THURSDAY, Nov. 30, 2017 (HealthDay News) — The epidemic of opioid abuse in the United States has put hospital ERs on the front line, with staffers increasingly battling infections tied to the problem. ERs are seeing an increasing number of patients seeking care for severe infections resulting from injected useContinue Reading

THURSDAY, Nov. 30, 2017 (HealthDay News) — Bacterial resistance to the antibiotic ampicillin may have begun years before doctors started prescribing it in the early 1960s, a new study suggests. Ampicillin, a broad-spectrum penicillin, is widely used to treat many bacterial infections, including bladder and ear infections, pneumonia and gonorrhea.Continue Reading

TUESDAY, Nov. 28, 2017 (HealthDay News) — Patients used to see doctors as kindly-but-firm professionals — experts who knew what they were talking about and whose advice should be heeded, even if it wasn’t necessarily welcome. But these days, people have become demanding health care consumers, and they don’t respondContinue Reading

TUESDAY, Nov. 21, 2017 (HealthDay News) — There’s no evidence to support the notion that people who get the flu vaccine every year somehow “weaken” their immune system over time, researchers say. In fact, annual vaccination seemed tied to stronger immune cell activity, according to the Norwegian research team. That’sContinue Reading

MONDAY, Nov. 20, 2017 (HealthDay News) — Teens who abuse prescription drugs, like opioid painkillers, are prone to initiating or being victims of dating violence, a new study finds. In a nationwide survey of more than 10,000 teenagers who had dated in the past year, the researchers found that non-medicalContinue Reading

THURSDAY, Nov. 16, 2017 (HealthDay News) — Despite safety warnings from drug regulators, some U.S. children are still being given a risky painkiller after having their tonsils removed, a new study finds. At issue is the opioid painkiller codeine. In 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a “blackContinue Reading

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 15, 2017 (HealthDay News) — The top two medications used to treat opioid addiction appear equally safe and effective, a new study finds. With the United States in the midst of an unprecedented opioid crisis, researchers conducted a head-to-head trial of two leading addiction treatments — naltrexone (Vivitrol)Continue Reading

TUESDAY, Nov. 14, 2017 (HealthDay News) — Offering both the promise of better patient compliance with health care, but also fears of a medical “Big Brother,” a newly approved “digital pill” allows physicians to track whether or not it’s been ingested by patients. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration hasContinue Reading

THURSDAY, Nov. 9, 2017 (HealthDay News) — The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, first developed to help guard against cervical cancer, also seems to protect against a rare, chronic childhood respiratory disease, a new study suggests. It’s believed that the disease — recurrent respiratory papillomatosis — occurs in children when HPVContinue Reading