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disease, genetics, Health, medications, mental health, Pharmaceuticals, Public health

You might not have known this, but a study called “Landmark” found that people who smoke are more likely to get Alzheimer’s.

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The biggest Alzheimer’s study ever finds new genes and pathways involved in disease progression.

silhouette of a person showing internal nervous system and brain on a blue background surrounded by dna

CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES

The groundbreaking study’s findings imply physicians can better anticipate whether a patient is genetically prone to Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s disease affects over 5.8 million Americans. Researchers from France’s Université de Lille performed the study. A genetic risk score may help determine who is most likely to develop Alzheimer’s.

To better understand Alzheimer’s and create medicines that delay or prevent the disease start, the research represents a huge step forward. The next stage is for researchers to concentrate on the study’s risk genes and their influence in brain cell malfunction and death.

drugs, Health, medications, Pharmaceuticals, Public health

Did you know that Pfizer recalls some batches of blood pressure drugs over carcinogen presence?

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Pfizer (PFE.N) voluntarily recalled five batches of its Accupril blood pressure pills on Friday after the discovery of high amounts of a possible cancer-causing chemical in the medication.

The manufacturer said that it was unaware of any adverse event reports associated with the recalled batches, which were supplied in the United States and Puerto Rico between December 2019 and April 2022. Pfizer Canada similarly recalled all lots of three Accupril dosages on Thursday after determining that the same contaminant was present at unsafe levels. Pfizer said that there was no immediate danger to patients who were taking the drug that included the chemical, nitrosamine. While nitrosamines are naturally occurring in water and food, prolonged exposure over tolerable levels may raise the risk of cancer. Pfizer also withdrew several batches of another blood pressure medication, Accuretic, and two approved less expensive generic equivalents last month owing to the presence of a probable carcinogen.

disease, Health, medications, Pharmaceuticals, Public health

Omicron is a novel coronavirus strain

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Omicron is a novel coronavirus strain with a high number of alarming mutations. Scientists are trying to determine how transmissible and vaccine-resistant this strain is. Examining a virus’s genetic coding is a critical tool for scientists when deducing the genesis of a viral strain. The closest sequences to Omicron are from mid-2020 – more than a year ago. Nonetheless, its alterations distance it significantly from the 2020 strain.

Here’s a computer generated image of the omicron variant of the coronavirus — also known as B.1.1.529. Reported in South Africa on Nov. 24, this variant has a large number of mutations, some of which are concerning.
Uma Shankar sharma/Getty Images

Because it seems as if [this strain of the virus] was on the verge of becoming omicron and therefore a highly transmissible virus, [previous versions] would have begun to spread more broadly prior to now. On the one hand, he acknowledges that there are undoubtedly places in Africa where coronavirus sampling has been limited. Each time it replicates, it has a chance of acquiring a mutation that improves its ability to evade the person’s antibody-producing immune cells. Thus, it would take a really large blind spot to miss something that is truly changing over months, according to main researcher David Bedford. Indeed, it was this warning signal that caused a private laboratory to notify Lessells and his colleagues last month, allowing them to sequence the samples containing omicron. “If you have representative sequencing and frequent sequencing, and you are quick enough to react to what you see in the diagnostic laboratory, you may detect these mutations at an early stage,” he adds. In such cases, Bedford argues, the individual’s immune system is still robust enough to ward off the coronavirus. Due to the fact that we had samples from many different time periods throughout that six-month period, Lessells explains, we were able to demonstrate how the virus developed and how variants with some of the same mutations as the variations of concern occurred in the samples over time.

He does not have an apparent solution other than chance, according to co-discoverer of Omicron David Bedford. Nonetheless, Bedford notes that in the near run, making informed predictions about the origin of omicron can help determine how seriously to take the variant’s danger. For example, he asserts that if omicron evolved invisibly in a vast population of people over a period of months, this indicates that it is not very transmissible. However, they assert that its development serves as another warning that future varieties may be formed as a result of the virus’s mutation. However, he asserts that if omicron evolved in a single person and only recently spread to a larger population, the level of circulation detected now — or, as Bedford puts it, the time frame for reaching the point where we are starting to pick up cases in travelers’ — occurred over a much shorter period. The aim, they assert, is not to blame or stigmatize anyone in this circumstance, but to realize that assisting them is critical to stopping the coronavirus epidemic. And this indicates that the variation is far more transmissible.

Reference

The mystery of where omicron came from — and why it matters. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/12/01/1055803031/the-mystery-of-where-omicron-came-from-and-why-it-matters?fbclid=IwAR1diN84M2YxKJxQ1PZBWwy4Uzh_2LC5ZcG5a5YUrMHYJKHVBriAai5s6sw

disease, drugs, Health, medications, Pharmaceuticals

Did you know 31% of unvaccinated U.S. adults who claim they are waiting for the COVID-19 vaccinations

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Of the 31% of unvaccinated U.S. adults who claim they are waiting for the COVID-19 vaccinations to be approved by the FDA, one-third of these individuals believe this to be for religious reasons. The FDA has approved Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine for ages 16 and up on August 23, 2021. The FDA requires safety studies on a few persons for the temporary use of medications and medications that have received full approval from the FDA. Approximately 43,000 adults participated in the safety studies’ early phases. As Pfizer and Moderna launched their rolling submission for approval in the FDA’s “Fast Track” procedure, which expedites review, Moderna and Pfizer started that process off with a rolling submission in the FDA’s “Fast Track” program.

Initial FDA approval will be granted limited to the same age groups studied under the emergency use authorization issued previously. In Pfizer’s case, the vaccine was initially only licensed for those ages 16 and above and was anticipated to be approved for those ages 18 and up shortly afterward for Moderna.

Reference
What Does Full FDA Approval of the Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Mean?, https://heavy.com/news/pfizer-covid-vaccine-fda-approval/

Culture, disease, drugs, Health, medications, Pharmaceuticals

Southern Indian states have declared a state of emergency

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Two southern Indian states have declared a state of emergency, as coronavirus cases spread at a breakneck pace through the country and pressure increases on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to enforce a national shutdown.


Bengaluru, the capital of Karnataka, has the most significant active caseload of any Indian region, with over 300,000 people. However, analysts warn that the worst is yet to come as India’s third-largest city struggles with oxygen scarcity, overcrowded hospitals, and overcrowded crematoriums. The lockout declaration in Tamil Nadu state came after a regular total of over 26,000 cases on Friday.


Since February, infections have risen dramatically in India due to increased viral varieties and government decisions to encourage large crowds to assemble for religious festivals and political rallies.


India recorded 401,078 suspected cases on Saturday, with a record high of 4,187 deaths. In India, there have been over 21.8 million reported infections and almost 240,000 deaths. Also, such drastic tolls, according to experts, are under-counted.
As his hospital strained to find more air, one doctor in Bengaluru said he had to refuse patients “left, right, and center.”


“The issue is that the demand is so high that we require continuous oxygen,” said Dr. Sanjay Gururaj, medical director at Shanti Hospital and Research Center. The hospital sends a vehicle twice a day to oxygen plants on the city’s outskirts to retrieve 12 jumbo oxygen cylinders. “This would have lasted over two weeks; now, it lasts just over a day,” he said.


The state’s oxygen scarcity led the Supreme Court to ask the federal government to raise the amount of liquid medical oxygen sent to Karnataka. The decision came after 24 virus patients died on Monday in a government hospital. It is unknown how many of them perished because of the shortage of oxygen, but an inquiry is underway.


So far, Modi has delegated liability for combating the virus in this latest outbreak to under-resourced state governments, and he has been accused of doing very little. His government has responded that it is doing everything possible in the face of a “once-in-a-century crisis.” Meanwhile, many medical professionals, minority politicians, and even Supreme Court justices are pressing for nationwide bans, claiming that a patchwork of state regulations is inadequate to increase infections.
Experts warn that the surge in Bengaluru is outpacing that of other hard-hit cities such as the capital, New Delhi, and Mumbai. According to Murad Banaji, a mathematician modeling COVID-19 development in India, cases have increased 100-fold since February, citing official numbers. Test positivity has risen to over 30%, showing that the virus is much more severe than reported estimates, he said.
“Disaster was looming by early March when cases rose,” he said. “Bangalore is more than a ticking time bomb — it is amid an explosion.” Bengaluru was classified as Bangalore.


In recent weeks, Northern India, headed by New Delhi, has received much attention, with news channels broadcasting pictures of patients lying on stretchers outside hospitals and mass funeral pyres that flame all night.
The crisis in Karnataka has drawn attention to other southern states dealing with an increase in incidents. In Andhra Pradesh, daily cases have surpassed 20,000 for the past three days, prompting the state to impose new restrictions.

Kerala, which served as a model for dealing with the pandemic last year, went into lockdown on Saturday. With chronic cases exceeding 40,000, the state is increasing money, including turning hundreds of industrial oxygen cylinders into medical oxygen, according to Dr. Amar Fetle, the state’s COVID-19 officer.


“The magnitude of cases from last year to now is different,” he said, noting that rising figures have resulted in further hospitalizations and increased demand on health-care services, with hospitals complete. “It has turned into a race between occupancy and how quickly we can add beds. We are doing everything we can to remain ahead of the virus.”


Infections are on the rise in the southern area, but there has been “less visible outcry” than in the north due to improved health facilities and government programs addressing issues at the neighborhood level, according to Jacob John, professor of community medicine at Christian Medical College, Vellore.


However, as the epidemic has ravaged major cities in waves, smaller towns and communities with tiny links to health services are also at risk.


“These places are becoming affected, which suggests that we may not have seen the worst yet in south India,” he added.


Reference
India’s surge hits southern states, prompts more lockdowns. https://apnews.com/article/india-religion-coronavirus-pandemic-health-18d61c7956cb0bf9f59d975a5f171875

disease, Health, medications, Pharmaceuticals

The effectiveness of vaccinations against new variants

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The effectiveness of vaccinations against new variants would also dictate when, where, and how often additional shots are needed. According to Pfizer’s latest trial, the two-dose vaccine appears extremely successful for at least six months, and potentially longer. Additionally, six months after receiving the second requisite injection, those that received Moderna’s vaccine retained significant amounts of virus-fighting antibodies. Although the new COVID-19 vaccines are expected to last at least a year, they are unlikely to have lifetime immunity, like measles vaccinations do, according to Dr. Kathleen Neuzil, a vaccine specialist at the University of Maryland. Present vaccinations are targeted against a specific spike protein found in coronaviruses, according to Mehul Suthar of the Emory Vaccine Center. If the virus evolves sufficiently over time, vaccinations may need to be modified to maintain efficacy.The vaccinations tend to be protective against the prominent strains that have arisen, albeit somewhat less so against the one initially discovered in South Africa.

Reference

How long does protection from COVID-19 vaccines last?,https://www.woodtv.com/covid-19-vaccine/how-long-does-protection-from-covid-19-vaccines-last/

disease, drugs, Health

Three hundred health initiatives have been introduced

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More than three hundred health initiatives have been introduced under the Trump presidency. The little-used statute recognized as the Congressional Review Act helps a new government to oversee the revocation of the regulations. However, Congress has not attempted to use it to date, and the president has not requested it. The legislation extends, with a few variations, to policies concluded between 21 August 2020 and 20 January 2021. It is only valid for the first 60 parliamentary days of the current Congress.

In 2017, Republicans abrogated a family planning policy by the Congressional Review Act. The administration of Biden may well be the one to assess it. Using the act is dangerous, too. No administration will issue an “equivalent” rule under its provisions. Many revisions to Trump’s agenda are part of broader legislation affecting a wide range of topics. The Senate also has a chief for the Management and Budget Bureau to confirm, and the current Secretary for Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, was sworn in last week.

Congress could shift to the Act of Congressional Review. The act was not included during the transfer from Obama to Biden. For both the Biden government and the new Congress, the change process was turbulent. It is not too late for Congress to apply the act to a Trump law at the last minute, which allows HHS to revise 18,000 regulations. This might be a cleaner approach to avoid the sunset clause, which asks for a range of laws to be checked.

Reference

How Biden Could Quickly Undo Trump Era Health Policies, https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/03/26/981410515/how-biden-could-quickly-undo-trump-era-health-policies

disease, drugs, medications, Pharmaceuticals

4,400 Modern Doses of Vaccine Not Kept Cool

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4,400 Modern Doses of Vaccine Not Kept Cool Enough Might be Unusable. Maine health officials noticed that during transport, several Moderna vaccine shipments were not kept sufficiently cool. According to the CDC, Moderna’s vaccine vials must stay at freezing temperatures between -25°C and -15°C. Whether the doses of the vaccine would have to be tossed away or even be used is uncertain. The vaccine was shipped from the manufacturer’s processing plant in Massachusetts to 50 locations throughout the state, health officials said. Processes are to guarantee that the doses are held cool, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.

Resource
4,400 Moderna Vaccine Doses Not Kept Cold Enough May Be Unusable. https://www.npr.org/2021/01/19/958539556/4-400-moderna-vaccine-doses-not-kept-cold-enough-may-be-unusable

disease, drugs, Health

Pfizer will only be able to deliver 2.9 million doses in the first few days

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It is expected that Pfizer will only be able to deliver 2.9 million doses in the first few days and only up to 6.4 million doses by 19 December, according to Operation Warp Speed, the government’s vaccine effort.

“As part of the discussion on who should qualify for phase 1b access to the vaccine, ACIP has so far discussed individuals with high-risk medical conditions such as cancer, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), immunocompromised organ transplant status, obesity, severe heart disease, sickle cell disease, and type 2 diabetes,” said the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

For example, last month, the head of the Hawaii Healthcare Association told CNN that not a single hospital in Hawaii had a freezer that could remain cold enough to store Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine and that the state may not have enough access to dry ice to make proper use of the company’s distribution boxes.

They resolve quickly, but CDC and other officials are worried that they might scare some people away from getting a second dose of vaccine and are preparing educational materials to let people know the symptoms are a sign that the vaccine is working to reactivate the body’s immune response and is harmless.

Vaccine counselors have already broken down priority groups into subgroups, and only the first people to receive vaccines have been identified.

Operation Warp Speed Chief Counselor Moncef Slaoui has projected that Pfizer and Moderna can make and deliver between 60 million and 70 million vaccines in January and hopes that two other vaccine makers, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson, will join the vaccine mix in the coming months.

Moderna and Pfizer each claim that they can take up to a billion doses by the end of 2021, but Moderna say that it could be half that—a product that has never been sold before—and Pfizer has already severely adjusted its timeline for delivery of vaccines after unspecified manufacturing problems.

Slaoui said that up to 15% of Pfizer and Moderna vaccine participants had quite noticeable side effects,” including nausea, body aches, headaches, and chills.

Pfizer’s vaccine had its first scare in the US with a health worker in Juneau, Alaska, suffering from an allergic reaction.

“Around one in every million people who get a vaccine can have a severe allergic reaction to the vaccine,” Dr.

And what about the essential workers? ACIP’s expert bodies, including Johns Hopkins University and the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, suggest it will be prudent to vaccinate those who work in food processing, emergency responders, and service workers before the general public.

The US Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization for Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine on Friday, and it is widely expected that EUA will give a similar vaccine to Moderna next week.

Reference

Trump says he is ‘not scheduled’ to take Covid-19 vaccine …. https://www.rt.com/usa/509567-trump-white-house-vaccine-later/

disease, drugs, Health, medications

The latest Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna

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The latest Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna tend to be exceptionally effective at avoiding severe illness. Scientists are worried that if vaccinated people are silent spreaders of the virus, they could keep it circulating in their populations, putting unvaccinated people in danger. In certain respiratory infections, like the current coronavirus, the nose is the primary access stage. Vaccines are inserted directly into the tissues to activate the immune system to generate antibodies. This seems to be ample security to discourage the individual from being vaccinated from being sick.


Next-generation coronavirus vaccines can trigger immunity in the nose and the rest of the respiratory tract. Mucosal vaccinations are safer than intramuscular procedures to keep respiratory viruses from arising. The lungs are far more open than the nose or mouth to circulating antibodies. Vaccine studies did not produce results about how many patients became afflicted with the infection but showed no effects. The amount of the virus that you replicate in the nose can be decreased if one gets sick, says the immunologist. An informed guide to the global epidemic can be found at com/Heroes.


Coronavirus vaccinations demonstrate robust safety from being ill. Life can return to normal only when civilization as a whole has an inadequate defense against coronavirus. For the time being, even vaccinated citizens would continue to use masks to prevent indoor crowds. The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccines are given as an injection through the arm, as most traditional vaccines. The injection will not be any different from that one had previously, and there are no significant side effects. Moderna and Pfizer vaccines utilize a genetic molecule to activate the immune response. The enzyme, known as mRNA, is ultimately killed by the body. The mRNA is wrapped in an oily bubble that can fuse into a cell, enabling the molecule to slide in. The cell uses mRNA to produce coronavirus proteins that may activate the immune system. The mRNA will only survive for at most a few days until it is lost.

Reference
Here’s Why Vaccinated People Still Need to Wear a Mask. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/08/health/covid-vaccine-mask.html