Practice Management
New research suggests that saline nasal drops can reduce the length of the common cold in children by 2 days, according to a press release from the European Respiratory Society. The trial included 407 children up to 6 years old who were either given hypertonic saline nasal drops or usual care when they developed a cold. Parents were instructed to apply 3 saline drops per nostril, a minimum of 4 times per day, until the …
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Older adults who receive the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine are 75% less likely to be hospitalized from RSV compared to those who are not vaccinated, according to a research letter in JAMA. By analyzing electronic medical record data from October 2023 to March 2024 for adults aged 60 years and older who were hospitalized with an acute respiratory illness, researchers selected a control group of 2,611 patients—who tested negative for RSV, COVID-19, and influenza—and …
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A new epinephrine nasal spray has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, in adult and pediatric patients who weight at least 66 pounds, according to an FDA press release. Until now, epinephrine has only been available for patients as an injection or auto-injection device. The agency says the new delivery mechanism addresses an unmet need in that some people who need urgent epinephrine treatment …
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Health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have reported elevated pertussis activity across multiple states, after months of warning Americans that pertussis—or whooping cough—was on pace to return pre-pandemic levels. Weekly reported cases are accelerating to the highest levels seen in the United States for years. For the month of July alone 2,410 cases were reported, bringing the total case count to 10,257 since January. This is 3.6 times higher than …
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A new over-the-counter syphilis antibody test has received marketing authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Branded as First To Know, the at-home screening test requires just a drop of blood and provides results within about 15 minutes, offering an early indication of a possible syphilis infection. However, any positive result must be further confirmed with laboratory testing. In a clinical trial involving 1,270 participants, the test accurately identified 99.5% of negative cases and …
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a new health alert, calling attention to unusually high testing positivity rates for the highly transmissible parvovirus B19 as well as clusters of complications among individuals at high risk, such as those with sickle cell disease and pregnant women. Fetal infection can lead to myocarditis and aplastic crisis, and some cases of fetal anemia have required blood transfusions, according to NBC News. Also referred to as …
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New York’s department of health issued an advisory last week cautioning healthcare organizations to stop prescribing the antibiotic ciprofloxacin as prophylactic treatment for people who have come in contact with someone who has meningococcal disease. The department created the recommendation based on an increase in antimicrobial resistance with ciprofloxacin. In New York City, 6 of the 35 (17%) isolates from patients diagnosed with invasive meningococcal disease from July 23, 2023, to July 22, 2024, were …
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New research in Nature suggests that an autoimmune over-reaction could be what’s driving a pattern of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) after COVID-19 illness. Researchers looked at 199 blood samples from children with MIS-C and 45 control samples from children with COVID-19 but without MIS-C. About one-third of the MIS-C patients had autoantibodies for part of the human protein SNX8, which is found in the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, and gastrointestinal tract. …
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According to a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine, pneumonia diagnoses made in emergency departments (EDs) and hospitals show particular swings in diagnostic uncertainty. Researchers found that in 57% of patients hospitalized for pneumonia in 118 Veterans Affairs hospitals, the diagnosis of pneumonia changed one way or the other between initial presentation and discharge. Of the patients who were initially diagnosed with pneumonia, 36% did not have a pneumonia diagnosis when discharged. Clinical notes, …
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently updated vaccine guidance after its advisory committee recommended that all adults aged 75 years and older and adults aged 60–74 years who are at increased risk should receive a single dose of a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine. The update reflects CDC’s intent to maximize RSV vaccination coverage among those most likely to benefit and to reduce implementation barriers associated with a previous recommendation that called …
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