Clinical

Recognizing that SARS-CoV-2 is a virus, there’s no way well-informed physicians would write prescriptions for antibiotics to help patients fight COVID-19—right? Wrong. According to a Research Letter published by JAMA Network, between April 2020 and April 2021, nearly 30% of COVID-19 outpatient visits in a Medicare population resulted in a prescription for an antibiotic agent. Prescriptions were highest in the emergency room (33.9%) followed by telehealth (28.4%), urgent care (25.8%), and traditional office practices (23.9%). …

One of the more persistent baseless “warnings” about vaccination against the COVID-19 virus has been that getting the shot increases risk for (or even causes) myocarditis and other cardiological issues. JUCM Readers know that while early studies tended to contradict each other, ultimately the myocarditis myth has been busted. Now a new paper published by Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report reveals that patients are more likely to develop cardiac complications in general after SARS-CoV-2 than …

As the world continues cautious steps toward normalcy and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, a new virus is capturing its attention. In this country, national newspapers and television news programs have breathlessly relayed mounting cases of monkeypox, likely eliciting concerns that may be out of proportion to actual danger among patients—at least for now. What’s known is that new cases have been reported in 16 countries, including the United States. In response, the Centers for …

As noted in an article just published by JAMA Network, unchecked spread has put prediabetes and diabetes at “epidemic levels” in the United States. With the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force having lowered the age at which it’s advisable to start screening patients to 35, this begs the question as to whether it’s time for urgent care centers to become more proactive in assessing patients for diabetes. While too-high blood sugar is often an incidental …

Even patients who accept that vaccination and boosters are effective in reducing risk for COVID-19 infection may be getting complacent, whether they’ve dodged infection so far or not. However, data published by the New England Journal of Medicine based on the cases of 1.25 million people 60 years of age and older in Israel confirm that a fourth dose of vaccine really does confer more protection against the virus than three doses. The results amplify …

The latest update to the data tracker maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a steady increase in new COVID-19 infections and related hospitalizations since April. While there hasn’t been a corresponding increase in deaths from COVID, to date, a new concern is that upwards of 60% of current transmission may be from individuals who are asymptomatic or presymptomatic, according to an article just published by MedPage Today. As with other setbacks …

It’s been presumed (and even joked about) that being cut off from normal social interactions and working from home for long stretches over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic would lead some Americans to consume more alcohol than they otherwise would. Now that there’s been enough time to collect and analyze data on the subject, it seems this is no laughing matter. A new article published in JAMA Network Open reveals that that alcohol-related deaths …

JUCM News readers know overdose deaths have risen steadily over many years (every year since the 1970s with the exception of 2018, in fact). Even after many years of public health campaigns at the federal and state level, however, no progress has been made. In fact, mortalities jumped 15% from 2020 to 2021, and involved not only fentanyl but also methamphetamine according to new data from the National Center for Health Statistics. Both drugs are …

The effectiveness and value of vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 continue to be confirmed with the publication of each new related study. Even detractors have to acknowledge that reductions in hospitalizations and deaths in the face of new variants speak to the capability of the vaccines to keep people both out of the hospital and alive even if they do get COVID-19. The latest such study published by The Journal of the American Medical Association reveals …

Rates of new infections with SARS-CoV-2 were so consistently low after the post-holiday surge, per the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions COVID tracker, that many public health officials at the federal and state levels started to wonder if we could declare the pandemic “over.” Such conjecture now seems to have been premature as positive tests are again climbing (albeit relatively slowly), possibly thanks to new Omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5. As first reported by …