A study published today in Nature Genetics examines AstraZeneca's new tool, MILTON, which uses artificial intelligence to detect biomarkers and predict diseases before they are diagnosed. According to this analysis, the tool could potentially predict over a thousand diseases and may even be more effective than the currently available polygenic risk scores.
Ahead of World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10, a new series of six articles published in The Lancet Public Health calls for a shift in the narrative. Experts advocate for moving beyond framing suicide solely as a mental health issue, emphasizing the need to recognize the impact of social factors such as poverty, debt, addiction, homelessness, abuse, discrimination, and social isolation.
Mice with Alzheimer's disease are more resistant to the development of colorectal tumors, a study shows. An inverse relationship between Alzheimer's and cancer has already been shown in epidemiological studies in humans. An imbalance in certain intestinal bacteria contributes to this negative correlation in mice, adds the article published in PNAS.
Increasing temperatures and international travel, among other factors, are causing the dengue epidemic to spread to more countries. In Spain, there is a growing number of imported cases, and health authorities warn that the incidence may increase. This article explains the basics of this disease.
Scientists in Hong Kong have studied the usefulness of six indices that estimate the severity and health hazard of a heatwave. Analysing several episodes in recent years in Spain, India and the United States, they conclude that five of the six were not able to capture their severity and spatial distribution effectively enough, especially in low humidity conditions. The most useful was the so-called "lethal heat stress index", but the researchers - publishing their results in the Cell group's journal Nexus - say that it too can be improved and that a more global framework is needed to mitigate dangerous heatwaves.
August 2003 was the month of the heatwave that killed 70,000 people in Europe. In France, with 14,800 deaths, the Minister of Health resigned, and in Spain, with 6,500, the first prevention plan for the extreme heat was put in motion, which came into force in 2004. Two decades later, campaigns and preventive measures in social services, nursing homes, and hospitals have generated the so-called "heat culture," and although temperatures continue to rise due to climate change, this adaptation is limiting its impact.
A team led by the Carlos III Health Institute has analyzed how short-term concentrations of particles associated with wildfires and Saharan dust incursions influence hospital admissions in Spain due to mental and behavioral disorders. The results were explained in a briefing organized by the Science Media Centre Spain.
According to a large long-term study published in BMJ Public Health, people who cycle or walk to work or school have a lower risk of mental and physical illness. Cyclists benefit the most, with a 47% lower risk of death from any cause, a 24% lower risk of hospital admission for cardiovascular disease, a 51% lower risk of dying from cancer and a 20% lower risk of being prescribed drugs for mental health problems.
Researchers at France's National Institute of Public Health have identified priority pathogens for wastewater surveillance during the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games - to be held from 26 July to 11 August and 28 August to 8 September, respectively. The six pathogens selected, as reported in Eurosurveillance magazine, were poliovirus, influenza A virus, influenza B virus, mpox virus, SARS-CoV-2 and measles virus. Their choice was based on three criteria: analytical feasibility, relevance to the Olympic Games and characteristics of the pathogens, and their value in informing public health policy. In recent weeks, higher than recommended levels of E. coli bacteria have been found in the Seine River, according to the Associated Press.
International health organisations are warning about the spread in Europe of mosquito species that transmit diseases such as dengue fever. In Spain, where they are already widespread across much of the country, the Centro de Coordinación de Alertas y Emergencias Sanitarias (CCAES) warns of the risk of West Nile virus, and says that the summer is expected to be complicated. In this guide, we bring together information to understand this public health issue.