In recent months, the U.S. has experienced record-breaking highs of new coronavirus cases and deaths in nearly every state across the country, and new overall cases and deaths have been higher in January 2021 than at any other point in the pandemic. The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) did an analysis to determine when new LTCF cases and deaths were highest …
Persistent Symptoms – COVID-19 Infection
Three-quarters of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 were still experiencing at least one symptom of the infection 6 months after being discharged, according to a follow-up study involving 1,733 patients. Fatigue or muscle weakness, reported by 63% of patients, was the most common symptom, followed by sleep difficulties, hair loss, and sense of smell disorder. Altogether, 76% of those examined …
Influenza Cases Down!
Flu activity is unusually low at this time but may increase in the coming month per the CDC’s FluView. Throughout the fall, public health officials urged Americans to get a flu vaccine to avoid a “twindemic” that could occur if both the flu and COVID-19 overwhelmed hospitals. Pharmacies and health care organizations ordered more flu vaccines this year to prepare …
Hope for Alzheimer’s
Eli Lilly announced that an investigational agent targeting beta-amyloid, Donanemab, appeared to slow decline in patients with early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. The drug showed significant slowing versus placebo on a composite measure of cognition and daily function in the phase II TRAILBLAZER-ALZ study. The medication met the primary endpoint of change from baseline to 76 weeks in the Integrated …
Olfactory Dysfunction (Sense of Smell) and COVID-19
As of November 11, 2020, there have been 50,810,753 confirmed cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) worldwide, with 1,263,844 confirmed deaths. The clinical picture of the infection may vary regarding the disease severity and usually includes general, otolaryngological, and neurological symptoms. Olfactory dysfunction (OD, sense of smell) is one of the most prevalent symptoms. The prevalence of OD may vary …
Illness Beyond Acute Infection – SARS-CoV-2
Although much of the response to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has focused on acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) illness, accumulating evidence demonstrates morbidity beyond acute SARS-CoV-2 infection. At least 2 other periods of illness appear to be temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection: a rare, post-acute, hyper-inflammatory illness and late inflammatory and virological sequelae. These 3 …
COVID-19 – Guillain-Barre Syndrome
Reports of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) have emerged during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. An epidemiological and cohort study sought to investigate any causative association between COVID-19 infection and GBS. Early reports identified neurological symptoms of COVID-19 infection as fever, headache anosmia, and dysgeusia. Subsequently, COVID-19 infection has been associated with stroke, meningoencephalitis, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, and Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS). …
Bamlanivimab Prevented COVID-19 in BLAZE-2 Trial
Bamlanivimab (LY-CoV555) significantly reduced the risk of contracting symptomatic COVID-19 among residents and staff in long-term care facilities, Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) announced. The 965 participants who tested negative for the SARS-CoV-2 virus at baseline (299 residents and 666 staff) were included in the analysis of primary and key secondary endpoints for assessing prevention, while the 132 participants …
Skin Failure vs Pressure Injury
With medical advancements in past decades, patients frequently survive acute and/or chronic conditions that once relegated them to immediate death. Consequently, medical conditions, such as integument failure, once without time to manifest, are now commonly observed. In 2014, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) set a goal to reduce the number of hospital-acquired conditions (including pressure injuries) by …
FDA Letter of Authorization- Reissuance of Convalescent Plasma
On February 2, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reissued an Emergency Use Authorization for the emergency use of COVID-19 convalescent plasma for the treatment of hospitalized patients with Covid-19. This reissues the letter of authorization released on November 20, 2020, and also contained the following updates: Includes updates based on data from additional clinical trials. Clarifies that the …