,” Dr. Gabrielle Samuels, a doctor of osteopathic medicine with Atlantic Health System, said in a recent article. “Inflammation in these areas can lead to similar symptoms, even though the causes might be very different.” There are, however, some symptoms that are unique to each condition. With allergies,…  read on >  read on >

The influence of Neanderthals is evident right in the center of the faces of modern humans. New research finds that genetic material inherited from Neanderthals affects nose shape. A particular gene made the nose taller from top to bottom. This may have been necessary as ancient humans adapted to colder climates. “In the last 15 years since the Neanderthal genome has been sequenced, we have been able to learn that our own ancestors apparently interbred with Neanderthals, leaving us with little bits of their DNA,” said co-corresponding author Dr. Kaustubh Adhikari. He is from the University College London (UCL) Genetics, Evolution & Environment and The Open University, in England. “Here, we find that some DNA inherited from Neanderthals influences the shape of our faces. This could have been helpful to our ancestors, as it has been passed down for thousands of generations,” Adhikari said in a UCL news release. For the study, the researchers worked with data from more than 6,000 volunteers across Latin America of mixed European, Native American and African ancestry. Those participants are part of the UCL-led CANDELA study, which recruited from Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Peru. To study how different facial traits were associated with the presence of different genetic markers, the scientists compared genetic information from the participants to photographs of their faces. They looked at distances between points…  read on >  read on >

When Ann Alexander underwent chemotherapy to treat breast cancer a decade ago, she was warned about potential hair loss, nausea and vomiting. The 73-year-old wasn’t, however, told about the potential side effects of radiation therapy, namely acute radiation dermatitis. Symptoms can range from mild to severe, and they include itchy skin, swelling, blistering and open sores. “It was painful, and it was scary,” the Bronx, N.Y., resident said. “I did everything I was supposed to do and ended up with really bad burns on my skin. I would have liked a heads up that this could occur.” Now 10 years cancer-free, Alexander routinely counsels other women on what to expect and how to deal with this side effect as a Bronx Oncology Living Daily (BOLD) buddy. Each year, 95% of people undergoing radiation to treat cancer will develop acute radiation dermatitis. Until recently, this condition was poorly understood and there wasn’t much to do to prevent it. This may all change due to the results of two new studies that implicate a common bacterium as the culprit and suggest that a simple antibacterial treatment may be the solution. “I absolutely believe these findings should change practice,” said study author Dr. Beth McLellan, director of supportive oncodermatology at Montefiore Einstein Cancer Center and chief of the division of dermatology at Montefiore Health System and Albert Einstein…  read on >  read on >

Quitting smoking will have benefits, even for those who are later diagnosed with lung cancer, new research indicates. While often studies compare outcomes for smokers vs. never smokers, investigators found that quitting smoking earlier also was beneficial. Among people diagnosed with the most common type of lung cancer, called non-small cell lung cancer, current smokers had 68% higher numbers of deaths compared to never smokers, while former smokers had only 26% higher numbers of deaths. And the longer a patient had quit smoking before being diagnosed with lung cancer, the better the odds of survival. “Our participants’ smoking histories varied, with some having stopped smoking a few years before their diagnosis and others having stopped several decades before,” said senior study author David Christiani, a professor of environmental genetics at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. “This wide range gave us confidence in our results — that the benefit of pre-diagnosis smoking cessation persists even after lung cancer is diagnosed,” he said in a university news release. The researchers studied nearly 5,600 patients with this common lung cancer who were enrolled in the Boston Lung Cancer Survival Cohort at Massachusetts General Hospital between 1992 and 2022. Among them, 795 had never smoked, 3,308 were former smokers and 1,491 were current smokers. Each participant answered questions about their smoking habits and other health…  read on >  read on >