C. difficile infection (C. diff infection) is a highly contagious bacterial infection that causes half a million illnesses and tens of thousands of deaths in the U.S. each year. Yet, few people know what it is and how it occurs, despite being declared a public health threat by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).1-3

C. diff infection causes debilitating symptoms such as severe diarrhea, fever, stomach pain, loss of appetite, nausea and colitis.1 This infection can happen to anyone, at any age, and can be contracted in some of the most common places in the community and in hospitals.4-6 When the infection strikes, it can have a devastating impact on everyday life, including taking care of loved ones, going to work regularly and carrying out typical activities. And C. diff infection can come back – known as a recurrence.

Antibiotics – the current standard of care for treatment of C. diff infection – treat the disease but also can be a contributing factor to the cycle of recurrence.1,7 It has been estimated that up to 35% of C. diff infection cases can recur after the initial diagnosis8-11, and after first recurrence up to 65% may develop a subsequent recurrence.11,12

Recently, the FDA approved a first-of-its-kind microbiome-based treatment to prevent recurrent C. diff infection after completing antibiotics for recurrent C. diff infection.

Paul Feuerstadt, M.D., Yale University School of Medicine, will discuss:
• What is C. diff infection and who is vulnerable to contracting it
• Why does this infection recur and what are the consequences of recurrence
• What are the treatment options for recurrent C. diff infection
• How has the newest FDA-approved treatment changed how recurrent C. diff infection may be treated

Patricia, who suffered from recurrent C. diff infection, will share her personal story of her struggle with the infection, how it impacted her life and how she broke the cycle of recurrence.
Footnotes available on request

Courtesy: Ferring Pharmaceuticals
www.REBYOTA.com

Interview is courtesy of Ferring Pharmaceuticals

The post A DEVASTATING DISEASE YOU MAY NEVER HAVE HEARD OF BUT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT: C. DIFFICILE INFECTION appeared first on Good News!.

Wildlife bridges, plastic-eating bacteria and drones that plant trees remind us that we are as good at repairing as we are at destroying.

Peter Marlow/Magnum Photos

NASHVILLE — I’ve been keeping a collection of links to good news about the environment as a hedge against despair when so much of the news from nature is devastating. Rolling pandemics. The near annihilation of birds and insects. Even the end of sharks. In short, a “ghastly future of mass extinction, declining health and climate-disruption upheavals,” according to a recent report in Frontiers in Conservation Science.

It’s so bad that I’ve begun to mutter darkly about the end of humanity. So bad that sometimes I wonder if the end of humanity would be such a bad thing. Once we’re out of the way, the earth might have a chance to recover before everything is gone.

Y’all know it is bad when pondering the death of humanity cheers up a person who is really hoping to have grandchildren someday.

In honor of the spring equinox, which falls this coming weekend and brings with it the return of longer days, I offer some news that might bring you, too, a glimmer of light in all this darkness. I share these stories with the usual caveat attached to any kind of climate optimism: Hope is not a license to relax. Hope is only a reminder not to give up. As bad as things are, it is far too early to give up.

Creatures we thought we’d lost forever still have a chance. It’s true that we are in the midst of a mass extinction, with as many as one million species at risk of disappearing forever, but sometimes a tiny bit of happy news appears among the grim headlines. Conservationists recently discovered a female Swinhoe’s soft-shell turtle, the rarest turtle in the world, in a lake in Vietnam. The Cantor’s giant soft-shell turtle, once thought extinct, is nesting again in Cambodia. And scientists have confirmed the existence of a black-browed babbler — a bird not seen alive since 1850 — in Indonesia. These so-called Lazarus species suggest that recovery can sometimes be possible even when all seems lost.
Creatures we’ve never seen before keep turning up. New species, and previously unknown populations of rare species, are constantly being discovered: a bright orange bat with black wings in Guinea, a new clan of blue whales in the Indian Ocean, a new species of monkey in Myanmar, a spectacular green snake in India. Newly identified species tend to belong to populations that are vanishingly rare, endangered from the moment of their discovery, but they remind us again of how urgent it is to save as much as we can save as quickly as we can save it, while species diversity remains rich.
Renewable energy is edging out fossil fuels. Coal, the dirtiest of all fossil fuels, is on the way out, and the shift away from coal power, particularly during the pandemic, has had a significant impact in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants. Meanwhile, solar power is the cheapest electricity we have, which means that capitalism is now on its side, and even Big Oil is beginning to pivot from extracting carbon to storing it. The U.S. Energy Information Administration projects that “renewables’ share of the electricity generation mix will more than double by 2050” as coal plants go offline and are replaced with renewable energy sources that are rapidly becoming more economical. Doubling isn’t enough, not nearly enough, but at least we’re heading in the right direction. Now we just need to pick up speed.
We have finally started to plan for what we can’t stop. Addressing climate change, ecosystem loss and diminishing diversity requires more than simply finding ways to halt the worst damage before it arrives. We also need to mitigate the damage from what can’t be undone, and the human ingenuity being brought to bear on this problem can be breathtaking. Wildlife bridges and tunnels that address ecosystem fragmentation. Bacteria that eat plastic. Drones that plant trees. Lab-grown meat.

Some of these efforts won’t work, some are years away from widespread use, and none will solve this overwhelming crisis by itself, but a vast array of them can help. Above all, they demonstrate that we are as good at building as we are at destroying, as good at healing as at hurting. It helps to remember that.
Conservation nonprofits are winning in court. For four years environmental nonprofits fought hard against Trump administration policies, and almost always won. Thanks to their efforts, courts recently stopped a Trump-approved oil-drilling project in Arctic waters, ordered the reinstatement of a red-wolf restoration effort in North Carolina, halted plans to allow trophy hunting of grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and forced a reconsideration of oil drilling on federal land in five Western states. These and dozens of other examples reinforce the importance of supporting conservation nonprofits with every penny we can possibly spare.

People are waking up. We knew this crisis was coming decades ago, but we squandered urgent warnings from scientists because oil companies successfully turned climate change into a politically divisive issue. Finally, that’s changing. According to the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, more than half of all Americans now characterize themselves as either “alarmed” or “concerned” about climate change, numbers that are growing. Americans who are either “doubtful” or “dismissive” now represent only 18 percent of the population, and those numbers are falling.

Much about this issue can still be contentious, but nobody, neither Republican nor Democrat, wants to breathe polluted air or drink polluted water. Nobody wants to lose the insects that pollinate their crops or the birds that sing in their trees. Nobody wants to watch their forests go up in flames or their beaches wash away or their fellow human beings lose their homes and their livelihoods. We are a big-brained, big-hearted species, and we are finally waking up. And that’s what gives me the most hope of all.
Article reprinted from The New York Times

The post Yes, America, There Is (Some) Hope for the Environment appeared first on Good News!.

NEW RESEARCH FROM PROMINENT CANCER MEETING FOR THOSE WITH LUNG CANCER

People with Lung Cancer, Like Others with Serious Underlying Medical Conditions
Might Be at an Increased Risk for Severe Illness from COVID-19

Lung cancer is the second most common cancer in both men and women. This year, an estimated 228,820 adults (116,300 men and 112,520 women) in the United States will be diagnosed.

The fight against lung cancer continues with new research and scientific advances, including cancer experts investigating potential ways to treat the disease in earlier stages. Some of these latest findings in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), including investigational studies in earlier stages of the disease, were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program.

Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD of Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital talks on the latest news from ASCO in the fight against lung cancer.

Lung cancer makes up almost 25% of all cancer deaths. There are two main types of lung cancer: non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC). NSCLC is the most common type of lung cancer. In fact, about 80%-85% of lung cancer cases are NSCLC. About 40% of patients are diagnosed at a later stage of disease, such as Stage IV, when the cancer has progressed to other organs. Approximately 10-15% of NSCLC patients in the US and Europe, and 30-40% of patients in Asia have EGFRm NSCLC. The prevalence of EGFR mutations in early stage are estimated to be ~33% in a global NSCLC population.

Interview courtesy: AstraZeneca
#roy #harbst #yale #cancer #center #smilow #covid-19 #covid #19 #covid19 #lung #severe #illness #medical #risk #diagnosed #research #scientific #advances #disease #cell #nsclc #american #society #clinical #oncology #asco #virtual #hospital #astrazeneca

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Some people always amaze me – Gregory Gallo, a victim of severe brain trauma, yesterday completed his 50th marathon at age 68. Below are pics from mile 17 as well as the blistering cold of pre-race. He became very sick at mile 18, but arm and arm, he persevered just continuing to tell me not to let him quit. In just under 8 hours we crossed. Crazy awesome…. What an inspiration…. Some of the best parts of being alive are moments like these
From Gene’s Dad. GOOD AND BEST WISHES TO YOU AND YOUR TEAMMATE–D
Just thought i would share this with you…On Sunday, the New York City Marathon If there is is a source of true inspiration, my son’s teammate is running his fiftieth race and for my son,Gene, jr 26 miles push is more than a fulfilling a race for there is never a finish line.
Thank you, Paul.Truly an inspirational human spirit that’s worth enhancing in many monumental ways…including running in a marathon race that has no end, but rests with a peaceful gratitude of knowing who you are that has endured first, and then prevails beyond the finish line.
Hope to see you soon and revisit a good fellowship per your thoughtful ways…I am proud of Ej and for his teammate , a man who has a brain tumor running his 50th race and beyond. gene

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After almost 4 and 1/2 years Amanda decided that her job here was done. She was hospitalized with pneumonia and seizures on March 13, 2013, while her parents were in Hawaii on vacation. On March 23, Amanda did not want to be poked and squeezed anymore. She was done and did not want any type of medicine or food. There was a family meeting on March 24 and Amanda’s dad Jim Brownell SIGNED the POST form to not recessitate or intibate. She returned to her LSA – Baywood HOME (since June 2010) on 3/27/13. Then on April 1, 2013 Amanda spent her last 16 days of life at home with her parents, family, friends and dogs (Jack Skellington Sparrow and Spencer Spot Brownell) .

Amanda’s Mother, Ann Solorio Brownell has shared the PAIN of Amanda’s story, more than 1,000 times in front of more than 50,000 people, to educate everyone about these serious issues of suicide, bullying, and self-harm while spreading the message of LOVE for all people and all living things.

We are parents, grandparents, caregivers, siblings, friends, teachers, neighbors, social workers, school administrators, and students.

You are invited to stand against ALL forms of bullying by taking this simple pledge, to join as an Amanda Network Member:

“I pledge to not allow bullying in my presence.
If I don’t report it, I am just as guilty.”

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