Health Highlights: March 9, 2018
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
HIV/Syphilis Outbreak Hits Milwaukee Area
The Milwaukee area is seeing an outbreak of the sexually transmitted diseases HIV and syphilis among teens and young adults.
At least 125 people have contracted one or both of the diseases, Fox News reported.
There has been an increase in sexually transmitted infections in young people aged 15 to 24, according to a Milwaukee Health Department statement.
"Because schools have a significant number of students in the 15-18 age group, we are working with the Milwaukee Health Department, in a collaborative and preventive effort, to share information with young people in middle schools and high schools to keep them healthy and to protect their health," the health department said in the statement.
Public school students account for less than 10 percent of the 125 people who have tested positive, but health care experts believe the number of cases could rise, Fox News reported.
Most of those who tested positive were men, and 45 percent were HIV-positive. Health officials also confirmed in a tweet that three babies were born with syphilis.
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Malfunction Leads to Loss of Thousands of Frozen Eggs, Embryos
At least 2,100 frozen eggs and embryos from between 500 and 600 families were lost after a malfunction last weekend at an egg freezing facility in Cleveland.
There appears to have been an equipment failure at a long-term storage tank containing liquid nitrogen at the University Hospitals Fertility Center, NBC News reported.
The failure resulted in the temperature in the tank becoming warmer than it should be, which means many of the eggs and embryos in the tank may no longer be viable, according to Patti DePompei, president, UH MacDonald Women's Hospital and UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital.
Some of the eggs and embryos had been stored for decades.
"We don't know the reasons why yet," DePompei told NBC News. "But we do know that the temperature that was measured at a portion of the tank was higher than our acceptable limits."
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Salmonella Cases Linked to Chicken Salad Now Total 170 in Seven States: CDC
There have now been 105 more confirmed salmonella illnesses associated with chicken salad sold at Fareway stores, bringing the total number of cases to 170 in seven states, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.
Sixty-two people have required hospitalization. No deaths have been reported.
The chicken salad was produced by Triple T Specialty Meats Inc., which issued a recall for all chicken salad made between Jan. 2 and Feb. 7, 2018. The chicken salad was sold at Fareway stores between Jan. 4 and Feb. 9.
People with the recalled chicken salad should throw it away or return it to the store, and those who don't remember the date they bought chicken salad from Fareway should do the same, the CDC said.
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Brain's Hippocampus Doesn't Produce New Neurons After Age 13: Study
The brain's hippocampus stops producing new cells (neurons) by age 13, according to a new study.
It had been thought that the hippocampus -- which plays a major role in learning and memory -- generates new neurons throughout adulthood, CNN reported.
Arturo Alvarez-Buylla, professor of neurological surgery at the University of California, and colleagues analyzed 59 hippocampus tissue samples ranging from fetuses to adults. Their study was published in the journal Nature.
The study is important, according to Jason Snyder, assistant professor, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Canada. He was not involved in the study but wrote an accompanying editorial in the journal.
"It provides strong evidence that the human brain's ability to produce newborn neurons in the hippocampus (a brain region involved in memory formation) is limited as we get older," Snyder wrote in an email to CNN.
The study also points to new areas of investigation.
"If we can understand how neural precursor cells work, we may be able to use them to replace neurons that have died," Snyder told CNN.
Posted: March 2018