Research in wild bats is reinforcing a notion crucial to stopping future pandemics: When wildlife populations stay healthy, the odds of “crossover” viruses infecting humans subsides. In Australia, deforestation has caused a deadly respiratory virus to pass from fruit bats to humans, by forcing the two species into closer contact, a new study reports. Robbed of their winter habitats, large “flying fox” bat populations started breaking up over the past quarter-century and roosting in smaller groups closer to human agricultural and urban areas in subtropical Australia, the study authors explained. These bats are the natural reservoir of Hendra virus, which jumped from the bats into horses and then from horses to humans, according to the report published Nov. 16 in the journal Nature. Hendra virus causes a severe respiratory infection that has proven to be 75% fatal in horses and 57% fatal in humans. The case study offers a glimpse into the process that causes infectious diseases like Ebola to jump from animals into humans, a process called “pathogen spillover,” the researchers noted. “We collected and collated 25 years of data and saw this amazing pattern. We captured this rapid transition from bats feeding in big populations as nomadic animals to bats eking out a living in small populations, in areas where there are people,” said senior researcher Raina Plowright, a professor of public and…  read on >  read on >

With U.S. health officials calling childhood obesity a public health crisis, conversations about weight are important. But what you say to your kids can be challenging, and even counterproductive, a new study found. “Body weight is a sensitive issue and the way we talk about it matters,” said lead author Rebecca Puhl, deputy director of the University of Connecticut Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health. “We really want to identify language that adolescents feel more comfortable using in these conversations, that they don’t feel stigmatized, that they don’t feel blamed or shamed,” Puhl noted. To do that, researchers reviewed 2021survey data from more than 2,000 kids ages 10 to 17, along with more than 1,900 parents. Participants were asked about 27 terms and phrases that can be used to describe body weight. The teens felt the most negative emotions about terms like “overweight,” “fat” and “extremely obese,” the study found. More than one-third of youths reported feeling embarrassment, shame and sadness when their parents used these words. Have a daughter? Tread lightly, the researchers recommended. Girls reported feeling more negative emotions in response to words used about weight than boys did. Whether the young person had obesity or not did not impact how they felt about the words. “I think a lot of parents have positive intentions when it comes to talking about their…  read on >  read on >

Fungi found in the soil are causing lung infections nationwide, even in places that doctors aren’t aware are at risk. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not revised maps for environmental fungi since 1969, according to a new study that found one disease-causing fungus — histoplasma, or histo — to be more widespread than the old maps show. This can lead to delayed or missed diagnoses in people with lung infections, according to researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The infections can be confused with COVID-19, bacterial pneumonia or tuberculosis. Fungi become a problem for people when they breathe in spores that are in the soil as the ground is disturbed by farming, landscaping or construction. People can become infected just by walking in areas that have a lot of spores — caves, for example. Infants, older adults and people with compromised immune systems may develop fever, cough, fatigue and other symptoms. “Every few weeks I get a call from a doctor in the Boston area — a different doctor every time — about a case they can’t solve,” said senior author Dr. Andrej Spec, an associate professor of medicine and a specialist in fungal infections at WUSTL. “They always start by saying, ‘We don’t have histo here, but it really kind of looks like histo.’ I say,…  read on >  read on >

It’s sort of like the Goldilocks principle — a room that’s either too dry or too humid can influence transmission of COVID-19 and cause more illness or death, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers say. Maintaining an indoor relative humidity between 40% and 60% is associated with lower rates of COVID-19 infections and deaths, they reported Nov. 16 in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface. Indoor conditions outside that range are associated with worse COVID outcomes, according to the report. “There’s potentially a protective effect of this intermediate indoor relative humidity,” said lead author Connor Verheyen, a doctoral student in the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology, in Cambridge, Mass. The research team noted that most people are comfortable between 30% and 50% relative humidity. An airplane cabin is kept around 20%. Until now, researchers have considered that COVID-19 could be influenced by the seasons, but they tended to examine the virus’ patterns in the context of outdoor weather conditions. The MIT team decided that other researchers might be looking in the wrong direction, given that people in most places spend more than 90% of their time indoors. Indoor conditions also are where most viral transmission occurs. For the study, the investigators combined COVID data with meteorological measurements taken from 121 countries. They gathered COVID case counts and deaths from between January and August…  read on >  read on >

Whether you survive a bout with cancer may depend, in part, on where you live. Researchers at the American Cancer Society and Clemson University in South Carolina found a 20% higher death rate for all cancer types in the communities with the most racial and economic segregation. For lung cancer, the death rate was 50% higher in the most segregated counties. “Many people living in low-income minority households have less access to employment opportunities, transportation, education and health care, and are more likely to experience worse health outcomes,” said senior study author Xuesong Han, scientific director of health services research at the American Cancer Society. “These findings show it is imperative we continue to look for ways to increase access to cancer prevention and early detection wherever possible, to reduce disparities in cancer outcomes,” she said in a society news release. The researchers examined county-level sociodemographic and death rate data from 2015 to 2019 from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Health Statistics. Among their findings: Residential racial and economic segregation was associated with cancer deaths at the county level. Segregation was associated with higher death rates from 12 of 13 selected cancer sites. Reasons why lung cancer death rates would be most strongly associated with segregation included more exposure to risk factors such as smoking and air pollution and less early…  read on >  read on >

In a finding that illustrates just how deeply racial disparities permeate the U.S. health care system, a new government report finds that suicide rates dipped slightly among white Americans while they rose for Black and Hispanic Americans. “Although the recent decline in suicide rates for non-Hispanic white persons is encouraging, the continued increase for non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic persons is concerning,” said study author Sally Curtin, a researcher for the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics. “Suicide has declined recently for white persons, in total, and for those involving the three leading methods — firearms and suffocation, including hangings, and poisoning,” she added. “Rates continued to increase for Black and Hispanic persons for those involving firearms and suffocation. These differing trends deserve our attention.” Suicide rates for white people increased from 2000 to 2018, but then dropped from 18 per 100,000 people to 17 per 100,000 in 2020. But among Black and Hispanic people, the suicide rate continued to increase to nearly 8 per 100,000. Still, the decline in suicide rates among white people appears to be short-lived, Curtin noted. Preliminary data for 2021 indicate suicide rates for all three race and ethnicity groups increased from 2020 to 2021, although the increase was less for white people (3%) compared with Black (13%) and Hispanic (8%) people, she said. “It is well documented that COVID increased…  read on >  read on >

Though the COVID-19 pandemic has eased, a mental health crisis persists, a nationwide survey of U.S. psychologists reveals. And growing demand for help with depression, anxiety and substance use issues means many psychologists across the United States are unable to take on new patients, according to the American Psychological Association’s 2022 COVID-19 Practitioner Impact Survey “The national mental health crisis continues,” said Arthur Evans Jr., chief executive officer of the APA. “If you are struggling, know that you are not alone. Psychological science shows that social support is key to developing resilience, so if you are having difficulty accessing care in a timely way, reach out to others to find support and identify ways to cope.” Close to 2,300 licensed psychologists nationwide responded to the APA’s third annual practitioner survey in late September and early October. About 60% said they no longer can take on new patients and 72% said they have longer waitlists than before the pandemic. On average, psychologists said 15 people a week contact them seeking new care. In all, 79% said they have seen more patients with anxiety disorders since the pandemic began. About 66% have seen increased demand for depression treatment; 47% for substance use treatment, and 64% for trauma. About two-thirds of psychologists said patients’ symptoms are more severe this year. Young people, especially 13- to 17-year-olds, represented the…  read on >  read on >