Practice Management
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has again revised its recommendations on how long men who could have been exposed to the Zika virus should wait before trying to conceive, or to have unprotected sex at all. The CDC now says man should wait 6 months—up from 8 weeks—before having sex without a condom even if they have no symptoms. The new guidance is intended to minimize the likelihood of transmitting the virus before …
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It was a case that easily could have presented in any urgent care center, and one that shows the importance of probing beyond social and medical history, including a patient’s profession and hobbies if necessary. The patient presented with a 7-year history of breathing difficulty that had recently worsened. The only related detail seemed to be that he had been diagnosed with hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP, also known as farmer’s lung and hot tub lung) 5 …
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Adolescents—and parents and other adults who supervise their athletic endeavors and physical activities—should be getting more education about the signs, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of concussions, according to a new study published in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine. Researchers evaluated the health records of 8.8 million Humana members, 43,884 of whom were diagnosed with a concussion. The highest incidence was in the 15-19 age group, followed by 10- to 14-year-olds. More than half (56%) …
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Sudden fever, shortness of breath, chills…just the kind of “funk” that leads countless patients to the urgent care center. Well-informed providers are learning to look a little closer at such patients, though, with 21 people having died this year already from a usually obscure bacterial infection. Elizabethkingia anophelis is marked by symptoms often synonymous with the common cold, though its outcomes can be far more serious. Scores of cases have been reported in Illinois, Michigan, …
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Urgent care centers see their share of patients seeking relief from yeast infections. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is warning healthcare facilities around the country of a multidrug-resistant type of yeast that has caused deadly hospital infections across the globe. Most commonly, Candida auris has caused healthcare-associated invasive infections such as bloodstream infections, wound infections, and otitis. Officials started taking note of international reports of C auris infections when it became clear …
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An outbreak of Guillain-Barré syndrome in Vancouver, WA—in which four times the number of cases reported in a typical year have been reported—appears to be related to an outbreak of Zika virus in the area, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC notes that Brazil, in which the mosquito that carries Zika is found in great numbers, also saw an increase in cases of Guillain-Barre following a spike in Zika infections. …
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As concerns surface that a warm summer may spread Zika virus to New York City and Los Angeles, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has opted to take $589 million earmarked for Ebola virus initiatives and apply it to fighting Zika instead. The CDC has also warned that the mosquito that carries Zika is on the move. While initial reports suggested that U.S. Zika cases were limited to individuals who had traveled to affected …
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After a decades-long slog toward elimination of tuberculosis in the United States, 2015 saw a slight increase in the number of domestic TB cases. While around half of all reported cases occurred in Texas, California, Florida, and New York, 29 states and the District of Columbia reported increases over 2014. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that lower funding of TB prevention programs may be on reason, urgent care clinicians faced with …
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As the difficulty in dealing with a patient goes up, diagnostic accuracy goes down, according to a new report published in BMJ Quality and Safety. The complexity of the ultimate diagnosis and the amount of time spent with the patient appear to have no bearing on the probability of making a correct diagnosis. The article is based on two studies in the Netherlands that showed physicians were more likely to misdiagnose patients who exhibited “disruptive …
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Urgent care practices that focus on helping patients stay up to date on immunization—such as occupational medicine and travel medicine providers, or those that cater to seniors and families with children—take note: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has made a few changes in its recommendations this year. For adults, a recently licensed meningococcal serogroup B vaccine and human papillomavirus vaccine have been added, and the recommendation for pneumococcal vaccination has been revised from …
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