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Mayo Clinic Minute: Reducing the risks of sexually transmitted infections

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:19 GMT

Deb Balzer | Mayo Clinic News Network (TNS)Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) continue to rise the in the U.S and around the globe. The World Health Organization reports more than 1 million new sexually transmitted infections are acquired a day — with the majority of them asymptomatic.Dr. Stacey Rizza, an infectious diseases physician with Mayo Clinic, says there are many reasons for the continued rise in sexually transmitted infections in the last few years. She says educating people is crucial and an important step in reducing the risks of sexually transmitted infections, which can have long-lasting health effects on the individual as well as society.“We’ve seen the rate of many sexually transmitted infections going up in the last few years, particularly syphilis,” says Dr. Rizza.Syphilis, like chlamydia and gonorrhea, are bacterial infections and can be treated with antibiotics. These medications won’t help viral infections, like hepatitis B, HIV and herpes. And n...

1 person shot in City Heights

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:19 GMT

SAN DIEGO — One person was shot Tuesday morning in the City Heights neighborhood, police say.The shooting happened around 11 a.m. in the area near 40th and Thorn streets, according to San Diego police.The victim was taken to Scripps Mercy Hospital. Their status is not known at this time. 3 Camp Pendleton Marines among 4 dead in fiery crash on I-5 Officials have blocked off 40th Street from Thorn Street to Redwood Street as they investigate the incident.Police did not immediately release any information regarding a suspect in the shooting.This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Klimt painting sets European record with $108 million price tag at Sotheby’s auction in London

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:19 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A late-life masterpiece by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt sold Tuesday for 85.3 million pounds ($108.4 million), making it the most expensive artwork ever auctioned in Europe.“Dame mit Fächer” — Lady with a Fan — sold to a buyer in the room at Sotheby’s in London after a 10-minute bidding war for a hammer price of 74 million pounds ($94.35 million). The higher final figure includes a charge on top of the sale price known as the buyer’s premium.The sale price well exceeded the presale estimate of 65 million pounds, or $80 million.It also beat the previous European auction record of $104.3 million — 65 million pounds at the time — including buyer’s premium paid for Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture “Walking Man I” at Sotheby’s in 2010. Previously, the most expensive painting auctioned in Europe was Claude Monet’s “Le basin aux nymphéas,” which fetched $80.4 million at a Christie’s sale in 2008.The piece sold Tuesday was the last portrait Klimt completed befo...

Florida ramps up mosquito control efforts due to 4 cases of locally contracted malaria

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:19 GMT

TERRA CEIA ISLAND, Fla. (AP) — The Florida Department of Health has issued a statewide mosquito-borne illness advisory after four locally contracted cases of malaria were reported along the Gulf Coast south of Tampa.On Monday, a health alert issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also noted that another case has been detected in Texas, marking the first time there has been a local spread of malaria in the United States in 20 years.The four residents in Sarasota County received treatment and have recovered, according to the state’s Department of Health advisory. Malaria, caused by a parasite that spreads through bites from Anopheles mosquitoes, causes fever, chills, sweats, nausea and vomiting, and headaches. It is not spread person to person.It’s the threat of the mosquito-borne illness that concerns Kathleen Gibson-Dee, who lives on Terra Ceia Island, which is about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Sarasota County. Even though no malaria cases have be...

A man who fired a rifle at a pool cleaner will not be charged, sheriff says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:19 GMT

DUNEDIN, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man who shot a rifle at his pool cleaner after mistaking the man for an intruder will not face charges, officials said.Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said during a news conference Monday that the owner of the Dunedin home had a right to fire on someone who he believed posed a threat to him and his wife under a self-defense law commonly referred to as “stand your ground.” Dunedin is located on the Gulf of Mexico near Tampa.A husband and wife were watching a movie around 9 p.m. on June 15 when the wife heard noises from the pool lanai and observed someone she didn’t recognize on the pool deck, Gualtieri said. The woman told her husband, who yelled for the man to get out and to go away several times.According to detectives, the wife called 911, and the man retrieved an AR-15 rifle from their bedroom. The couple observed a flashlight coming toward the door, prompting the husband to fire twice, officials said. Shrapnel from the bullet and glass...

6 dead in a meningitis outbreak tied to Mexico clinics as officials struggle to reach more patients

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:19 GMT

The death toll has risen to six in an outbreak of fungal meningitis that’s tied to surgical procedures in a city along the U.S.-Mexico border, and health officials say they have not been able to reach everyone who may be at risk of infection.More than 200 patients could be at risk of fungal meningitis after having surgical procedures in Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, between Jan. 1 to May 13 of this year.But incomplete contact information has hindered efforts to reach nearly half the people who need to see a doctor for evaluation and testing, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesman Tom Skinner said Tuesday. Two clinics linked to the outbreak, River Side Surgical Center and Clinica K-3, closed on May 13.The CDC has been working with the Mexican Ministry of Health and state and local health departments in the U.S. to respond to the outbreak. Meningitis is the swelling of the protective covering of the brain and spinal cord and should be t...

Parliamentary inquest into ‘Vatican Girl’ mystery moves forward as pope acknowledges family’s pain

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:19 GMT

ROME (AP) — Italy’s Parliament is poised to open a bicameral commission of inquiry into the disappearance of the teenage daughter of a Vatican employee, the third new investigation launched in the four decades since Emanuela Orlandi vanished on the streets of Rome.The Senate’s Constitutional Affairs Committee on Tuesday unanimously approved setting up the inquest, and full Senate approval is now expected. The Chamber of Deputies, the Italian Parliament’s lower house, gave it’s go ahead earlier. Separately, Vatican and Rome prosecutors both recently reopened their investigations in the case. Orlandi vanished 40 years ago last week, on June 22, 1983, after leaving her family’s Vatican City apartment to go to a music lesson in Rome. Her father was a lay employee of the Holy See. Theories over the years have linked her disappearance at age 15 to everything from the plot to kill St. John Paul II, a financial scandal involving the Vatican bank and Rome’s criminal underworldThe famil...

Former Navy SEAL seeks GOP nod to challenge Montana Democratic US Sen. Tester in 2024

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:19 GMT

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy announced Tuesday he will seek the 2024 Republican nomination to challenge Montana U.S. Sen. Jon Tester as the Democrat tries to secure a fourth term.Sheehy, 37, was recruited by GOP leaders eager to unseat Tester as they try to wrest control of the Senate from Democrats, who hold a slim majority and will have several vulnerable incumbents on the 2024 ballot, including Tester.Sheehy runs an aerial firefighting company, Bridger Aerospace, which he founded near Bozeman after moving to Montana in 2014. This is his first run for public office, and he said in a telephone interview that his military service and business background will set him apart in the race.“What I’m seeing now is kind of a government devoid of common sense,” he said Tuesday. “It’s a lot of rhetoric, a lot of demagoguery, but not a lot of people sitting down actually trying to solve the serious problems we face as a country.”His entry shakes up a GOP prima...

Five things to know about the Competition Bureau’s study into Canada’s grocery sector

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:19 GMT

Canada’s competition watchdog released its much awaited study into the country’s retail grocery market on Tuesday, painting a picture of a highly concentrated industry dominated by few players.Making an effort to detail its findings in “plain language,” the Competition Bureau highlighted the need to communicate clearly on the issue to promote transparency.The bureau said most Canadians buy groceries in stores owned by giants Loblaw, Sobeys, and Metro, with rising prices signalling a need for more competition in the sector.Here are five key take-aways from the report.Harmonized unit pricing requirements as a potential solutionAmong the four main recommendations contained in the report, the Competition Bureau called on provincial and territorial governments to consider introducing accessible and harmonized unit pricing requirements. That would force grocers to display the price of a product based on a standard package size, alongside the total price. For instan...

Canadian wildfires are causing unhealthy air quality again in Chicago and other parts of the US

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:19 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — Drifting smoke from the ongoing wildfires across Canada is creating curtains of haze and raising air quality concerns throughout the Great Lakes region, and in parts of the central and eastern United States.Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy on Tuesday issued an air quality alert for the entire state, while in Chicago — where the air quality has been categorized “unhealthy” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — officials are urging young people, older adults and residents with health issues to spend more time indoors. “Just driving into the zoo … you could just see around the buildings, kind of just haze,” said Shelly Woinowski, who was visiting the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.Some day care centers in the Chicago area have told parents that their children will remain indoors Tuesday due to the poor air quality, while one youth sports club says it adjusted its activities to add more time indoors.“We recommend childre...