Health

Malaysian researchers found that treatment with the anti-parasite drug ivermectin did not prevent patients with COVID-19 from becoming severely ill in a randomized clinical trial published in the JAMA Internal Medicine journal on Friday. The researchers said their findings do not support the use of ivermectin for patients with COVID-19. The study enrolled 490 patients with mild to moderate illness …

The Dominican Republic ended all COVID-19 public health restrictions on Thursday, including a mask mandate and vaccine checks in public spaces, despite not yet reaching the government’s vaccination target of 70% coverage for adults. President Luis Abinader made the announcement on social media and in a televised message late Wednesday. “It’s time to recover all our freedoms and way of …

JOHANNESBURG: The World Health Organisation (WHO) said authorities in Malawi have detected a case of polio in the southern African country’s capital, another setback in continuing efforts to eradicate the highly infectious paralytic disease globally. In a statement on Friday, the UN health agency said officials had identified wild poliovirus disease in a young child in Lilongwe, the first time …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan reported as many as 2,870 fresh Covid-19 cases and 40 deaths in the previous 24 hours, the data shared by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) showed. It said 40 more patients succumbed to the viral disease, pushing the death toll to 29,917. A total of 51,677 samples were tested, out of which 2,870 turned out to …

A new study strengthens suspicions that the female hormone estrogen protects against death from COVID-19. Researchers in Sweden studied 14,685 older women with COVID-19, all of whom were past menopause, during which estrogen levels decline dramatically. Seventeen percent were taking estrogen supplements to relieve menopausal symptoms. After adjusting for other risk factors, women getting extra estrogen had a 53% lower risk …

Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates met Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday during his first-ever visit to Pakistan. Sharing pictures of the meeting on Twitter, Senator Faisal Javed Khan said Gates “greatly appreciated steps [regarding polio eradication] in Pakistan, the National Command and Operation Centre’s (NCOC) performance in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic and initiatives such as the …

When Muzaffer Kayasan first caught COVID-19, he thought he was destined to die since he was already suffering from leukemia. Fourteen months and 78 straight positive tests later, he is still alive – and still battling to shake off the infection. Kayasan, 56, has Turkey’s longest recorded continuous COVID-19 infection, doctors say, possibly due to a weakened immune system from …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan reported as many as 2,465 fresh cases of COVID-19 and 49 deaths in the previous 24 hours, the data shared by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) showed Wednesday. With the fresh 49 deaths, the overall toll has jumped to 29,877. A total of 49,553 samples were tested, out of which 2,565 turned out to be positive, …

GENEVA: Pollution by states and companies is contributing to more deaths globally than Covid-19, a UN environmental report published on Tuesday said, calling for “immediate and ambitious action” to ban some toxic chemicals. The report said pollution from pesticides, plastics and electronic waste is causing widespread human rights violations and at least 9 million premature deaths a year, and that …

COVID-19 vaccines using mRNA technology do not produce any extra short-term side effects in cancer patients, a new study suggests. Researchers surveyed 1,753 recipients of two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, about two-thirds of whom had a history of cancer and about 12% of whom were receiving chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation therapy or surgery for their disease. More than 90% of the cancers …