Global

Healthy pre-COVID lifestyle may protect against severe infection A University of Oxford-led study links a healthy pre-infection lifestyle to a 36% lower risk of long COVID, a 41% lower odds of death, and 22% lower chance of hospitalization. CIDRAP

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The researchers assessed the association of modifiable lifestyle factors (eg, smoking, alcohol use, body mass index, physical activity, time spent in sedentary activities, sleep duration, diet) with long COVID, death, and hospitalization among 68,896 adults in the UK Biobank cohort who tested positive for COVID-19 from March 2020 to March 2022.

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Study: Pandemic widened global economic disparities The COVID-19 pandemic hit low-income countries harder than wealthier nations, according to a new study in PLOS One, further slowing progress toward health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  CIDRAP

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On average, the pandemic caused low-income countries to experience an average progress loss of 16.5% across all health indicators, whereas high-income countries have seen losses as low as 3%, the authors said.

Research on bird flu in cows shows how efficiently it has spread among mammals The more the virus spreads uncontrolled in mammals, the higher the chance it could evolve to be transmitted to humans. NBC News

New research into the ongoing bird flu outbreaks on dairy farms describes in unprecedented detail how efficiently the virus has spread among cows, and from cows to other mammals, including cats and a raccoon.