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News and Features Related to Ear Infection

Swimmer's Ear Costs U.S. Half a Billion Yearly

May 19, 2011 -- Swimmers often regard inflammation of the external ear canal, known as swimmer's ear, as an inevitable, minor nuisance. But a new study finds that the problem adds substantially to health care costs and the number of annual doctor visits. "For swimmer's ear, there are 2.4 million hea
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Early Antibiotics Help Ear Infections in Young Children

Jan. 12, 2011 -- Young children with ear infections recover faster and more completely if doctors give antibiotics right away rather than waiting to see if the kids get better on their own. The findings come from two clinical trials, one in the U.S. and one in Finland. For young children with middle
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Air Quality Up, Ear Infections Down

Oct. 7, 2009 -- Cleaner air resulting from federal pollution laws may have significantly reduced the prevalence of ear infections in children, a new study shows. The study, presented at the 2009 American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation in San Diego, analyzed U.S. data on 1
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Earwax: Too Much of a Good Thing?

Aug. 29, 2008 -- The body is a miraculous mechanism. Consider the once-lowly earwax. People used to try to remove it. Now, we now know that earwax has a job to do. Think of it kind of like the oil in your car, except it doesn't ever have to be changed. Earwax is created by a mixture of secretions fr
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Drug-Resistant Ear Infections Reported

Oct. 16, 2007 -- Doctors have found a bacterial strain that causes ear infections and resists all FDA-approved antibiotics for kids. The bacterial strain also isn't targeted by the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine PCV7 routinely given to children. Altering the PCV7 vaccine to cover the drug-resistant
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Drug-Resistant Ear Infections Emerge

Sept. 17, 2007 (Chicago) -- Since the 2000 introduction of the pneumococcal vaccine to prevent ear infections in children, a superbug that is resistant to all the antibiotics approved to treat the condition has emerged, researchers report. Children who carry the superbug develop particularly agonizi
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Obese Children: More Ear Problems?

April 16, 2007 -- Obese children may be more likely to have fluid build-up in the middle part of their ears. So say South Korean researchers who studied childhood obesity and an ear problem called otitis media with effusion. In otitis media with effusion, fluid builds up in the middle ear without ca
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Vaccine May Cut Kids’ Ear Infections

April 2, 2007 -- Children's frequent ear infections may be rarer than in the past, thanks to vaccination against pneumonia and related diseases. That's according to a new study published in Pediatrics. The study focuses on the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, which targets pneumococcal infections tha
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Nasal Spray May Prevent Ear Infection

March 23, 2007 -- Inventors of a new nasal spray designed to help prevent ear infections in children report promising results in lab tests on mice. Those tests show the spray, which doesn't have a name yet, was 100% effective in preventing ear infections in mice exposed to pneumonia bacteria and the
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Ear Tubes Not Always Needed

Jan. 17, 2007 -- Hundreds of thousands of toddlers and preschoolers in the U.S. get ear tubes each year, but a landmark study shows that a large number may not need them for the purpose of avoiding future developmental problems. Researchers followed otherwise healthy children treated as toddlers for
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