Clinical

There was fear in some quarters that the shutdown of many businesses and inhibited social life due to the COVID-19 pandemic would ultimately lead to increasing rates of depression, substance abuse, and suicide. For the most part, that has not come to fruition at this point. However, an article just released on JAMA Network Open indicates that alcohol consumption increased dramatically in the early months of social distancing. Quoting Nielsen data, the article reveals that …

The nature of urgent care presents daily opportunities to provide care for patients you’ve never seen before and may never see again. The downside is there’s no history with such patients—and no chance to build rapport and establish the clear communication that comes from familiarity. Now remember that you’re speaking to each other through masks. Even if dosing is specified on that bottle of pain medication, did they hear you say it can only be …

As with all things related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the question of whether children are as prone to infection as adults—and their ability to transmit it—has been widely debated. As JUCM News readers know, there is evidence that asymptomatic children are more capable of transmitting the virus than some severely ill adults. On the other hand are data from a study just published in JAMA Pediatrics, indicating that the likelihood of younger patients infecting others …

Recently, we told you about new research showing that many children who’ve been infected with COVID-19 are asymptomatic, calling into question the value of school-based screening for common symptoms like fever and cough. Possibly more concerning for urgent care operators and staffs, who by now have also instituted screening procedures for all patients, is new data showing that more than half of pregnant women with COVID-19 may also be asymptomatic. A new study of pregnant …

Several times over the past week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has proclaimed new information on how the coronavirus spreads. First they announced new evidence that the virus spreads mainly through the air via respiratory aerosols and droplets, not just through direct propulsion of exhaled droplets as previously stated. Aerosol experts cheered. Then the CDC deleted that information from its website, but kept the suggestion that exhaled droplets launched from one person to …

Patients with substance use disorders (SUDs) are at up to 10-times the risk for COVID-19 compared with nonaddicts, according to a study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. After analyzing the electronic health records of more than 73 million patients, researchers discovered that patients addicted to opioids were at the greatest risk (10-fold higher than nonaddicts), buy by no means the only group whose addiction leaves them at increased vulnerability for the virus. Tobacco use …

We told you recently how capable asymptomatic children are of spreading COVID-19. Now Anthony Fauci, MD says that statement is too limiting. The truth, according to the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is that between 40% and 45% of all infections are asymptomatic. Fauci’s comments to the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) don’t bode well for the near future, as schools continue to welcome students back on campus and …

Mounting cases of COVID-19 (and associated deaths), coupled with concern that the U.S. could experience a severe flu season this year, may have given some people the sense that “things just couldn’t get any worse” from a public health standpoint. Wrong. A study published in the journal Environment International reports a link between intense wildfire seasons—like the one going on right now in western U.S. states right now—and higher incidence of influenza. Based on study …

Even though COVID-19 is a viral illness, some infectious disease experts are concerned about its possible effects on antibiotic resistance. It’s not that clinicians are inappropriately prescribing antibiotics for coronavirus-infected patients, but the fact that so many patients wind up with bacterial infections as a result—including those that become infected in the hospital. The Partnership to Fight Infectious Disease notes that the pandemic “has reinforced the critical importance of treatments for infectious disease, as many …

When COVID-19 first became a widespread concern in the U.S., it wasn’t unusual to hear  consoling murmurs along the lines of “Well, at least it’s not flu season.” Unfortunately, the persistent nature of the pandemic has reduced that to wishful thinking for a quick resolution. The term “twindemic” is now being bandied about. The one piece of good news is that the Food and Drug Administration has issued an Emergency Use Authorization for a combination …