The HPV vaccine prevents new infections of human papillomavirus (HPV), which is the most common cause of cervical cancer. Children can receive the vaccine before puberty, at 1112 years old.
The main mode of transmission for HPV is sexual activity. For this reason, it is important that people get the vaccine early, before there is any chance they will become sexually active.
This does not just apply to females 4 in 10 HPV-related cancer cases occur in males. In total, around 36,500 people in the United States receive an HPV-related cancer diagnosis every year.
So, should you get the HPV vaccine? For most young people, the answer is yes, with some exceptions. Read on to learn more.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that all children receive an HPV vaccination around puberty. It is safe for children as young as 9 years old, but the typical age is 1112 years old.
If a person did not receive the vaccine at this age, they can still gain the maximum benefits if they are not yet sexually active.
The CDC recommends HPV vaccination to all people under 26 years old who have not received HPV vaccination before.
Most sexually active adults have exposure to HPV at some point. However, there are more than 100 types of HPV, and only some of them cause cancer. HPV can also cause genital warts.
Even if people are already sexually active, the vaccine may still prevent the most serious types of HPV. And if people have had HPV before, the vaccine may prevent them from contracting other strains.
Adults ages 2745 years should discuss the potential benefits of vaccination with a doctor. Vaccination after 45 years of age is not dangerous but may not offer significant benefit.
For most people, yes. Anyone can contract or transmit HPV, and anyone can develop HPV-related cancers. As a result, almost everyone can benefit from protection against this virus.
HPV vaccination prevents more than 90% of cancers that the virus can cause. In addition to cervical cancer, HPV can result in the following types of cancer:
While routine screening tests are available for cervical cancer, no such tests exist for these other forms of cancer. Doctors may not detect these cancers until they cause significant health problems.
Regular checkups are important to monitor for early signs of health conditions.
People should avoid the HPV vaccine for health reasons if:
People who have a moderate or severe temporary illness may want to delay vaccination until they are well.
For some other groups, HPV vaccines may be safe but may not be as effective as they could be. For example, the vaccine cannot treat an active HPV infection or prevent any harmful effects of that particular strain, but it could prevent someone from contracting additional types of HPV.
Yes, the HPV vaccine is safe for almost everyone. No serious negative effects have resulted from the vaccine, except for allergic reactions and fainting, which can happen after any vaccination.
Very rarely, people can have serious allergic reactions (anaphylaxis) in response to vaccines. For HPV vaccines, the rate of anaphylaxis is 3 cases per 1 million doses.
Otherwise, the side effects are mild and temporary. The most commonly reported effects are:
Each type of HPV vaccine that has been available in the United States has undergone strict safety testing before becoming publicly available. Scientists tested the vaccine Gardasil 9 in 15,000 people to determine its safety. There is no evidence that it causes any long-term harm.
In 2013, Japan temporarily suspended its HPV vaccination program in response to media reports of side effects. This led people to become scared of getting the vaccine. Some people also reinforced social stigma around getting the vaccine by alleging that only people who had many sexual partners needed to worry about getting HPV.
The fear and misinformation around HPV vaccines resulted in a dramatic decline in HPV vaccination coverage, from 70% to less than 1%, which lasted for 8 years.
While Japan reinstated the vaccination program in 2021, the uptake remains low. As a result, rates of cervical cancer have increased significantly.
There is no evidence that HPV vaccines cause serious side effects or that they encourage people to have many sexual partners.
The HPV vaccine works by stimulating the bodys natural immune response to HPV. It does this via virus-like particles (VLPs), which make the body think it has HPV when it does not.
VLPs consist of material from the surface of HPV, but they are not infectious and cannot replicate. Still, the immune system interprets their presence similarly to the presence of the real virus and begins to make antibodies.
If a person encounters HPV later on, their immune system will already be capable of fighting the virus, preventing infection.
All forms of the vaccine have a high efficacy of close to 100% at preventing strains of HPV that cause persistent infection.
In terms of health, the HPV shot has few downsides for most people. It offers safe and effective protection against viruses that can potentially cause cancer, and it usually has only minor side effects.
However, since the launch of HPV vaccination in the United States, distrust has grown, despite the consistent research showing its benefits. This may be due to inaccurate information that parents and caregivers are finding online.
Additionally, some people have concerns that HPV vaccination encourages potentially harmful sexual behavior. There is also no evidence to support this claim.
Most people, especially young people, should get the HPV vaccination. The benefits of the shot vastly outweigh the few risks. The HPV vaccine can prevent up to 90% of cervical cancers and may also prevent cancers of the mouth and throat, anus, vulva, and penis.
The side effects of the HPV vaccine are minor. The only known risk that can become serious is anaphylaxis, which is very rare.
A person who is considering the HPV vaccine for themselves or their child should discuss it with a trusted healthcare professional.
Measles outbreaks in the U.S. and abroad are raising health experts concern about the preventable, once-common childhood virus.
One of the worlds most contagious diseases, measles can lead to potentially serious complications. The best defense, according to experts? Get vaccinated.
Heres what to know about the year so far in measles.
Nationwide, measles cases already are nearly double the total for all of last year.
The U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention documented 113 cases as of April 5. There have been seven outbreaks and most of U.S. cases 73% are linked to those flare-ups.
Still, the count is lower than some recent years: 2014 saw 667 cases and 2019 had 1,274.
The 2019 measles epidemic was the worst in almost three decades, and threatened the United States status as a country that has eliminated measles by stopping the continual spread of the measles virus.
The CDC on Thursday released a report on recent measles case trends, noting that cases in the first three months of this year were 17 times higher than the average number seen in the first three months of the previous three years.
While health officials seem to be doing a good job detecting and responding to outbreaks, the rapid increase in the number of reported measles cases during the first quarter of 2024 represents a renewed threat to elimination, the reports authors said.
The disease is still common in many parts of the world, and measles reaches the U.S. through unvaccinated travelers.
According to Thursdays report, most of the recent importations involved unvaccinated Americans who got infected in the Middle East and Africa and brought measles back to the U.S.
Health officials confirmed measles cases in 17 states so far this year, including cases in New York City, Philadelphia and Chicago.
More than half of this years cases come from the Chicago outbreak, where 61 people have contracted the virus as of Thursday, largely among people who lived in a migrant shelter.
The city health department said Thursday that cases are on the decline after health officials administered 14,000 vaccines in just over a month.
Measles is highly contagious. It spreads when people who have it breathe, cough or sneeze and through contaminated surfaces. It also can linger in the air for two hours.
Up to 9 out of 10 people who are susceptible will get the virus if exposed, according to the CDC.
Before a vaccine became available in 1963, there were some 3 million to 4 million cases per year, which meant nearly all American kids had it sometime during childhood, according to the CDC. Most recovered.
But measles can be much more than an uncomfortable rash, said Susan Hassig, an infectious disease researcher at Tulane University.
I think that people need to remember that this is a preventable disease, Hassig said. It is a potentially dangerous disease for their children.
In the decade before the vaccine was available, 48,000 people were hospitalized per year. About 1,000 people developed dangerous brain inflammation from measles each year, and 400 to 500 died, according to the CDC.
The measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is safe and effective. It is a routine and recommended childhood vaccine that is split into two doses.
Research shows it takes a very high vaccination rate to prevent measles from spreading: 95% of the population should have immunity against the virus.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, national vaccination rates for kindergartners fell to 93% and remain there. Many pockets of the country have far lower rates than that. The drop is driven in part by record numbers of kids getting waivers.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
It's been more than four years since the first outbreak of COVID-19 hit the United States, but Sandra Fryhofer, MD, the AMAs liaison to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), has a message she wants all physicians to share with their patients: COVID-19 still exists.
CDC surveys say less than 50% of people who get sick are testing themselves for COVID," said Dr. Fryhofer, who also is an internist and a member of ACIPs COVID-19 Vaccine Workgroup. We're all sick and tired of COVID, but the virus is still here. It's still circulating.
There are about 20,000 new hospital admissions and 2,000 deaths every week related to COVID-19, according to Dr. Fryhofer. That is why there are new recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines as well as isolation guidelines when sick.
Dr. Fryhofer discussed the key takeaways from those recommendations in a recent episode of AMA Update.
The updated COVID-19 vaccine became available in September 2023 and continues to be effective against JN. 1, the most dominant variant since January. Despite its effectiveness, more than half of people 65 or older have not received the updated COVID-19 vaccine.
This is alarming because most hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 are in people who are 65 or older. Meanwhile, the highest COVID-19 mortality rates belong to people 75 or older.
Our immune systems don't work as well as we get older," Dr. Fryhofer said. "And immunity wanes more quickly in older age groups. This means more frequent vaccine doses are needed to maintain protection in this older population.
The new recommendations state that all adults 65 or older should get the added dose of the vaccine. But there is a required four-month interval between patients receiving the first dose of the vaccine and the updated vaccine.
Dr. Fryhofer explained that using the word "should" was debated, but ultimately it was chosen to stress the importance that this population stay current on vaccinations.
This stronger language is crystal clear and demonstrates ACIP's confidence in the importance of an additional dose of the vaccine in keeping our most vulnerable Americans protected, she said.
Get trusted insight from physicians on hot topics in todays health care headlinesdelivered to your inbox.
The hope, Dr. Fryhofer said, is that physicians can help all patientsparticularly the older populationunderstand the importance and effectiveness of the updated vaccine.
That's where physicians can really make a difference, she said. Adults who are vaccinatedor definitely plan to get vaccinatedwere more likely to report a health care provider recommended they get a COVID vaccine. This highlights the importance of physician recommendation."
Visit the AMA COVID-19 resource center for physicians for clinical information, guides and resources, and updates on advocacy and medical ethics.
Isolation guidelines have relaxed
The recommendation that received the most media attention is that individuals who test positive for COVID-19 no longer must isolate for five days.
With this new guidance, people who test positive for COVID-19 should stay home while sick, Dr. Fryhofer said. But you can return to work when you're feeling better and fever-free for 24 hours without taking fever-lowering medications.
She did recommend that if patients do test positive, they should wear a mask for the five days that follow and try to physically distance themselves from other people, particularly those who are considered high-risk individuals, such as people with weakened immune systems or adults 65 or older.
Dr. Fryhofer acknowledged people are tired of masks, testing and thinking about COVID-19. But vaccine fatigue, as she described it, is a concern physicians need to address. That starts by encouraging patients to get the updated vaccine, she said.
Our patients listen to usthey trust us, Dr. Fryhofer said. The new recommendations are meant to inform, not offend. COVID is here. It has not gone away. People are still being hospitalized. People are still dying from COVID.
AMA Update is your source for physician-focused news. Hear from physicians and other experts on trending public health concerns, practice issues and morebecause whos doing the talking matters. Catch every episode by subscribing to the AMAs YouTube channel or listen to all AMA podcasts at ama-assn.org/podcasts.
A Facebook post shared a photo of a New Jersey doctors office notice as evidence that COVID-19 vaccines are dangerous for student athletes.
TheApril 9 posthighlighted parts of the notice that said COVID-19 vaccinations affect your risk of sudden cardiac death on the playing field, and that the office may not be able to clear vaccinated athletes sports physicals without lab work and possibly an echocardiogram to rule out potential heart damage.
The post resonated with people who oppose COVID-19 vaccines. Amazing, even after they knew early on that the vaccine was affecting childrens hearts, they still kept pushing it for even younger kids, one commenter wrote. And they called us all names for 3 years, said another.
The post was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about ourpartnership with Facebook.)
The notice from the doctors office Morris Sussex Family Practice in Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey (now called Morris Sussex Direct Family Practice) is real. But one notice from a single doctors office does not equate to evidence that COVID-19 vaccines increase the risk of sudden cardiac arrests in young athletes.
(Screenshot/Facebook)
The notice was shared in a New Jersey schoolsFacebook groupin July 2022 and it has been on the practices website sinceat least March 2022, according to the Internet Archives Wayback Machine.
The notice was updatedin January 2023to say that having a COVID-19 infection also may lead the office to require additional tests for sports physicals. The noticenow says, COVID infection and COVID vaccinations affect your risk of sudden cardiac death.
But scientificstudieshave found no link between COVID-19 vaccinations and increased risk of cardiac arrest in young athletes. The narrative that the two are associated, widespread throughout the pandemic by groups opposed to COVID-19 vaccines, has been consistentlydebunkedbyjournalists, including PolitiFact.
Sports cardiology expertstold PolitiFactin January 2023 that they havent seen a sharp rise in athlete cardiac arrest episodes since the COVID-19 vaccines came out.
There is a rare, but increased risk of myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) and pericarditis (inflammation of the lining outside the heart) mostlyin male teens and young adultswithin seven days of receiving a second dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said.
A2022 studyin England showed the risk of myocarditis from COVID-19 infection is substantially higher than the risk of myocarditis after a vaccine.
Health experts say myocarditis usuallygoes away quicklybut severe cases can permanently damage the heart muscle andin some caseslead to sudden cardiac arrest.
But anApril CDC studythat focused on young people, although not specifically athletes, provides more evidence that theres no connection between the vaccines and sudden cardiac deaths.
Investigators examined Oregon death certificate data from June 2021 to December 2022 for 1,292 people ages 16 to 30. None of the death certificates listed vaccination as an immediate or contributing cause of death.
Of the total, 101 deaths could not exclude a cardiac cause. Vaccination records were available for 88 of those people, and 40 had received at least one dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. Of those 40, three died within 100 days of a vaccine dose.
Two of those people had underlying illnesses such as congestive heart failure and chronic respiratory failure, and the cause of death of the other was undermined natural cause. A follow-up with the medical examiner could neither confirm nor exclude a vaccine-associated adverse event as a cause of death for this decedent, the study said.
The data do not support an association of COVID-19 vaccination with sudden cardiac death among previously healthy young persons, the study concluded.
We rate the claim that a notice from a New Jersey doctors office proves that COVID-19 vaccines are dangerous for athletes False.
This fact check was originally published by PolitiFact, which is part of the Poynter Institute. See the sources for this fact check here.
In a recent study published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), a group of researchers investigated the association between messenger Ribonucleic Acid (mRNA) coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination and sudden cardiac death in Oregon residents aged 1630 years between June 2021 and December 2022.
Study: Assessment of Risk for Sudden Cardiac Death Among Adolescents and Young Adults After Receipt of COVID-19 Vaccine Oregon, June 2021December 2022. Image Credit:wacomka/ Shutterstock
In December 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized two mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, initially allocated to healthcare workers and long-term care residents in the United States (U.S.) and later to older adults and those with high-risk conditions, before including healthy young individuals. By April 2021, all Oregonians aged 16 were eligible. Shortly afterward, reports emerged of myocarditis, especially in young males, with incidences estimated at 2.13 per 100,000, rising to 10.69 among young males in Israel. These cases were generally mild, with quick recoveries post-hospitalization. Despite no fatal myocarditis reports in Oregon to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), sudden deaths among young athletes raised concerns, necessitating further research to clarify any vaccine linkage.
Under Oregon law, each death must have a completed death certificate maintained in a system that meets the data-quality standards set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) 's National Center for Health Statistics, including rigorous quality assurance reviews. Although there is no independent verification for the completeness of death certificate reporting, data on Oregon residents who die outside the state are also gathered through interstate agreements. Additionally, the ALERT Immunization Information System (IIS), which serves as Oregon's comprehensive immunization registry, required mandatory reporting of all COVID-19 vaccinations during the pandemic.
In an effort to examine the occurrence of sudden cardiac deaths possibly related to recent COVID-19 vaccination, researchers analyzed Oregon's death certificate database. They focused on identifying individuals aged 16-30 who died between June 1, 2021, and December 31, 2022, and whose cause of death included terms such as "sudden death," asystole," "cardiac arrest," "unknown," "undetermined," or "pending," "arrhythmia," and "myocarditis." For those cases where a cardiac cause was likely, the team cross-referenced with the ALERT IIS to check if the deceased had received an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine within 100 days before their death. The analysis also considered gender differences in the findings. This investigation was carried out by the Oregon Health Authority, which stated that the activity was not research but was conducted in accordance with federal law and state policy.
During the period from June 2021 to December 2022, in Oregon, a total of 1,292 deaths were recorded among individuals aged 16 to 30 years, with males comprising 72% (925) and females 28% (367) of the deceased.
For the male decedents, none of the death certificates identified vaccination as either an immediate or contributing cause of death. COVID-19 was mentioned as a cause in 17 (2%) of the male deaths. The majority of male deaths, 842 (91%), were attributed to noncardiac causes or other conditions. However, in 66 (7%) of the cases, excluding a cardiac cause was not possible based on the information on the death certificates. Within this subset, vaccination records were available for 58 (88%), with 24 (41%) having received at least one dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. Of these 24, two deaths occurred within 100 days post-vaccination. The first involved a male who died from congestive heart failure 21 days after vaccination, with contributing conditions including hypertension, obesity, diabetes, and sleep apnea. The second case, recorded 45 days post-vaccination, was labeled as an undetermined natural cause, with toxicology reports negative for common illegal substances but positive for prescribed medications. The medical examiner could not definitively link or rule out the vaccine as a contributing factor.
Among the female decedents, similarly, no death certificate cited vaccination as a cause. COVID-19 was noted in 13 (4%) cases. The majority, 319 (87%), had noncardiac reasons listed on their death certificates. For the remaining 35 (10%), where a cardiac cause could not be excluded, vaccination records were available for 30 (86%), and 16 (53%) had received at least one mRNA COVID-19 vaccine dose. Only one female, who died four days after receiving her vaccine dose, had her death recorded as natural, with the immediate cause being undetermined but related to chronic respiratory failure due to mitral stenosis.
To summarize, data from 40 U.S. healthcare systems from January 2021 to January 2022 showed that cardiac complications were significantly more common after COVID-19 infection than post-mRNA vaccination for those aged 5 years. In Oregon, from June 2021 to December 2022, of 1,292 deaths among residents aged 16-30, none were definitively linked to cardiac causes shortly after vaccination. During this period, 979,289 vaccine doses were administered to this group. Among 30 COVID-19-attributed deaths, only three had received the vaccine. Nationwide, vaccination is credited with preventing about 3.2 million deaths in its first two years.
Journal reference:
404 error. The page you are looking for cannot be found.
Please visit the home page or use the search box in the header above.
Before you go, weigh in with your opinion in this survey.
(The Center Square) A New Jersey county government broke procurement rules, overpaid contractors and failed to properly manage more than $40 million in funding for its COVID-19 vaccination program, according to a scathing new report by the state's fiscal watchdog.
Thereportby acting state Comptroller Kevin Walsh's office uncovered widespread "waste" and deficiencies, including lax oversight of spending and multiple violations of federal, state and local procurement rules in Essex County's vaccination program, which was funded with federal dollars.
"The governments obligation to protect taxpayer funds doesnt go away during an emergency," Walsh said in a statement. "As we found in Essex County, overusing emergency contracts and failing to monitor vendors and implement basic financial controls increases the likelihood of fraud, waste, and abuse risks that can and should be avoided."
Essex County, one of New Jersey's most populous, was hard hit by the COVID-19 outbreak. The $40 million vaccination program, praised by Gov. Phil Murphy at the time, administered more than 620,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines from December 2020 through August 2023, according tothe report.
The investigation, conducted as part of the Comptroller Office's COVID-19 Compliance and Oversight Project, was sparked by an anonymous tip alleging fraud, waste and abuse in the program. Investigators found the county government improperly awarded millions of dollars as emergency contracts, bypassing the competitive bidding process, according to Walsh's office.
The program's managers also failed to follow state and local requirements requiring them to document the need for emergency contracts and not having the County Commissioners review and approve each contract before distributing the funds.
Walsh's investigation also faulted county officials for failing to properly vet vendor payments. In one example, investigators found that 15 payments totaling $871,211 were made to vendors without invoices, "making it difficult to validate what goods or services were provided." From May 2020 through August 2021, the county also paid $1.29 million to the East Orange-based Dunton Consulting firm for robocall services.
The report noted that "many of the firms invoices were riddled with errors and used a fee structure that varied wildly, without explanation all of the invoices were nonetheless paid."
Investigators also uncovered shoddy oversight of the estimated 800 individuals employed as part of the vaccination program, uncovering numerous irregularities such as individuals who held full-time jobs while working the same hours for the vaccination program. The program spent 17 million on payroll costs, according to Walsh's report.
One worker was paid $130,000 over 11 months, but investigators said interviews with county officials revealed that they "didnt know who that person was or what the person did."
"Even after the County investigated and dismissed three workers who were found to be logging in hours when they were not at the vaccination sites, the county didnt change its timekeeping system to close this loophole, nor did it initiate a broader investigation at that time," the report's authors wrote.
In response to the findings, Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo dismissed the comptroller's report as a "gotcha" investigation focusing on a small portion of the COVID-19 vaccination funding. He also criticized Walsh for not doing enough to crack down on abuses during the pandemic.
"It would have been helpful to have them stand shoulder to shoulder with us back then rather than have them unfairly criticize our performance years later," DiVincenzo said in a statement.
Four years ago in the spring of 2020, physicians and patients coined the term "long COVID" to describe a form of the viral infection from which recovery seemed impossible. (And the old nickname "long-haulers" seems so quaint now.)
What started as a pandemic that killed nearly 3 million people globally in 2020 alone would turn into a chronic disease causing a long list of symptoms from extreme fatigue, to brain fog, tremors, nausea, headaches, rapid heartbeat, and more.
Today, 6.4% of Americans report symptoms of long COVID, and many have never recovered.
Still, we've come a long way, although there's much we don't understand about the condition. At the very least, physicians have a greater understanding that long COVID exists and can cause serious long-term symptoms.
While physicians may not have a blanket diagnostic tool that works for all patients with long COVID, they have refined existing tests for more accurate results, said Nisha Viswanathan, MD, director of the University of California Los Angeles Long COVID Program at UCLA Health.
Also, a range of new treatments, now undergoing clinical trials, have emerged that have proved effective in managing long COVID symptoms.
Catecholamine testing, for example, is now commonly used to diagnose long COVID, particularly in those who have dysautonomia, a condition caused by dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system and marked by dizziness, low blood pressure, nausea, and brain fog.
Very high levels of the neurotransmitter, for example, were shown to indicate long COVID in a January 2021 study published in the journal Clinical Medicine.
Certain biomarkers have also been shown indicative of the condition, including low serotonin levels. A study published this year in Cell found lower serotonin levels in patients with long COVID driven by low levels of circulating SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the condition.
Still, said Viswanathan, long COVID is a disease diagnosed by figuring out what a patient does not have by ruling out other causes rather than what they do. "It's still a moving target," she said, meaning that the disease is always changing based on the variant of acute COVID.
Dysautonomia, and especially the associated brain fog, fatigue, and dizziness, are now common conditions. As a result, physicians have gotten better at treating them. The vagus nerve is the main nerve of the parasympathetic nervous system that controls everything from digestion to mental health. A February 2022 pilot study suggested a link between vagus nerve dysfunction and some long COVID symptoms.
Vagus nerve stimulation is one form of treatment which involves using a device to stimulate the vagus nerve with electrical impulses. Viswanathan has been using the treatment in patients with fatigue, brain fog, anxiety, and depression results, she contends, have been positive.
"This is something tangible that we can offer to patients," she said.
Curative treatments for long COVID remain elusive, but doctors have many more tools for symptom management than before, said Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, a global expert on long COVID and chief of research and development at the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System.
For example, physicians are using beta-blockers to treat postural tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a symptom of long COVID that happens when the heart rate increases rapidly after someone stands up or lies down. Beta-blockers, such as the off-label medication ivabradine, have been used clinically to control heart rate, according to a March 2022 study published in the journal HeartRhythm Case Reports.
"It's not a cure, but beta-blockers can help patients manage their symptoms," said Al-Aly.
Additionally, some patients respond well to low-dose naltrexone for the treatment of extreme fatigue associated with long COVID. A January 2024 article in the journal Clinical Therapeutics found that fatigue symptoms improved in patients taking the medication.
Al-Aly said doctors treating patients with long COVID are getting better at pinpointing the phenotype or manifestation of the condition and diagnosing a treatment accordingly. Treating long COVID fatigue is not the same as treating POTS or symptoms of headache and joint pain.
It's still all about the management of symptoms and doctors lack any US Food and Drug Administrationapproved medications specifically for the condition.
Still, a number of large clinical trials currently underway may change that, said David F. Putrino, PhD, who runs the long COVID clinic at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City.
Two clinical trials headed by Putrino's lab are looking into repurposing two HIV antivirals to see whether they affect the levels of circulating SARS-CoV-2 virus in the body that may cause long COVID. The hope is that the antivirals Truvada and maraviroc can reduce the "reactivation of latent virus" that, said Putrino, causes lingering long COVID symptoms.
Ongoing trials are looking into the promise of SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies, produced from cells made by cloning a unique white blood cell, as a treatment option. The trials are investigating whether these antibodies may similarly target viral reservoirs that are causing persistence of symptoms in some patients.
Other trials are underway through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) RECOVER initiative in which more than 17,000 patients are enrolled, the largest study of its kind, said Grace McComsey, MD.
McComsey, who leads the study at University Hospitals Health System in Cleveland, said that after following patients for up to 4 years researchers have gathered "a massive repository of information" they hope will help scientists crack the code of this very complex disease.
She and other RECOVER researchers have recently published studies on a variety of findings, reporting in February, for example, that COVID infections may trigger other autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and type 2 diabetes. Another recent finding showed that people with HIV are at a higher risk for complications due to acute COVID-19.
Still, others like Al-Aly and Putrino felt that the initiative isn't moving fast enough. Al-Aly said that the NIH needs to "get its act together" and do more for long COVID. In the future, he said that we need to double down on our efforts to expand funding and increase urgency to better understand the mechanism of disease, risk factors, and treatments, as well as societal and economic implications.
"We did trials for COVID-19 vaccines at warp speed, but we're doing trials for long COVID at a snail's pace," he said.
Al-Aly is concerned about the chronic nature of the disease and how it affects patients down the line. His large-scale study published last month in the journal Science looked specifically at chronic fatigue syndrome triggered by the infection and its long-term impact on patients.
He's concerned about the practical implications for people who are weighted down with symptoms for multiple years.
"Being fatigued and ill for a few months is one thing, but being at home for 5 years is a totally different ballgame."
ANN ARBOR, MI - JULY 30: Michigan Stadium, the largest stadium in the United States, and second largest stadium in the world, home of the Michigan Wolverines football team and women's lacrosse team in Ann Arbor, Michigan on July 30, 2019. (Photo B
FOX 2 (WJBK) - The NCAA has handed down penalties for the University of Michigan's football program Tuesday in connection to coronavirus recruiting violations.
Penalties include three years of probation, fine, and recruiting restrictions, the NCAA announced. According to a release, Michigan and five people who currently - or previously worked for the football program have reached an agreement with NCAA enforcement staff on recruiting violations and coaching activities by non-coaching staff members that happened in the football program.
"A Committee on Infractions panel has approved the agreement. One former coach did not participate in the agreement, and that portion of the case will be considered separately by the Committee on Infractions, after which the committee will release its full decision," the announcement said.
The agreed-upon violations involve in-person recruiting contacts during a COVID-19 dead period, impermissible tryouts, and the program exceeding the number of allowed countable coaches when non-coaching staff members engaged in on- and off-field coaching activities "including providing technical and tactical skills instruction to student-athletes."
The decision also involved the school's agreement that the violations "demonstrated a head coach responsibility violation and the former football head coach failed to meet his responsibility to cooperate with the investigation."
The school agreed it did not stop or recognize the "impermissible recruiting contacts" and did not make sure that the football program adhered to rules for non-coaching staff members.
"The committee will not discuss further details in the case to protect the integrity of the ongoing process, as the committee's final decision including potential violations and penalties for the former coach is pending.
"By separating the cases, the Division I Committee on Infractions publicly acknowledges the infractions case and permits the school and the participating individuals to immediately begin serving their penalties while awaiting the committee's final decision on the remaining contested portion of the case. That decision will include any findings and penalties for the former coach. This is the fourth case where the committee has used multiple resolution paths."
Former Michigan star, current staffer Denard Robinson arrested for OWI in Ann Arbor
The penalties in this case include three years of probation for the school, a fine and recruiting restrictions with the "Level I-Mitigated classification for the school. "
The participating individuals also agreed to one-year show-cause orders consistent with the Level II-Standard and Level II-Mitigated classifications of their violations.
School students without wearing masks walk past a COVID-19 mural at Korukkupet in Chennai.
When the COVID-19 pandemic set out on a worldwide rampage in late 2019, it did not care for who it affected. However, even through its apparent indiscriminate spread, the virus displayed clear favourites for torture candidates: the elderly.
Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed that over 80% of the total COVID-19-related between 2020 and 2021 occurred in senile populations aged 60 years or older. Since then, a flurry of studies have consistently shown that people above 65 are at higher risk of developing serious symptoms of the viral infection and now we might finally know why.
To understand how the coronavirus plans its assault on our bodies, a study delved into the part of our bodies that encounters the virus first: our noses. More specifically, researchers wanted to examine how our nasal cells respond to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which they hoped could offer crucial insights into potential treatment strategies tailored to different age groups.
The research focused on the early effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection on human nasal epithelial cells (NECs). We have an abundance of epithelial cells covering the inside and outside of our bodies, which are instrumental in carrying out key bodily functions and protecting us. The team cultured NECs to mimic the cellular environment of the nasal cavity and infected them with SARS-CoV-2.
By analysing cells donated by participants spanning various age groups, including children (0-11 years), adults (30-50 years), and the elderly (over 70 years), the study discovered that there were distinct age-related responses to the coronavirus. The team found that children's NECs responded swiftly to SARS-CoV-2 by ramping up the production of interferons, key components of the body's antiviral defence system, which effectively restricted viral replication.
In contrast, NECs from elderly individuals exhibited increased viral replication, accompanied by heightened cell shedding and damage. This could be why the elderly are at greater risk of severe COVID-19 than other groups, even with the advent of vaccinations.
Our research reveals how the type of cells we have in our nose changes with age, and how this affects our ability to combat SARS-CoV-2 infection, explains lead author Claire Smith. This could be crucial in developing effective anti-viral treatments tailored to different age groups, especially for the elderly who are at higher risk of severe COVID-19.
By properly understanding the age-specific differences in nasal cell response to SARS-CoV-2, researchers can develop targeted antiviral therapies that enhance interferon production in older adults. This could potentially mitigate the severity of COVID-19 and reduce mortality rates in this demographic.
Moreover, the study underscores the importance of considering age as a critical factor in research and treatment strategies for infectious diseases. Beyond COVID-19, future research should explore how aging impacts the body's response to other viral infections, informing preventive measures and therapeutic interventions across diverse age groups.
The findings of this research have been published in Nature Microbiology and can be accessed here.
**
For weather, science, space, and COVID-19 updates on the go, download The Weather Channel App (on Android and iOS store). It's free!
