Clinical

While patients in the midst of atrial fibrillation may feel like they’re having a heart attack, most often their fears are unfounded. Often, an electrocardiogram to confirm there’s no imminent risk and a recommendation to follow up with their primary care provider or cardiologist are enough to put their fears to rest (which can actually be helpful in mitigating the episode). This doesn’t mean there’s no risk associated with AFib, of course. Causative factors need …

Calling it a “silver lining” might be a stretch, but an article just published in The International Journal of Clinical Practice reveals that COVID-19 can actually provide valuable insights that are useful in distinguishing among chronic respiratory conditions in patients with the virus. Given that a number of those conditions have symptoms in common with each other and with SARS-CoV-2, and that patients with some conditions are more susceptible to severe illness with COVID-19, this …

After months of increasing cases of COVID-19, accompanied by rises in associated hospitalizations and deaths, data amassed from state and local health departments by The New York Times indicate that the country may have turned a corner in its fight against COVID-19. From September 22 to October 5, new infections were down to approximately 102,000 per day while deaths fell 22% compared with the previous 2-week period. That good news comes simultaneously with ongoing confusion …

For every person who incorrectly insists the COVID-19 isn’t safe because it was rushed through the approval process there’s one who has already gotten the vaccine and is now teething at the bit to get a booster shot. While it’s unclear at this time what role boosters will play in fighting the pandemic down the road, for now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has specified that urgent care providers and other healthcare professionals …

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. …