As Hospitals Get Bigger, Medical Debt Is Harder for Patients To Shake - KFF Health News If you get sick in America, there’s a good chance you’ll end up in debt. Four in 10 U.S. adults have some form of health-care debt, KFF has found. One surprising risk: living in a community where hospitals have consolidated — an increasingly common development as health systems merge or large systems gobble up smaller hospitals. That’s […] khnerich KFF Health News

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The flu shot is different this year, thanks to COVID A strain of influenza appears to have disappeared from the planet since COVID. As a result, U.S. flu vaccines have been redesigned. NPR

This year’s flu shot will be missing a strain of influenza it’s protected against for more than a decade.

Whooping cough and walking pneumonia cases are up. Here's what to know and how to help keep your family safe. Dr. Jon LaPook talks about the infections on the rise this season, including whooping cough and walking pneumonia. CBS News

Health officials are warning about the rise of multiple infections this season — especially among school-aged children — including whooping cough and walking pneumonia.

Nigeria rolls out new Oxford R21 malaria vaccine Nigeria launched a new malaria vaccine on Thursday that will be freely administered to recipients, its health minister said, marking a significant milestone in its fight against the deadly disease. Camillus Eboh Reuters

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The world has a worsening water crisis and half of all food production will be at risk of failure by the middle of this century.

That’s the worrying message from a report released Wednesday by a major international study.

Helene and Milton are both likely to be $50 billion disasters, joining ranks of most costly storms Monstrous hurricanes Helene and Milton caused so much complex havoc that damages are still being added up, but experts in economics, insurance and risk say they are likely to be in the pantheon of super-costly $50 billion disasters. AP News

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US FDA pauses Novavax's trial of combo COVID-flu shot on safety concerns The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has put Novavax's trial of an experimental COVID-flu vaccine combination on hold after one person who received the shot reported nerve damage, the company said on Wednesday. Reuters Reuters

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IV fluid supply disruptions prompt Biden administration to invoke wartime powers to bolster recovery | CNN Disruptions from Hurricane Helene exacerbated shortages of critical intravenous fluids in the United States, and now the Biden administration has invoked the wartime powers of the Defense Production Act in the latest move to help speed recovery efforts. Deidre McPhillips CNN

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3 doses of mRNA COVID vaccine show advantage against severe outcomes The authors said COVID-19 infection can result in a "brainstem insult" that results in clusters of physical long-COVID symptoms. CIDRAP

A team led by US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) researchers studying Medicare claims data during the early Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant months conclude that a third dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine provides significant protection against hospitalization and death compared with two doses but wanes substantially after 4 months.

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