Category: Feature Stories

Poor working conditions cost the lives of 1.9 million people a year, according to a UN study. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), strokes and heart disease are the main causes of premature death for about 1.2 million men and women, it said. Workplace accidents caused about 360,000 deaths. The study, unveiled Friday, was prepared by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labor Organization (ILO). As the WHO also reported in May, overwork is a particularly large and rising risk factor. Working too many hours was linked to about…

Read More

A new study from Israel shows how well booster vaccinations against Covid-19 work. People over the age of 60 were eleven times less likely to be infected after a “third prick” than those who had only been vaccinated twice, and serious illnesses were even almost 20 times less likely to occur. Whether booster vaccinations are generally useful, however, remains controversial. The World Health Organization (WHO), for example, is against it in view of the still very low vaccination rates in many developing countries: “We don’t want booster doses for healthy…

Read More

Corona vaccines administered to date remain highly effective, according to AGES data. If fully immunized individuals do become infected, the disease is usually mild.The high effectiveness of Corona vaccination is shown in the vaccination breakthrough report updated Wednesday by the Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES). According to data collected since February, the risk of symptomatic infection is reduced by at least 88 percent despite full immunization compared to those not fully vaccinated and unvaccinated. This is then mild and rarely fatal in almost all cases. Very low proportion…

Read More

Due to the increasing number of coronavirus infections, it is expected that more children with a severe course will have to be treated in hospital in Vienna.Currently, 7,498 people in Vienna have contracted Covid-19, of which nine percent fall into the zero to nine age group, and 23 percent are between ten and 19 years old (as of Tuesday). Due to the rising numbers, it is expected that more children with a severe course will need hospital care. Florian Götzinger, pediatrician and pediatric infectiologist at the Ottakring Clinic (formerly Wilhelminenspital),…

Read More

Apple unveiled the latest generation of its iPhones on Tuesday night. Here is an overview of the most important features of the Apple iPhone 13: Faster chipUnsurprisingly, Apple also gives the latest generation a new chipset. The Apple A15 is said to have received a significant performance boost compared to the predecessor. The performance boost is supposed to be particularly noticeable in artificial intelligence tasks. Apple once again compares itself with the competition and states that the new chip is “50 percent faster than the competition” – whatever that means…

Read More

Two pharmacies in Vienna are now offering instant tests for Corona antibodies. Within 15 minutes, the result should be known at Klimt Apotheke in Vienna-Meidling and Apotheke 21 in Vienna-Floridsdorf.Virologist Von Laer calls for nationwide antibody studyPeople who have recovered, but also those who have been vaccinated, would like to know how resistant their bodies are after they have been through a Corona disease or administered a vaccination. Various pharmacies in Austria now offer rapid tests for this purpose. These include Klimt Apohteke and Apotheke 21-B in Vienna. This is…

Read More

Based on previous studies on the COVID-19 pandemic, it is known that a special form of white immune cells, the natural killer cells (NK cells), make an important contribution to the early antiviral immune response against SARS-CoV-2. However, researchers at the University of Bonn and the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) were able to investigate how and why affected individuals no longer breathe. The researchers examined blood samples from 205 subjects at regular intervals, in some cases from the first to the sixth week after infection. This allowed them…

Read More

New findings could be generated nationwide with an antibody study without much effort: testing 5,000 people at representative locations would already be enough, said Innsbruck virologist Dorothee Von Laer in an interview in the Sunday edition of the Tiroler Tageszeitung. “Studies on this are currently underway, and it will be possible to set a clear threshold, as with hepatitis B, for example, above which one is considered protected,” she explained. Previous studies have found “that from the World Health Organization (WHO) standardized antibody level of 100 BAU/ml (Binding Antibody Units),…

Read More

As of Friday, Covid-19 is no longer classified as a disease “threatening the whole of society” in Denmark. This is accompanied by a virtually complete opening of daily life. The high vaccination rate was the deciding factor. Sweden will soon follow suit. On to the nightlife! With the opening of social life, Copenhagen is once again crowded outside a downtown nightclub. Photo taken on September 3.On to the nightlife! With the opening of social life, Copenhagen is once again crowded outside a downtown nightclub. Photo taken on September 3. “We…

Read More