The 10 new flu-related deaths in children bring the season's total to 226, the most since 2009-10.
Plaque growth can lead to a higher risk of heart attack, stroke, and other life-threatening cardiovascular events for as long as 1 year.
Post-exertional malaise, or exercise intolerance, was seen in 36% of those with long COVID.
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Central line-associated bloodstream infections, ventilator-associated events, and C difficile infections all increased.
At a World Health Organization (WHO) briefing today, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, said COVID-19 deaths for 2022 alone passed 1 million this week, as he pressed countries to do more to vaccinate all healthcare workers, older people, and others at highest risk. Since the pandemic began in early 2020, 6,472,848 deaths have been reported, according to the Johns Hopkins online dashboard.
Whether the increase was caused by COVID-19 or other factors remains unclear.
In other developments, global COVID-19 cases and deaths declined again last week.
In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, life expectancy in the United States fell by 4.5 and 3.6 years for Hispanic and Black males, respectively, while declining 1.5 years for their White counterparts, finds a study published yesterday in PNAS.
At least 2.5 hours of moderate activity or 1.2 hours of vigorous exercise weekly was linked to lower risk.
In another development, Pfizer said the vaccine for younger kids still shows strong efficacy as it prepares to file an EUA for a BA.5/BA.4 bivalent booster for kids as young as 6 months.
A study published yesterday in JAMA Pediatrics suggests that long COVID is uncommon in children and teens and that risk factors include severe SARS-CoV-2 infection, younger age, and complex underlying chronic diseases.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines long COVID as continuous, relapsing, or new symptoms or conditions persisting at least 1 month after the initial infection.
In related developments, the FDA OKs emergency use of the Novavax vaccine for teens.
The average for all variants was 6.6 days, but it ranged from 5.0 for Alpha to 3.4 for Omicron.
