The U.S. baby formula shortage has sparked a surge of interest among moms who want to donate breast milk to help bridge the supply gap as well as those seeking to keep their babies fed.

La FDA señaló que las pruebas BinaxNOW de Abbott y QuickVue de Quidel pueden ser vendidas ahora sin receta médica

(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)WASHINGTON – U.S. health officials have authorized two more over-the-counter COVID-19 tests that can be used at home to get rapid results. The FDA said Abbott’s BinaxNow and Quidel’s QuickVue tests can now be sold without a prescription. Most other COVID-19 tests require a swab sample taken by a health worker at a testing location. AdThe agency authorized an over-the-counter COVID-19 test from an Australian company in December but it is still not widely available. The program will provide free home tests to as many as 160,000 people in two counties in North Carolina and Tennessee.

After a year of struggling to boost testing, communities across the country are seeing plummeting demand, shuttering testing sites or even trying to return supplies. “We just don’t have enough people who are immune to rule out another surge.”U.S. testing hit a peak on Jan. 15, when the country was averaging more than 2 million tests per day. “People just aren’t going to go out to testing sites.”AdBut testing remains important for tracking and containing the outbreak. That’s more than 25 times the country’s current rate of about 40 million tests reported per month. From a public health viewpoint, testing is effective if it helps to quickly find the infected, trace their contacts and isolate them to stop the spread.

Nurse Banu Mufale administers a Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine to physical therapist Becca Mamrol on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020, at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, Alaska. ___THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:A health worker in Alaska suffered a severe allergic reaction after receiving the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. U.S. health officials have given the OK to another rapid coronavirus test that people can use at home with results in 20 minutes. The governor’s office announced Wednesday that the state has received all of its initial allotment of coronavirus vaccine doses. The state Health Department on Wednesday said 58 more people died from the illness caused by the virus.

It delivers results in about 15 minutes and is priced at $5, significantly lower than similar older tests. Assisted living facilities don't provide skilled nursing care and are outside of Medicare's purview. Assisted living providers have not received federal support during this pandemic, and this is a positive step in the right direction, said a statement from the industry group American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living. The Defense Department will be in charge of getting the tests to more than 20,000 assisted living facilities. Giroir said roughly 800,000-900,000 people are in assisted living facilities, while another 1 million seniors are served by adult day care centers.

This image provided by Abbott Laboratories in August 2020 shows the company's BinaxNOW rapid COVID-19 nasal swab test. The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020, authorized BinaxNOW, the first rapid coronavirus test that doesnt need any special computer equipment to get results. (Abbott Laboratories via AP)WASHINGTON The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorized the first rapid coronavirus test that doesnt need any special computer equipment to get results. Abbott's BinaxNOW is the fourth rapid test that detects COVID-19 antigens, proteins found on the surface of the coronavirus, rather than the virus itself. "Its not a rapid test, its a laboratory-based test that will still be prone to the same massive delays as any other test," said Dr. Michael Mina of Harvard University.

The portable ID NOW device, which is the size of a toaster, has been used to test for Influenza A and B, Strep A and the respiratory syncytial virus. Abbott Laboratories, an Illinois-based company, adapted it to test for the new coronavirus, also known as the SARS-CoV-2 virus. According to Abbot, each device can run about four tests per hour, and results for some patients can be produced as quickly as 5 minutes after the test. DeSantis said the test could increase hospital capacity and efficiency when it comes to deciding, which hospital employees need to isolate. “When you have to wait 48-72 hours for a test result, those are people that you got to keep in the hospital,” DeSantis said.

via CNN(CNN) - For the first time in 19 years, a team of scientists has detected a new strain of HIV. HIV has several different subtypes or strains, and like other viruses, it has the ability to change and mutate over time. This is the first new Group M HIV strain identified since guidelines for classifying subtypes were established in 2000. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said current treatments for HIV are effective against this strain and others. Current HIV treatments can fight a wide variety of virus strains, and it is believed that these treatments can fight this newly named one.