Low-dose CT chest scans could help detect pneumonia in at-risk patients while exposing them to only small amounts of radiation, a new study has found. The research, published in Radiology: Cardiothoracic Imaging, shows that ultra-low-dose scans can effectively detect pneumonia in patients with compromised immune systems, enabling doctors to treat the infection before it becomes life-threatening. According to the researchers, these scans expose patients to just 2% of the radiation dose used in a standard CT scan.

"This study paves the way for safer, AI-driven imaging that reduces radiation exposure while preserving diagnostic accuracy,” lead researcher Dr Maximiliano Klug, a radiologist with the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel, said in a news release. He added that CT scans are the gold standard for detecting pneumonia but there are concerns regarding the risk posed by repeated exposure to radiation. There is a solution- ultra-low-dose CT scan. However, the problem is that these scans can be grainy and hard to read, researchers said.

Study Gives Solution To This

To overcome that, Klug's team developed an AI program that could help "de-noise" low-dose scans, making them sharper and easier to read. Between September 2020 and December 2022, 54 patients with compromised immune systems who had fevers underwent a pair of chest CT scans -- a normal dose scan and an ultra-low-dose scan. The AI program cleaned up the low-dose scan, and then both sets of images were given to a pair of radiologists for assessment. Radiologists had 100% accuracy in detecting pneumonia and other lung problems with the AI-cleaned low-dose scans, but 91% to 98% accuracy in examining the scans that hadn’t been improved through AI, results show.

"This pilot study identified infection with a fraction of the radiation dose," Klug said. "This approach could drive larger studies and ultimately reshape clinical guidelines, making denoised ultra-low dose CT the new standard for young immunocompromised patients.

How Can You Detect Pneumonia?

Pneumonia is a lung infection that causes the air sacs in the lungs to fill with fluid or pus and can be caused by bacteria, viruses, or fungi. The symptoms can range from milk to severe, which includes:

Coughing with or without cough

Fever

Chills

Trouble breathing

Chest pain, especially when breathing deeply or coughing

Sweating or chills

Rapid heart rate

Loss of appetite

Bluish skin, lips, and nails

Confusion.

How to detect Pneumonia in coughing newborns and toddlers?

Pneumonia can severely affect newborns and young children as their lungs are comparatively more sensitive. As per Dr Goyal, young children can cough for various reasons including seasonal infections and tonsillitis, which is very common in this age group. But if they look visibly irritable and have poor sleep patterns, then parents must reach out to an expert. "I am not saying that parents must visit a hospital but any local paediatrician would be able to detect pneumonia in your kid.

US President Donald Trump has announced drug pricing deals with nine more drug makers, including international pharmaceutical companies and smaller biotech firms, as part of his push to make healthcare more affordable.

Currently, US consumers pay nearly three times more for prescription medicines than people in other developed nations. Trump has been pressuring drug makers to bring the prices closer to those paid in other countries.

The latest deals, the White House said in a statement, bring the administration’s total to 26 drug makers. According to Trump, these represent 90% of the domestic pharmaceutical market, while the remaining 10% is “also coming in” and “have no choice.”

Which Companies Signed the Deals?

The latest agreements build on the administration’s broader “most favored nation” (MFN) drug pricing policy.

The White House said the nine companies are:

• Alcon
• Astellas Pharma
• BeOne Medicines
• BridgeBio
• CSL
• Kyowa Kirin
• Sun Pharma
• Teva Pharmaceuticals
• UCB

What Do the Deals Mean?

The White House said the agreements will lower prices on medicines used to treat costly chronic and rare diseases, including hemophilia, Parkinson’s disease, macular degeneration, glaucoma, liver disease, skin conditions and various cancers.

The deals give every state Medicaid program access to MFN prices on products from the nine companies, generating billions of dollars in savings.

The agreements also guarantee MFN pricing for all new innovative medicines the companies bring to market, which the administration says will prevent foreign price controls from benefiting from US pharmaceutical innovation.

$19.6 Billion US Manufacturing Investment

The nine companies have committed to investing at least $19.6 billion collectively in US manufacturing in the near term, according to the White House.

Astellas, Sun Pharma, Teva and UCB also agreed to donate active pharmaceutical ingredients to the federal government’s strategic reserve, known as SAPIR, aimed at reducing reliance on foreign supplies and preparing for emergencies.

Previous Drug Pricing Deals

Over the past year, the administration reached deals with 17 other drug makers, including Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk.

Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly reportedly agreed to price cuts in exchange for making their medicines more widely available through Medicare.

Trump also signed an executive order in May 2025 to revive the MFN policy, calling for prices to be increased outside the US and to “end global freeloading.”

The biggest savings from earlier drug pricing deals have come from weight-loss medicines.

Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly reportedly agreed to price cuts in exchange for making their medicines more widely available through Medicare.

Will Americans Pay Less?

It remains unclear how many medicines are covered by the new deals or how large the discounts will be, making the potential savings for patients and the government difficult to determine.

The White House did not release details of the agreements, while some companies described certain terms as private. The administration and several companies said the deals will also bring future savings on innovative medicines and expand US manufacturing.

Beyond weight-loss drugs, consumer watchdog Public Citizen has questioned how much price relief Americans are actually receiving from the administration’s agreements, Reuters reported.

Medicaid already receives steep discounts from drug makers under existing law, while most Medicaid beneficiaries pay little out of pocket for prescriptions.

A new Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) study based on 20 tertiary-care hospitals has found that patients with drug-resistant bacterial infections face higher mortality, longer hospital stays and substantially higher costs of treatment than those infected with drug-sensitive strains. The study analysed nearly 1.6 lakh hospitalised patients between April 2022 and April 2025.

The findings, published in The Lancet Regional Health – Southeast Asia, focused on four major Gram-negative bacteria: E. coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Of 26,213 patients with confirmed infections caused by these bacteria, 61.1% had carbapenem-resistant infections.

ICMR Says India Is Facing A 'Superbug' Crisis

The new study found that mortality was consistently higher among patients with carbapenem-resistant infections. For Klebsiella pneumoniae, mortality was 31.2% among patients with resistant infections versus 23.5% among those with susceptible infections.

For E. coli, the figures were 24.4% versus 17.3%. For Acinetobacter baumannii, mortality was 37.9% versus 32.8%, while for Pseudomonas aeruginosa, it was 28.9% versus 20.2%.

The risk was particularly severe with infections that were resistant to carbapenem, where mortality reached 46.4% to 50.8%.

Also read: H1N1 In Delhi: 166 Fresh Cases In 24 Hours, Tally Rises To 2,612

Drug Resistance Also Comes With A Bigger Treatment Cost

The study also found that antibiotic treatment costs were 1.1 to 2 times higher for drug-resistant infections. Treatment of resistant E. coli, for example, averaged $420 per patient, compared with $211 for susceptible infections.

The corresponding costs were $587 versus $505 for K. pneumoniae, $655 versus $436 for A. baumannii, and $702 versus $510 for P. aeruginosa.

Patients also spent longer in hospital. Those with resistant E. coli infections stayed an average of 23.1 days, compared with 17.8 days for susceptible infections.

Also read: Exclusive With Leading Pulmonologist: When Should You Worry About H1N1 Symptoms?

“AMR Is No Longer A Distant Threat”: ICMR

Dr Kamini Walia, senior scientist at ICMR and an author of the study, said, “Antimicrobial resistance is no longer a distant threat—it is already costing Indian lives.”

She added. “Our study shows that carbapenem-resistant infections carry substantially higher mortality and treatment costs.”

But Walia stressed that simply developing or prescribing stronger antibiotics is not enough. The answer, she said, is “better infection prevention, timely diagnostics and responsible antibiotic use.”

That is important because every time antibiotics are used, susceptible bacteria can be eliminated while resistant ones survive and multiply. Misuse or incomplete or inappropriate treatment can accelerate that process.

Also read: India Records 3,395 Active COVID-19 Cases, 26 Deaths, Kerala And Maharashtra Among Worst-Hit States

Avoid Delay In Treatment

According to The Times of India, Dr Rahul Pandit, a critical care specialist at H N Reliance Hospital said that Mumbai hospitals are also seeing more patients with carbapenem-resistant infections.

“It takes longer to treat a patient with a drug-resistant infection. Developing a culture, identifying the organism and determining its resistance pattern can take a few days, although molecular diagnostics can help us do this faster,” he said.

When the usual antibiotic no longer works, doctors may need to use combinations of drugs or newer, more expensive medicines.

ICMR Has Been Monitoring AMR For Nearly 13 Years

ICMR has been tracking antimicrobial resistance through its Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance and Research Network (AMRSN) since 2013. The agency says AMR can lead to prolonged illness, higher healthcare costs and increased mortality, while inappropriate antibiotic use remains one of the major challenges.

ICMR's current priorities include strengthening surveillance, improving infection prevention, expanding rapid diagnostics and developing alternative treatments such as bacteriophages and monoclonal antibodies.

The growing measles outbreak in Pennsylvania has taken a political turn after the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declined to include two deaths reported by the state in its latest national database.

Pennsylvania health officials had reported the deaths on August 25, describing them as “measles-associated.” But the CDC said it was reviewing additional information about the circumstances around the deaths before including them in the national tally.

The disagreement has since become a public clash between Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and new CDC director Dr. Erica Schwartz and US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. This has raised questions as it shunned the standard practice of CDC accepting state government's data to determine the report deaths from infectious diseases.

Why Did The CDC Leave Out The Two Deaths From National Tally?

The CDC's website currently says, “This week's measles outbreaks update will not include the two measles-associated deaths reported by the Pennsylvania Department of Health on August 25 while CDC reviews additional information regarding the circumstances and causes of death. At this time, available information does not establish whether measles caused or contributed to the deaths or whether the individuals died from other causes while infected with measles. CDC will update the national count as additional information becomes available."

The Department of Health and Human Services said, "The deaths have not been confirmed based on the information currently available to CDC.”

Pennsylvania, however, maintains that it followed the standard process. State Health Department spokesperson Neil Ruhland said, “Every reported measles case is thoroughly reviewed to ensure it meets the CDC's definition for a measles case. To date, DOH has provided all required epidemiological data to the CDC.”

The state has described the deaths as “measles-associated,” a term used when there is laboratory or epidemiological evidence of measles, even if the virus is not determined to be the immediate cause of death.

Also read: Measles In US: 3 More States Report Significant Uptick In Cases; How To Spot Initial Symptoms?

One Death Involved A Newborn

One of the cases involved a newborn who died shortly after birth. The baby had tested positive for measles after the mother had been infected. However, Lancaster County Coroner Stephen Diamantoni said the immediate cause of death was a ruptured spleen, which further complicated the debate.

The coroner has said he does not believe measles was the cause of death, although measles was listed on the baby's death certificate as a contributing condition. Details about the second death have not been publicly disclosed.

Also read: Measles: Infant Among Two Unvaccinated Deaths Reported In US

Motive Behind CDC’s Unusual Decision

Historically, the CDC has relied on state and local health departments to report measles cases, hospitalisations and associated deaths. According to The Washington Post, former CDC chief medical officer Dr. Debra Houry called the move a departure from that practice:

She said, “CDC has historically relied on the expertise of state and local health departments.”

The dispute comes as Pennsylvania is dealing with its largest measles outbreak in three decades. As of Monday, the state had reported 497 measles cases and 87 hospitalisations, with 100 new cases recorded in just one week.

Nationally, the CDC's latest update listed 2,887 confirmed measles cases across 47 states, plus 16 cases among international visitors.

Why Is Measles Dangerous?

Measles is one of the most contagious infectious diseases. An infected person can spread the virus to around nine out of 10 unvaccinated people who are exposed. Most people recover, but measles can cause serious complications including pneumonia, brain inflammation and death.

The virus is particularly dangerous for infants, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems. That is why public health experts are worried that the argument over two deaths could distract from the larger issue.

Paul Offit, a physician at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, told The Inquirer, “It’s August. This is only going to get worse. What can we do to prevent more children suffering and being hospitalized?”