Health

(NEW YORK) — The spread of a newer strain of mpox in Africa led the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the disease a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) on Wednesday.

This newer strain is believed to be behind an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with more than 14,000 cases — mostly among children — and more than 500 deaths, and has been detected in neighboring countries that had never reported countries of mpox before.

On Thursday, Sweden became the first nation outside of the African continent to report a case of the newer strain of mpox, according to the country’s public health agency.

Cases of other strains, or clades, of mpox have popped up in other countries. In the U.S., there are more than 1,600 cases reported this year so far, more than twice the number seen at this time last year but not as many as seen during the outbreak in 2022-23.

“It’s clear that a coordinated international response is essential to stop these outbreaks and save lives,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during a media briefing on Wednesday.

Experts told ABC News that by declaring a PHEIC, the WHO can help more countries collaborate by sharing data, allocating resources and helping make vaccines more readily available.

What is a PHEIC?

A PHEIC is defined as “an extraordinary event which is determined to constitute a public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease and to potentially require a coordinated international response,” by the International Health Regulations.

To be considered a PHEIC, the condition is considered, serious, sudden, unusual or unexpected; has implications for public health beyond where the place it originates; and has the potential to require immediate international action, according to the WHO.

“This is really [the WHO’s] highest level of alert,” Thomas Duszynski, director of epidemiology education at Indiana University’s Fairbanks School of Public Health, told ABC News.

“This means that this particular virus, or the mpox virus, and the illnesses that it causes, has reached a level that is now at a much higher rate than it should be, than when we see like in a normal year, as well as it’s starting to spill outside of the country of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which means that we have to get our arms around it and try and contain it,” he said.

A PHEIC was last declared for mpox during the outbreak in 2022-23, but this current outbreak is different because it involves a clade called clade Ib that seems to spread more quickly and has a higher mortality rate, Duszynski said.

What becomes available when a PHEIC is declared?

Emily Smith, an associate professor in the Department of Global Health at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health, said declaring a PHEIC can help galvanize collaboration and mobilize resources.

“Collaboration can be really important in terms of sharing data from different surveillance systems or even things like genomic sequences, so we can understand how different cases are related to each other,” she told ABC News.

On the mobilizing resources front, Tedros said during the media briefing on Wednesday that WHO had released $1.5 million in contingency funds and planned to release more soon. The WHO’s regional response plan — including support surveillance and preparedness and response activities — will cost $15 million.

Additionally, last week, the WHO triggered the process to begin allowing mpox vaccines to go through the process for emergency use listing, similar to what was seen with the COVID-19 vaccine during the pandemic.

The PHEIC will also allow vaccines to be sent to other affected countries more quickly than they might have been without an emergency declaration, Duszynski said.

“In the Democratic Republic of Congo, their access to the impact vaccine is limited,” he said. “So, for example, the U.S. has dedicated 50,000 doses of that vaccine for the Democratic Republic of Congo, so that that’s part of that cooperation of not only sending, knowledge and science and research, but also aid, in the sense of vaccines.”

“We could also send personnel, such as epidemiologists, to help with the investigation and to help identify those who are ill and put some isolation and quarantine around those individuals to keep this virus from spreading,” Duszynski added.

What should the public do?

The experts said the best thing to do is to get vaccinated if you are a high-risk individual.

Currently, the JYNNEOS vaccine, a two-dose vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration to prevent smallpox and mpox, is the only vaccine being used in the United States to prevent mpox. Data from Africa has shown two doses of JYNNEOS are at least 85% effective in preventing mpox infection.

High-risk individuals include those who are immunocompromised, suffer from chronic diseases, or have a history of eczema, which causes breaks in the skin and can lead to mpox transmission.

Smith said other high-risk individuals include gay, bisexual or men who have sex with men — a group that was most affected during the 2022-23 outbreak — should get vaccinated.

She said that anyone who has only received their first dose should be sure to get their second dose.

“Just be aware if you or anyone you know, or your family, experiences lesions, skin lesions or genital lesions,” Smith added. “[You] definitely want to contact your doctor. We do have treatment options available in the U.S.”

Both Smith and Duszynski reiterated the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s warning that the general public is at low risk from the type of mpox circulating in the DRC.

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(NEW YORK) — Actress Halle Berry is among the new wave of women in their 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond speaking out about menopause to take the conversation out of the shadows and into the spotlight.

In May, Berry, a 58-year-old mom of two, stood outside the U.S. Capitol and yelled, “I’m in menopause.”

On Thursday, Berry joined nearly two dozen other women in a conversation about menopause live on ABC News’ Good Morning America.

Menopause — the end of a woman’s reproductive years — is a natural process that impacts millions of women each year.

Yet for years, the topic has been considered taboo to talk about publicly and has been chronically underfunded when it comes to research.

Here are the answers to 10 commonly asked questions about menopause:

1. What is menopause?

Menopause is the point in a woman’s life when she has not had any menstruation, including no bleeding or spotting, for 12 months, according to the U.S. Office on Women’s Health.

It occurs when the ovaries naturally stop producing estrogen and progesterone, which causes a woman’s menstrual cycles to end permanently.

2. What age does menopause start in most women?

The average age for menopause, when your periods stop permanently, is 52, according to the Office on Women’s Health.

A woman may experience menopause earlier if they have never been pregnant, if they smoke or if they have certain health conditions, including some autoimmune diseases.

Only about 1% of women in the U.S. go through premature menopause, or menopause that happens before the age of 40. About 5% of women naturally go through early menopause between ages 40 and 45, data shows.

3. What are the symptoms of menopause?

Menopause brings with it many symptoms, the type and severity of which can vary from person to person.

Symptoms of menopause may include hot flashes, mood changes, depression and anxiety, difficulties sleeping, urinary incontinence, irregular periods or bleeding, vaginal dryness and infections, and changes in libido, according to the Office on Women’s Health.

4. How long does menopause last?

For most women, the period of menopause lasts four years, according to the Office on Women’s Health.

5. Do menopause symptoms continue post-menopause?

Yes, after menopause, women may continue to experience symptoms including vaginal dryness, hot flashes and low hormone levels, according to the Office on Women’s Health.

6. What is perimenopause?

Perimenopause, the period of time before menopause when ovaries make varying amounts of the hormones estrogen and progesterone can start as early as 40 years old and can last up to 10 or more years.

7. What are the symptoms of perimenopause?

Symptoms of perimenopause include everything from changes in mood to increased anxiety and depression, changes in sleep, brain fogginess, and changes in frequency and severity of headaches.

Additional physical changes may include changes in hair patterns, breast tenderness, midsection weight gain, vaginal dryness, changes in bleeding patterns and changes in libido.

8. Does pregnancy still happen during perimenopause?

Yes, women can still get pregnant during perimenopause as the body may still ovulate.

9. Is it possible to find relief from menopause symptoms?

Yes, there are ways to treat symptoms of menopause so women are advised to have open and honest conversations with their doctor to get relief.

For some symptoms, your doctor or health care provider can work with you to find medications that help provide relief, including hormonal and non-hormonal medicines and over-the-counter products.

Menopausal hormone therapy, also called hormone replacement therapy and hormone therapy, may be an option if your symptoms are severe enough to interrupt your day-to-day life, according to the Office on Women’s Health.

Menopausal hormone therapy can be taken as a pill, as a skin patch, or, in some cases, as a cream.

The Office on Women’s Health recommends using the lowest dose of menopausal hormone therapy for the shortest time needed.

10. Is research underway to offer more support for menopause?

Menopause and other women-only health conditions have traditionally lagged behind in research and understanding. As recently as the 1970s, few women were enrolled in clinical trials, and women’s health needs were believed to be a low priority. One 2022 study found women still only account for 29% to 34% of some early-stage clinical trials due to concerns about fertility.

In March, President Joe Biden signed an executive order on women’s health research, which particularly focuses on increasing research on women’s midlife health and improving management of menopause-related issues.

Under a legislative proposal introduced in the U.S. Congress in May by Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington and Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, $125 million of federal funding would be set aside for clinical trials, public health, and medical research on menopause.

The bill is backed by 17 senators — three Republicans, 13 Democrats and one independent, all of them women.

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(NEW YORK) — As the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris came to an end this weekend, most of the conversation surrounded the number of medals won, and the number of records broken.

However, there was also another topic at hand: the presence of COVID-19 at the Olympics.

At least 40 athletes tested positive for COVID, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), including several Australian swimmers, a British swimmer and a German decathlon competitor.

Additionally, American track and field star Noah Lyles won bronze in the 200-meter race after testing positive for COVID-19 two days prior.

Despite the number of cases, public health experts told ABC News that the Paris Games were actually a success and a testament to how far the world has come since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

“COVID-19 was so less disruptive in Paris than it was in Tokyo or Beijing because of what science and medicine have done over the past four years,” Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told ABC News.

“That should be the story, that we went from something that was disrupting the entire world to something that is now kind of a rank-and-file respiratory virus. I think that’s the real story. Here is the success of humanity with tackling this scientific problem, and the minds that went to work on this problem and made it something that is no longer a major concern for a lot of the population,” Adalja said.

How the Paris Olympics were different

The Paris Olympics were billed as the first games with some sense of normalcy after the strict restrictions seen during the 2021 Summer Games in Tokyo and the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.

Athletes were under strict testing and quarantine protocols and had to follow stringent mitigation measures to participate in the 2021 or 2022 Games. No spectators were allowed at the Tokyo Games while a limited number were allowed at the Beijing Games.

Comparatively, there were no formal requirements for regular COVID-19 testing or reporting for the Paris Games, either in general or for specific events.

An athlete testing positive did not require them to sit out from an event either. Participating following a positive test was left up to the discretion of the athlete, team and medical staff. Additionally, there were no restrictions regarding spectators.

“The Paris Olympics were something that really resembled pre-COVID Olympics, nothing like what we saw in Beijing, nothing like what we saw in Tokyo,” Adalja said. “And I think that reflects the fact that the context regarding the virus that causes COVID-19 has changed a lot over the past four years.”

COVID at the Paris Games

Only about 40 COVID-19 cases were confirmed among athletes at the 2024 Summer Games. Experts say it’s not out of the ordinary that cases would occur and that, likely, the total is an undercount of cases.

“I am sure that that is a gross under-representation of the actual number of cases,” Dr. Pedro Piedra, a professor in the Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology and Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, told ABC News.

“[COVID] testing is not required, and testing for other respiratory viruses has really not been required either, and whenever you have such an event, it is an excellent ground for viruses to transmit. And that’s not just unique to the Olympics. That’s anytime you have a lot of individuals cluster over time together,” he continued.

The Australian Olympic Committee said last week that 16 athletes tested positive for COVID, at least seven of whom were swimmers.

The British Olympic Committee said swimmer Adam Peaty tested positive for COVID-19 less than 24 hours after winning silver in the men’s 100-meter breaststroke final.

Perhaps, most famous, Lyles — the American sprinter — revealed after winning bronze in the 200-meter men’s final that he had tested positive two days beforehand. Lyles drew a great deal of criticism for running the race unmasked and not publicly revealing his diagnosis before the competition.

However, experts said that COVID-19 is beginning to be considered an endemic virus, meaning it is typically present, and should be treated like other endemic viruses, like the flu.

“A lot has changed, and this virus is now what we would call an endemic virus; it’s basically part of the new respiratory viruses that circulate within our community,” Piedra said. “We don’t try to test every virus for every illness that we have. If we did, I think it would cost significantly, and on many occasions, we don’t have any form of treatment or prevention methods.”

Adalja said because COVID-19 is being considered an endemic respiratory virus, each individual case is less significantly important.

“We have so many tools that science and medicine have given us that make COVID-19 so much more manageable in 2024 than it was in 2020, 2021, 2022,” he said. “So, in that sense, the fact that you’re not hearing about every case as it occurs is just like you don’t hear about every case of influenza that occurs.”

He continued, “I think that the fact that people are back to their lives, that people are winning medals when they have COVID-19 really shows that despite all of the obstacles the governments put in place to deal with COVID appropriately, scientists, physicians delivered and developed so many tools that were able to now live our lives in the midst of COVID-19 and not have It be as disruptive as it once was.”

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(NEW YORK) — Pediatric water bead-related emergency room visits increased over 130% in one year, a new study published in The American Journal of Emergency Medicine shows.

Water beads are small balls of polymer that can expand up to 100 to 1,500 times in size when they come in contact with water, according to the National Capital Poison Center.

From 2021 to 2022, an estimated 8,159 ER visits involving patients under 20 years old involved water beads, the study found. Forty-six percent of the cases involved water bead ingestion.

Researchers from Ohio and Missouri analyzed data collected between Jan. 1, 2007, and Dec. 31, 2022, and found that children under the age of 5 were the most commonly seen patients in emergency departments.

The data showed that all water bead-related ER visits involving kids under 5 involved the ingestion of a water bead, while ER visits for patients in other age groups involved a water bead-related eye injury or a water bead inserted into other areas of the body, including the ear canal or nose.

“The number of pediatric water bead-related emergency department visits is increasing rapidly,” Dr. Gary Smith, a senior author of the study and the director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, said in a news release.

“Although swallowing objects and putting them into an ear or the nose are common among children, water beads pose a unique increased risk of harm because of their expanding properties, and they’re hard to detect with X-rays,” Smith said.

Smith and the study’s co-authors called for stronger federal regulation of water beads and a revision of toy safety standards.

In May, three U.S. senators introduced Esther’s Law, legislation that would ban the sale of water beads marketed as toys, require warning labels on water bead packages and direct the Consumer Product Safety Commission to consider further water bead regulation. The legislation, which was referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and has not yet been voted on, is named after the late Esther Jo Bethard, who died in July 2023 at 10 months old after swallowing a loose water bead.

Major retailers like Amazon, Target and Walmart announced at the end of 2023 that they would stop selling water beads due to the risk of injuries and death among children.

The CPSC also warned in March that water beads, along with narcotics, are two growing risks, especially for young children. The federal agency recommends water beads be removed from any environment where young kids are present, that children shouldn’t be allowed to play with them unsupervised, and that water beads be secured in containers and in areas were children can’t easily access them.

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(NEW YORK) — Deaths from dementia have tripled in just 21 years, according to a new study published in The Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders.

In 1999, about 150,000 Americans died from dementia, according to the study. By 2020, that number had tripled to over 450,000.

The chances of dying from dementia increased among every demographic group studied, according to study author Mohsan Ali, a physician with the King Edward Medical University in Pakistan.

Tripling of dementia deaths

Dementia is defined by the National Institute on Aging as “the loss of cognitive functioning — thinking, remembering, and reasoning — and behavioral abilities to such an extent that it interferes with a person’s daily life and activities.” The reason it is increasingly the cause of death could be because people are living longer or getting diagnosed earlier, according to Ali.

“Age is the most significant risk factor for dementia,” Ali said. However, the increased prevalence of chronic conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and obesity may also be contributing factors, he added.

Women, Black adults, and people living in rural communities showed the greatest increase in dementia deaths, the study found.

“While the increased rates in women may be because women live longer than men, there may be biological and genetic factors that make women more susceptible to dementia,” Ali noted. “Rural areas face a higher burden of dementia-related mortality due to several factors. These include limited access to healthcare services, fewer specialists in dementia care, and reduced availability of support services.”

Black adults had the highest death rate, followed by non-Hispanic white adults, and then Hispanic adults.

Fresh insights on dementia prevention

By 2050, the number of people with dementia will double in the U.S. to over 10.5 million and triple globally to over 150 million, the British medical journal The Lancet forecast in 2022. Yet despite these alarming statistics, experts say the average person has some control over their cognitive health.

“I am most excited about advances in dementia prevention, because we are learning about a number of lifestyle modifications that are both accessible to most of us and effective,” Leah Croll, MD, neurologist at Maimonides Health in New York, told ABC News.

Up to 45% of dementia cases may be preventable by addressing 14 modifiable risk factors, according to the Lancet Commission on Dementia.

Lifestyle factors that increased the chances of a dementia diagnosis include less education, head injury, physical inactivity, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, hearing loss, depression, social isolation, vision loss, and exposure to air pollution in older life.

“Staying up-to-date with your primary care visits, being diligent about your medications pays dividends over and over for your brain health,” Croll emphasized.

Dementia diagnosis and treatment today

Early detection and diagnosis is key to addressing dementia, according to experts.

Dementia is generally diagnosed with a combination of cognitive testing, brain imaging, and sampling the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that surrounds the brain and spinal cord and checking it for levels of dementia-related proteins.

Because some of these tests may not be readily available in some areas and can be expensive, researchers have been working on more accessible screening methods. For example, a recent study found that a blood test for Alzheimer’s disease, which is the most common type of dementia, may be as accurate at detecting Alzheimer disease as CSF sampling. However, the blood test is still in early phases of study.

In addition to ongoing research for diagnostics, there are new FDA-approved treatments for early Alzheimer’s dementia, when the symptoms are still relatively mild.

“Right now, it seems that these drugs modestly slow down the progression of disease, but they do not stop it, so it’s unclear how they will impact morbidity and mortality,” Croll cautions.

Overall, Croll believes that patients and families affected by dementia should feel hopeful about the future: “In many ways, dementia is one of the final frontiers in medicine, and we are finally starting to crack the code,” she said.

Noor Shaik, MD, PhD, is a neurology resident physician and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.

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(NEW YORK) — The World Health Organization (WHO) declared mpox to be a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) on Wednesday

“Today, the Emergency Committee met and advised me that in its view, the situation constitutes a public health emergency of international concern. I have accepted that advice,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during a media briefing on Wednesday.

In the U.S, there have been 1,634 cases of mpox reported so far this year, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

That’s more than double the number of national cases seen at the same time last year but significantly lower than those seen during a U.S. mpox outbreak in 2022, CDC data shows.

PHEICs were most recently declared for the COVID-19 pandemic and the previous mpox outbreak of 2022.

Although mpox is endemic to parts of Central and Western Africa, cases have been rising dramatically in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

This year, there have already been more than 14,000 mpox cases and 524 deaths reported in the DRC, according to the WHO.

There are two types of mpox: clade I and clade II, with clade roughly meaning they are descended from a common ancestor organism. While clade I has caused small, localized outbreaks in the DRC for years, researchers identified a clade I variant, known as clade Ib, that seems to spread mainly through sexual contact and appears to be behind the outbreak in the DRC.

Tedros said the detection of clade Ib in neighboring African countries that have never reported mpox cases before – including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda – led him to convene a meeting of the WHO’s emergency committee.

“The detection and rapid spread of a new clade of mpox in eastern DRC, its detection in neighboring countries that had not previously reported mpox, and the potential for further spread within Africa and beyond is very worrying,” Tedros said during the briefing.

On Monday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) – the continent’s top health agency – declared mpox a public health emergency of continental security (PHECS) – the first such declaration since the Africa CDC’s inception in 2017, according to the agency.

On the same day, the WHO published a report that found there were a total of 934 new laboratory confirmed cases of mpox and four deaths from 26 countries in the month of June, “illustrating continuing transmission of mpox across the world.”

There have been no cases of clade I mpox reported outside Central and Eastern Africa at this time, including in the U.S., according to the CDC. The risk of the type of mpox circulating in the DRC is low to the American public, according to the CDC.

Currently, the JYNNEOS vaccine, a two-dose vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration to prevent smallpox and mpox, is the only vaccine being used in the U.S. to prevent mpox. Data from Africa has shown two doses of JYNNEOS are at least 85% effective in preventing mpox infection.

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(NEW YORK) — A growing body of research suggests that age is more than just a number.

Regardless of how many birthdays you’ve celebrated, your overall health may depend on the resilience and vitality of your cells.

It’s a concept known as biological, or epigenetic, aging.

Biological aging explained

“Chronological age is what the calendar tells us,” Elissa Epel, PhD, a professor in the department of psychiatry & behavioral sciences at the University of California, San Francisco Weill Institute for Neurosciences, told ABC News.

Biological age looks beyond the calendar to provide clues for how well someone’s health stands the test of time.

Researchers commonly analyze a process called DNA methylation, which involves chemical alterations of gene expression, without any changes to the actual genetic sequence itself. As this pattern shifts, it is reflected in the age of the cells.

Genetic factors intertwine with environmental factors, such as pollutants and toxins, and lifestyle habits, like diet and exercise, to alter DNA methylation and influence cell function.

The idea is that everything can have an impact at the cellular level, which could potentially have implications for predicting disease risk and longevity.

Watching the clock

To test for biological age, scientists use advanced tools known as epigenetic clocks.

Developed a little over a decade ago by UCLA researcher Steve Horvath, PhD, epigenetic clocks use blood, skin, or saliva samples to analyze specific patterns in the DNA, called methylation marks, and then compare them against chronological age, as well as to a database containing information from other individuals.

Evaluating various body systems, Horvath found that even healthy tissue next to a breast cancer tumor, for example, was about 12 years older than the rest of the body.

“We can’t change our genes, but we can change how much they are activated or silenced,” said Epel, also the director of the Aging, Metabolism, and Emotions Center in San Francisco, adding that, “the patterns of methylation, like doors being open or closed, change dramatically with age.”

Until recently, epigenetic clocks have primarily been used in the lab, but a few are now available to consumers. Some have price tags upwards of $500.

Consumer tests can offer insights into lifestyle changes that might help slow biological aging, though experts are still evaluating their accuracy and utility.

If you could turn back time

Epel and her team recently found that women who followed a diet with healthy nutrients such as folate and magnesium, showed signs of younger biological age, while women who consumed diets higher in added sugar were found to have older biological ages.

These findings were independent, in that more sugar meant more accelerated biological age, even if a woman’s overall diet was healthier, but sticking to a healthier overall diet was associated with slower cellular aging, even in those who consumed more added sugar.

Another team of researchers similarly looked at diet, with an eight-week twin study, where one twin followed a vegan diet while the other continued eating meat.

The “vegan” twins had lower age markers in different body systems compared to their meat-eating identical twin, and even more compelling, they had a decrease in their biological ages among multiple epigenetic clocks.

“Our health is not necessarily set in stone, it’s changing all the time, and so within the realm of our own individual spaces, we have some power, in terms of, the health behaviors that we choose to engage in, and those can have an impact on our epigenetic health,” Dorothy Chiu, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Osher Center for Integrative Health at UCSF, told ABC News.

Looking to the future

Understanding biological aging can be empowering. But it’s just as important to remember that it is not the end all, be all, Epel cautions.

“We don’t suggest individuals go out and get tested and think they’ve determined how long they are going to live,” she said. “It’s one source of information, and it’s not definitive in any way, especially since it changes.”

The main takeaway is that day-to-day habits can potentially influence health right down to the cellular level. Any steps, even small steps, towards staying healthy may have benefits.

While we can test biological age for some insights into how well someone is aging, for now, the best way to stay healthy is to keep up to date with screenings and follow the evidence-based recommendations from your healthcare provider.

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(NEW YORK) — Current routine blood tests are not a reliable way of diagnosing long COVID, according to a new study.

The researchers, who published their findings in the Annals of Internal Medicine journal on Monday, examined if a COVID-19 infection led to changes in routine blood biomarkers, such as platelet counts or protein in the urine, that may be predictive of long COVID.

The study is part of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) RECOVER Initiative, which seeks to better understand, diagnose, prevent and treat the condition.

“Our challenge is to discover biomarkers that can help us quickly and accurately diagnose long COVID to ensure people struggling with this disease receive the most appropriate care as soon as possible,” said Dr. David Goff, director for the division of cardiovascular sciences at the NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, in a statement.

“Long COVID symptoms can prevent someone from returning to work or school, and may even make everyday tasks a burden, so the ability for rapid diagnosis is key,” the statement continued.

Long COVID occurs when patients still have symptoms at least four weeks after they have cleared the infection. In some cases, symptoms can be experienced for months or years.

Symptoms vary and can include fatigue, difficulty breathing, headaches, brain fog, joint and muscle pain and continued loss of taste and smell, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Long COVID most often occurs in people who had severe illness, but anyone can develop the condition. People who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 may be at higher risk of developing long COVID, according to the CDC.

Scientists are not sure what causes long COVID but have identified risk factors including having underlying conditions or experiencing multi-system inflammatory syndrome due to COVID. There have also been studies concerning whether long COVID patients have blood biomarkers different from those who were infected with the virus but didn’t develop long COVID.

For the study, researchers looked at more than 10,000 adults enrolled in the RECOVER Adult Cohort at 83 sites across the U.S. between October 2021 and 2023. Of the group, more than 8,700 had previously been infected with COVID.

Participants completed a set of surveys, a physical examination and 25 standard laboratory blood and urine tests. The participants were then followed routinely over the next two years, taking follow-up surveys and follow-up lab tests.

Researchers detected “markedly few differences in biomarkers between those with prior infection and those without,” according to a press release.

One difference the team did find is that, compared to people without prior COVID infections, those with prior COVID infections were associated with small increases in HbA1c, which measures average blood sugar levels over two to three months to screen for diabetes. However, these increases disappeared after participants with pre-existing diabetes were excluded.

There were also slightly elevated levels of uACR, which measures the amount of albumin and creatinine in urine to help identify kidney damage, in long COVID patients. However, these differences were only seen in a small group and this damage may have occurred during their initial infection, the team said.

“Future work will use RECOVER’s biobank of cohort samples such as blood and spinal fluid, to develop more novel laboratory-based tests that help us better understand the pathophysiology of long COVID,” Dr. Kristine Erlandson, a professor of medicine and infectious disease at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, said in a statement.

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(NEW YORK) — Authorities warned residents of Lincoln, New Hampshire, to monitor themselves for symptoms of Legionnaires’ disease after five people fell ill in June and July.

The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services on Monday linked the outbreak of the bacterial pneumonia — which is caused by inhaling water droplets contaminated with Legionella bacteria — to a cooling tower behind the RiverWalk Resort in downtown Lincoln.

“Anybody who has visited the area near the contaminated cooling tower should monitor themselves for symptoms,” Dr. Benjamin Chan, New Hampshire state epidemiologist, said in a DHHS statement.

“People who develop fever or other symptoms of pneumonia within 14 days after spending time in this area should talk to their healthcare provider about testing for Legionella infection,” he added.

The cooling tower has been sanitized and put back into operation after discussion with state officials, RiverWalk Vice President Renee Blood told ABC News affiliate WMUR-TV.

“Out of an abundance of caution, additional testing will be performed later this week,” Blood told WMUR. 

The test results are expected next week.

DHHS said the cooling tower’s continued operation could mean further exposure risks, particularly for people within a half-mile of the facility.

“Anyone who is visiting the specified area should assess their health risk,” DHHS said. “Those who are older, are current or former smokers, have weakened immune systems, or have certain medical conditions like chronic lung disease and diabetes are at higher risk for developing Legionnaire’s disease.”

Symptoms usually begin between two and 14 days following exposure and can include fever, cough and shortness of breath. The bacteria can also cause serious pneumonia, the stage known as Legionnaires’ disease. The condition can be fatal if left untreated.

DHHS noted, however, that most healthy people exposed to Legionella bacteria do not fall ill.

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(NEW YORK) — More than half of U.S. states are reporting “very high” levels of COVID activity as the virus continues to spread and increase in many parts of the country, according to the latest wastewater data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At least 27 states are reporting “very high” levels and 17 states are reporting “high” levels of wastewater viral activity.

The western region continues to see the highest levels followed by the South, Midwest and Northeast, respectively.

Current levels are nearing but remain lower than what they were in the winter months, when there tends to be increased spread of respiratory illnesses.

Wastewater data comes with limitations in how well it represents spread in a community, but it may be the best data available, experts say.

“While wastewater is not a perfect measure, it’s increasingly vital in filling the gaps left by the absence of comprehensive case reporting and hospitalization data,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.

Many national surveillance systems have diminished in scope since the national public health emergency ended, leaving authorities with limited resources to monitor how the virus is spreading.

“As traditional surveillance systems have dwindled, wastewater analysis has emerged as one of the most reliable tools we have to monitor COVID-19 activity in communities,” Brownstein added.

Other limited COVID surveillance systems such as emergency department visits and test positivity are also on the rise, according to CDC data. Deaths from the virus remain relatively flat, especially compared to previous years.

Updated COVID vaccines are set to be available this fall, according to federal health authorities. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended that vaccine manufacturers formulate shots based on the KP.2 strain, an offshoot of the omicron variant that is currently estimated to make up about 6% of cases.

Genetically similar variants, known as KP.3.1.1 and KP.3, currently make up almost half of estimated cases, CDC data shows.

The CDC has already recommended that everyone over the age of 6 months get an updated COVID vaccine this season. The recommendation will take effect as soon as the vaccines are made available, pending FDA authorization.

An expected delivery date for the updated COVID vaccines has not been shared yet, but in previous years the shot was made available in late August or September. Vaccine manufacturers have told ABC News they are ready to ship doses as soon as they receive the green light from the FDA.

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