Neurological diseases are an increasing public health challenge in China. A recent meta-analysis of 12 disorders shows a rising overall burden, with intracerebral hemorrhage as the leading cause and dementia as the fastest-growing condition. Several disorders rose sharply between 2019 and 2021, coinciding with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings indicate shifting disease patterns and highlight the need for improved prevention, early detection, and long-term care strategies nationwide.

A detailed analysis of airflow in a Spanish high-rise found a COVID-19 outbreak likely spread via the bathroom ventilation system. The findings have implications for other airborne diseases and for older multi-family buildings around the world.

Telemedicine has not significantly increased visits and medical spending across all payer types, which could ease concerns among lawmakers that the telemedicine expansion that occurred during the COVID pandemic would result in large utilization and spending increases.

A new study in JAMA Network Open found that between 1999-2022, the annual number of excess US deaths—deaths that would not have occurred had the mortality rate in the US been the same as in other HICs—increased steadily through 2019 and then rose rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic. By 2022, all-cause mortality rates in the US were 38 percent higher than in other HICs. An estimated 12.7 million US deaths could have been averted during this period if US mortality rates mirrored those of its peers. The authors refer to these excess US deaths as “missing Americans.”

A new study explored whether women visualised a vaccine would have a positive or negative impact on their babies, and if that affected their decision to be vaccinated. The findings, published in the journal Social Science & Medicine, showed that mental images were common and – depending on whether that mental image was a positive or negative one, and about the impacts of diseases or the vaccine itself – could be used in some cases to predict if and when the women ultimately became vaccinated during pregnancy.