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US pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly announced Wednesday it was cutting the cost of its most commonly prescribed insulins by 70 percent after years of soaring prices that hit millions of Americans living with diabetes.

A statewide alcohol-monitoring program in South Dakota that requires people arrested for drunk driving and other alcohol-involved offenses to be tested frequently for alcohol use can reduce the likelihood that participants die during the years after their involvement with the program, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

A new study led by researchers at Harvard Medical School details the step-by-step cascade that allows bacteria to break through the brain’s protective layers—the meninges—and cause brain infection, or meningitis, a highly fatal disease.

Preclinical trials have shown that zika virus can inhibit the spread of prostate cancer, suggesting its potential use in treating the disease. However, a new study by researchers at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in São Paulo State, Brazil, shows that zika can trigger a persistent inflammatory process in healthy epithelial cells and damage the male reproductive system.

Cardiovascular medicine, hematology and pulmonary medicine may soon have the first-ever therapies to correct poor tissue oxygenation, a key driver of disease in millions, including peripheral artery disease, sickle cell disease, heart failure, stroke, emphysema and many others.

A large team of cancer researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in Germany, working with a colleague from the U.S., has discovered some of the ways gut bacteria can positively impact treatments for cancer. In their study, published in the journal Nature, the group studied the impact of gut microbiota on chemotherapy given to patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Le Li and Florencia McAllister with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, have published a News and Views piece in the same journal issue, outlining the work done by the team in Germany.

Iodized salt helps prevent iodine-deficiency disorders, including goiters and certain birth defects. Yet it’s unclear how this seasoning interacts with chloramine-treated drinking water if some of the disinfectant is left behind. Now, researchers in the journal Environmental Science & Technology have demonstrated that cooking pasta in such water with iodized table salt could produce potentially harmful byproducts. But they also report four simple ways that people can reduce or avoid these unwanted compounds.

Chemotherapy affects the ability of a patient’s immune system to attack pancreatic tumors, a new study shows.

Long COVID is associated with reduced brain oxygen levels, worse performance on cognitive tests and increased psychiatric symptoms such as depression and anxiety, according to new research studying the impacts of the disease.

MINE workers unions have rubbished calls to have them probed for corruption over their U-turn to support the return of Vedanta Resources PLC to Konkola Copper Mines (KCM).

The mine unions have described the calls as extremely unreasonable because their decision to support the calls for the return of Vedanta was based on saving the mine and the jobs of their members.

National Union of Miners and Allied Workers (NUMAW) Saul Simujika and his Mine workers Union of Zambia (MUZ) counterpart Joseph Chewe said the  unions would not be shaken by people making allegations against them over calls for the UPND government to bring back Vedanta.

Mr Simujika said the unions wanted Vedanta back because the decision was made in good faith after realising that the situation at the giant mine was becoming desperate.

Mr Simujika was reacting to mining expert Edward Simukonda who has called on the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to investigate the mine workers unions following their recent calls for the return of Vedanta to KCM.

Mr Simukonda is reported to have said that there was likelihood that the unions were involved in corruption after their recent U-turn to support the return of Vedanta to KCM.

But Mr Simujika said people should understand the operations of KCM and its current status before issuing disparaging remarks against the unions whose decision was to save the mine and the jobs of the miners.

“We decided to U-turn on the issue of Vedanta not because we were given money but because we wanted to save the mine which was getting flooded and jobs of our miners. If the mine gets flooded, there will be no jobs for our members.”

“So before people can say anything, they should understand the operations and what was happening at the mine. KCM is producing less than 5,000 metric tonnes per month when it was supposed to be producing more than 10,000 metric tonnes per month. As unions, this is a great concern,’’ Mr Simujika said. Mr Simujika said there was little or nothing which was happening at KCM, claiming that the mine was surviving on the hand-outs from the government, hence the need for re-capitalisation from Vedanta before it could completely be wasted.