Counterfeit N95 face masks are on the rise and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is no guarantee they provide the same protection as masks approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the agency in the United States that regulates filtering facepiece respirators. In an article published in Medscape, a clear sign …
Urinary incontinence is referred to as a “late loss ADL” however many of our female residents are wearing incontinent briefs and/or pads every day, and few receive evidence-based care for their incontinence. The consequences of untreated urinary incontinence are lower quality of life with higher morbidity and mortality. A recent systematic review commissioned by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) …
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized revised fact sheets for health care providers to include additional information on susceptibility of SARS-CoV-2 variants to each of the monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapies that are available through an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the treatment of COVID-19. Health care providers should review the fact sheets for details regarding specific variants and potential …
When a public health emergency was declared last March, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a variety of waivers allowing home health providers to more easily provide telehealth services during the crisis. Now the Office of Inspector General (OIG) has announced an audit, dubbed the “HHA Telehealth Project,” that will examine home health providers’ usage of telehealth …
A year into the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic there remains an urgent need to limit severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spread and to curb the pandemic in the U.S. through non-pharmaceutical interventions. Clear evidence supports the effectiveness of simple strategies in identifying risks and mitigating the spread of infection, with much of this evidence coming from observational …
Autoimmune diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS), result from a breath of immunological self-tolerance and tissue damage by autoreactive T lymphocytes. Current treatments can cause systemic immune suppression and side effects such as an increased risk of infections. Krienke et al. designed a messenger RNA vaccine strategy that lacks adjuvant activity and delivers MS autoantigens into lymphoid cells. This approach …
A year into the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic there remains an urgent need to limit severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spread and to curb the pandemic in the U.S. through non-pharmaceutical interventions. Clear evidence supports the effectiveness of simple strategies in identifying risks and mitigating the spread of infection, with much of this evidence coming from observational …
Immunologists and infectious disease experts say it is not unexpected that second-dose reactions to the Pfizer and/or Moderna vaccine are more intense than the first. “The first time the immune system comes into contact with something, it is getting primed” said Purvi Parikh, MD, an immunologist at NYI Langone Health in New York City. “That goes for everything, from vaccines …
On January 9, 2021, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) announced the identification of the SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern (VOC) B.1.1.7, also referred to as 20I/501Y.V1 and VOC 2020/01, in specimens from five persons; on January 25, MDH announced the identification of this variant in specimens from three additional persons. The people identified with variant B.1.1.7 in Minnesota had exposure …
Skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) have been a focal point for COVID-19 outbreaks, with rapid transmission noted soon after the first cases are recognized. Early recognition of persons with COVID-19 in SNFs will remain critical to halting infection transmission and ensuring appropriate clinical care even after residents and staff are vaccinated. In a study published in JAMDA, confirmed COVID-19 cases at …
