Tag - medicine

 
 

MEDICINE

Judges at the Kyoto District Court hear a case involving Yoshikazu Okubo, a doctor accused of the consensual killing of a woman with a fatal neurological disease, on Jan. 11. The court is scheduled to deliver its ruling on March 5.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 1, 2024
Prosecutors seek 23 years for Japanese doctor in consensual killing case
They claim the accused had an "interest" in killing the elderly and people with disabilities under the false pretense of medical care.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data showed that 8.8 million people in the U.S. in 2022 were living with long COVID.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 30, 2024
A promising turn in the quest to treat long COVID
A new study doesn’t explain why the immune response is out of whack, but it is an important new piece to the vexing puzzle that is long COVID.
Aissam Dam, 11, the first person to receive gene therapy in the U.S. for congenital deafness, signs to an interpreter during an interview at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia on Jan. 16.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 28, 2024
'Game changer': Gene therapy offers hope for children born deaf
The treatment focuses on a rare genetic mutation that affects only a small number of the 26 million people with congenital deafness globally.
Shitsui Hakoishi, 107, works with researcher Yasumichi Arai (left) while her younger brother, Hidemasa, looks on. Researchers like Arai believe the healthy and active Hakoishi's cells may hold the secret to living a long life.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Longform
Jan 27, 2024
Living until 100, if not forever, in good health
Immortality may be out of reach, but can a slew of research projects prolong our natural aging process?
A man is inoculated with a COVID-19 vaccine in New Hyde Park, New York, in September 2023.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 26, 2024
COVID and beyond: Labs unite to boost genomic surveillance globally
Teams at two facilities said they were worried governments and funders may pull back from such surveillance.
A scanning electron micrograph of group A streptococcus bacteria
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jan 24, 2024
Cases of tissue-damaging bacterial disease hit record high in Japan
Health authorities are urging people to take basic health measures such as hand-washing to prevent the spread of the disease.
The government estimates that in 2020, more than 10,000 visitors from China traveled to Japan for comprehensive medical examinations, spending around ¥1.5 million on average.
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2024
Japan's high-end medical services attract affluent Chinese tourists
The current trend reflects a growing health consciousness in China after the coronavirus pandemic, travel industry experts have said.
People wear masks at an evacuation center in the town of Anamizu, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 8. The number of people with acute respiratory infectious diseases, which include COVID-19 and influenza, at evacuation centers in the prefecture stood at 142 as of Sunday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jan 15, 2024
COVID and Japan, four years later: Normality, but words of caution
The nation has mostly returned to the pre-pandemic norm, but experts warn against people letting their guard down completely.
An employee looks at data on screens in the high-tech command center at the Novartis AG campus in Basel, Switzerland.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 10, 2024
Swiss pharma firms plot different paths to blockbuster drugs
Roche has doubled down on Alzheimer’s and boosted research and development spending across its portfolio.
Inspectors analyze saliva collected with test kits at SalivaTech.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Jan 8, 2024
Tohoku startup offers way to detect cancer early using saliva
SalivaTech's SalivaChecker is a test kit that provides high-precision analysis of around 10 types of salivary metabolites.
Take any scientific issue that involves political choices, from public health to climate change, all sides claim to be basing their concerns on science.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 2, 2024
Let’s stop insulting each other as ‘anti-science’
Take any scientific issue that involves political choices, from public health to climate change, all sides claim to be basing their concerns in science.
Sales of cardiotonics and vitamin B1, popular products among foreign travelers, rose in 2023 amid a tourism rebound.
BUSINESS
Jan 2, 2024
Heart stimulants saw biggest 2023 sales rise in Japan amid tourism rebound
Sales of products popular with foreign visitors are increasing in line with the recovery of inbound tourism, a survey has found.
Though ChatGPT debuted in late 2022, it was really in 2023 that we started to get a sense of what large language models could do, including diagnosing complex medical issues.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2023
The 10 most intriguing science breakthroughs over the past year
As 2023 has drawn to a close, let’s look back on some of the astounding breakthroughs we’ve seen in the last 12 months.
Smart chemotherapy is in the spotlight again as Big Pharma invests billions in next-generation cancer drugs.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 29, 2023
Targeted cancer drugs finally live up to the hype
The newfound understanding of how these cancer drugs work could lead to broader applications in treating various tumors
Surgeon Paolo Titolo speaks with health care worker Marcello Gaviglio, 55, who underwent a nerve transplant from his amputated foot in an effort to restore movement in his paralyzed hand in the city of Turin, Italy, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 28, 2023
Italian man undergoes nerve transfer from amputated leg to hand
The man suffered serious injuries to his brachial plexus, which connects to the spinal cord, leaving him unable to use either of his hands.
Demonstrators rally against COVID-19 vaccine mandates in Buffalo, New York, in February 2022.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2023
It’s past time scientists admitted their COVID-19 mistakes
In 2019, 13% of Americans were distrustful enough to say they weren’t confident in scientists to act in the public’s best interest. Now it is 27%.
Desi Permatasari, 32, comforts her daughter, Sheena Almaera Maryam, 5, who was prescribed contaminated cough syrup last year in their home in Bogor, Indonesia.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Dec 24, 2023
When children take toxic cough syrup — and live
In Indonesia, one of the places most impacted by the contamination, families struggle to care for survivors while taking action against those responsible.
Displaced Palestinians gather in the yard of Gaza's Shifa hospital on Dec. 10.
WORLD / Society
Dec 22, 2023
No functional hospitals left in northern Gaza, WHO says
Of Gaza's original 36 hospitals, only nine are now partially functional, all of them in the south.
Ayako Shimazaki, editor in charge of the manga “Light Blue Embryologist,” described the work of embryologists as “an important job that involves the beginning of life.”
JAPAN / Society
Dec 21, 2023
Manga brings realities of fertility treatment to mass audience
The series revolves around a narrative that follows interactions between aspiring parents who visit a fertility clinic and an embryologist.
Medical fees will be lowered by 0.12% in fiscal 2024, marking the fifth consecutive reduction in the fees that are reviewed every two years.
JAPAN
Dec 20, 2023
Japan fees for medical services and drugs to be lowered by 0.12%
The government will raise its official fees for nursing and disability welfare services by 1.59% and 1.12%, respectively, in fiscal 2024.

Longform

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'