New VA study finds Paxlovid may cut the risk of long COVID

By PIEN HUANG: For Complete Post, Click Here…

It’s well-documented that Paxlovid — a 5-day course of antiviral pills from Pfizer — can reduce the risk of hospitalization in COVID-19 patients who are more likely to develop severe illness.

Now, researchers from the Veterans Health Administration find that taking the medication may also reduce the risks of later developing long COVID, according to a new study that was posted online this weekend and has not yet undergone peer review.

“We’ve already known for some time now that Paxlovid reduces the risk of acute problems,” says Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, chief of research and development at the VA Saint Louis Healthcare System, and co-author of the study, “Now we are adding the observation that Paxlovid also reduces the risk of long COVID.”

The drug, which has been available in the U.S. for almost a year, is provided for free by the federal government at pharmacies across the country. It requires a prescription, and patients with COVID-19 must start it within five days of symptom onset.

Less virus, less long COVID?

In the study, long COVID was defined as developing one or more symptoms — including heart issues, blood disorders, fatigue and trouble breathing — one to three months after testing positive. By these metrics, patients that took Paxlovid were 26% less likely to develop long COVID.

Why Pfizer’s RSV vaccine success is a big deal, decades in the making

By BETH MOLE: For Complete Post, Click Here…

Research on RSV vaccines dragged after a trial in the ’60s went tragically wrong.

As an unusually large and early seasonal surge of RSV cases inundate children’s hospitals around the country, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer offered a glimmer of hope Tuesday in the form of top-line, phase three clinical trial results.

The company’s experimental RSV vaccine—given to pregnant trial participants—was 82 percent effective at preventing severe RSV-related lower respiratory tract illness in the first three months of an infant’s life. It was 69 percent effective over the first six months, Pfizer announced.

“We are thrilled by these data as this is the first-ever investigational vaccine shown to help protect newborns against severe RSV-related respiratory illness immediately at birth,” Pfizer Chief Scientific Officer Annaliesa Anderson said in a statement.

The company said it planned to file for regulatory approval from the Food and Drug Administration by the end of the year, which may mean a vaccine could be available in time for next year’s RSV season.

New Guidance Focuses on Long COVID in Kids

by Michael DePeau-Wilson: For Complete Post, Click Here…

PASC Collaborative cautions that long COVID can present differently in children than in adults.

When it comes to long COVID in children, physicians should focus on mitigating symptoms and encouraging multidisciplinary rehabilitation designed to improve age-appropriate development, according to new clinical guidance from the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (AAPM&R).

Long COVID can present differently in children, so standard practices for managing the condition in adults should not be automatically applied to pediatric cases, according to Sarah Sampsel, MPH, a healthcare quality consultant in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and colleagues, who published the guidance in PM&R.

For instance, children with long COVID may have fatigue or attention problems at school or in extracurricular activities, or they may experience ongoing fever, headaches, or sleep issues, the guidance states. It also includes an extensive list of possible pediatric symptoms of long COVID:

• Fatigue, including exercise intolerance or post-exertional malaise
• Sleep disturbances
• Fever or cough
• Anxiety, depression, or “low mood”
• Regression in academic or social milestones
• Dizziness, lightheadedness, or vertigo
• Headache or nausea
• Paresthesias or numbness
• Difficulties with attention, concentration, or memory
• Cognitive fatigue or “brain fog”
• Shortness of breath or dyspnea
• Chest/thoracic pain or tightness
• Palpitations or tachycardia
• Abnormal or lack of smell or taste
• Muscle, bone, or joint pain
• Gastrointestinal problems such as constipation or diarrhea
• Weight loss
• Lack of appetite

Botox Influences the Control of Emotions in the Brain for Those with Borderline Personality Disorder

From Neuroscience News: For Complete Post, Click Here…

ngd- Interesting. This implies that part of the loss of control over emotion is feedback from the muscles expressing that emotion…

The bacterial toxin botulinum toxin (BTX)—colloquially known as Botox—is probably known to most people as a remedy for wrinkles. But botulinum toxin can do even more: if it is injected into the forehead, for example, it can alleviate depression.

It also dampens negative emotions in people with borderline personality disorder, who suffer from extreme mood swings.

Now the psychiatrists have found out where and how BTX influences the negative program in the brain. With the help of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), they have visualized the neuronal effects in borderline patients.

The result: botulinum toxin influences the so-called amygdala or almond nucleus in the temporal lobe in the brain, where fears arise and are processed.

Negative moods are expressed on the face in the so-called glabellar region, the area of the lower middle forehead. When we are angry or tense, two different types of muscles contract and cause frown lines or worry lines to appear above the root of the nose.

5 people with lupus are in remission after CAR-T cell treatment

By Erin Garcia de Jesús: For Complete Post, Click Here…

After receiving an experimental treatment to stop the body from attacking itself, five people no longer have any symptoms of lupus.

That treatment, called CAR-T cell therapy, seems to have reset the patients’ immune systems, sending their autoimmune disease into remission, researchers report September 15 in Nature Medicine. It’s not yet clear how long the relief will last or whether the therapy will work for all patients.

Even so, the results could be “revolutionary,” says immunologist Linrong Lu of the Shanghai Immune Therapy Institute at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study. CAR-T cell therapy has been used for various types of cancer, but it’s still in testing for autoimmune diseases (SN: 2/2/22).

FDA Authorizes Omicron-Targeted Booster Shots

by Ingrid Hein: For Complete Post, Click Here…

Monovalent mRNA shots no longer authorized as boosters in people 12 and up.

The FDA on Wednesday authorized bivalent COVID-19 booster shots from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna that target the original strain along with the Omicron BA.4/BA.5 subvariants.

In an amendment to the emergency use authorizations (EUAs), both shots can be administered starting 2 months following a primary vaccination series or prior booster — in people 12 and up for Pfizer’s shot and in people 18 and up for Moderna’s vaccine.

“The FDA has been planning for the possibility that the composition of the COVID-19 vaccines would need to be modified to address circulating variants,” Peter Marks, MD, PhD, of FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a statement. “We sought input from our outside experts on the inclusion of an omicron component in COVID-19 boosters to provide better protection against COVID-19. We have worked closely with the vaccine manufacturers to ensure the development of these updated boosters was done safely and efficiently.”

Of note, clinical data supporting the EUA amendment were derived from studies on bivalent vaccines that targeted the original Omicron strain, but the agency said it considers such data as “relevant and supportive” of the newer BA.4/BA.5-targeted vaccines.

For Childhood Ear Infections, Ear Tubes May Be Overprescribed

BY CHRISTINA SZALINSKI: For Complete Post, Click Here…

Ear tubes are used to ease frequent ear infections in kids, but evidence of their necessity — and benefit — is mixed.

WHEN A CHILD GETS an ear infection, it can be agony for the whole family. Prasanth Pattisapu knows this firsthand — he’s a father and a pediatric ear, nose, and throat doctor at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and professor at The Ohio State University. During his daughter’s four ear infections, he said, “she was not sleeping, just screaming in pain.”

Ear infections are a common childhood diagnosis, and doctors usually either wait to see if they clear up without intervention or treat them with antibiotics. But every year, about half a million children in the United States undergo a more invasive treatment for frequent ear infections or persistent fluid in the middle ear: tympanostomy tubes, or ear tubes. Doctors surgically insert these tubes into the ear drums to help equalize pressure between the ear canal and the middle ear. It’s one of the most common outpatient surgeries performed on children in the United States.

Whether all those procedures are warranted, though, is up for debate. Ear tubes aren’t without risks, from bleeding to scarring to infection. And some research indicates that the procedure might not work better than less invasive alternatives. Given the difficulty examining the inner ear, some experts have also suggested that ailing children are sometimes diagnosed with ear infections even when no infection is present.

Citing concerns over the overuse of ear tube procedures, the American Academy of Otolaryngology published new ear tube guidelines for children in 2013. These were updated again in updated in 2022 to help providers determine when a patient will benefit from ear tubes. The current criteria, though, are “based on well-documented ear infections,” Pattisapu said. “But in truth, we rarely get well-documented ear infections.”

COVID in Autoimmune Disease Patients: It’s Getting Better

by John Gever: For Complete Post, Click Here…

Severity, mortality down from initial waves.

Patients with autoimmune diseases were still getting COVID-19 like everyone else when the Omicron wave hit, but — also like everyone else — the worst outcomes had become far less frequent compared with the early months of the pandemic, at least in one major U.S. medical center’s experience.

Among 1,449 patients with systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases treated at Boston’s Mass General Brigham Healthcare System, 15% of COVID cases treated during the Omicron wave (Dec. 17, 2021-Jan. 31, 2022) were severe, compared with a 46% severity rate in March-June 2020, according to the institution’s Jeffrey A. Sparks, MD, MMSc, and colleagues.

Am I Protected Against Polio?

by Michael DePeau-Wilson: For Complete Post, Click Here…

Most people in the U.S. are vaccinated, which provides substantial protection, experts say.

It had been nearly 10 years since the U.S. saw a case of polio before an unvaccinated adult man contracted poliovirus type 2 in June, which led to paralysis.

However, most people are immunized against the poliovirus, even if they don’t know it — and that immunity is expected to be life-long, experts told MedPage Today.

Amesh Adalja, MD, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and an infectious disease, critical care, and emergency physician in Pittsburgh, said that those who are uncertain about their polio vaccine status probably do not need to worry.

“I think that it would have taken some effort to not be vaccinated against polio, because it is a routine childhood immunization,” he said. “People that are not vaccinated probably would have had some reason not to be vaccinated … because it’s such a standard routine vaccination and required to enter school, that it would be very rare that you were not vaccinated and didn’t know it.”

Long-awaited Lyme vaccine test begins

From USA Today: For Complete Post, Click Here…

(Video, but captions are hard to read)

Researchers are seeking thousands of volunteers in the U.S. and Europe to test the first potential vaccine against Lyme disease in 20 years — in hopes of better fighting the tick-borne menace. (AP Video/Shelby Lum)