Clinical

New data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention add to previously published reports indicating that the spread of gonorrhea, syphilis, and congenital syphilis actually increased in the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only that, but the jump seen in 2020 continued into the first part of 2021 compared with previous years. Gonorrhea cases grew by 10% between 2019 and 2020, while primary and secondary syphilis cases were up 7%. Worse, …

Some patients have been scared off getting COVID-19 vaccine booster shots because they experienced a few days of malaise, chills, and overall ill feelings after getting the first shot. For many, especially older patients, those worries are unfounded according to an article just published by JAMA Network Open. A study of individuals between 60 and 79 years of age in Israel revealed that a second booster shot (ie, a third dose overall) resulted in at …

Understandably, pregnant patients can get pretty conservative when it comes to what they’re willing to put in their body. Unfortunately, that has led some in recent years to decline getting fully vaccinated against COVID-19. While their intentions are virtuous—protecting their unborn children—their choices are not necessarily sound from a clinical perspective. In fact, newly published evidence of the safety of vaccines for pregnant patients may be useful in convincing vaccine-hesitant women that getting vaccinated is …

News that the Food and Drug Administration authorized a second booster shot of COVID-19 vaccine (a fourth dose, in other words) for immunocompromised individuals and all Americans over 50 years of age did not receive nearly the same celebratory response as earlier announcements of vaccine availability. The prevailing sense among the public, and probably at least a few healthcare professionals, seems to be that whatever degree of protection they already have will suffice. A new …

Multiple studies have shown mixed results regarding increased risk for myocarditis in people who’ve been vaccinated against COVID-19. Most recently, JUCM News shared that one study actually did reveal increased incidence of myocarditis among some people who got the COVID-19 shot, but there was insufficient evidence to establish a cause-and-effect relationship. Another month brings yet another study with a new perspective, however. This one, just published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, shows …

Mask mandates continue to fall by the wayside across industries and states in the U.S., simultaneous with an uptick in the number of COVID-19 infections—led by the BA.2 variant at this point, but also fueled by yet another new variant being called BA.2.12.1. The New York State Department of Health, for one, has blamed BA.2.12.1 for a recent spike upstate. Public health officials there estimate that the latest version of the virus is up to …

After weeks (or months, in some states) of declines in COVID-19 caseloads and related hospitalizations and deaths, more than half of U.S. states reported an increase in the number of infected residents, with hospitalizations following suit in 10 states according to data collected by The New York Times. Cases are up 10% nationally over the past 2 weeks. In spite of that, however, hospitalizations are down nationally by 17% and there has been no increase …

Cause-and-effect may be unclear at this point, but an article just published by The New York Times makes it very clear that people with diabetes are more likely than many others to experience serious consequences with COVID-19. While, again, cause-and-effect has not been established, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that deaths from diabetes-related causes rose 15% in 2020, during the peak of the pandemic in the U.S. And the Times piece …

New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal that cases of norovirus are showing a dramatic resurgence after relatively low incidence in recent years, coinciding with the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since August 2021, the CDC reported 448 outbreaks of norovirus, compared with 78 over the same period for the previous year. According to a report by NBC News, the timing was suspicious enough for health officials to look at whether …

On the heels of news that the Food and Drug Administration had authorized a second booster for many individuals vaccinated against COVID-19, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest that patients who got the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine would be well advised to get a booster with either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration had just authorized a second vaccine boost for specific groups of Americans, based …