Jan 31st, 2023 - This is the 5th installment of our 6-part series on mental health issues exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this installment, we will discuss identifying and treating ADHD disorders in children and adults in primary care. A 35-year-old woman presents for a 3-month follow-up visit with her primary care provider. The patient was diagnosed with COVID-19 and was hospitalized 3 months earlier ...

Jan 25th, 2023 - HealthDay News — For immunocompromised adults, adherence to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mRNA monovalent COVID-19 booster dose recommendations is low, according to a study published online in JAMA Network Open. Sara Y. Tartof, PhD, MPH, from Kaiser Permanente Southern California in Pasadena, and colleagues examined mRNA COVID-19 vaccine uptake and factors associated with uptake...

Jan 18th, 2023 - The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are investigating a potential safety concern with the Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent COVID-19 vaccine in individuals 65 years of age and older. The preliminary safety signal was identified by the CDC’s Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD), a near real-time surveillance system. Specifically, the signal raised a qu...

Jan 10th, 2023 - Recent updates on COVID-19 include a successful rehabilitation pacing program for people with postexertional symptom exacerbation (PESE) as the result of physical, cognitive, or emotional exertion in patients with long COVID, a possible blood marker of postvaccine myocarditis, and the launch of the first at-home test-to-treat program. Pacing Protocol Reduces Long COVID Symptoms Patients with lo...

Jan 6th, 2023 - In 2000, rates of syphilis infection had declined to the point of near elimination in the United States, with an all-time low of 5979 diagnoses reported that year.1 In the past 2 decades, however, rates have not only returned to previous levels but have drastically surpassed those rates, reaching a record high of 171,074 diagnoses in 2021. This figure represents an increase of approximately 70%...

Jan 6th, 2023 - HealthDay News — Before the omicron wave, increasing vaccination for staff at US nursing homes was associated with fewer COVID-19 cases and deaths among residents and fewer cases among staff, according to a study published online in JAMA Network Open. Soham Sinha and R. Tamara Konetzka, PhD, from the University of Chicago, examined the extent to which staff vaccination was associated with preve...

Jan 3rd, 2023 - Organ pathology associated with COVID-19 is well-documented, beyond its hallmark pulmonary manifestations of respiratory distress and pneumonia. The liver, kidney, and heart can be affected,1 owing not only to direct viral effects but also to indirect mechanisms, such as cytokine hyperactivation, and its collateral effects distal to the primary infection, hypoxia, and inter-organ interaction. I...

Jan 3rd, 2023 - Hypertension was associated with the risk for severe COVID-19 and use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi) or angiotensin-II receptor blockers (ARB) did not mitigate the associated risk. These are the findings of a study published in PLOS One. An important and established risk factor for more severe COVID-19 is hypertension. However, it remains unclear whether there is a relations...

Dec 22nd, 2022 - The Food and Drug Adminsitration (FDA) has approved Actemra (tocilizumab) for intravenous (IV) use to treat COVID-19 in hospitalized adults who are receiving systemic corticosteroids and require supplemental oxygen, noninvasive or invasive mechanical ventilation, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). The approval was supported by data from 4 randomized, controlled studies that evaluate...

Dec 21st, 2022 - HealthDay News — There is no evidence that large numbers of nurses left health care or hospital practice during the first 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study published online in Nursing Outlook. Linda H. Aiken, PhD, RN, from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing in Philadelphia, and colleagues conducted a repeated cross-sectional study involving 151,335 registere...

Dec 20th, 2022 - COVID-19 has claimed the lives of over a million Americans — and even that number likely underestimates the pandemic’s true toll. As a primary care physician in Ohio who also served on the White House Office of Public Engagement’s Health Equity Leaders Roundtable Series, I’ve seen firsthand the hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic. And what I’ve seen is troubling. Despite strides by both the Bide...

Dec 14th, 2022 - BEIJING (Reuters) -China's National Health Commission (NHC) will as of Wednesday stop reporting new asymptomatic COVID-19 infections, as many people without symptoms no longer participate in testing, making it hard to accurately tally the total count, it said. The health authority reported 2,291 new symptomatic COVID-19 infections on Dec. 13. China recorded 7,679 new cases a day earlier – 2,315...

Dec 14th, 2022 - TOKYO (Reuters) - Shionogi & Co Ltd said on Tuesday the Japanese government agreed to purchase an additional 1 million doses of its oral treatment for COVID-19. Shionogi previously agreed to sell a million doses of the drug, a protease inhibitor known as ensitrelvir and commercially as Xocova, to the government pending approval. The added supply agreement comes at a time when Japan is dealing w...

Dec 14th, 2022 - (Reuters) - Drugmaker Pfizer Inc said on Tuesday it is working to improve supply of its COVID-19 antiviral drug Paxlovid in China in order to ensure adequate access to the drug as cases rise in the country. "Pfizer is actively collaborating with all stakeholders to secure an adequate supply of Paxlovid in China and remains committed to fulfilling the COVID-19 treatment needs of patients in Chin...

Dec 14th, 2022 - BEIJING (Reuters) - China's National Health Commission (NHC) will roll out the second COVID-19 vaccine booster shots for high-risk groups and elderly people over 60 years old, it said in a statement on Wednesday. The time gap between the first and second booster shots will be six months, NHC said, adding people who can take the second booster shot will include those with severe existing disease...

Dec 13th, 2022 - BEIJING (Reuters) - China has slashed the number of locations deemed at high risk of wider COVID outbreaks, re-opening locked down areas including one hosting a key factory of an Apple supplier. The number of high-risk areas tumbled to around 4,500 on Monday, official data showed, down 85% from more than 30,000 on Dec. 7 before the latest policy shift was announced. A district in the city of Zh...

Dec 13th, 2022 - SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Investors snapped up shares of Chinese drugmakers, mask producers, antigen test companies and funeral service providers on Monday, amid fears of soaring mass infections following China's pivot away from strict zero-COVID policies last week. Medical supplies producers are being bombarded with questions from investors about their capacity, after authorities on Wednesday annou...

Dec 13th, 2022 - HONG KONG (Reuters) - Macau's government will allow people infected with COVID-19 to isolate at home from Wednesday, a key step towards relaxing strict virus control measures in the world's gambling hub for the first time in almost three years. Health officials said that infected patients would be able to stay at home and self-monitor for five days. This would help to reduce pressure on medical...

Dec 13th, 2022 - LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria on Monday removed COVID-19 testing requirements for international travelers and it was no longer mandatory to wear masks on flights and inside airport buildings, the airlines regulator said. In a notice to airlines, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority said travelers to and from Nigeria did not need to undergo COVID-19 irrespective of their vaccination status. The aut...

Dec 13th, 2022 - BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) - People queued outside fever clinics at Chinese hospitals for COVID-19 checks on Monday, a new sign of the rapid spread of symptoms after authorities began dismantling an apparatus they used to surveil residents and curtail movement. Three years into the pandemic, China is now acting to align with a world that has largely reopened to live with COVID, after unprecede...