Category: Health

Many Older Americans With Heart Failure Take 10 or More Meds | Health News

October 13, 2020
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By Cara Roberts Murez
HealthDay Reporter

(HealthDay)

TUESDAY, Oct. 13, 2020 (HealthDay News) — When older people hospitalized for heart failure are sent home, they are often given a whopping 10 medications to take for a variety of conditions. But is this “polypharmacy” practice necessary, or does it just place a bigger burden on already frail patients?

It’s not a question so much of the quantity of the medications, but whether the medications patients are taking are the right ones for them, said senior study author Dr. Parag Goyal, a geriatric cardiologist at NewYork-Presbyterian in New York City.

“It’s not just that we’re not starting the right medications, there may be situations where we’re not stopping the wrong medications as well,” Goyal said. “I think we need to look at the medication that older adults with heart failure take in a more holistic fashion.”

For the study, Goyal’s team examined

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Protein Predicts Risk of AKI in COVID-19 Patients

October 13, 2020
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Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center.

Admission levels of a specific protein predict the development of acute kidney injury (AKI) as well as the need for dialysis in patients hospitalized for COVID-19, new research shows.

“This protein, soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) is produced by immune cells, and in an earlier study we saw that patients with critical illness who had high levels of this protein had a very high risk of AKI,” senior author Salim Hayek, MD, assistant professor of cardiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, explained to Medscape Medical News.

“So when we started seeing how frequent AKI was in COVID-19, with reports of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis-like pathology, it was natural to think about looking at this protein and now…in patients with COVID-19, we see people with dramatically high suPAR levels with significant kidney injury,” he added.  

The

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AHA News: Scenes of Childhood Hunger Left Lasting Impression | Health News

October 13, 2020
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(HealthDay)

TUESDAY, Oct. 13, 2020 (American Heart Association News) — While growing up in the Philippines, Lady Dorothy Elli witnessed childhood hunger and poverty that left her with lasting impressions.

She has made it her mission to address the problem of food insecurity and the negative impact it can have on the academic and personal well-being of students of all ages.

“Health inequity plays a big role in this,” said Lady Dorothy, 19, now a sophomore at the University of Arizona. “If health equity is present in the world, you wake up not having to worry about having an empty stomach and then going to school.”

Food insecurity is defined in a 2020 report by the federal Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion as a “disruption of food intake or eating patterns because of lack of money and other resources.” A 2019 study in the journal Pediatrics said that

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Coronavirus Europe: Schools prepare for winter with open windows

October 13, 2020
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With temperatures in Germany frequently dropping to freezing, children in the city of Bochum are bracing for a crisp learning environment as officials advise teachers to open the windows for fresh air every 20 minutes. Children have been told to bring blankets and wrap up.

Critics have called the advice a threat to the health of students, with Finn Wandhoff, chairman of the Student Union of Germany, accusing the government of failing the education system by not opting for online learning.

In Scotland, where First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says keeping schools open is a priority, Edinburgh’s chief education officer, Andy Gray, wrote a letter to parents urging them to ensure that their children wear extra layers of clothing when they return to school on Oct. 26 after a midterm break, local media reported.

In guidance issued in August, the Scottish government said: “The opening of doors and windows, where it

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Trying to reach herd immunity to the coronavirus is ‘unethical’ and unprecedented, WHO head says

October 13, 2020
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“Never in the history of public health has herd immunity been used as a strategy for responding to an outbreak, let alone a pandemic,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a Monday media briefing. “It is scientifically and ethically problematic.”

In a public health context, herd immunity typically describes a scenario in which a large enough share of the population is vaccinated against a disease to prevent it from spreading widely, thereby providing default protection to a minority of people who have not been vaccinated.

But as there is still no vaccine for the coronavirus, achieving herd immunity in the current environment would require a large number of people to contract the virus, survive covid-19, and then produce sufficient antibodies to provide long-term protection.

While the scientific community has roundly rejected herd immunity the approach, public interest in it has waxed and waned amid pressure to reopen schools and

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Hundreds Of Backus Hospital Nurses Strike In Norwich

October 13, 2020
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NORWICH, CT — Hundreds of Backus Hospital nurses are striking due to a dispute over pay and protective equipment, according to The Hartford Courant. The hospital and the Backus Federation of Nurses have been in contract talks since June.

The strike is expected to last two days.

A statement from the Backus Federation of Nurses reads: “After months of calling the nurses of Backus Hospital ‘heroes,’ management has resisted bargaining a fair contract, and instead chosen to violate our rights under the National Labor Relations Act. We’ve filed Unfair Labor Practice charges calling out Backus managers and Hartford HealthCare (HHC) executives on their intimidation and threatening of nurses for union activity. We’re taking a stand for what we need in these negotiations to be able to work safely during the next wave of this pandemic.”

The nurses’ union is also asking for additional accommodations for breastfeeding.

The hospital said it

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SC sends $43M in Plexiglass, masks to school; promises more

October 13, 2020
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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s education superintendent said she has sent $43 million of protective equipment to more than 1,300 schools in the state — fulfilling every item in their requests to help them open for in-person classes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

And Superintendent Molly Spearman promised Tuesday there is enough money left in the billions of dollars the federal government sent to South Carolina for pandemic help to pay for whatever else schools ask for as she urges every school district to get children back in classrooms at least part of the time.

“You may hear some of them saying we need more things. We are telling them, let us know what you need. We have the funding to get it for you,” Spearman said.


The latest purchases include 300,000 sheets of Plexiglass, which Spearman cited health experts who have told her when combined with masks cut the

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J&J vaccine trial hits pause as US doubles down on antibody therapies

October 13, 2020
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Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) announced late Monday it was pausing shots in its late-stage coronavirus vaccine trial due to an adverse event, but plans to continue enrolling patients and stick to the current manufacturing timeline.

It is still unknown if the participant was receiving a placebo or the vaccine, a point that will be determined by an independent advisory group, known as the Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB). Another vaccine using similar technology from AstraZeneca (AZN) is still on hold after a serious adverse event from a trial participant triggered a halt in September. The trial has continued in the U.K., but remains on hold in the U.S.

“Adverse events – illnesses, accidents, etc. – even those that are serious, are an expected part of any clinical study, especially large studies,” J&J said statement late Monday, reiterating that “studies may be paused if an unexpected serious adverse event (SAE)” occurs

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Couple adopts 4 siblings from foster care, then welcomes quadruplets

October 13, 2020
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The Youngs went from zero to nine kids since they were married in 2016.

Shannon McLellan

October 13, 2020, 3:37 PM

8 min read

Can you imagine adopting four siblings from foster care, having a son of your own and then finding out you’re having quadruplets?

That’s exactly what happened to Maxine Young, 30, and her husband Jacob Young, 32, from Reading, Pennsylvania. Married in 2016, the couple went from zero to nine kids in just four years.

Maxine Young said that she had always wanted to adopt children, but the more she learned about foster care, the more she realized she wanted to help children that needed loving homes — even if it was temporary.

“After learning about foster care, it was always on my heart,” Maxine Young said. “We started to take the foster care classes and were approved in about two months. Not even a month later, we

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Myanmar Centenarian Shrugs off Coronavirus, Worries About Grandchildren | World News

October 13, 2020
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YANGON (Reuters) – Myanmar centenarian Thein Khin not only beat the coronavirus, but barely knew she had it.

Thein Khin, 100, tested positive for COVID-19 and was kept in an isolation centre last month when the virus spread among four generations of her family, but was asymptomatic and said she was more worried about her grandchildren.

“I felt nothing. I was eating well, showering myself and walking as normal,” she said at her home in Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city, surrounded by small children.

“If I suffered from this virus, I would be lying and moaning on the bed. But I am strong, walking around. I felt nothing.”

The elderly are among those most vulnerable to the virus that has killed more than a million people worldwide.

The risks are even higher in poorer countries with under-equipped health services, including Myanmar, which is experiencing a surge in infections having been spared

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