Articles related to ALERTS/WARNINGS/ADVISEMENT

Burkholderia pseudomallei bacteria showed up in four patients in Georgia, Kansas, Minnesota, and Texas in 2021, despite the bacterium typically associated with travel to tropical and subtropical areas like Thailand and Malaysia. The case was cracked when researchers found an essential oil spray that contained B. pseudomallei in the home of a 4-year-old boy who died from complications of the melioidosis outbreak.

The CDC continue to recommend Paxlovid for early-stage treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 among individuals at high risk of progression to severe disease. Recent case reports suggest that some patients treated with Paxlovid may have a recurrence of COVID-19 symptoms two to eight days after completing the five-day course of treatment. Both the illness and the positive test results resolved, on average, three days later without the need for additional treatment.

The US is in the midst of another surge in COVID-19 infections heading into the summer. A GWU physician feels CDC are misserving the country by downplaying the surge and hiding the real data behind an “all green” map.

“The guideline was never intended to set a standard of care in the treatment of pain, much less was it intended to serve as a means to criminally prosecute clinicians. While the new guideline is a substantial improvement, harm from the 2016 guideline will not be easily erased and will require more specific wording than is currently present.” (Requires free registration / login)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns that the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in the US continued to rise during the first year of the pandemic. For the first time in seven years, the overall number of reported STD cases was lower than the previous year, but the CDC attributed the drop-off to a decline in reported cases of chlamydia — the nation’s most common STD — that was likely a result of pandemic-related interruptions to screening.

The CDC has released updated guidelines for prescribing opioids. The newest guidelines focus on patient-centered decisions and reduce some limitations on prescribing that were put in place back in 2016. The updated guidance recognizes the ongoing increase in opioid-related deaths, but seeks to give physicians and patients more direction in managing individual therapy.