LAURAN NEERGAARD

AP Medical Writer

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Pig transplant research yields a surprise: Bacon safe for some people allergic to red meat

Some people develop a weird allergy to red meat after being bitten by a lone star tick yet find they can still eat pork from a surprising source - certain pigs originally bred for human organ transplants.

Meet some of the world’s cleanest pigs, raised to grow kidneys and hearts for humans

Some of the world’s cleanest pigs are being raised in the Virginia mountains to supply kidneys and hearts for animal-to-human organ transplants.

What cognitive tests can show -- and what they can’t

Washington politics is drawing attention to cognitive testing, a 10-minute series of questions to assess different brain function.

A woman who received a pig kidney transplant plus a heart pump has died

A woman who received a pig kidney transplant has died. Lisa Pisano received both the kidney and an implanted device to pump her failing heart in April at NYU Langone Health.

A rare voice box transplant helped a cancer patient speak again, part of a pioneering study

A Massachusetts man can speak again after surgeons removed his cancerous voice box and replaced it with a donated one, a pioneering move.

Colombian family’s genes offer new clue to delaying onset of Alzheimer’s

Scientists studying a Colombian family plagued by early-in-life Alzheimer’s have found a rare gene variant that seems to delay initial symptoms by about five years.

Man in Mexico died of a bird flu strain that hadn’t been confirmed before in a human, WHO says

Health authorities say a man in Mexico died from a type of bird flu called H5N2 that has never before been found in a human.

FDA advisers urge targeting JN.1 strain in recipe for fall’s COVID vaccines

Government advisers say it’s time to update the recipe for the COVID-19 vaccines Americans will receive in the fall. They recommend targeting a version of the ever-evolving coronavirus called JN.1 But it was a tough choice.

Fauci pushes back partisan attacks in fiery House hearing over COVID origins and controversies

Dr. Anthony Fauci was back before Congress, calling Republican allegations that he’d tried to cover up COVID-19’s origins “simply preposterous.”

Scientists are testing mRNA vaccines to protect cows and people against bird flu

The bird flu outbreak in U.S. dairy cows is prompting development of new, next-generation mRNA vaccines — akin to the shots deployed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Shots are being tested in cattle as well as in people. The U.S.

Woman is back on dialysis after doctors remove transplanted pig kidney

Doctors say a woman who received a pig kidney transplant is back on dialysis after surgeons removed the gradually failing organ.

A gene long thought to just raise the risk for Alzheimer’s may cause some cases

For the first time, researchers have identified a genetic form of late-in-life Alzheimer’s disease. Most cases of the mind-robbing disease occur after age 65. A gene called APOE4 has long been considered a key risk factor.

She was too sick for a traditional transplant. So she received a pig kidney and a heart pump

A New Jersey woman who was near death has received a transplanted pig kidney, part of a dramatic pair of surgeries that also stabilized her failing heart. Doctors at NYU Langone Health say 54-year-old Lisa Pisano is recovering well.

A biased test kept thousands of Black people from getting a kidney transplant. It’s finally changing

A racially biased test delayed Black patients from getting a kidney transplant and now more than 14,000 are part of a move to make amends.

New study finds no brain injuries among ‘Havana syndrome’ patients

An array of advanced tests found no brain injuries or degeneration among U.S. diplomats who suffer mysterious health problems once dubbed “Havana syndrome.”

A new strategy to attack aggressive brain cancer shrank tumors in two early tests

Researchers revved up immune cells that shrank an extremely aggressive type of brain tumor when tested in a handful of patients. The experiments are just first steps but they signal a new strategy to fight hard-to-treat glioblastoma.

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.

Silent brain changes precede Alzheimer’s. Researchers have new clues about which come first

A study of older adults in China offers a closer look at the dominolike sequence of brain changes that lead to Alzheimer’s. Scientists don’t know exactly how Alzheimer’s forms but it quietly ravages the brain long before symptoms appear.

Verbal gaffe or sign of trouble? Mixing up names like Biden and Trump have done is pretty common

Any parent who’s ever called one of their children by the other’s name likely could empathize when President Joe Biden mixed up the names of French leaders Macron and Mitterrand.

Lupus and other autoimmune diseases strike far more women than men. Now there’s a clue why

Women are far more likely than men to get autoimmune diseases, illnesses like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis that occur when the immune system mistakenly attacks their own bodies.

Ancient human DNA hints at why multiple sclerosis affects so many northern Europeans today

Northern Europeans are more prone to multiple sclerosis than other ancestries and now a study of ancient DNA hints at why. It seems to be a genetic legacy of horseback-riding cattle herders who swept into the region about 5,000 years ago.

Crib videos offer clue to mysterious child deaths, showing seizures sometimes play a role

Crib cameras are offering a clue to a rare but devastating tragedy _ when seemingly healthy young children suddenly die in their sleep and autopsies can’t tell why.