#IDMastodon it’s taken me nearly 4 yrs to recover from #LongCovid . I’m 1 of a fraction LC population to recover & #MaskUp 😷 always be for I leave the house. Is #longCOVID forever? A new study has clues.
Research hints that those with symptoms may see an improvement after two years—but not everyone…
"The ongoing outbreak of H5N1 avian flu virus looks a lot like a public-health problem that the United States should be well prepared for.
Although this version of flu is relatively new to the world, scientists have been tracking H5N1 for almost 30 years. Researchers know the basics of how flu spreads and who tends to be most at risk...Yet the U.S. is struggling to mount an appropriate response."
My new story for the Medical Post/Canadian Healthcare Network. #Doctors and #pharmacists in Canada can log on for free. Here are a few paragraphs.
Could a century old treatment be an answer to antibiotic resistance?
In a first in Canada, a patient with an #antibiotic resistant artificial joint infection has received treatment with phage therapy and is showing promising early responses.
“This is cutting edge stuff, and a potentially new technology,” said Dr. Marisa Azad, the infectious diseases physician who treated the patient. She is also an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa.
The patient presented with severe periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) in the summer of 2023. She had already undergone multiple surgeries and had experienced several relapses and infections with the same persistent bacteria.
“She’d been on multiple very prolonged courses of antibiotics and had a severe drug allergy to two major drug classes of antibiotics. I was extremely limited in what I could use to treat her,” Dr. Azad told the Medical Post in an interview.
That’s when the idea arose of trying an experimental treatment course with phage therapy. The team got approval for doing the experimental treatment from Health Canada, and worked with Winnipeg-based Cytophage, which supplied the phages.
“We developed a protocol and gave her therapy over two weeks while she was admitted to hospital. She’s completed her therapy. Now we’re monitoring her closely and giving her adjunctive antibiotics,” she said.
The idea didn’t come out of the blue. In the medical literature, a study from just last year in Clinical #Infectious Diseases provided a review of 33 previously published cases of patients with end-stage, refractory bone and joint infections (BJI) who underwent treatment with phage therapy. The authors found that from those case reports, “29 (87%) achieved microbiological or clinical success, two (5.9%) relapsed with the same organisms, and two (5.9%) with a different organism” with no serious adverse events.
The conclusions of that paper stated there were “important advantages, disadvantages, and barriers to the implementation of phage therapy for BJIs.” Yet, at the same time, the authors added they, “believe that if phage therapy were to be used earlier in the clinical course, fewer cumulative antibiotics may be needed in an individual treatment course.”
The word phage is short for #bacteriophage, a word coined in 1917—literally meaning bacteria-eater. They are viruses whose lifecycle depends on certain types of bacteria.
“They latch on to specific types of bacteria and inject their genetic material into the bacterial cell." Dr. Azad explained. "They take over the bacterial cells’ machinery to produce more little viruses inside and explode or burst open the bacteria,” releasing viral particles that can go and infect other cells of the same type of bacteria.
Intriguingly, each #phage targets a specific type of #bacteria...
The story of phages started over 100 years ago. They were independently discovered, first in 1915 by a British pathologist, Frederick Twort, and then again in 1917 by French-Canadian microbiologist Felix d’Herelle. And...
"Since February, there have been 11 reported [mpox] cases within Cuyahoga County, which encompasses Cleveland and surrounding suburbs. Eleven have been reported in the Cuyahoga County and 12 have been reported within the state, the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) said."
#IDMastodon FDA said today that its nationwide survey of retail milk has found remnants of #H5N1 avian flu viruses 1 in 5 samples, with the highest concentrations in regions where outbreaks in dairy cattle have been reported & the sampling from the USDA's Food Safety & FSIS found the highest concentrations in milk & mammary tissue… @cidrap
"It's really upsetting that we're investing so much time and energy, money, resources into this when we know that if we have a highly vaccinated public, we won't be seeing these cases," McMasters said. "Yes, I've been in public health for 25 years, and it kind of feels like going backwards."
#IDMastodon#publichealth@medrxivpreprint
wastewater-based #epidemiology has been widely applied in many countries and regions for monitoring #COVID19 transmission in the population through testing #SARSCoV2 in wastewater. several studies that have collected paired longitudinal respiratory & fecal samples demonstrated prolonged fecal shedding and higher #viralload in feces compared to the paired respiratory samples collected at the same time period .
In the most recent weekly update on April 11, 2024, the CDC reported 8 new cases of measles, bringing the total for this year to 121 measles cases reported by 18 jurisdictions. 56% of cases have been hospitalized for isolation or management of complications.
#IDMastodon@Nature More to #COVID19 … In the 30 d after initial infection, total sperm count, sperm concentration, total sperm motility & progressive motility were significantly reduced in men ,with the most severe effects in those with moderate to high fever …
#IDMastodon@PLOS
Long-term exposure of #SARSCoV2 spike antigen can cause retinal pathologies .🦠ocular tropism is through cells lining BRB. 🦠 not only infects the various parts of 👁️ via systemic exposure but also induces a hyperinflammatory immune response
#IDMastodon#Publichealth There’s the reason to #MaskUp & #GetBoosted Extracellular vesicles derived from #SARSCoV2 M-protein-induced triple -ve #breastcancer cells promoted the ability of tissue stem cells supporting cancer progression . Study demonstrated that M-protein induced the ability of triple-negative BCC-derived EV promoting the functions of breast tissue stem cells including ATMSC and EPC in tumorigenesis.
#IDMastodon#publichealth#Viralimmunology Scientists believe they may have found cause of #longCovid.
Two new studies based on an analysis of blood samples of infected people may pave the way for new treatments…
#IDMastodon
Study found that the greater risk of developing #longCOVID was also likely related to higher levels of fatigue in this group of people with joint hypermobility. Around 3 percent of 🇬🇧 population do not fully recover from #COVID, so #longCOVID is a significant problem and is likely to remain so. It is a significant public health issue.
The CDC has issued a Health Alert advisory regarding an increase in global and U.S. measles cases with guidance on steps recommended to prevent measles for international travelers aged 6 months or older and for all children aged 12 months or older. From January 1 to March 14, 2024, CDC has been notified of 58 confirmed cases of measles in the US, 93% of which were linked to international travel. (CDC Health Alert Network
March 18, 2024)
#IDMastodon#neurocovid#publichealth Acute #COVID19 cases indicates a concerning association with cognitive deficits in the general population, regardless of #COVID clinical course and severity or with no association with any blood inflammatory marker. A recent study suggests that even in mild cases ,#SARSCoV2 infection promote systemic endothelial dysfunction, impair the homeostatic mechanism of neurovascular coupling and promote white matter damage.
#IDMastodon
March 11 marks four years since #COVID19 was declared a pandemic. But while much of society has moved on from #MaskUp , quarantining, and isolating, some still feel the effects of the pandemic every day & #LongCovid is a constant struggle
#IDMastodon#publichealth@sciam This a good news . #COVID Rapid Tests Reliably Detect New Variants
Researchers who “test the tests” say that COVID rapid tests have kept up with new variants…