HEALTH BRIEFS

VACCINES SAVE LIVES

The rollout of Covid-19 vaccines in the US almost halved the death and hospitalisation rate, saving about a quarter of a million lives over the six months from December 2020 to June 2021, according to new data published in JAMA Network Open. The authors estimate that vaccines prevented about 1.1 million hospitalisations and 14 million Covid-19 cases over this period.

ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE

International researchers have found a way to tackle the global threat of antibiotic resistance. In a world first, the team, led by the University of Melbourne, discovered how to repurpose a molecule called PBT2 – originally developed as a potential treatment for disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases – to break bacterial resistance to commonly used frontline antibiotics. The hope is that this breakthrough will be a game changer and may soon lead to the comeback of readily available and cheap antibiotics, such as penicillin.

VAPING EXPOSURE RISKS

Young adults exposed to secondhand nicotine vaping could be at higher risk of bronchitic symptoms such as regular coughing, congestion or bronchitis, say researchers from the University of Southern California. Survey data was collected from about 2000 young people with an average age of 17 to compare their second-hand vaping exposure with the rate of bronchitic symptoms, shortness of breath b and wheezing. When taking t exposure to cigarette smoke and cannabis into i account, the researchers say those e exposed to vaping w were 40% more likely to report bronchitic symptoms and 53% more likely to report shortness of breath.