Lung News

Roughly 16 million Americans have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but only a fraction have access to a lifesaving treatment called pulmonary rehabilitation.

Necrotizing pneumonia is an uncommon complication of pneumonia. It destroys areas of lung tissue, and can occur even if someone has been treated with antibiotics, according to a previous review in Biomed Central.

Researchers calculate that air pollution actually has a bigger impact on life expectancy than tobacco smoking, HIV/AIDS or violence.

While lung function decreases naturally as people age, researchers linked moderate or significant weight gain to an even sharper decline.

The trial was funded by the drug's maker, Merck, and involved 253 American and British participants. All had suffered from an unexplained or untreatable cough that had lasted for an average of almost 15 years.

There's not enough evidence to recommend newer treatments for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Aging and risk factors such as smoking, pollution and overweight/obesity are among the other major risk factors for chronic lung diseases, according to the analysis of data from 195 countries.

The vaping illness known as EVALI (electronic cigarette- or vaping-associated lung injury) has so far killed nearly 60 people in the United States. More than 2,600 have been hospitalized.

Researchers discovered that Instagram posts that promote use of the devices outnumber anti-vaping content by a shocking ratio of 10,000 to 1.

Lung illnesses and deaths from vaping have been grabbing headlines for months, and now two new studies offer fresh evidence pointing to long-term respiratory concerns.

In a statement on Dec. 31, Texas officials said the teen had "a chronic underlying medical condition," but did not identify the condition, the patient's gender or what products the teens had been vaping.

The disease, called hard-metal pneumoconiosis or "cobalt lung," usually occurs when people inhale mineral dusts caused by metal grinding, said senior researcher Dr. Kirk Jones, a pathologist with the University of California, San Francisco.

The condition is similar to "popcorn lung," which is seen in workers exposed to the chemical flavoring diacetyl, an ingredient used to produce microwave popcorn, researchers said.

Taylor was told to remove the feather bedding from his home and prescribed steroids, which improved his condition within two days.

Firefighters this month have been battling blazes from one end of California to the other. The whipping winds fanning the flames have helped distribute noxious particles far and wide.

The American Lung Association’s 2019 “State of the Air” report shows that more than 141 million people live in counties with unhealthy air, an increase of 7 million people from the 2018 report.

Confirmed cases of Legionnaires disease linked to a North Carolina state fair now stand at 79, including 55 people hospitalized and one death.

A tuberculosis vaccine commonly used in other parts of the world might reduce a person's risk of developing lung cancer if given early in childhood, a six-decade-long study reports.

People can get a rare type of tuberculosis, called bovine tuberculosis, from deer, according to the CDC.

The number of cases of Legionnaires' disease tied to the North Carolina Mountain State fair has risen to 25, with one death, according to the state division of public health.

Rates among all other racial/ethnic groups were at least 14 times higher than among whites.

Late Wednesday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its tally of such cases to 153, spread across 16 states. These cases have emerged in a relatively short timeframe -- from June 28 through Aug. 20, the agency said in a statement.

The FDA approval sprang from a groundbreaking trial of 107 patients in South Africa who had been diagnosed with XDR-TB. Six months after treatment, 89% of the patients were cured, which is far higher than typical success rates for treatment of this often lethal strain of TB

Another 61 probable cases of the disease have been identified, according to Nancy Nydam, director of communications at Georgia Department of Public Health, CNN reported.

For the year 2015,  the researchers extrapolated that air pollution still caused nearly 16,000 deaths in women and 15,000 in men in the United States.