Tag Archives: children

disease, Health, medications, Pharmaceuticals, Public health

Preparing for a Safer Respiratory Season: What You Need to Know About Flu Shots for Children is More Important Than Ever

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Fall traditionally heralds the return of pumpkin spice lattes, cozy sweaters, and colorful foliage. However, it also marks the onset of the flu season, and this year, as in the past couple of years, it includes a continued struggle with COVID-19 and the rise of another concerning virus, RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus). As we approach another potential “tripledemic,” there is new hope with updated vaccines for COVID-19, RSV, and the annual flu shot.

The Updated COVID-19 Vaccines

The COVID-19 situation remains fluid, with variants such as Omicron’s descendant, XBB.1.5, throwing new challenges at healthcare professionals and vaccine manufacturers alike. Pfizer, Moderna, and Novavax have updated their COVID-19 vaccines to target this specific variant. With FDA approval expected soon, these shots are an integral part of the plan to avoid another catastrophic respiratory season.

Effectiveness

Recent lab tests indicate that the updated COVID-19 vaccines will offer crossover protection against the most prevalent coronavirus strains. While earlier vaccinations offered some defense, especially against severe disease and death, their efficacy waned. This warning makes the updated booster shots crucial for continued protection.

The Importance of the Flu Vaccine

Influenza is no minor adversary. It poses significant risks to the young, the elderly, and those with underlying health conditions. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it is recommended that anyone aged six months and older get an annual influenza vaccine. Seniors can choose from three kinds of flu shots designed to ramp up an older adult’s immune system more effectively.

RSV Vaccines Finally Arrive

RSV is the least discussed but equally worrying virus. While generally manifesting as a cold-like ailment, it can be deadly for children under five and older adults. New RSV vaccines from GSK and Pfizer are now approved for adults 60 and older and recommended for pregnant women to protect their newborns.

For Babies

Another preventative measure against RSV for infants is a lab-made antibody injection, recently approved and known as Beyfortus. This one-dose drug is recommended for all infants younger than eight months before their first RSV season.

Can You Get All the shots at Once?

Yes, you can. The CDC advises that receiving a flu shot and a COVID-19 shot simultaneously has no detrimental effects on their efficacy or side effects. For those who are eligible, adding an RSV shot to the mix could be discussed with healthcare providers.

A Call to Action

Seriously, with hospitalizations due to COVID-19, flu, and RSV putting tremendous strain on healthcare systems, taking preventative measures is more important than ever. Updated vaccines are weapons in our arsenal that can make a real difference. As we await more detailed advice from health organizations on the most effective way to use these vaccines, one message is clear: the more people get vaccinated, the safer we will be. So, this fall, consider it your civic duty to get your shots—not just for your health but for the community’s collective well-being.

September Is National Food Safety Education Month. (2016). In FEW’s News (Vol. 48, Issue 5, p. 3). Federally Employed Women, Inc.

Flu Shots for Children are More Important Than Ever. https://www.familiesfightingflu.org/getting-your-child-their-flu-shot-now-is-more-important-than-ever/

Health

Increasing exposure to laundry detergent packets among older children

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There was an average of 1 call about every 42 minutes in 2017 towards the poison control center linked to liquid laundry detergent packets.

The voluntary standard, public awareness campaigns of detergent packets poison, and product and packaging changes to-date are reasonable first steps. Nevertheless, the numbers are nevertheless unacceptably high.

The analysis authors claim that detergent makers reformulate the pods and create regular packaging, which makes them childproof.

There was an average of one call about every 42 minutes in 2017 into the poison control center linked to liquid laundry detergent packets.

The study authors declare that detergent makers reformulate the pods and make a standard packaging which makes them childproof.

Reference
Despite safety standard, laundry packet exposures increase …. https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-06/nch-dss053119.php

Culture, disease, environmental, Health

Toxic Air may shorten children’s lifespans

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Air pollution is presently shortening life-span by an average of twenty months around the world. This problem means that children born today will live twenty months less than they would definitely on a planet with no contaminated air.

The State of Global Air is a yearly report developed by the Health Effects Institute and the Institute for Health prosody and Evaluation’s Global Burden of Disease Project. The goal of the report is to accumulate global air quality and health information to provide information on the polluting of the environment and the health impacts it produces. The phrase “air pollution” is the total description of particulate matter in ambient air, ozone, plus domestic polluting of the environment.

This is the first year that life span is included in the record, and the impacts astonished Robert O’Keefe, the vice-president regarding the Health Effects Institute. He informed The Guardian “that the life of children is being reduced so much came as quite a shock…there is absolutely no magic bullet, however governing bodies must try to taking action.”

Polluting of the environment is now almost comparable to cigarette smoking as a health threat, and contributed to one in every ten fatalities in 2017. Short-term health consequence consists of the throat, ear, and nose discomfort. It may also worsen allergic reactions, symptoms of asthma, or other breathing circumstances. Extended exposure to polluting of the environment enhances the risk of death from type 2 diabetes, stroke, COPD, lung cancer, ischemic cardiovascular condition, and lower-respiratory bacterial infections.

Air pollution’s effect on life span includes regional differences. For children in evolved regions, life expectancy is expected to be reduced in five months. In the least-developed areas of the world, air pollution exposure is the greatest, causing further substantial declines in life-span.

Some locations may experience more or less ambient polluting of the environment and household pollution. Cooking food with solid fuels is an illustration of exposure to domestic polluting of the environment. In locations where ambient air fine particulate matter amounts tend to be high as well as domestic air pollution amounts, truth be told there is a more significant life-span loss. In the Southern parts of Asia, the blended air pollutants decrease life-span by thirty months. In sub-Saharan Africa only 80% cook with solid fuels—ambient polluting of the environment is low, and household air pollution is responsible for the majority of the life-span loss.

Enhancing air quality will benefit life expectancies all over the world. China, which is one of the most populated areas with significant air pollution, has noticed an extraordinary reduction in unfolding to delicate particulate matter in ambient air.