Commonly known as the “clap,” gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted disease that can cause infertility in both women and men if left untreated. The bad news is that cases are on the rise: According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are on a steady and steep climb. Gonorrhea, already the second most common STD in the United States, saw a 10% increase in prevalence in 2020 alone. “The COVID-19 pandemic put enormous pressure on an already strained public health infrastructure,” Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of CDC’s National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, said recently. “There were moments in 2020 when it felt like the world was standing still, but STDs weren’t. The unrelenting momentum of the STD epidemic continued even as STD prevention services were disrupted.” The even worse news is that gonorrhea has developed antibiotic resistance, with recent research showing the bacteria is now resistant to numerous antibiotics in many parts of Africa. Doctors are down to one last effective class of antibiotics, cephalosporins, to treat a gonorrhea infection. What is gonorrhea? Gonorrhea is a bacteria that is spread through sexual contact, and sometimes through childbirth. The Mayo Clinic reports it most commonly affects the genitals, rectum and throat. In babies born to infected moms, it most commonly presents as an eye…  read on >  read on >

Genital herpes. It’s an embarrassing sexually transmitted disease that no one ever wants to be diagnosed with, but millions are. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are on a steep and steady climb. And herpes is no exception: An estimated 13% of the world’s population has it, the World Health Organization says. Most STDs are spread through the exchange of bodily fluids, but some, including the herpes simplex virus, can spread through skin-to-skin contact, according to the National Library of Medicine. What is genital herpes? Genital herpes is most often caused by the herpes simplex virus-2 (HSV-2). But the American Sexual Health Association (ASHA) notes it can also be caused by HSV-1, more commonly known as the cause of oral herpes, or cold sores. How do you get genital herpes? The virus is easily spread through vaginal, anal and oral sex. But, according to ASHA, the virus can lay dormant in the body for days, weeks or even years, only coming to the surface when triggered by something else happening in the body. This latency not only makes it difficult to detect, but hard to pinpoint where and when it was contracted. Genital herpes symptoms Unlike other STDs, where patients typically have little to no obvious symptoms, genital herpes can show up as small, red and painful…  read on >  read on >

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was released from the hospital on Monday and sent to a rehabilitation facility, after suffering a concussion last Wednesday night following a fall at a dinner. “Leader McConnell’s concussion recovery is proceeding well and the Leader was discharged from the hospital today,” McConnell’s Communications Director David Popp said in a statement. “At the advice of his physician, the next step will be a period of physical therapy at an inpatient rehabilitation facility before he returns home.” “Over the course of treatment this weekend, the Leader’s medical team discovered that he also suffered a minor rib fracture on Wednesday, for which he is also being treated,” Popp added. Exactly when the 81-year-old, who is the longest-serving Senate Republican leader in history, might return to the Senate is unclear. A Senate aide said McConnell’s doctors will decide how long he stays in rehab, but the aide noted that post-hospitalization stays often last one to two weeks, the Washington Post reported. Meanwhile, the minority leader has been in touch with Senate colleagues by text from the hospital and met at the hospital with Senate staff members and other advisers, according to the New York Times. Democrats have a slim 51-49 majority in the U.S. Senate and have recently needed Vice President Kamala Harris to cast tie-breaking votes on some judicial nominations as…  read on >  read on >

It may be possible to nudge your vaccine to work a little better. The trick is a good night’s sleep. Sleep helps the immune system respond to vaccination, according to a new meta-analysis of past research, published March 13 in Current Biology. In it, researchers found that people who slept fewer than six hours per night produced significantly fewer antibodies than people who slept seven or more. That deficit was equivalent to two months of waning antibodies. “Good sleep not only amplifies but may also extend the duration of protection of the vaccine,” senior author Eve Van Cauter said in a journal news release. She is a professor emeritus at the University of Chicago. Van Cauter and lead author Karine Spiegel, of the French National Institute of Health and Medicine in Lyon, France, previously published a landmark study on the effects of sleep on vaccination in 2002. To update this, they searched, combined and reanalyzed results of seven studies of vaccination for viral infections, specifically influenza and hepatitis A and B. They compared the antibody response for individuals who slept seven to nine hours (as recommended by the National Sleep Foundation) to that of “short sleepers” who got less than six hours of shuteye. Overall, researchers found strong evidence that sleeping fewer than six hours per night reduced the immune response to vaccination. But a…  read on >  read on >

Nearly one-third of older people fall each year, most of them in their own homes. But it’s possible to reduce those numbers by a quarter, according to a new study. Five steps can cut the risk of falls by 26%, the researchers reported in the March 10 issue of the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Those steps are: decluttering; reducing tripping hazards; improving lighting; and adding hand rails and non-slip strips to stairs. “Falls are very common among older people. They can cause serious injury or even death, but they are preventable. In this review, we wanted to examine which measures could have the biggest impact on reducing falls among older people living at home,” lead author Lindy Clemson, professor emeritus at the University of Sydney, Australia, said in a journal news release. The review found that people most at risk of falls, such as those recently hospitalized for a fall or those needing support for daily activities, such as dressing, would benefit the most from decluttering. Other measures — such as having the correct prescription glasses or special footwear — didn’t make a difference. Neither did education about falls. For the study, the researchers analyzed 22 studies that included data on more than 8,400 people living at home. Taking measures to reduce falls around the house reduced falls by 38% in people who were…  read on >  read on >

While older women are treated for falls more often than elderly males, men are more likely to sustain skull fractures when they topple over, new research suggests. This is a serious concern because more than 3 million people aged 65 and older are treated in U.S. emergency departments each year for falls. “The high incidence of head injury and subsequent skull fractures due to falls is a cause for concern as our aging population continues living active lifestyles,” study co-author Dr. Scott Alter, an associate professor of emergency medicine at Florida Atlantic University College of Medicine, said in a university news release. Head trauma is the leading cause of serious injury, and skull fractures are a serious head trauma outcome, the study authors noted. About 58% of these falls happen to women, according to the 2016 National Trauma Database annual report. To study this further, Alter and his colleagues evaluated all patients seen with head trauma at two level-one trauma centers in southeast Florida. The researchers examined skull fractures due to acute trauma, comparing them by gender, patient race/ethnicity and how the injury happened. About 56% of the more than 5,400 patients were women. About 85% of the head injuries sustained happened in falls. The women and men had a mean age of about 83 and 81 years, respectively. Men had a significantly increased incidence…  read on >  read on >

(HealthDay News) – U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will remain hospitalized with a concussion after suffering a fall during a dinner on Wednesday night. “Leader McConnell tripped at a dinner event Wednesday evening and has been admitted to the hospital and is being treated for a concussion,” McConnell’s communications director David Popp said in a statement released Thursday, NBC News reported. “He is expected to remain in the hospital for a few days of observation and treatment. The Leader is grateful to the medical professionals for their care and to his colleagues for their warm wishes.” When the 81-year-old, who is the longest-serving Senate Republican leader in history, might return to the Senate after his injury is unclear, according to the New York Times. Democrats have a slim 51-49 majority in the U.S. Senate and have recently needed Vice President Kamala Harris to cast tie-breaking votes on some judicial nominations as some Democrats have been absent. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.), 53, is working remotely during treatment for depression and unable to vote because he is not physically present. Meanwhile, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), 89, is also out, after being hospitalized with shingles. McConnell was previously injured in 2019, having surgery after fracturing his shoulder on a patio at his home in Louisville, the Times reported. He was last re-elected as minority leader in 2022.…  read on >  read on >

Side effects from a COVID-19 vaccination might have made you feel poorly for a day or two, but that may have come with an extra benefit. A new study of health care workers finds a link between stronger side effects and a longer-lasting vaccine. In addition, those who had a COVID-19 infection prior to their vaccination also had a more powerful immune response, according to researchers from UConn Health in Farmington. “Prior infection with COVID meant you were more likely to have a sustained immune response. It definitely set your immune system to respond in a more vigorous way to the vaccination,” study co-author Dr. Kevin Dieckhaus said in a university news release. He’s chief of infectious diseases at UConn School of Medicine. To study this, researchers recruited 296 nurses, doctor and other hospital workers. That included 46 who had already been infected with COVID. Participants were vaccinated with either the Pfizer or the Moderna mRNA vaccines. The study had originally included health care workers vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, but not enough chose that option to make the results statistically significant. The health care workers had their blood tested for neutralizing antibodies at two months post-vaccination, then at five months and again at nine months. These neutralizing antibodies attack the parts of the virus important for infection, the study noted, while other antibodies…  read on >  read on >