Health category, Page 106
Nuket Curran: Telemedicine a powerful tool in coronavirus pandemic
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...
Pennsylvania flu cases drop significantly, state’s final report says
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...
Highmark, UPMC to pay patients’ out-of-pocket costs for covid-19 treatments
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...
3rd resident of Beaver County nursing home with covid-19 dies
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,”...
Philips Respironics ramping up ventilator production, soon to include a lower-cost unit
A Dutch manufacturer says it hopes to triple the production of hospital ventilators being assembled in Murrysville and Carlsbad, Calif., between now and the end of September. “In March, our production capacity was 1,000 ventilators per week. In two months, we hope to double that … and by the end...
Healthy-looking people spread coronavirus, more studies say
More evidence is emerging that coronavirus infections are being spread by people who have no clear symptoms, complicating efforts to gain control of the pandemic. A study conducted by researchers in Singapore and published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wednesday is the latest to estimate that...
From ibuprofen to mosquitoes, Pittsburgh doctor addresses coronavirus myths
There are plenty of myths and rumors circulating online about the coronavirus. There are also many unknowns that doctors are trying to figure out. The Tribune-Review posed some questions to Dr. Nitin Bhanot, Allegheny Health Network’s division director of infectious disease. Here are his responses: Question: There’s been speculation that...
When will rapid coronavirus test become available in Western Pennsylvania?
A new rapid covid-19 test designed to be conducted in doctors’ offices, hospital emergency departments and urgent care clinics could deliver results in minutes, but it’s not yet clear if or when those tests will arrive in the Pittsburgh region. The Illinois-based medical technology company Abbott announced that it will...
UPMC: Employees will be paid at current rate through May 9
UPMC employees will be paid at their current rate for their normally scheduled hours even if they are assigned to a different job during the covid-19 pandemic, officials said Monday. UPMC said it is implementing a staffing and pay protection program so that staff who may be assigned to do...
For Pennsylvania’s Amish, the coronavirus and the call for social distancing are a challenge
The Amish do their best to keep outside troubles from entering their daily lives. That’s not so easy when the trouble is an invisible virus spreading across the globe. People familiar with the Amish community in Pennsylvania say many are taking the coronavirus and subsequent business closures and calls for...
Shop sells ‘hundreds’ of doughnuts starring Dr. Fauci’s face
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — An upstate New York doughnut shop is featuring the likeness of the doctor leading the country’s battle with coronavirus on its sweet treats. Donuts Delite in Rochester began selling hundreds of doughnuts with Dr. Anthony Fauci’s face, surrounded by white frosting and topped off with patriotic sprinkles....
Indonesian students provide sanitizers to daily workers to fight virus
JAKARTA — They toil on the fringes, without any job security or set hours or decent wages. And the coronavirus has made their already difficult lives harder, and more hazardous. And so a group of university students in Yogyakarta, on the Indonesian island of Java, set out to help these...
UK’s Johnson virus positive as new outbreaks appear in US
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson became the first leader of a major country to test positive for the coronavirus while disturbing new outbreaks appeared in the United States, deaths surged in Italy and Spain and the world warily trudged through the pandemic that has sickened more than a half-million people....
Living outside lockdown: Some barber, beauty shops still open
ELGIN, S.C. (AP) — With South Carolina’s first coronavirus hot spot just a short jaunt up the highway, Johellen Lee hadn’t been out for anything but groceries for nearly a month. “I looked like a hag,” she said. So she headed to see her best friend and hair stylist Erica...
Allegheny County reports additional 61 cases of coronavirus
Allegheny County health officials reported an additional 61 cases of covid-19 Saturday morning. That is more than twice the 25 new cases reported from Thursday to Friday. Females make up 110 cases, or 50.2%, and males account for 109 cases, or 49.8%. The age breakdown of cases is as follows:...
‘The day the music died’: Coronavirus tests New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS — There were the great fires of 1788 and 1794 and the multiple yellow fever outbreaks of the 1800s. Hurricane Betsy hit in 1965, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the memories linger in New Orleans like remnants of a bad dream. Now the city is one of the...
What you need to know today about the virus outbreak
America’s coronavirus infections have surged to the most in the world, reaching 100,000 cases Friday with New York still the worst hit in the country. Troubling new outbreaks are bubbling in other cities including Chicago, Detroit and New Orleans, which is rushing to build a makeshift hospital in its convention...
Handling mail amid coronavirus: Low risk but wash your hands
Kathy Payne has a routine: She wipes down the trays holding the mail she’s about to deliver. She puts on gloves to sort the letters and packages, then a new pair when she climbs into her vehicle. As she fills people’s mailboxes throughout the day, she constantly cleans her steering...
California has surge of virus cases that threatens hospitals
LOS ANGELES — The surge of coronavirus cases in California that health officials have warned was coming has arrived and will worsen, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday, while the mayor of Los Angeles warned that by early next week his city could see the kind of crush that has crippled...
Western Pa. health systems provide masks to staff to combat covid-19 spread
Health care systems in Western Pennsylvania are working to equip all employees in clinical areas of its hospitals with protective masks. UPMC said it is also providing masks to staff and visitors to hospitals after they pass a screening test. Westmoreland County-based Excela Health, which has hospitals Greensburg, Latrobe and...
Autism diagnosis more common in the U.S. as racial gap closesVideo
NEW YORK — Autism has grown slightly more common in the United States, but a gap in diagnosis of white and black kids has disappeared, according to a government report released Thursday. Closure of that gap — thanks to increased screening — is the main reason autism diagnoses are up...
Pregnant women with coronavirus infection can pass it to their babies, study finds
A study of 33 pregnant women in China who were infected with the new coronavirus found that three of them gave birth to babies with COVID-19. All three infants survived after receiving treatment for their symptoms, doctors reported Thursday in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics. One of those infants was...
Covid-19 testing, distancing play role in record-breaking flu season
On one hand, efforts to slow the spread of covid-19 likely have contributed to a declining number of new flu cases in recent weeks, state Department of Health spokeswoman Brittany Lauffer said Wednesday. On the other, increased testing to identify covid-19 cases and people’s concern about the illness likely have...
Aetna waives patient payments for coronavirus hospital stays
One of the nation’s biggest health insures is waiving patient payments for hospital stays tied to the coronavirus. CVS Health’s insurer Aetna said Wednesday that many of its customers will not have to make co-payments or other forms of cost sharing if they wind up admitted to a hospital in...
Can blood from coronavirus survivors treat the newly ill?
Hospitals are gearing up to test if a century-old treatment used to fight off flu and measles outbreaks in the days before vaccines, and tried more recently against SARS and Ebola, just might work for COVID-19, too: using blood donated from patients who’ve recovered. Doctors in China attempted the first...
