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An outbreak of a respiratory infection that most often affects birds has killed five people in Europe, the World Health Organization (WHO) warns. During 2023 and the start of 2024, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands have reported an "unusual and unexpected increase" in cases of so-called parrot fever, beyond what's been seen in previous years, the WHO said in a statement Tuesday (March 5). In all, the illness has affected almost 90 people, with five deaths reported among them.  Parrot fever, or psittacosis , is caused by a species of bacteria called Chlamydia psittaci (also spelled Chlamydophila psittaci ) . The bacteria can infect many mammals — including dogs, cats and horses — but most often infects birds.  Humans can catch psittacosis by inhaling airborne particles containing C. psittaci , but human-to-human transmission of the disease is very rare , with only a handful of cases ever reported. Instead, most people develop psittacosi...

Colorectal cancer most often affects people over age 50, but it's on the rise in younger people , who are rarely offered screening to catch these cancers early. Now, a new study hints that microbes found in the tumors of younger and older cancer patients differ, and this could potentially offer new means for early diagnosis. In new research, published Feb. 1 in the journal eBioMedicine , scientists probed the gut microbiome — the community of microbes that populate the lower digestive tract — in cancer patients of two age groups. They included 136 people under age 50 with a median age of 43 and 140 people over 50 with a median age of 73. The researchers found that distinct sets of bacteria were present in tumors of older and younger people with colorectal cancer. Colorectal cancer is often, but not always, hereditary . Related: Antibiotics may raise colon cancer risk, massive study suggests "We know that many of these early-onset cancers are not directly linked to a ge...

RI WINS (Workforce Investment & New Solutions) is the name utilized by the RI Cross Disability Co- alition for our DD Transformation Grant in collaboration with the RI Developmental Disabilities Council (RIDDC) and Skills for RI’s Future. The goal of the project is to create sustainable change for meaningful and inclusive lives for individuals with disabilities within local communities in Rhode Island. The focus of this newsletter is to highlight the excellent work of community agencies in building relationships with RI employers and assisting people with disabilities to obtain competitive employment. RI WINS – Collaboration of Organizations Skills for RI’s Future along with The RI Cross Disability Coalition and The RI Developmental Disabilities Council (RIDDC) convenes monthly group meetings for staff from community agencies involved with building employer relationships to assist people with disabilities with opportunities for employment. In the initial ...

By Nick Landekic We are all tired of dealing with COVID, and desperate to return to normalcy. The unpleasant truth is the virus is not yet done with us. With the year-end holidays upon us and infection rates rising across the country, the stark new reality is COVID is now a pandemic of older people. Right now is a particularly risky time with a ‘tripledemic’ of COVID, flu, and RSV, with almost the entire country at ‘high’ or ‘very high’ levels of infection. Hospitalizations and deaths are both up sharply over the past two weeks, with deaths increasing as well. The single greatest predictor of a poor outcome from COVID is age. Older people are thousands of times more likely to die of infection than younger. 90% of COVID deaths are now among those over 65. Over 300 Americans continue to die of COVID every day, and nearly 1,000 just on December 7 – a rate of over 100,000 a year – and most of them are over 65. This is primarily happening because of t...