Clinical

Several drugs (and even, dangerously, household cleaning products) have been put forth as possible preventive or curative agents for COVID-19. They’ve all been discredited for that purpose, ultimately, so far. Now, however, researchers in the UK are suggesting that a commonly used glucocorticosteroid may hold some promise. As part of the Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy (RECOVERY) trial, dexamethasone was shown to reduce death from COVID-19 by one third in ventilated patients and by one …

U.S. poison control centers have seen calls related to cleaning products and disinfectants jump 20% in the first quarter of 2020 compared with 2019, according to data posted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly two-thirds of exposures have been related to bleach, while hand sanitizers and nonalcoholic disinfectants are each at the root of roughly one-third of the calls, each. (The data could reflect exposure to multiple chemicals for any one event.) …

When COVID-19 first came to widespread attention, it appeared that the virus was not high-risk for children compared with (especially older) adults. While that may be true in the strictest sense, as more cases have come to light and been the subject of scrutiny it’s become clear that the associated novel multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) can have a severe impact on children. Now the journal Gastroenterology has published data revealing that gastrointestinal signs …

Because COVID-19 is a novel virus that was at first dismissed as a problem unlikely to affect the U.S., only to spread very quickly once it reached our borders, the healthcare system was largely caught off unprepared to prevent the virus or treat those afflicted. Urgent care was certainly no different. It hasn’t taken long for our industry to start catching up, though. In concert with the American College of Emergency Physicians, the College of …

New cases of COVID-19 are no longer making news every day, thanks to the fact that the much-discussed “curve” flattened. However, as restrictions start easing the number of cases is on the rise again. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. had the largest jump in daily cases in the world—a 36.5% increase in a single day. Data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency confirmed the figure. Worse, average …

The Lancet has taken the extraordinary step of retracting a paper that garnered worldwide headlines when it was published in May. That article had suggested that hydroxychloroquine—purported by some to be a possible treatment for, or agent to prevent COVID-19—was associated with higher rates of ventricular arrhythmia and death in patients with the virus. While there is no evidence that the conclusions are incorrect, Lancet says it withdrew the article at the request of three …

If not technically a pandemic, cabin fever is definitely running rampant across the U.S. Especially now that the weather is warmer, social distancing restrictions are relaxing a bit, and school years are ending, people are aching to get outside. Ticks await, ready to feast—and you need to be ready to assess for various associated diseases and provide care as needed. One challenge is that patients may complain of symptoms but not mention that they’ve been …

The World Health Organization made headlines for stating that transmission of coronavirus by infected, asymptomatic people “very rare”—only to clarify hours later that asymptomatic carriers do contribute to spread of the virus. The WHO also acknowledged that more study is needed to understand what role asymptomatic patients play in infecting others. Complicating the issue is a shortfall in health literacy; according to the WHO, many patients mistake the word asymptomatic to mean having only mild symptoms, …

With social distancing in effect across the U.S., regular cannabis users may find it difficult to maintain their typical rate of usage, possibly leading to withdrawal from the drug. A newly published article in JAMA Network Open reveals that 47% of 23,518 patients who were part of a meta-analysis of cannabis users experienced withdrawal when they stopped or reduced their usage. Concurrent cannabis, tobacco, and other substance use disorders were associated with a higher prevalence …

A new study published in the journal Diabetologia indicates that poor glycemic control, while clearly a threat to anyone with diabetes, is not as foreboding as excessive body mass index when it comes to predicting poor prognosis in patients with COVID-19 and diabetes. The authors called BMI “an independent prognostic factor for disease severity in this population, whereas chronic [glycemic] control and routine therapies, such as RAAS blockers and DPP-4 inhibitors, did not impact the immediate …