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.

Flu infections are climbing across the United States at a time when holiday travel is at its peak, and New York is among the states facing the brunt of the surge. For the week ending December 20, New York recorded 71,123 positive flu cases, the highest weekly total the state has ever reported, according to the New York State Department of Health. This marked a 38 percent jump compared with the previous week.

New York is one of 14 states that logged high or very high levels of outpatient visits for influenza-like illness during the week ending December 13, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows. High flu-like activity was also reported in Washington, DC, New York City, and Puerto Rico.

By December 16, flu cases were rising or expected to rise in 47 states, with Hawaii the only state showing a decline, according to CDC projections. Overall, the agency notes that the current level of seasonal flu activity mirrors patterns seen in several earlier years. What sets this season apart, however, is the emergence of a new flu strain.

Experts say it is too early to determine whether the new strain is causing a higher number of infections or more serious disease. “What we do know is that cases are clearly going up, and influenza activity is increasing across much of the country,” said Andrew Pekosz, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center of Excellence in Influenza Research and Response, during a health briefing on December 16. He added that this upward trend is expected to continue into the new year.

Influenza A Symptoms 2025: What Is The New Flu Strain Spreading In The US?

The strain drawing attention this season is subclade K, a variant of the influenza A(H3N2) virus that is now circulating widely in the United States. It has played a role in the sharp rise in flu cases nationwide, with New York reporting its highest-ever weekly count of confirmed infections. Similar increases have been seen in many other parts of the country.

Subclade K has previously driven outbreaks in Japan, the United Kingdom, and Canada, prompting questions about whether the current flu vaccine is well matched to the strain. According to USA Today, while the match may not be exact, experts believe the vaccine still reduces the risk of serious complications.

Influenza A Symptoms 2025: Fewer Americans Getting Flu Shots

Another factor that may be fueling the rise in flu cases is a drop in vaccination rates. During the 2025–2026 flu season so far, more than 47.6 million flu shots have been administered at retail pharmacies and doctors’ offices. That figure is roughly 3 million lower than at the same point last season, CDC data shows.

The recent government shutdown, which lasted from October 1 to November 12, may also have disrupted flu surveillance and vaccination efforts. This, in turn, could have influenced vaccination uptake, said Jennifer Nuzzo, professor of epidemiology and director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health. Her comments were included in a flu report published on December 19 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Flu activity is increasing all thanks to the holiday season. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data shows that due to a surge in holiday travel and gathering, the flu cases have gone up. The CDC estimates that there have been at least 4.6 million illnesses, 49,000 hospitalizations and 1,900 deaths from flu this season so far.

Public health experts have also revealed that many of this season's cases are linked with the new flu strain, called the subclade K. This is a variant of the H3N2 virus, which is a subtype of influenza A.

According to the CDC, 89% of the 163 H3N2 virus samples collected and genetically analyzed since September 28 belonged to subclade K.

So far this season, three pediatric flu deaths have been reported, based on an ABC News tally. Last season, 288 children died from the flu in the U.S., matching the toll seen during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. A CDC study published earlier this year found that about 90% of those children were unvaccinated.

Read: New Aggressive Flu Strain Is Now A Health Threat In US

Will The Old Flu Vaccine Protect You Against The New Subclade K?

The real reason why concerns are prompted about the effectiveness of the seasonal vaccine is because the virus underwent more mutation than scientists expected over summers. This mutant is called the 'subclade K' or 'super flu'. While it is true that most cases this season are of the 'super flu' strain, experts say that the flu jab is still offering a strong protection.

"The vaccine remains the most effective means to prevent disease. We still want to encourage people to get the vaccine," said Professor Antonia Ho, Professor and Honorary Consultant in Infectious Diseases at the University of Glasgow. Experts have stressed enough on the immunity that one can receive from the vaccine that that these flu jab remain the best defense against the flu, even though the current strain circulated may have drifted away from the strain included in this year's jab.

Data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) also show that vaccines is performing as expect, despite the emergence of subclade K.

Every year, experts from the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other global health agencies closely track flu trends around the world. They study which strains are spreading and use that data to predict which ones are most likely to dominate the upcoming flu season. The annual flu vaccine is then designed to protect against three or four of those strains.

It’s also worth understanding that more than one influenza A strain usually circulates at the same time. So even if the vaccine is not an exact match for a newer H3N2 strain, it still protects against other common flu viruses, which matters, notes Stony Brook Medicine.

When a new variant emerges, the flu shot can still offer what doctors call cross-protection. In simple terms, the antibodies your body makes after vaccination can recognize similar flu viruses and respond to them. You might still get sick, but the vaccine greatly lowers the chances of severe illness, hospitalization, or worse.

The vaccine offers protection against both types of influenza, including A and B.

Claire Brosseau, 48, an actress, who lives in Toronto was hopeful when a new change to Canadian law allowed people who were living with incurable medical condition, but not near death to ask a doctor to end their lives. This happened in 2021. This gave her relief. But now, almost five years later, she is still alive, mostly surrounded with headlines and debates on who in Canada has the right to avail medically assisted death.

She suffers from a debilitating mental illness, which has no treatment. The sadness has succumbed her that sometimes she has tried to eat peanuts to trigger her severe allergy, in a hope that she would die. Other times she has overdosed on drugs or cut her wrists. A New York Times report notes that her sadness is so severe that sometimes she sobs until her bones ache.

What Happened To Claire Brosseau?

When she was just a 14-years-old honors student in Montreal, who enjoyed her life as wildly as any student of her own age would, she sometimes would turn rather cruel. Her parents took her to a psychotherapist who diagnosed her with manic depression. It came with diagnoses like eating disorder, anxiety disorder, personality disorder, substance abuse disorder, chronic suicidal ideation, and many more mental health issues.

It is not that she has not tried to get better. She has tried at least 25 medications, two dozen different talk, art behavioral therapies, even electroconvulsive therapy and guided psychedelics. She did feel better for sometime, only to return to the feeling of monsters stalking her when she is awake and in her dreams.

Read: Can Right To Die Be Practiced By Non-Terminally Ill Patients?

A shift in Canadian law briefly offered her another option. In 2019, three years after assisted death was legalized for people whose natural death was reasonably foreseeable, two people with chronic conditions challenged the law. They argued that excluding those suffering unbearably from incurable illnesses, simply because they were not dying, violated their right to equality. The courts agreed, and in 2021 the law was expanded to include people who were not at the end of life.

One group, however, remained excluded: people whose sole underlying condition was mental illness. The government said it needed time to draft special safeguards. Of the nine countries that allow assisted death for people not nearing death, only Canada made this distinction. The exclusion was set to end on March 17, 2023, and Ms. Brosseau planned to apply that day. But the deadline was delayed again, and then postponed once more the following year.

Childhood filled With Trauma

In hindsight, her family believes her illness began in early childhood. As a young girl, she cycled through rage and despair, sometimes sitting on train tracks, convinced everyone would be better off without her. At eight, she wrote in her diary that she wanted to die.

At home, her behavior created constant tension. Her older sister, Melissa Morris, recalls being perpetually anxious around her. At just 12, Ms. Morris used money from her first job to install a lock on her bedroom door to shield herself from the chaos.

Also Read: Australia Social Media Ban Explained: Why Government Plans to Restrict Accounts of Under-16s

At school, Ms. Brosseau appeared to flourish. She was popular, academically strong, and deeply involved in theater, even as she skipped classes and experimented with drugs. She was recruited into elite programs, studied theater in New York, and began acting professionally. But she struggled with eating disorders, periods of deep depression, and substance use.

In her early twenties, she returned to Montreal and experienced a severe manic depressive episode that led to months of hospitalization. She recovered enough to restart her career, performing comedy in two languages, acting in commercials, writing, and earning well. Manic episodes, however, continued, sometimes requiring friends to send her home for treatment. At 34, she underwent electroconvulsive therapy and returned to work soon after.

By 2021, she believed she was in remission. Then, during a downturn, her mother called police out of fear she might harm herself. Ms. Brosseau was involuntarily hospitalized, restrained twice despite no recorded threats, and left deeply traumatized. Complaints against the hospital were dismissed. For her, that decision marked the end of trust in the mental health system and any remaining desire to try to get better.