Health officials in the U.K. have confirmed the country's first human case of a new swine flu variant typically found in pigs. 

COVID-19 omicron strain BA.2.86 is now a variant of interest after nearly tripling in prevalence. 

A recent University of California Los Angeles study found patient-surgeon "gender concordance" does not affect patient outcomes.

Yale New Haven (Conn.) Health is consolidating infectious disease care under one roof through a new center, which opened Nov. 27, the New Haven Register reported.

Pennsylvania passed a new law requiring physicians to receive patients' verbal and written consent before allowing medical students to perform pelvic or rectal exams on someone under anesthesia, CBS News reported Nov. 27.

Respiratory virus season is in full swing across the U.S., with flu, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus metrics all on the rise. 

Women may be more prone to developing Alzheimer's disease because of differences in immune function, cellular metabolism and communication between brain cells, according to Cleveland Clinic researchers. 

For the third straight week, flu hospitalizations have climbed in the U.S., according to new CDC data.

A CDC-recommended hospital disinfectant is ineffective against Clostridioides difficile, according to a study published Nov. 21 in Microbiology. 

The World Health Organization is monitoring a surge of respiratory illnesses among children in China, which health officials in the country say is due to known pathogens and not "any unusual or novel pathogens." 

Kelley Holdren, MSN, chief flight nurse at the University of Chicago Hospital, died Nov. 21 at age 48.

Police are searching for a man who escaped custody at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital on Nov. 27, according to ABC affiliate WPVI.

Only 14% of Americans have received the latest COVD-19 vaccine, which the CDC said is below where the agency would like vaccine uptake to be. 

Drug overdose deaths have tripled for U.S. mothers between the age of 35 to 40, but also substantially increased across all ages, races, ethnicities, educational and marital status, according to a Nov. 22 report from the National Institutes of Health.

An emerging method to retrieve hearts from organ donors has the potential to significantly expand the number of hearts available for patients awaiting transplant. However, not all hospitals are on board, with many experts citing ethical and legal concerns about the definitions of life and death, The New York Times reported Nov. 22. 

Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic has reduced the number of unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions by half by implementing an outpatient antibiotic stewardship program.

Omicron is circumventing precedents set up by earlier COVID-19 strains, alpha and delta, and the two-year anniversary of its arrival is teaching a new lesson on why one mutation is continuing to dominate, The New York Times reported Nov. 21. 

Jill Evans, MSN, RN, associate chief nursing officer of clinical informatics at Cleveland-based MetroHealth System, sees nurse informaticists as "interpreters" between technology and hospital leaders and staff. 

Patients who contracted COVID-19 in early 2020 and later got long COVID have a 76% chance of becoming reinfected, according to a study published Nov. 21 in The Lancet. 

COVID-19 hospitalizations are ticking back up in the U.S. after more than two months of mostly trending downward or remaining flat, according to the latest available data from the CDC.