Clinical

A year ago at this time, fear was high that the United States would be hit with a “twindemic” of influenza and COVID-19. It never materialized, largely due to the fact that measures taken to protect ourselves from the SARS-CoV-2 virus (social distancing, frequent handwashing, wearing a face cover, etc.) had the unintended benefit of keeping flu activity low. This year, however, with many people vaccinated against COVID-19 and letting other measures slide, we might …

Too many patients are telling the media that they refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19 because “it doesn’t work,” pointing to the growing number of breakthrough cases as justification. While it’s true that the number of confirmed cases in patients who are fully vaccinated continues to increase (and is likely to grow more steeply now that the Omicron variant is spreading around the globe), the associated death rate is simply not keeping pace. In fact, …

Just a week after news of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in South Africa and other African first emerged, cases were confirmed in a growing number of other countries around the world—including, most recently, the United States. At this point no deaths attributed to Omicron have been reported, but the fact that it is heavily mutated means widespread infection is likely, with “severe consequences” according to the World Health Organization. While several countries are imposing …

As of this writing, the United States has just confirmed its first case of COVID-19 attributed to the Omicron variant. Seeing how there was a time when we were saying the same thing about the SARS-CoV-2 virus in general—and then the Delta variant—let’s assume many more are on the horizon. The World Health Organization has called it a “variant of concern,” at least partly due to the fact that it has a higher number of …

Well before the COVID-19 virus reached pandemic proportions, opioid abuse and related overdoses and deaths had been declared an epidemic in the United States. However, thanks to factors such as social isolation, economic instability, fear over disease, and reduced access to health resources, drug overdoses have reached historic levels over the past 2 years—to the point that more than 100,000 Americans died of overdoses over the 12-month period ending in April 2021, according to the …

With the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention following the recommendation of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to allow COVID-19 booster shots for all individuals over the age of 18, urgent care providers are emboldened to take the next step in their efforts to offer added protection to patients who completed their initial immunization at least 6 months ago. The CDC also strengthened a recommendation that everyone over the age of 50 should get …

It didn’t take long for physicians to notice that patients with COVID-19 also came down with pink eye more often than patients who did not have the virus. According to information presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology in New Orleans and reported by MedPage Today this week, however, patients with COVID-19 are also more likely to have photophobia, retinal hemorrhage, and optic neuritis. Those experiencing long-haul disease, in particular, seem …

Despite increased emphasis on public education on the dangers of vaping various substances, the “past 12 months” prevalence of cannabis vaping by adolescents more than doubled between 2013 and 2020 (from 6.1% to 13.6%) according to an article published by JAMA Pediatrics. The authors conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 17 unique studies from the United States and Canada, reflecting the experiences of 198,845 adolescents. They also discovered that preference for cannabis products seems …

Research continues to support the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and to disprove the perceived likelihood of many dangers associated with them. Most recently, a Research Letter published by JAMA Network takes aim at the misperception that pregnant women who receive a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine are at increased risk for spontaneous abortion. Looking at 105,446 unique pregnancies at eight U.S. health systems, the researchers found that “among women with spontaneous abortions, the odds of COVID-19 vaccine exposure …

Many patients with diabetes loathe being called “diabetics” and people with autism may blanch at being called “autistic.” And studies, some reported on in JUCM News, have shown that the words a healthcare provider chooses actually influence outcomes. Using patient-first language (eg, “a patient with diabetes”) is a good first step toward a productive clinical relationship, whereas putting the disease first (“the diabetic patient”) can leave someone feeling demeaned or paint the clinician as uncaring, …