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
Cancer from cellphones? New studies say no need to hang up
Two government studies that bombarded rats and mice with cellphone radiation found a weak link to some heart tumors. But scientists and federal regulators say don’t worry _ it is still safe to use your device.
 
Tiny implant opens way to deliver drugs deep into the brain
Better treatments for brain disorders are urgently needed, and MIT researchers are trying a new approach: They created a hair-thin needle that could be implanted deep inside the brain to drip medication on just the right spot.
 
US clears breakthrough gene therapy for childhood leukemia
The U.S. has cleared a breakthrough cancer treatment that uses gene therapy to turn patients’ own blood cells into assassins that attack childhood leukemia. The Food and Drug Administration calls it a historic approval.
 
Research shows aggressive treatment of sepsis can save lives
Researchers are finding that minutes matter when it comes to treating sepsis. The body’s out-of-control reaction to an infection can lead to organ failure before patients realize they are in trouble.
 
Those with blurry close-up vision get some new help
An eye implant that takes about 10 minutes to put in place is the newest in a list of surgical repairs for the blurry close-up vision that is a bane of middle age. Dr. Shilpa Rose says the Raindrop inlay won’t restore vision you had in your 20s.
 
Talk to babies and let them babble back to bridge word gap
Even infants can have conversations with mom or dad but their turn tends to involve a smile or some gibberish instead of words.
 
AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s iffy grasp of autism research
President Donald Trump has weighed in on child autism, apparently without a complete grasp of the research. He’s spoken of a “tremendous increase” in child autism. But the autism rate among children has been flat for a few years.
 
Trump asks skeptic to probe vaccine safety, alarming doctors
President-elect Donald Trump is reviving long debunked attempts to link vaccines to autism, asking a vocal skeptic to chair a commission on vaccination safety. Robert F.
 
Volunteers get bit to test new strategy for malaria vaccine
Researchers infected lab mosquitoes with genetically weakened malaria parasites, and then recruited volunteers willing to be bitten to test a possible new strategy for a vaccine.
 
Worth it? A faster transplant but a kidney with hepatitis C
A bold experiment is giving some patients a chance at cutting years off their wait for a kidney transplant. But they have to agree to get an organ almost sure to infect them with hepatitis C.
 
Obama shakes mind-controlled robot hand wired to sense touch
A paralyzed man shares a handshake with President Barack Obama by using a mind-controlled robotic arm that, in a first for medical research, is helping to restore his sense of touch.
 
Advice for parents on body image amid 2016 campaign insults
Even if your daughters aren’t paying attention to politics, they’d be hard-pressed to have missed Donald Trump’s attack of a former Miss Universe’s weight.
 
Organ network mapping a path to more fair liver transplants
 
Up to 1 in 5 trauma deaths could be prevented, study says
Up to 1 in 5 people may be dying unnecessarily from car crashes, gunshots or other injuries, a stark conclusion from government advisers who say where you live shouldn’t determine if you survive.
 
Loneliness hurts: Senior health about more than disease
Think about health during the senior years, and a list of common ailments pops to mind. New research suggests factors such as loneliness and whether they’ve broken any bones since middle age also play a role in the well-being of older adults.
 
Noise harder on children than adults, hinders how they learn
From the cacophony of day care to the buzz of TV and electronic toys, noise is more distracting to a child’s brain than an adult’s_ and new research shows it can hinder how youngsters learn.
 
Families hit by rare early Alzheimer’s push for research
On Saturday, researchers for the first time brought together dozens of these families — patients, patients-to-be and their healthy loved ones — from as far as Australia and Britain to meet face to face. They shared advice about when their children should undergo gene testing to learn their own fate,
 
Poll: Sandwich generation worried about own long-term care
WASHINGTON (AP) — Caught between kids and aging parents, the sandwich generation worries more than most Americans their age about how they’ll afford their own care as they grow older, a new poll shows.
 
Republicans push back against proposed dietary guidelines
House and Senate spending bills say the guidelines must focus only on nutrition and diet.
 
Study of returns to the ER suggests lack of follow-up care
Already some ERs are taking steps to find out why and try to prevent unnecessary returns. A Philadelphia hospital, for example, is beginning to test video calls and other steps to link discharged patients to primary care.
 
Hard search for less invasive brain surgery leads to eyelid
WASHINGTON (AP) — Doctor after doctor said removing the tumor causing Pamela Shavaun Scott’s unrelenting headaches would require cutting open the top of her skull and pushing aside her brain.
 
US adds extra level of airport screening for Ebola
The extra screening probably wouldn’t have singled out Thomas Eric Duncan when he arrived from hard-hit Liberia last month, because he had no symptoms while traveling. Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S., died Wednesday in Dallas.
 
Step toward artificial hand with a sense of touch
When researchers touched different spots on his artificial hand, “sometimes it felt like a cotton ball,” he said. “Sometimes like sandpaper.”
 
Health officials work to contain Ebola virus in US
WASHINGTON (AP) — Texas health officials have confined four people to their home, under guard, after they had close contact with an Ebola patient hospitalized in Dallas, as disease detectives work to make sure the deadly virus doesn’t spread in the U.S.
 
Healthy seniors tested in bid to block Alzheimer’s
Having lots of that gunky protein called beta-amyloid doesn’t guarantee someone will get sick. But the big question: Could intervening so early make a difference for those who do?
 
Animal mothers customize milk based on baby’s sex
Pediatricians have long stressed that breast milk is best when it comes to baby’s first food. Breast-fed infants are healthier, suffering fewer illnesses such as diarrhea, earaches or pneumonia during the first year of life and less likely to develop asthma or obesity later on.
 
Cold caps tested to prevent hair loss during chemo
WASHINGTON (AP) — The first time Miriam Lipton had breast cancer, her thick hair fell out two weeks after starting chemotherapy.
 
Long-term care in aging US: Not for me, poll says
In fact, 3 in 10 would rather not think about getting older at all. Only a quarter predict it’s very likely that they’ll personally need help getting around or caring for themselves during their senior years, according to the poll by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
 
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