Oct 20th, 2021 - The Biden administration is moving full-steam ahead to prepare the nation to give the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnaty) to children ages 5 to 11, in anticipation of an FDA decision in the coming weeks, the White House COVID-19 Response Team announced. "We have secured vaccine supply to vaccinate every child ages 5 through 11, and as soon as the vaccine is authorized by the FDA, we wi...

Oct 15th, 2021 - The CDC's latest survey on routine childhood vaccination continued to show wide disparities for the influenza vaccine by insurance status, race, and geography, with only slight changes in overall vaccination rates from past years. By age 24 months, over 90% of babies born in 2017 to 2018 received their recommended doses of four vaccines -- poliovirus; hepatitis B; measles, mumps, and rubella (M...

Oct 15th, 2021 - (Reuters Health) - The majority of women with congenital heart defects can safely become pregnant and give birth to healthy babies, a new study in Germany suggests. In an analysis of administrative data on 7,512 pregnancies in 4,015 women with congenital heart disease (CHD), researchers found that rates of maternal and neonatal complications were higher than in a matched control group, but abso...

Oct 15th, 2021 - Children in foster care are far more likely to be prescribed psychotropic medication, compared with children who are not in foster care, an analysis of Medicaid claims data shows. Different rates of mental health disorders in these groups do not fully explain the "alarming trend," which persists across psychotropic medication classes, said study author Rachael J. Keefe, MD, MPH. Misdiagnosis, o...

Oct 15th, 2021 - After 18 years at his first and only employer, the Cleveland Clinic, in Ohio, Mikkael Sekeres, MD, decided it was time to move on. Dr Mikkael Sekeres The hematologist-oncologist said that his opportunities for career advancement had plateaued and, with the burden of additional clinic hours in recent years, his work as a researcher and mentor was pinched. So Sekeres set out on a mission to find ...

Oct 15th, 2021 - Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center. Two biomarkers could potentially indicate which children with SARS-CoV-2 infection will develop severe disease, according to research presented at the American Academy of Pediatrics 2021 National Conference. "Most children with COVID-19 present with common symptoms, such as fever, vomiting, and ...

Oct 15th, 2021 - Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center. American children gained a lot of weight in the last year, setting a dangerous trajectory towards metabolic disease that requires urgent policy change, according to a new report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "Our nation's safety net is fragile, outdated, and out of reach for millions ...

Oct 14th, 2021 - Henrietta Lacks, the Black woman whose cells were infamously taken without her knowledge for scientific research, was honored this week by the World Heath Organization as her family continues the fight to protect her legacy. Henrietta Lacks Lacks's cells, commonly known as "HeLa," are the only known human cells that continue to stay alive and reproduce outside of the human body. When a person d...

Oct 14th, 2021 - Children and young adults with epilepsy had fewer seizures after combination treatment with the drug Epidiolex, which contains the cannabidiol (CBD), and various doses of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the component of cannabis that makes people high in larger quantities, researchers reported. "THC can contribute to seizure control and mitigation some of the side effects of CBD," said study coauth...

Oct 14th, 2021 - Coronavirus infections were rising exponentially among 5 to 17-year-olds in September, coinciding with the start of the autumn school term in England, new research suggests. The findings from the REACT-1 study also support the need for vaccine boosters, with a higher prevalence of double jabbed people testing positive within 3 to 6 months of their vaccination. Researchers say it is important th...

Oct 14th, 2021 - A 33-year-old mother of three from central Texas is escorted down the hall by clinic administrator Kathaleen Pittman prior to getting an abortion. SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — The 33-year-old Texas woman drove alone four hours through the night to get to the Louisiana abortion clinic for a consultation. She initially planned to sleep in her car, but an advocacy group helped arrange a hotel room. Sing...

Oct 14th, 2021 - Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center. A couple in Indiana took their kids to get flu shots last week but say the pharmacy mistakenly gave them adult doses of the COVID-19 vaccine instead, according to WFIE, an NBC affiliate in Evansville. Alexandra and Joshua Price said they went to a Walgreens on Oct. 4 so the family could get flu ...

Oct 13th, 2021 - BENGALURU (Reuters) - India on Tuesday recommended emergency use of Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 shot in the 2 to 18 age-group, as the world's second-most populous nation expands its vaccination drive to include children. The country has so far fully vaccinated around 29% of about 944 million eligible adults, as per government data, which includes administration of more than 110 million doses of B...

Oct 13th, 2021 - Transgender and nonbinary young people experienced less depression and fewer suicidal thoughts after a year of gender-affirming care with hormones or puberty blockers, according to new research. "Given the high rates of adverse mental health comorbidities, these data provide critical evidence that expansion of gender-affirming care can save lives," said David J. Inwards-Breland, MD, MPH, chief ...

Oct 13th, 2021 - Baby-wearing — carrying a child against your body in a sling, soft carrier, or other device — is associated with benefits like reduced crying and increased breastfeeding, studies have shown. But this practice also entails risks. Babies can fall out of carriers, or be injured when an adult carrying them falls, for example. In the past decade, thousands of children were seen at EDs in the United ...

Oct 13th, 2021 - Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center. Schools without mask requirements were three-and-a-half times more likely to have COVID-19 outbreaks than those enforcing mask mandates, according to new CDC research. The study, which focused on 1,000 schools in Arizona's Maricopa and Pima counties, found that there were 113 COVID-19 outbreaks ...

Oct 13th, 2021 - Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center. Armed with pediatric data from the COVID-19 pandemic, a team of researchers is suggesting that most cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome may not be connected to infectious disease, as is sometimes assumed. While pediatric cases of various types of infections fell by 45%-95% during the early months o...

Oct 12th, 2021 - "May contain" statements and related warnings of possible allergens in food products often create confusion for consumers. In a recent study of adult consumers in the Netherlands, many consumers wrongly assumed that different wordings conveyed varying levels of allergen risk. The study, which was published in the October issue of Clinical and Experimental Allergy, raises questions about the uti...

Oct 12th, 2021 - A new position statement from the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and other organizations warns soaring prices for neurologic and other prescription medications is leading to rationing of care and diverting clinicians' time from the clinic to insurance bureaucracy. This situation is also taking a toll on neurologists' mental health, who already have the second-highest burnout rate across me...

Oct 12th, 2021 - Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center. President Joe Biden's announcement in September that large companies will soon be required to mandate COVID-19 vaccines or weekly testing for employees set off a domino effect of legal challenges in various states. Court cases began to crop up even before that when mask mandates came into play. ...