An automated text messaging system for adult COVID-19 outpatients developed at Penn Medicine saved two lives a week during the first US pandemic surge, and users were 68% less likely than controls to die, finds a study today in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
A third Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine dose is 92% more effective in reducing severe COVID-related outcomes than two doses of the same vaccine received at least 5 months previously, according to a large real-world study late last week in The Lancet.
Yesterday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) added 1 case and 3 hospitalizations to a multistate Salmonella outbreak—now at 21 cases—tied to salami sticks sold at Trader Joe's and Wegmans, and earlier this week the agency declared its investigation into a Salmonella outbreak tied to Italian-style meats over after 40 cases in 17 states.
First responders' risk for COVID-19 infection is about 60% more than other essential workers, including healthcare workers (HCWs), according to a study published late last week in JAMA Health Forum.
A review of antibiotic prescribing at Veterans' Health Administration (VHA) mental health units found that only 1 in 10 patients were exposed to antibiotics, but urinary tract infections (UTIs) appeared to be frequently misdiagnosed, researchers reported today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.
COVID-19 outpatients were more likely to have more respiratory symptoms if they were overweight or obese, according to a study published yesterday in Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses.
More than 140,000 US children lost a parent or other caregiver from COVID-19 during the pandemic, representing one caregiver loss for every four coronavirus deaths, suggests a modeling study today in Pediatrics.
New antimicrobials to treat severe bacterial and fungal infections were among the drugs that the World Health Organization (WHO) included in its new Essential Medicines list, which is updated annually and serves as its recommended list of medicines that every health system should have.
Of 1,061 people who were hesitant about receiving the COVID-19 vaccine at the end of 2020, 32% were at least partially vaccinated by spring 2021, and 37% said they were likely to be, according to a research letter published today in JAMA Network Open.
A rapidly growing Salmonella Oranienburg outbreak linked to an unknown food source has sickened 127 people, some of them part of restaurant clusters, from 25 states, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a Sep 17 announcement.
