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The pandemic is a 'marathon': Pace yourself to stay mentally healthy
When festive lights, scents and gustatory goodies of Christmas are mere memories again, people in the Northern Hemisphere typically begin longing for spring. Many cold and dark winter months remain, though, and they'll probably seem to pass more slowly than usual this year because of widespread coronavirus lockdown measures. The watchword is perseverance, but for how much longer? The uncertainty keeps many people on edge. Although vaccinations against the virus have started, this bright spot is at the end of a tunnel that's still long. It's too early to tell how the pandemic and its consequenc...
DPA
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Scientists developing a mask sensor that detects the coronavirus
(tca/dpa) — The US National Institutes of Health has awarded the University of California, San Diego 1.3 million dollars to develop a small, wearable sensor that can tell whether a person has the novel coronavirus or has been exposed to it by someone else. The lightweight sensor would be attached to face masks to monitor for the presence of coronavirus-related molecules that appear in a person's breath and saliva. The "surveillance" test strip also would detect virus molecules expelled by someone else and possibly inhaled by the user of the mask. The user would squeeze the sensor to see if it ...
DPA
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Think your kid's being bullied online? Don't just read their messages
As soon as children get their first smartphone, parents have to deal with the fact that they are constantly messaging. The sheer number of texts that sometimes arrive per minute might cause concern. After all, bullying on social media and messenger apps has become an all-too-common problem. But even if you have grounds to be worried, you should try and follow certain rules when monitoring your child's messaging habits and honour their right to privacy. Messages are not unlike a personal diary, and you should never read anything in secret. Instead try to do it together with your child, social e...
DPA
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The trick to knowing if your FFP2 face mask is really working
FFP2 masks, when worn correctly, are significantly more effective at protecting both you and others from a coronavirus infection. And yet these masks will only deliver the promised filtering performance if they are a proper fit. So how are you supposed to know if it's working right? The first thing to look for: The mask gets sucked towards your face when you breathe in. This is a sign that no air is able to sneak in around the edges, where the mask touches your face If you feel any rapid flow of air on your cheeks, chin or nose, then the mask doesn't fit your face or you haven't put it on prop...
DPA
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I had Covid-19 - am I immune now? Scientists say there's no guarantee
The news is good, but there's still a lot we don't know. The latest studies suggest that a coronavirus infection does indeed mean you are protected against a second infection from the virus - at least in the short term. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, scientists have been repeatedly testing the blood of previously infected people for antibodies and other defence substances. The longer the Sars-CoV-2 virus is rampant, the more they can learn about its course. However, while many questions have only been partially answered so far, Carsten Watzl - the Secretary General of the German Society f...
DPA
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Study: People with mild Covid-19 most likely to lose sense of smell
The loss of taste and smell has become the trademark symptom of a coronavirus infection. A European study has now found that people who only suffer a mild case of the disease often are among those whose sense of smell is worst affected. Most had regained their sense of smell some three weeks later on average, according to the study published in the Journal of Internal Medicine. The team, led by Jerome Lechien, a doctor at the University of Paris-Saclay, drew on data from 2,581 patients in 18 hospitals across Europe, between March and June 2020. Most of the patients in the group had mild Covid-...
DPA
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When to suspect your thyroid, the body's accelerator pedal, is faulty
The thyroid is a small, butterfly-shaped gland at the base of the front of the neck, just below the Adam's apple. It produces hormones that help regulate the body's metabolism, the process that turns food into energy. "Thyroid hormones regulate almost every process in the body," says Dr Joachim Feldkamp, head of the Department of General Internal Medicine, Endocrinology, Diabetes and Infectious Diseases at Bielefeld University Hospital in Germany. Among them are body temperature, heart rate, digestion, brain function and bone metabolism. Thyroid hormones tell the body's cells how much energy t...
DPA
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Does inhaling steam really help cure a child's stuffy nose?
Parents of a child who gets a stuffy nose will sometimes fill a bowl or pot with hot water and have the child inhale the steam with a towel draped over the head. While there's nothing wrong with this in cases of upper respiratory infections such as a cold, the effects are more likely to be psychological than physiological, according to Dr Burkhard Rodeck, general secretary of the German Society of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (DGKJ). "The cold won't go away more quickly," he says. Inhaling steam can have a placebo effect, making the child feel better because it's pleasant and shows that...
DPA
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The beginning of the end of Covid-19? Herd immunity, explained
One year into a changed world, the numbers defy comprehension. More than 2 million deaths with Covid-19 globally and 21 million confirmed cases in the United States — a rate approaching one in 15 people — plus untold millions who had mild or no symptoms and were never identified. Add the millions who have now received their first doses of vaccine, and it is fair to wonder: Can we start to look forward to when life returns to normal? The answer hinges on that often-misunderstood concept of herd immunity, made all the more complicated by the emergence of two variants of the coronavirus that seem...
DPA
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High blood pressure drugs pose no risk for Covid-19 progression
When the pandemic started there was a lot to worry about for patients being treated for high blood pressure (also known as hypertension). Not only were they already at higher risk of contracting severe Covid-19, but some of the drugs their conditions were treated for were also suspected of negatively influencing the risk of infection and its severity. Even at that stage specialists - such as the German Heart Foundation - were warning against stopping taking the medicines. And since then researchers have been able to establish that the drugs pose no extra Corona risk, as Professor Ulrich Kintsc...
DPA
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