FILE - This undated, colorized electron microscope image made available by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in February 2020 shows the Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, indicated in yellow, emerging from the surface of cells, indicated in blue/pink, cultured in a laboratory. The National Institutes of Health is opening a handful of studies to start testing possible treatments for long COVID, an anxiously awaited step in U.S. efforts against the mysterious condition. The announcement, Monday, July 31, 2023 comes amid frustration from patients who've struggled for months or years with sometimes disabling health problems. (NIAID-RML via AP, File)

LAURAN NEERGAARD

AP Medical Writer
A miniature pig waits for visitors to feed it at a zoo in Shanghai, China, on Thursday Feb. 15, 2007. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
Chinese researchers report a pig kidney transplant and a first-step liver experiment
Chinese researchers are reporting new steps in the quest for animal-to-human organ transplants. Researchers at Xijing Hospital in China say a pig kidney transplant recipient continues to recover nearly three weeks after that surgery.
 
Jake Heinrichs hugs his wife, Rachel Chavkin, after speaking about early-stage Alzheimer's disease while inside their home in New York, on Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)
Researchers find a hint at how to delay Alzheimer’s symptoms. Now they have to prove it
An experimental treatment appears to postpone Alzheimer’s symptoms in some people genetically destined to get the disease at a young age.
 
This photo provided by the National Institutes of Health shows the James H. Shannon Building on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md., in 2015. (Lydia Polimeni/NIH via AP)
Researchers are learning the Trump administration axed their work to improve vaccination
The Trump administration is canceling studies about ways to improve vaccine trust and access. The move comes in the midst of a large measles outbreak fueled by unvaccinated children.
 
Lab workers at Johns Hopkins University work in Richard Huganir's lab in Baltimore, Md., on Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum)
Jobs lost in every state and lifesaving cures not discovered: Possible impacts of research cuts
Ripple effects of the Trump administration’s crackdown on U.S. medical research promise to reach every corner of America.
 
This photo provided by the National Institutes of Health shows the James H. Shannon Building on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md., in 2015. (Lydia Polimeni/NIH via AP)
Federal judge blocks drastic funding cuts to medical research
A federal judge is preventing the Trump administration from drastically cutting medical research funding. Scientists say the policy will endanger patients and delay new lifesaving discoveries.
 
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, President Donald Trump's choice to be Director of the National Institutes of Health, appears before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee for his confirmation hearing, at Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Trump nominee to lead National Institutes of Health questioned on funding cuts, vaccines
President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the National Institutes of Health is promising to help restore trust in medical research. Dr.
 
Custodian Ray Keen inspects a clock face before changing the time on the 100-year-old clock atop the Clay County Courthouse, March 8, 2014, in Clay Center, Kansas. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
How springing forward to daylight saving time could affect your health — and how to prepare
Losing an hour of sleep as daylight saving time kicks in can do more than leave you tired and cranky the next day — it also could harm your health.
 
FILE- Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), holds up a model of COVID-19, known as coronavirus, during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the plan to research, manufacture and distribute a coronavirus vaccine, known as Operation Warp Speed, Thursday, July 2, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Renowned geneticist Francis Collins retires from NIH, urging ‘respect’ for embattled workers
Dr. Francis Collins, a renowned geneticist, and former longtime director of the National Institutes of Health, is retiring from the government agency and urging “respect” for its embattled workers.
 
A sign for flu vaccination is displayed on a screen at a pharmacy store in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
Harsh flu season has health officials worried about brain complications in children
Federal health officials are trying to tell if this year’s harsh flu season led to an increase in a rare but dangerous brain complication in children.
 
Medical researchers from universities and the National Institutes of Health rally near the Health and Human Services headquarters to protest federal budget cuts Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)
Judge extends temporary block to huge cuts in National Institutes of Health research funding
A federal judge is continuing to block the Trump administration’s drastic cuts in medical research funding. Scientists say the policy will endanger patients and delay new lifesaving discoveries.
 
Pope Francis meets with Czech Republic's Prime Minister Robert Fico, right, and his entourage at The Vatican Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. (Vatican Media via AP, HO)
A look at Pope Francis’ previous hospitalizations and health problems
Pope Francis was hospitalized Friday for the fourth time since he was elected in 2013. Francis, who was diagnosed with bronchitis last week, had part of one lung removed as a young man and has recurring bouts of bronchitis, especially in winter.
 
President Donald Trump arrives on the South Lawn of the White House, in Washington, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Scientists warn Trump’s medical research cuts endanger patients as judge blocks the move for now
Scientists warn the Trump administration’s drastic cuts for medical research endanger patients, will cost thousands of jobs and threaten America’s standing as a world leader in science and innovation.
 
Tim Andrews smiles as he leaves Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston on Feb. 1, 2025. (Kate Flock/Massachusetts General Hospital via AP)
New Hampshire man is 2nd person known to be living with a pig kidney
A New Hampshire man has become the second person known to be living with a pig kidney. Massachusetts General Hospital announced Friday that Tim Andrews recovered well enough after the Jan. 25 transplant to leave the hospital a week later.
 
This image from video provided by UPMC and University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences shows Doug McCullough, who has spinal muscular atrophy, during tests of experimental spinal cord stimulation to improve muscle function in Pittsburgh, on March 14, 2023. (UPMC, University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences via AP)
A spine-zapping implant helped 3 people with a muscle-wasting disease walk better
Three people with a muscle-destroying disease destined to worsen got a little stronger when an implanted device zapped their spinal cord.
 
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., President Donald Trump's nominee to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services, testifies during a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing for his pending confirmation on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
RFK Jr. kept asking to see the science that vaccines were safe. After he saw it, he dismissed it
The man who hopes to be President Donald Trump’s health secretary says he needs to see data showing vaccines are safe, but he dismissed the evidence shown by an influential Republican senator. Robert F.
 
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump's choice to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, appears before the Senate Finance Committee for his confirmation hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Takeaways from RFK Jr.'s first confirmation hearing as Trump’s nominee for health secretary
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was pressed to clarify his views on vaccines, abortion and public health priorities in the first of two senate hearings as he tries to make the case to become President Donald Trump’s health secretary.
 
Towana Looney, who received a pig kidney transplant in November 2024, goes over notes about her recovery with Dr. Jeffrey Stern at NYU Langone Health in New York, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum)
The only person in the world with a functioning pig organ is thriving after a record 2 months
An Alabama woman is thriving a record 61 days and counting after receiving a pig kidney, a new milestone in the quest for animal-to-human transplants. Of four other people given experimental pig organ transplants, none survived more than two months.
 
In this photo provided by Massachusetts General Hospital, patient Mike Garrity, center, speaks with Drs. Joe Garasic, left, and Randy Zusman in Boston, on Sept. 25, 2024. (Jeffrey Andree/Massachusetts General Hospital via AP)
Keeping blood pressure under control is critical. There’s a new option for tough cases
About half of U.S. adults have high blood pressure and too few have it under control. Now some patients who’ve tried everything — multiple drugs, diet and exercise — without help are checking out a different option — zapping away some nerves on their kidneys that are fueling their high blood pressur
 
A doctor checks the blood pressure of A 94-year-old woman in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia, Catalonia region, Spain, Friday, July 31, 2020. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File)
Up to 4 in 10 people could develop dementia after 55. What you can do to lower your risk
New research suggests that Americans’ risk for developing dementia over a lifetime may be higher than previously thought.
 
A medical worker takes a swab sample from a worker of the China Star Optoelectronics Technology (CSOT) company during a round of COVID-19 tests in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province, Aug. 5, 2021. (Chinatopix via AP, File)
5 things we know and still don’t know about COVID, 5 years after it appeared
Five years after the virus that causes COVID emerged in China it still holds some mysteries. The disease has killed an estimated 20 million people globally, according to the World Health Organization, and thousands are still dying every year.
 
Alex Berrios walks into his dialysis session in Louisville, Ky., on Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum)
Who wants a pig organ? Patients sick and tired of waiting years for a transplant
People worried they’ll never get a scarce human transplant want to know when they might get a pig kidney instead. They call and email NYU Langone Health and Massachusetts General Hospital.
 
Pig kidney recipient Towana Looney stands with transplant surgeons Dr. Jayme Locke, left, now of the U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration and Dr. Robert Montgomery of NYU Langone Health, center, on Dec. 10, 2024, at NYU Langone Health, in New York City. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum)
An Alabama woman is doing well after the latest experimental pig kidney transplant
An Alabama woman received a pig kidney transplant last month and is free from dialysis for the first time in eight years. Towana Looney is the fifth American given a gene-edited pig organ in a quest to make animal-to-human transplants a reality.
 
FILE - A pharmacist holds a COVID-19 vaccine at a pharmacy in New York, on Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Mary Conlon, File)
Don’t wait for a holiday surge. Now is a good time to get your flu and COVID-19 vaccines
Health officials say it’s important to get flu and COVID-19 vaccines ahead of the holidays when respiratory bugs tend to spread.
 
The organ donor entry on the back of a driver license is photographed in New York on Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison)
People opt out of organ donation programs after reports of a man mistakenly declared dead
Transplant experts are seeing a spike in people refusing to become organ donors, their confidence shaken by reports that organs were nearly retrieved from a Kentucky man mistakenly declared dead. The surgery was avoided and the man is still alive.
 
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump waves at a campaign event at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Trump would be the oldest person to become president. He’s not sharing health details
If he wins next month’s election, Donald Trump would be the oldest person in U.S. history elected president.
 
This undated photo provided by the Oregon Health & Science University in October 2024 shows Drs. Erin Yamamoto, left, and Juan Piantino, who used special imaging to spot a long-suspected pathway the human brain uses to clear waste. (Christine Torres Hicks/OHSU via AP)
A peek inside human brain shows a way it cleans out waste
A unique peek inside the human brain may help explain how it clears away waste like the kind that leads to Alzheimer’s disease.
 
A pharmacist holds a COVID-19 vaccine at a pharmacy in New York, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Mary Conlon)
It’s time to roll up sleeves for new COVID, flu shots
Fall means it’s time for just about everybody to get up to date on their flu and COVID-19 vaccines. A lot of older adults also need protection against another risky winter virus, RSV.
 
FILE - Surgeons work on a kidney during a transplant surgical procedure in Washington on June 28, 2016. (AP Photo/Molly Riley, File)
Donating a kidney is even safer now than long thought, US study shows
People who volunteer to donate a kidney face an even lower risk of death from the operation than doctors have long thought. That’s according to an analysis of 30 years of living kidney donation.
 
This photo provided by Pfizer in August 2024 shows a packaging for the company's updated COVID vaccine for ages 12 and up, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. (Steven Decroos/Pfizer via AP)
FDA approves updated COVID-19 vaccines, shots should be available in days
Updated COVID-19 vaccines are on their way. The Food and Drug Administration approved new shots from Pfizer and Moderna on Thursday, and the companies are set to begin shipping millions of doses.
 
FILE - A doctor points to PET scan results that are part of a study on Alzheimer's disease at Georgetown University Hospital, on Tuesday, May 19, 2015, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Blood tests for Alzheimer’s may be coming to your doctor’s office. Here’s what to know
New research suggests certain blood tests could help doctors diagnose Alzheimer’s disease faster and more accurately.
 
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