WEDNESDAY, Sept. 23, 2020 (Healthday News) — The U.S. coronavirus death toll reached the tragic milestone of 200,000 on Tuesday, with at least 22 states now reporting a rise in new cases. Just last Monday, only nine states were reporting increases in new COVID-19 cases, CNN reported. For the most part, the case spikes are showing up in the country’s heartland and the Midwest. “We’re entering into the fall and into the winter, and that means there’s going to be more indoor things than outdoor things,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday, CNN reported. “Going into that situation, I would like to have seen the baseline of where we are — the daily number of infections — come way, way down, and not be stuck at around 30 to 40,000 per day.” In the next three months, another 150,000 people could lose their lives to COVID-19, according to the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), CNN reported. Alarm is growing in states like Kentucky and Wisconsin, which has one of the highest COVID-19 positivity rates in the nation, higher than 16%, CNN reported. Wisconsin’s governor declared a new public health emergency this week following a surge of cases among young people and issued a new order for face coverings. Kentucky also saw a spike in its positivity rate after several counties witnessed…  read on >

Women diagnosed with an early, highly treatable form of breast cancer still face a higher-than-normal risk of eventually dying from the disease, a large new study finds. The study looked at women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), where cancer cells form in the lining of the milk ducts but have not yet invaded the breast tissue. Sometimes it’s called a “pre-cancer,” other times a “noninvasive breast cancer” — terms that can be confusing, and partly reflect the fact that DCIS is not fully understood. The researchers found that among more than 144,000 U.S. women treated for DCIS, the risk of dying from breast cancer over the next 20 years was about three times higher than that of cancer-free women. The vast majority of women with DCIS did not die of breast cancer during the study period. There were 1,540 deaths from the disease. But given that all underwent surgery — often followed by radiation — the findings show that DCIS treatment does not eliminate the risk of dying from breast cancer, said senior researcher Dr. Steven Narod. “Despite the best treatment available, the risk is still there,” said Narod, of the Women’s College Research Institute in Toronto, Canada. Overall, he said, women faced a 3% chance of dying from breast cancer. And for Black women, the odds were significantly greater — close to 10%.…  read on >

TUESDAY, Sept. 22, 2020 (Healthday News) — While health officials worry about a potential “twindemic” of COVID-19 and the flu this winter, a new study finds that hospital patients who were infected with both viruses were more than twice as likely to die as those infected only with the new coronavirus. British government scientists conducted the research during the early months of the pandemic, and the results were troubling: 43% of patients who were hospitalized with both infections died, compared with 26.9% of people who were hospitalized for coronavirus infection alone, the Washington Post reported. While the study only followed 58 people between the months of January and April, the findings line up with similar research that is underway, the Post reported. “If you get both, you are in some serious trouble, and the people who are most likely to get both of these infections may be the very people who can least afford to in terms of their own immune system, or their risk for serious outcomes,” Yvonne Doyle, Public Health England’s medical director, said in an agency news release. She urged people considered high-risk to go for a flu shot if they were eligible. “The flu vaccine is more important than ever, to help reduce transmission of flu and protect the nation from the double threat of flu and COVID-19,” Doyle said. As…  read on >

The coronavirus pandemic could cause short-term decreases in life expectancy in many parts of the world, according to a new study. Using a computer model, the researchers concluded that infection rates of only 2% could cause a drop in life expectancy in countries where average life expectancy is high (about 80 years). At higher infection rates, the decline would be greater, especially in Europe and North America, according to the study published online Sept. 17 in the journal PLOS One. “At 10% prevalence, the loss in life expectancy is likely to be above one year in high life-expectancy countries such as those in Europe and North America. At 50%, it would translate into three to nine years of life lost in high life-expectancy regions. In less developed regions, the impact is smaller given that there is already lower survival at older ages,” said study leader Guillaume Marois, a researcher at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria. “However, even in the most affected regions, the life expectancy will likely recover once the pandemic is over,” Marois added in an institute news release. Study co-author Sergei Scherbov noted that it took Europe decades for average life expectancy at birth to increase by six years — from 72.8 years in 1990 to 78.6 years in 2019. “COVID-19 could thus set back this indicator in…  read on >

MONDAY, Sept. 21, 2020 (Healthday News) — As the U.S. coronavirus case count neared 200,000 on Monday, public health experts debated whether the spread of the virus will continue to slow or a new surge will come, as cold weather returns to much of the country. “What will happen, nobody knows,” Catherine Troisi, an infectious disease epidemiologist at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, told The New York Times. “This virus has surprised us on many fronts, and we may be surprised again.” In the United States, fewer new coronavirus cases have been detected week by week since late July, but the nation’s daily count of new cases has started to climb again in recent days, the Times reported. Meanwhile, at least 73 other countries are seeing second surges in new cases. Dr. Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, told the Times it was conceivable that the death toll in the United States could reach 300,000 if Americans start to relax social distancing measures. As case counts started trending upward again, 1,400 public schools in New York City reopened Monday for nearly 90,000 pre-K students and children with advanced disabilities. The remaining 1 million students will start their school year online, with the option of returning to classrooms…  read on >

FRIDAY, Sept. 18, 2020 (Healthday News) — New details surfaced on Thursday on an unexplained neurological condition that struck a volunteer who was participating in AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine trial. In an internal safety report obtained by CNN, company officials describe how a healthy 37-year-old woman “experienced confirmed transverse myelitis” after receiving her second dose of the vaccine. She was hospitalized on Sept. 5. The report describes how the patient had the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine in early June and was fine. She received her second dose in late August. While out running on Sept. 2, she “had a trip [not fall] with a jolt.” The report noted that she did not have any obvious injury to her spine when examined, according to CNN. The next day, the report said, she had difficulty walking, pain and weakness in her arms, pain and reduced sensation in her torso, a headache and reduced ability to use her hands. The report mentions twice that the woman was diagnosed with “confirmed” transverse myelitis, CNN reported. The condition, which can be triggered by viruses, causes inflammation in the spine. No other similar cases have been diagnosed among other study volunteers, according to the report. The woman’s neurologist also noted that the woman has started to feel better. The report, dated Sept. 10, was sent out to doctors who are…  read on >