Clinical

A new study published by JAMA Pediatrics suggests that pulse oximetry may be less reliable in Black patients with hypoxemia than in White patients, possibly resulting in undertreatment of hypoxemia in some patients. The authors based their findings on comparison of arterial blood oxygen saturation (SaO2) and pulse oximetry (SpO2) in 774 patients (74% classified as White and 26% classified as Black) between the 1 and 17 years of age at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. …

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has deemed Candida auris to be an emerging “urgent antimicrobial resistance (AR) threat” in the United States, owing to an alarming increase in cases—including cases that are resistant to echinocandins and other antifungal drugs. Echinocandin-resistant cases have tripled since 2021. A CDC announcement notes that C auris infection is most likely to occur in healthcare facilities and among patients with invasive medical devices. As such, urgent care providers …

As more time and experience accumulate since the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the inevitable claims over therapies purported to be useful come and go, the idea that ivermectin could be curative has persisted on social media, in the blogosphere, and among popular podcasters. New data published by the Journal of the American Medical Association provide further evidence that there is no advantage to employing even high-dose ivermectin for patients with COVID-19, however. Researchers …

As much of the country starts warming up to Spring temperatures and people head outside to enjoy nature, you can expect a return of patients concerned that they could have contracted an illness from tick bites. Not just a return, actually, but an increase as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that while incidence of tick-borne illness in general has risen 25% since 2011, the increase is especially acute in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, …

We talk about the shortage of healthcare providers in appropriately urgent, though somewhat vague, terms. The fact is that some specialties are having a harder time than others right now, though—one of them being obstetrics and gynecology.  According to a report published by Becker’s Hospital Review, 2023 applications for Ob/Gyn residencies are down from 2022. It goes on to note that numerous hospitals in the United States are closing or have already stopped offering obstetrics …

The end of February brings us one step closer to the close of flu season, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to get a break from mass numbers of patients presenting to emergency rooms and urgent care with signs of viral infection. This time it’s norovirus, however. According to an article published by Becker’s Hospital Review, there have been 25 outbreaks this year, compared with just 14 during the same period a year ago. In …

With healthcare and mainstream media devoting so much energy to raising awareness of long COVID, it could be easy to write off some of the telltale signs—cognitive difficulties, headaches, pain, dizziness, fatigue, and others—as exactly that and look no further into alternative diagnoses. That could be a costly mistake for a patient’s wellbeing, though, as a new article published by the European Journal of Neurology reveals that some patients with those characteristic symptoms could actually …

While the national rates of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths remain well below the levels we experienced at the height of the pandemic, data tracked by The New York Times indicate that the coming weeks could bring an uptick in new cases nationally. The latest report shows that several states are already seeing an upswing in confirmed cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. Cases in Idaho soared 106% over the past 2 weeks, though deaths were down …

By most accounts—and lots of data—infection rates, hospitalizations, and deaths related to SARS-CoV-2 have declined sufficiently to consider the pandemic over. Zoom in on that big picture, however, and you may find that the older segment of the U.S. population is still struggling with the virus on a grand scale. According to an article published by The New York Times, approximately 90% of January 2023 COVID-related deaths in the United States occurred among patients between …

Counseling is more important than routine screening of patients perceived to be at high risk for genital herpes, at least in the absence of symptoms, according to an updated guidance from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force published by the Journal of the American Medical Association. One caveat is that patients known to have genital herpes but who are between outbreaks are not considered to be asymptomatic. The recommendation also does not apply to patients …