Starting HIV treatment in ERs may be key to ending HIV spread worldwide

Researchers say they have evidence that hospital emergency departments (EDs) worldwide may be key strategic settings for curbing the spread of HIV infections in hard-to-reach populations if the EDs jump-start treatment and case management as well as diagnosis of the disease.

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Scanning the lens of the eye could predict type 2 diabetes and prediabetes

New research shows that specialist analysis of the lens in the eye can predict patients with type 2 diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) (also known as prediabetes, a condition that often leads to full blown of type 2 diabetes).

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Focus points to reduce opioid overdose deaths identified

A new study identifies specific locations where medication and harm reduction services for people with opioid use disorder should be available in order to have the greatest impact on reducing opioid overdose deaths. The data show that more than half of those who died of an opioid overdose in Massachusetts encountered the health care, public health and/or criminal justice systems within the 12 months prior to their fatal overdose.

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How new loops in DNA packaging help us make diverse antibodies

It's long been known that our immune cells mix and match bits of genetic code to make new kinds of antibodies to fight newly encountered threats. But how these different gene segments come together has been a mystery. A study provides the answer, showing how the classic process of V(D)J recombination makes use of chromatin looping to gather the segments to be spliced.

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Addressing serious illness with a serious question to clinicians

A question: 'Would you be surprised if this patient died in the next month?' — posed to elicit a clinician's overall impression of a patient — produced a strong correlation. If a clinician answered that they would not be surprised, the patient was twice as likely to die in the next month.

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