Tag: UPI

Staffing shortages, poor infection control plague nursing homes

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2024/03/01/nursing-home-staffing-shortage/8751709302182/

Excerpt:

Although the pandemic has ended, staffing shortages and employee burnout still plague U.S. nursing homes, a new government report finds.

But the problems didn’t end there: The report, issued Thursday by the Inspector General’s Office at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, showed that infection-control procedures were still sorely lacking at many facilities.

Not only that, COVID-19 booster vaccination rates remain far lower than they should be, with only 38% of residents and 15% of staff up-to-date on their shots, according to a recent KFF report.

Author(s): Robin Foster

Publication Date: 1 Mae 2024

Publication Site: UPI

U.S. drug shortages put people with life-threatening illness at risk

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2022/09/16/drug-shortages-lorazepam-cancer/6681663190912/

Excerpt:

Adderall and monkeypox vaccine represent only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to drugs now in short supply in the United States — some badly needed by patients who are seriously ill with life-threatening diseases.

Pharmacists tell UPI of scrambling to meet patients’ urgent needs amid current shortages ranging from basics like sterile water and saline to antibiotics, sedatives and cancer-fighting medications.

….

As of Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration reported 184 drug shortages nationwide. The Association of Health-System Pharmacists put the figure higher, tracking a scarcity of 210 drugs.

…..

Conserving the supply of a drug once healthcare providers know it’s going to become scarce may include setting guidelines for the medication’s use and rationing doses, the Association of Health-System Pharmacists’ Ganio said.

That occurred this spring after GE Healthcare shuttered its facility in China that makes injectable contrast solutions used to highlight CT scan image because of local COVID-19 policies.

“As of now, that shortage has been fixed. But the underlying fragility of the system continues … and there is no reason it couldn’t happen again,” Dr. Matthew Davenport, vice chair of the American College of Radiology’s Commission on Quality and Safety, told UPI in a recent phone interview.

Author(s): Judy Packer-Tursman

Publication Date: 16 Sept 2022

Publication Site: UPI

Study: Logging, landscaping most dangerous jobs in U.S.

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2021/09/18/logging-most-dangerous-profession/2541631912925/

Graphic:

Excerpt:

Logging and landscaping are the most dangerous jobs in America, a new study finds.

The risk of death for loggers is more than 30 times higher than for all U.S. workers. Tree care workers also encounter hazards at rates far higher than a typical worker.

….

For the study, the researchers combed a U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration database for deaths from tree felling between 2010 and the first half of 2020.

Over the period, Michael’s team found 314 deaths. The leading cause of fatal accidents was being struck by a tree, most often in the head.

….

Years such as 2012, 2017 and 2018 with abnormally high damage from Atlantic storms saw high numbers of landscaping deaths that might be tied to storm damage, while 2014 and 2015 had quiet hurricane seasons and few deaths.

Author(s): HealthDay News

Publication Date: 18 Sept 2021

Publication Site: UPI

Study: Two in five people in U.S. who died of COVID-19 had diabetes

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2021/07/15/diabetes-high-risk-condition-death/2781626314320/

Excerpt:

As many as two of every five Americans who’ve died from COVID-19 were suffering from diabetes, making the chronic disease one of the highest-risk conditions during the pandemic, an expert says.

About 40% of deaths from COVID-19 in the United States were among diabetics, a “really quite sobering” statistic that should prompt people with the ailment to get vaccinated, said Dr. Robert Gabbay, chief scientific and medical officer for the American Diabetes Association.

…..

That diabetes was implicated in up to 40% of COVID-19 deaths is particularly staggering if you consider only 10% of the U.S. population suffers from the condition.

Author(s): Dennis Thompson

Publication Date: 15 July 2021

Publication Site: UPI

Study: Two in five people in U.S. who died of COVID-19 had diabetes

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2021/07/15/diabetes-high-risk-condition-death/2781626314320/

Excerpt:

As many as two of every five Americans who’ve died from COVID-19 were suffering from diabetes, making the chronic disease one of the highest-risk conditions during the pandemic, an expert says.

About 40% of deaths from COVID-19 in the United States were among diabetics, a “really quite sobering” statistic that should prompt people with the ailment to get vaccinated, said Dr. Robert Gabbay, chief scientific and medical officer for the American Diabetes Association.

……

That diabetes was implicated in up to 40% of COVID-19 deaths is particularly staggering if you consider only 10% of the U.S. population suffers from the condition.

The study, conducted by scientists at the University of Texas at El Paso, also found that one in 10 people with diabetes hospitalized with COVID-19 die within one week.

Author(s): Dennis Thompson, HealthDay News

Publication Date: 15 July 2021

Publication Site: UPI

Study: U.S. had 23% more deaths than expected in 2020 due to pandemic

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2021/04/02/coronavirus-excess-deaths-study/7781617369688/

Excerpt:

The United States saw 23% more deaths than expected between March 1, 2020, and the start of this year, due primarily to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which suggests the official number of U.S. coronavirus deaths is an undercount, according to an analysis published Friday by JAMA found.

More than 2.8 million people died nationally between when the first confirmed cases of the coronavirus were identified and Jan. 2, the data showed.

That’s roughly 522,000 more than would be expected for the 10-month period, based on figures from 2014 through 2019.

These excess deaths were higher than the number of publicly reported COVID-19 deaths across the country, researchers said.

Author(s): Brian P. Dunleavy

Publication Date: 2 April 2021

Publication Site: UPI

Study confirms that some people age more slowly

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2021/03/19/some-people-age-more-slowly/5761616105818/

Excerpt:

It turned out that, indeed, people varied widely in biological aging: The slowest ager gained only 0.4 “biological years” for each chronological year in age; in contrast, the fastest-aging participant gained nearly 2.5 biological years for every chronological year.

And by age 45, rapid biological agers were already showing some health indicators normally associated with old age.

Compared with their peers, they moved more slowly, had weaker grip strength, and more problems with balance, vision and hearing.

Differences in mental sharpness were clear, too, the researchers found.

Author(s): Amy Norton, HealthDay News

Publication Date: 19 March 2021

Publication Site: UPI

CDC: Black people make up just 5% of those vaccinated against COVID-19

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2021/02/01/CDC-Black-people-make-up-just-5-of-those-vaccinated-against-COVID-19/7121612203443/

Excerpt:

White people received more than half of all vaccinations against COVID-19 during the first month of the rollout, according to data released Monday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Just over 5% of the nearly 13 million people who received the shot between Dec. 14 and Jan. 14 people vaccinated against the coronavirus in the U.S. so far have been Black, and just under 12% were Hispanic, the data shows.

Author: Brian P. Dunleavy

Publication Date: 1 February 2021

Publication Site: UPI