Health category, Page 85

Plasma from people who have recovered from the coronavirus could be a tool in helping critically ill patients recover from the virus, and the region’s two largest health care providers are working together to help facilitate those transfusions. Vitalant, previously the Central Blood Bank, is working with UPMC and Allegheny...

NEW YORK — LGBT New Yorkers who lived through the AIDS crisis of the 1980s see some bleak parallels in the COVID-19 pandemic now wracking their city. But more so, they stress the differences. Now, they share the same plight as their fellow citizens while the federal government is pledging...

LOS ANGELES — California’s relatively quick action to close businesses and order residents to stay home has tamped down the coronavirus pandemic and left many hospitals largely empty, waiting for a surge that has yet to come. The initial success of the unprecedented shutdown of schools, businesses and other institutions...

NEW YORK — The worldwide death toll from the coronavirus surged past 100,000 Friday as the epidemic in the U.S. cut a widening swath through not just New York City but the entire three-state metropolitan area of 20 million people connected by a tangle of subways, trains and buses. In...

NEW YORK — Steve Baker, one of the British parliament’s leading libertarians, was nearly in tears as he addressed the House of Commons in support of a bill that once seemed unthinkable: a massive economic aid package in response to the coronavirus pandemic. “Libertarian though I may be, this is...

Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday announced more than $450 million in low-interest loans meant to keep hospitals afloat as they continue to lose revenue amid the coronavirus pandemic. Hospitals statewide have canceled elective surgeries and nonurgent procedures to free up bed space and limit the spread of covid-19. At the...

The Pennsylvania Department of Health will release additional information about the location of covid-19 patients to county emergency management agencies beginning Friday. Citing the privacy provisions of the 1955 Disease Prevention and Control Act, the Pennsylvania Department of Health, which holds daily briefings on the statewide case count, previously refused...

A toilet that does double duty could be on its way to your home. Researchers at Stanford University announced they have developed a system that can monitor your health by examining your waste — be it No. 1 or 2. In a release, Dr. Sanjiv “Sam” Gambhir and his team...

In light of the continued spread of the coronavirus across Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday signed an order that will allow the state’s emergency management agency to take protective equipment and supplies from one medical facility and give them to others with greater needs. “I’m trying to make sure...

A sterilization technique developed by Allegheny Health Network will allow health care workers to reuse their N95 masks up to three times, hospital system officials said Tuesday. As covid-19 cases have increased nationwide, the supply of masks has dwindled. The N95 masks, fitted with respirators, filter out droplets and aerosolized...

UPMC researchers are among those nationwide and around the world working to learn more about blood tests that could help physicians understand how a person’s body has responded to covid-19. The blood test would measure whether a person has antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes covid-19, and could show...

The first national data on covid-19 in U.S. children suggest that while the illness usually isn’t severe in kids, some do get sick enough to require hospital treatment. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Monday shows that fever, cough and shortness of breath were the most common...

A safety order that provides life-sustaining businesses with direction on how to properly clean and maintain buildings to help prevent the spread of covid-19 was issued Sunday by state Secretary of Health Rachel Levine. The Building Safety Measures order goes into effect at 12:01 a.m. April 6. It outlines measures...

WASHINGTON — Home testing for the new coronavirus may sound like a good idea, but U.S. regulators say it’s still too risky. They’ve stopped companies that quickly launched home-testing kits until they can show their products can accurately detect the virus. For now, the only way Americans can get tested...

NEW YORK — To a casting director, he might have seemed the perfect impatient New Yorker — broad, bald and with a booming voice, tattoos on his neck and hands visible under his construction jacket. Justin Hunter stood in line outside the Park Slope Food Coop, one of several dozen...

NEW YORK — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday that China is facilitating the shipment of 1,000 ventilators to his state, as he continues to shop for more of the lifesaving devices ahead of a growing number of coronavirus patients who will need them. The number of people infected...

NEW YORK — Scarce supplies of medical equipment are leading to growing competition within the U.S. and among nations, in what one French politician called a “worldwide treasure hunt.” The governor of New York state, the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, vowed to seize unused ventilators from private hospitals and...

NEW YORK — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he would order the redistribution of critically needed ventilators. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called for a national enlistment program for doctors and nurses. And the coronavirus outbreak picked up speed with more deaths and more hospitalizations. The latest...

Nuket Curran, a doctor of physical therapy, lives in Shaler. She is director of compliance at Phoenix Rehabilitation and Health Services (phoenixrehab.com). Coronavirus has changed our lives completely. Each day we are making the choice to not to see anyone in person and rely on digital technology to connect with...

With influenza activity decreasing significantly across the state, Pennsylvania health officials have stopped updating a weekly report on flu activity for the season. Flu activity is down over the past few weeks and now below epidemic levels, according to a report from the Pennsylvania Department of Health for the week...

Western Pennsylvania’s two largest insurers pledged Thursday to eliminate any out-of-pocket costs for patients who are treated for covid-19 at an in-network hospital. Both UPMC and Highmark committed to waiving all deductibles, co-pays and co-insurance costs for insurance members who receive in-network, inpatient care related to covid-19, the disease caused...

A third resident who tested positive for covid-19 at Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center has died, officials announced Thursday. Two other residents with advanced dementia previously died after contracting the disease, according to Dr. David Thimons, the facility’s medical director. “There are currently 38 in-house residents that have tested positive,”...