Health News

(NEW YORK) -- As the U.S.-Israeli military escalation with Iran continues, children may be experiencing devastating consequences of being caught in a conflict zone. Dozens of children and adolescents have been killed, many of whom were attending school at the time, according to the Iranian education ministry.Doctors and humanitarian aid workers told ABC News that millions of children in the region are at risk of physical and mental health repercussions.They […]

(NEW YORK) -- Several countries, including Thailand and Nepal, have increased their surveillance after cases of the deadly Nipah virus were detected in India.So far, just two cases have been confirmed among 25-year-old nurses, a woman and a man, in West Bengal, according to the World Health Organization.A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services told ABC News earlier this week that Indian health authorities have deployed an outbreak […]

(NEW YORK) -- Last week, the Trump administration announced it was banning the use of human fetal tissue from some abortions in federally funded medical research. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) said the policy would go into effect immediately and advance "science by investing in breakthrough technologies more capable of modeling human health and disease," NIH director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said in a statement.Scientists told ABC News that research using human fetal tissue […]

(NEW YORK) -- So-called "night owls" may face a higher risk for heart attack and stroke, a new study published Wednesday finds.Researchers found that "evening type" people had poorer cardiovascular health scores than those who were neither "morning type" or "evening type" people and had an associated 16% higher risk of heart attack and stroke.The study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, analyzed survey and biometric data […]

(NEW YORK) -- Over the last several days, many Americans have seen upsetting, and often violent, images and videos of protests in Minneapolis amid a flood of ICE agents entering the city for a federal immigration enforcement operation.Research has shown that images of extreme violence can impact mental health, increasing symptoms of anxiety and depression.Among the videos and images that circulated widely in recent weeks have been the fatal shootings […]

(NEW YORK) -- Maternal mortality rates in the United States have dropped to their lowest levels in recent years, according to new data published on Thursday.The report, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics, compared maternal deaths in 2023 and 2024, with maternal deaths defined as the death of a woman during pregnancy or within 42 days of pregnancy termination.In 2024, 649 women died […]

(NEW YORK) -- Over the weekend, health officials in Spain reportedly informed the World Health Organization (WHO) of a possible human case of swine flu that may have been caused by person-to-person transmission.The WHO's reference laboratory for influenza in Britain is conducting additional tests to confirm the diagnosis, according to Reuters. The patient in Spain did not have direct contact with pigs, according to the wire agency.Even though health officials […]

(NEW YORK) -- Tens of thousands of nurses and health care workers at Kaiser Permanente facilities across California and Hawaii went on strike on Monday morning.More than 31,000 workers across at least two dozen hospitals and hundreds of clinics run by the non-profit health care system walked off the job at 7 a.m. PT, marking the largest strike of health care professionals so far this year.The striking workers, who are […]

(NEW YORK) -- Long-term alcohol use has been linked to higher risks of colorectal cancer, according to a study published Monday in the journal Cancer.Researchers found that those with heavy lifetime alcohol consumption have up to a 91% higher risk of developing colorectal cancer compared with those who drank very little. That risk significantly increased with consistent heavy consumption, whereas those who quit drinking may have demonstrated decreased risk of […]