Clinical

One of the secondary consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially early on, has been that patients battling chronic conditions like hypertension, endocrine disorders, and arthritis took a step back from their ongoing care due to concerns about the virus. While that made sense at various points, the fact remains that they could be at greater risk for complications from their condition without even knowing it. This is certainly true of patients with diabetes. A study …

As JUCM News readers know, it wasn’t that long ago that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first recommended that all pregnant women get vaccinated against COVID-19. So it may be especially striking that they’ve already renewed that call with greater emphasis, announcing that they recommend “urgent action to increase coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination among people who are pregnant, recently pregnant (including those who are lactating), who are trying to become pregnant now, …

Though multisystem inflammatory syndrome has been more associated with COVID-19 infection in children (hence, MIS-C), a newly published study delves into the most common characteristics—and risks—of MIS in adults. Urgent care clinicians should be aware that the study indicates that MIS-A presents roughly 4 weeks after acute COVID-19, with hyperinflammation and extrapulmonary multiorgan involvement that the researchers found “difficult to discern from acute biphasic COVID-19 and postacute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection.” Of the 221 patients …

A Salmonella outbreak that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has described as growing “rapidly” has now sickened 279 people in 29 states, with no strong indications of the source at this time. While that number seems small, the number of infections doubled in the course of a week and the CDC and health officials in multiple states have been hard pressed to identify the source. While they’re narrowing the possibilities down—Salmonella has been …

Just as urgent care operators are gearing up for one of the more precarious flu seasons in memory—while also continuing to guard against the health and economic threats of the COVID-19 pandemic—the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a significant change from its most recent seasonal vaccine recommendations. Where the CDC at first advised against administering a flu shot (or any other shot) within 2 weeks of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, they now say …

A study just published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) reveals that drug overdoses attributed to benzodiazepines were 43% higher in April to June 2020—just as the COVID-19 pandemic surged—compared with the same period a year earlier. That coincided with a jump in related emergency room visits (24%) at a time when EDs were scrambling to keep up with the demands of the pandemic while also trying to maintain safety of patients and staff. …

COVID-19 vaccines are proving to not only diminish the risk of patients becoming infected with the original SARS-CoV-2 virus and its variants, but also to protect against serious illness in patients who do become infected—including those infected with the Delta variant. A study published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report revealed that vaccinated patients diagnosed with the Delta variant of COVID-19 are less likely to require hospitalization or visits to the emergency room or urgent …

Data on the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, thus far, have focused on how well vaccination protects patients from infection. We know that the vaccines, overall, are approximately 95% effective against infection, though that figure may be as low as 66% against the Delta variant. We also know, however, that breakthrough cases occur more often than we might have anticipated. An article just published in the New England Journal of Medicine appears to be the first …

Data showing that vaccination lowers the risk of becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2, and that vaccination reduces the severity of disease on breakthrough cases, have been available for some time. That wasn’t enough to convince the entire population that getting a COVID-19 shot is a good idea, somehow. Maybe the three studies published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week will be more convincing. The most striking reveals that risk of death in …

In spite of public health messaging (some of which highlights healthcare providers and patients of color), there continue to be disparities in vaccination rates from one demographic group to another across the United States. As noted in an article just published online by JAMA Health Forum, U.S. neighborhoods with a higher percentage of white and Asian residents and higher mean incomes were more likely to have high rates of vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 compared with neighborhoods …