US researchers have found a new method that may help in monitoring cancer from blood tests more easily and accurately.

The study, led by researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine and the New York Genome Center, in the US, showed that the method may be useful for monitoring disease status in patients following treatment.

The method, based on whole-genome sequencing of DNA, also represents an important step toward the goal of routine blood test-based screening for early cancer detection.

"We're now entering an era of low-cost DNA sequencing, and in this study, we took advantage of that to apply whole-genome sequencing techniques that in the past would have been considered wildly impractical," said Dr. Dan Landau, Professor of Medicine, at Weill Cornell Medicine.

While the risk of cardiovascular outcomes following SARS-CoV-2 infection has been reported in adults, a new study showed that children and adolescents are also likely to develop multiple cardiac signs and symptoms.

The evidence of heart disease post-Covid infection in children and adolescents is limited.

The study, led by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, revealed children and adolescents remained at risk of cardiovascular disease, including higher odds of high blood pressure and heart failure, between one to six months after Covid-19 infection.

The team analysed electronic health records (EHR) data from 19 children’s hospitals and health institutions in the US between March 2020 and September 2023.

A team of UK researchers has found the potential of interleukin-6 (IL-6) as a powerful diagnostic biomarker for the early detection of sepsis in high-risk patient groups, including neonates, children, and pregnant women.

Sepsis, a life-threatening condition resulting from the immune system's overreaction to infection, remains a leading global cause of mortality, accounting for an estimated 11 million deaths annually.

Young children, especially those under five, and pregnant women are highly vulnerable due to immunological changes and increased susceptibility.

Adults with respiratory syncytial virus-associated acute respiratory infection (RSV-ARI) are likely to be at a 2.7-fold higher risk of death within one year, warned a study.

RSV-ARI refers to a group of illnesses caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) -- a common and highly contagious virus that primarily affects the respiratory tract.

The study presented at the Congress of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID Global 2025) in Austria, is based on an analysis of data from 5,289 adults (over 18 years) diagnosed with RSV-ARI between 2011 and 2022 in Denmark. They were compared to 15,867 matched controls from the general population and followed up to a year after RSV-ARI onset.

Israeli researchers have developed a new RNA-based blood test for detecting Parkinson's disease long before symptoms emerge.

Parkinson's is often diagnosed only after significant brain damage has occurred, when most relevant neurons are already lost, underscoring the need for early detection.

The new method, detailed in the journal Nature Aging, measures specific RNA fragments in the blood, news agency reported.

It focuses on two key biomarkers: a repetitive RNA sequence that accumulates in Parkinson's patients, and mitochondrial RNA -- which declines as the disease progresses, said the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU).

The number of mpox cases reported in Africa in the past three months has been more than half of the total reported in the whole 2024, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

The continent has reported 39,840 mpox cases so far this year, including 9,020 confirmed ones, Yap Boum, Deputy Incident Manager for mpox at the Africa CDC, told an online briefing.

In the previous week alone, Africa reported 2,768 new cases, including 508 confirmed ones and 13 new related deaths, Boum said.

Since the start of last year, 22 mpox-affected African countries have reported 117,678 cases. Of those, 26,927 were confirmed and more than 1,700 related deaths were recorded.

North Korea's maternal mortality rate was estimated at 67 per 100,000 live births in 2023, a number dramatically lower than in 2000 but nearly 17 times higher than South Korea's figure, a report showed Friday.

The figures were released in a recent report on maternal mortality estimates, jointly published by the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank Group and other international organizations, news agency reported.

The report defines maternal mortality as the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of the end of a pregnancy.

North Korea's maternal mortality rate has been on a gradual decline since reaching 129 in 2000, around the time the country fell into a severe famine following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

The figure came down to 78 in 2005, 72 in 2015, 66 in 2020 and 67 in 2023, but the latest rate is still about 17 times higher than South Korea's corresponding rate of 4, the report showed.

An international team of researchers from Israel, the US, and China has developed a genetic method to reprogramme a type of immune cell, turning them from cancer promoters to inhibitors.

The team, led by Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science, focused on macrophages -- a type of immune cell that can induce immune responses. But in many cancers, macrophages become allies that protect the tumour, help it grow, and even aid in spreading it to other tissues, news agency reported.

Using advanced gene-editing tools and artificial intelligence, the researchers analysed human tumour samples and identified 120 genes potentially responsible for the transformation.

“Macrophages are highly versatile cells, sort of a ‘Swiss knife’ of the immune system, capable of activating multiple types of functions for different tasks and in different situations,” said Prof. Ido Amit, a faculty member of Weizmann’s Systems Immunology Department.

Kenya on Thursday received 10,700 doses of mpox vaccines, a boost to its efforts against the spread of the disease.

The government acquired the vaccines in collaboration with the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and Gavi, the vaccine alliance, Aden Duale, cabinet secretary of the Ministry of Health, said in a statement.

"The arrival of the vaccines marks a significant milestone in the national response to interrupt the chain of transmission and limit further spread of the disease," the statement said.

Health authorities of Australia's state of New South Wales (NSW) have issued a public health alert for Legionnaires' disease in central Sydney.

The NSW health department said that five people with recent cases of confirmed Legionnaires' disease all visited Sydney's CDB during their exposure period.

The alert said that the five patients developed symptoms between March 30 and April 4 after spending time in central Sydney, reports news agency.

It said that "no single source" of the infection has been identified, and it is possible that the cases are "unrelated" but that an investigation of a potential source area is underway.

Legionnaires' disease is a form of pneumonia caused by infection with Legionella bacteria, which is found naturally in freshwater. Symptoms typically develop between 2-10 days after exposure and can initially include headaches, fever and a mild cough.