COVID-19

A session presenter at the ASCP 2022 Annual Meeting explained how the COVID-19 pandemic significantly magnified the importance of infection prevention and control practices in long-term care.

In addition to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, significant public health concerns include opioid overdoses, maternal mortality disparities, and climate change.

Pharmacy leaders and academics have been begging the profession to evolve for decades. It took a pandemic to make it happen.

Double-digit inflation, low reimbursement rates, and staffing shortages present obstacles.

The vaccine is suggested to cause more rare cases of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome than the mRNA-based vaccine, especially among younger individuals.

Last year in particular, pharmacists played a greater role in patient care with an increased workload as they connected patients, providers, and payers.

Findings are encouraging for individuals with cancer who are receiving immune checkpoint inhibition treatment and want to get a third vaccine dose, investigators said.

Study results indicate durable immune response from bivalent booster after 3 months of follow-up.

Highest prevalence is seen among adults, outpatients, and women and can cause persistent severe anosmia or hyposmia, findings indicate.

The Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine was found to be effective for more than 50% of children aged 6 to 23 months.

People with anxiety and related disorders were found to have vaccine hesitancy related to concerns regarding adverse effects and efficacy.

A researcher suggests that the levels of certain gut bacteria can predict the severity of symptoms that someone can experience when infected with COVID-19.

Prior infection with SARS-CoV-2 decreased the risk of being reinfected with Omicron among unvaccinated and vaccinated individuals.

The test has been available under emergency use authorization (EUA) since March of 2020 and was the first commercial molecular test to receive EUA status.

Researchers suggest that winter 2020 to 2021 public health interventions lowered natural immunity in children and put them at greater risk of respiratory infection after restrictions were lifted.

The risk of severe COVID-19 breakthrough infection was stronger with age and some comorbidities—the findings can inform antiviral distribution to prevent death or respiratory failure.

Staying informed through the right sources and being mindful of antibiotic usage can help health care providers and patients be more prepared for future pandemics.

Neutralizing antibodies increased by 34- to 27-fold compared to pre-booster levels when administered at 8 or 11 months post-primary series.

The TaqMan SARS-CoV-2, Flu A/B, RSV RT-PCR multiplex assay can differentiate between 3 different viral infections (including COVID-19), making it highly cost-effective.

Novavax’s quadrivalent influenza vaccine candidate has previously induced cross-reactive polyfunctional CD4+ T-cell responses, according to a company press release.

Research showed the Omicron BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech) increases neutralizing antibody response against multiple variants of Omicron.

Researchers suggest that all patients with HIV should be considered for additional vaccine doses, among other measures, to reduce their risk.

The vaccine is in a ready-to-use liquid formulation in a vial containing 10 doses, with the vaccination regimen calling for a pair of 0.5 ml doses administered intramuscularly 21 days apart.

Many people wanted life to feel normal during the COVID-19 pandemic; however, this reason, among many, resulted in people not adhering to public health measures in the United States.

The COVID-19 vaccine may generally increase oxygenation ability, which could lead to lower mortality in patients who are treated using invasive mechanical ventilation.

Because we need to be prepared and respond to future crises, making these changes permanent is a top priority for the profession of pharmacy.

Latest Information is key to helping patients stay healthy amid continuously changing landscape.

At month 6 post-COVID-19 infection, 123 patients received a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes (T1D) and only 72 were diagnosed with T1D at 6 months post-non-COVID-19 respiratory infection.

The availability of bivalent mRNA COVID-19 boosters, which provide broader protection, will likely increase vaccine demand in the fall

The Moderna bivalent vaccine is authorized for children 6 years of age and older, and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is authorized for children 5 years of age and older.