- Monkeypox is rare in kids, but schools are preparing for possible cases
- Tiny batteries are sending more children to the ER
- Many patients stop taking statins because of muscle pain, but statins aren't causing it
- Covid-19 rebound is probably more common than data suggests, but Paxlovid is still effective
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Monkeypox is rare in kids, but schools are preparing for possible cases | As of last week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counted just 17 monkeypox cases among people 15 years old and younger out of the more than 16,000 people in the United States with confirmed or probable monkeypox infections. But as classrooms reopen this fall, K-12 schools across the United States are on alert for possible cases. The CDC emphasized in guidance for K-12 schools and child care centers posted this month that "the risk of monkeypox to children and adolescents in the United States is low" right now, but schools should follow their everyday protocols to reduce the transmission of any infectious disease. The guidance notes that if someone with monkeypox has been in a school or a child care setting, "the setting should follow their everyday operational guidance to reduce the transmission of infectious diseases and add enhanced cleaning and disinfection," as well as support the local health department to conduct contact tracing and provide information about how to prevent the spread of the virus to staff members, volunteers, students and parents. The monkeypox virus can spread through close personal contact, such as skin-to-skin contact, direct contact with a monkeypox rash or scabs from an infected person or direct contact with their respiratory secretions. Although the risk is low, there is potential for the virus to spread through contaminated objects or surfaces like clothing, bedding or towels that were used by someone with monkeypox. "Basic cleaning right now is all that is recommended, but when you have an outbreak situation within a school, you're going to want to do in-depth cleaning and have other recommendations in place to limit touching, hugging, and what kids do, " said Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive officer of the National Association of County and City Health Officials. The CDC also notes in its guidance for schools and child care centers that monkeypox vaccination is recommended for people who have been exposed to the virus but "there is no need for widespread vaccination for monkeypox among children or staff at K-12 schools or early childhood settings." |
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Tiny batteries are sending more children to the ER |
An increasing number of little children are eating the small lithium batteries, also known as "button" batteries, that power many of our consumer devices, and new research finds there are potentially serious, or even deadly, consequences. Despite public information campaigns warning parents about the dangers, an estimated 7,032 visits were made to emergency rooms as a result of battery-related injuries from 2010 to 2019, more than twice the number of visits as 1990 to 2009, according to the study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics. That's an average of one battery-related emergency visit every 1¼ hours among children under 18, the report found. Children under 5 were at highest risk, the report noted, especially toddlers between the ages of 1 and 2, who often put things they find into their mouths. Button batteries were responsible for the injuries in more than 87% of the visits in which battery type could be determined, the study said. If you suspect your child has swallowed a battery – or put one in their nose or ear – the National Poison Control Center advises to "Call the National Battery Ingestion Hotline at 800-498-8666 immediately. Prompt action is critical. Don't wait for symptoms to develop." Signs of ingestion can look like the child swallowed a coin, so be wary, experts said. Typical behavior can include wheezing, drooling, coughing, vomiting, chest discomfort, refusal to eat, or gagging when attempting to drink or eat. But for some children, it can take days before symptoms are severe enough to notice. Don't give your child anything to eat or drink until an X-ray shows the battery has moved beyond the esophagus, the NPCC also noted. Batteries stuck in the esophagus must be removed as quickly as possible, as severe damage can occur in just two hours. Batteries in the nose or ear also must be removed immediately to avoid permanent damage," the center advised. |
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Many patients stop taking statins because of muscle pain, but statins aren't causing it |
Statins are an important tool to prevent major cardiovascular problems, but many patients stop taking them because of side effects, including muscle pain. However, for more than 90% of patients on statins who experience muscle pain, the statin is not the cause of the pain, according to new research published this week in the journal The Lancet. The researchers reviewed 19 randomized double-blind trials of statin regimens versus placebos. All trials had over 1,000 participants and at least two years of follow up. They also looked at four double-blind trials of more and less intense statin regimens. Study author Colin Baigent, a professor of epidemiology at University of Oxford, said that there have been many non-randomized studies which don't involve any kind of placebo or random allocation to a statin that have produced "really quite extreme" estimates of how much muscle pain statins cause. This latest analysis found among those on a "moderate-intensity statin regimen" the treatment, is likely to be the cause in only approximately one in 15 patients who report muscle symptoms, rising to approximately one in 10 in those on a more intensive regimen. Moderate intensity was defined as a 30-50% reduction in LDL cholesterol from baseline while high intensity was considered to be a 50% or more reduction. The authors found that in the first year, statin therapy produced a 7% relative increase in muscle pain or weakness, but there was no significant increase after that. |
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Covid-19 rebound is probably more common than data suggests, but Paxlovid still effective |
As the coronavirus evolves, Pfizer's antiviral pill Paxlovid is one of the few treatments that continues to be effective against recent variants. However, some people who take Paxlovid – including President Joe Biden, first lady Dr. Jill Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci – experienced a rebound case of Covid-19: a resurgence of symptoms or positive tests just days after completing treatment and testing negative. "From the data we have so far, Covid-19 rebound is a relatively infrequent event – this is not happening the majority of the time," a CDC spokesperson told CNN. "A small percentage of people with Covid-19 experience a rebound of symptoms, including those who take antiviral medication, such as Paxlovid." However there's a wide range of estimates for what that "small percentage" might be – from less than 1% of people who take Paxlovid to more than 10%. In clinical trial documents submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration last year, Pfizer noted their data shows that about 2% of people showed present or persistent viral load rebound, a share that was similar among both those treated with Paxlovid and the placebo group that wasn't. The data was collected during a time the Delta variant was dominant. A preprint study that tracked rebound cases during the Omicron wave found that 2-4% of patients experienced a rebound infection or symptoms within a week after treatment, and 5 to 6% had a rebound within a month. A separate study published in June by researchers from the Mayo Clinic found that about 1% of patients treated with Paxlovid experienced a rebound of symptoms, an average of about nine days after treatment. But according to Aditya Shah, an infectious disease specialist and an author of the report, the true rate is probably closer to 10%. Despite the potential for a rebound case, experts agree that Paxlovid is still a good treatment option. The vast majority of people who have a rebound case of Covid-19 after taking Paxlovid have been found to have mild symptoms. Sometimes they may come back stronger, as in Fauci's case, but they remain far from the levels of severe disease that Paxlovid is meant to protect from. |
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| We should talk more to ourselves! Constantly telling ourselves stories about who we are, what we are capable of and how the world around us works can help us. Here's how to retool your self-talk to be more positive and more effective. |
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| Have you ever been told that you have a doppelgänger – a real-world look alike? New research says that when you've got one, you might look alike physically – and so might your DNA. The work, published recently in the journal Cell, really caught my eye. I've always been fascinated with the why and how of human biology. This work, led by a team of Spanish researchers, tried to answer the question: What creates a person's doppelgänger? Dr. Manel Esteller, a researcher at the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute in Barcelona, Spain, said that he worked on research involving twins in the past, but for this project, he was interested in people who look alike but have no actual family connection going back almost 100 years. Esteller and his team recruited 32 people with look-alikes who were part of Canadian artist François Brunelle's photo project, "I'm not a look-alike!" The researchers asked all the participants to fill out questionnaires, undergo DNA tests, and put their images through facial recognition programs. The facial recognition programs found that 16 pairs had similar scores to identical twins also identified by the programs, and the other 16 pairs may have looked the same to the human eye, but the algorithm didn't think so in one of the facial recognition programs. The researchers then took a closer look at participants' DNA and found that the pairs the facial recognition software said were similar had many more genes in common than the other 16 pairs of people the facial recognition programs didn't match. "We were able to see that these look-alike humans, in fact, they are sharing several genetic variants. And these are very common among them," Esteller said. "So they share these genetic variants that are related in a way that they have the shape of the nose, the eye, the mouth, the lips, and even the bone structure. And this was the main conclusion that genetics puts them together." These are similar codes, he said, but it is just by random chance. "In the world right now, there are so many people that eventually the system is producing humans with similar DNA sequences," Esteller said. Statistical chance that has given us yet more insight into understanding our biology. |
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| It's easy to forget that we are part of nature. But, we are living, breathing organisms. We are walking biomes. Listen and learn about the science of you and how we traverse the boundary between our bodies and the world around us. |
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