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New York City resident Jeanne Jennings was so sick with COVID-19 she couldn’t draw a decent breath. “Even going from my bed to the bathroom was such a difficult task, I felt like I was going to pass out,” Jennings, 46, said. Jennings wanted to go to the hospital, but this was early May, the height of the Big Apple’s COVID-19 crisis, and over the phone her doctor laid out the situation in stark terms. “She said, ‘There’s no guarantee they would have a place for you because they’re reserving hospital space for the more serious patients. If you do stay there, you’re going to be isolated from your family. You won’t really have the freedom to move around all that much,’” Jennings recalled. Jennings added that the doctor said, “‘Would you be open to me treating you via telemedicine?’ I said, ‘Sure.’” The revival of the doctor’s house call — or, at least, a modern-day version — is one of many innovations undertaken by doctors and hospital staff struggling to keep up with surges in COVID-19 cases. Jennings’ hospital, Northwell Health, immediately sent two nurses to her home, clad head-to-toe in protective gear. One nurse monitored her condition for a few hours, while the other took blood work that would confirm her COVID-19 diagnosis. A pulse oximeter brought by the first nurse revealed that… read on >

The Trump Administration is weighing a new rule that would temporarily block an American citizen or legal permanent resident from returning to the United States from abroad if authorities believe the person might be infected with the coronavirus. President Donald Trump has already imposed sweeping rules that ban entry by foreigners into the United States, citing the risk of allowing the virus to spread from hot spots around the world. But so far those rules have not applied to American citizens and foreigners who have established legal residence here, The New York Times reported. Now, a draft regulation proposes giving the federal government the power to do so in individual, limited circumstances, the Times reported. Federal agencies have been asked to submit feedback on the proposal to the White House by Tuesday, the newspaper said. The draft of the proposal, parts of which were obtained by the Times, does state that any order blocking citizens and legal permanent residents must “include appropriate protections to ensure that no constitutional rights are infringed.” And it adds that citizens and legal residents cannot be blocked as an entire class of people, the newspaper reported. Whether the Trump administration has the legal authority to block citizens and permanent residents from returning to their own country is unclear, the Washington Post reported. But one official said the administration is contemplating… read on >

A simple blood test may predict which COVID-19 patients are likely to get worse and die, a new study suggests. “When we first started treating COVID-19 patients, we watched them get better or get worse, but we didn’t know why,” said researcher Dr. Juan Reyes. He’s an assistant professor of medicine at the George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, in Washington, D.C. “Some initial studies had come out of China showing certain biomarkers were associated with bad outcomes. There was a desire to see if that was true for our patients here in the U.S.,” Reyes said in a school news release. For the study, Reyes and his colleagues evaluated nearly 300 patients with COVID-19 admitted to George Washington Hospital between March 12 and May 9, 2020. Of these, 200 had all the biomarkers being studied, namely, IL-6, D-dimer, CRP, LDH and ferritin. Higher levels of these markers were tied with inflammation and bleeding disorders, and an increased risk of being admitted to the intensive care unit, needing ventilator support, and death, the researchers found. Study author Dr. Shant Ayanian said, “We hope these biomarkers help physicians determine how aggressively they need to treat patients, whether a patient should be discharged, and how to monitor patients who are going home, among other clinical decisions.” Ayanian is an assistant professor of medicine at George… read on >

Folks who want to eat healthy by choosing whole grain foods aren’t helped by product labels that can confuse and mislead consumers, a new study shows. Almost half were unable to identify the healthier whole grain option when asked to rely on food package labels, researchers discovered. A similar proportion of participants were unable to accurately state the whole grain content of different products, according to the study. Terms like “multigrain,” “contains whole grains,” “honey wheat” and “12-grain” can be used to hawk breads, cereals and crackers as healthier options even if the product mostly contains refined flour, explained lead researcher Parke Wilde, a professor at Tufts University’s School of Nutrition Science and Policy in Boston. “If they say it contains whole grains, it really does have to contain some whole grains. They would get into trouble if they made a claim that was outright false,” Wilde said. “But it’s totally permitted to say it contains whole grains even if it’s mostly refined grains. “For terms like multigrain or seven-grain or 12-grain, or the coloring, there’s no rules at all,” Wilde continued. “There’s no rules against using any of those terms on a refined grain product, or coloring the product brown, which consumers associate with whole grains.” Current U.S. dietary guidelines recommend that whole grains make up at least half of a person’s overall grain… read on >

MONDAY, Aug. 10, 2020 (HealthDay News) With millions of American children soon returning to school, a new study shows that at least 97,000 kids were infected with COVID-19 during the last two weeks of July. According to the new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, at least 338,000 U.S. children had tested positive through July 30, The New York Times reported. That means that more than a quarter of those cases had come up positive in the second half of July alone. Already, some schools have tried to reopen and then had to order quarantines or close after COVID-19 cases were reported among students and staff, the Times reported. North Paulding High School in Georgia, which gained national attention last week after videos of crowded hallways made their way onto social media, announced Sunday it would switch to online instruction for Monday and Tuesday after at least nine coronavirus cases were reported there. In the new report, states in the South and West accounted for more than 7 of 10 infections. The count could be higher because the report did not include complete data from Texas and parts of New York State outside of New York City. Missouri, Oklahoma, Alaska, Nevada, Idaho and Montana were among the states with the highest percentage increase of child infections during that period,… read on >

If you’re working from a home office these days, it’s important to have an environment that won’t injure you, an expert says. It’s good to have a break about every 30 minutes to protect your back, shoulders and arms, said Kermit Davis, an expert in office ergonomics at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. “The body doesn’t like static postures continually,” he said. “You don’t want to do all sitting or all standing all the time. You want to alter your position and change it up throughout the day.” Davis said that while you can work at home, you can’t take home all the comforts of your office. “You can use your laptop from home, but it is designed to be a short-term option,” he said. “It should be used for a few hours while traveling. It is not meant to be used for eight or nine hours each day.” An evaluation of home workstations of university employees who began working at home during the coronavirus pandemic was revealing. Many chairs were the wrong height: 41% were too low; 2% were too high. Although 53% of workers’ chairs had armrests, 32% didn’t use them and 18% were improperly adjusted. Not using armrests can put stress on forearms and strain in the upper back. The evaluation also found that 69% were not using the chairback… read on >

Concussion symptoms aren’t always evident, so parents of student-athletes need to know the signs and seek a diagnosis if their teen gets hurt, experts say. Only those closest to a teen may be able to identify the sometimes subtle changes in mood and emotion stemming from a concussion, said Dr. Rory Tucker, a sports medicine specialist at Penn State Bone and Joint Institute in Hershey, Penn. “Parents may notice a change in their teen’s sleep patterns,” Tucker explained. “He or she may be more withdrawn, socializing less with friends or family members, more emotional or tearful. They may have anger outbursts or be more nervous than they were before.” Since doctors may be unfamiliar with a patient’s usual mental state, parents need to advocate for their children. “Medication is rarely necessary in the long term, but while a concussion is healing, it can sometimes be beneficial to take medication to control moods,” Tucker said in a Penn State news release. “We also use medications to assist with sleep. Impairment of sleep can have a detrimental impact on emotional health and how people interact with others.” It’s also important for parents to know that concussion symptoms can be similar to those of depression and anxiety, and that a concussion can worsen existing mental health problems. Dr. Craig DiGiovanni is a postdoctoral fellow in psychiatry and behavioral… read on >

The makeup of bacteria that colonize a man’s penis can help predict the risk of a serious and hard-to-treat vaginal infection in his female partner, new research suggests. Bacterial vaginosis, also known as BV, can lead to problems in pregnancy and make a woman more vulnerable to several sexually transmitted diseases. More than 20% of women worldwide get BV. For this study, researchers tracked 168 couples and found that women whose partner had BV-related bacteria on their penis were more likely to develop BV within a year. “Our results show that penile bacteria can accurately predict new cases of BV in women who did not have BV to begin with, up to six to 12 months in the future,” said lead author Supriya Mehta. “This is important, because it suggests that reducing these bacteria from the penis may reduce BV cases or improve treatment outcomes in women.” Mehta is an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The study authors stressed that they are not saying that exposure to certain types of penile bacteria actually causes BV, though that’s possible. But it’s also possible that, over time, or with repeated exposure, penile bacteria may upset the natural balance of microbes in a woman’s vagina, indirectly raising her BV risk. Mehta noted that BV can be related to behaviors other than sex,… read on >

With evidence mounting that COVID-19 can damage the heart, experts urge people to take precautions when doing vigorous exercise. Up to 30% of patients hospitalized with coronavirus infection have signs of cardiac injury, according to Dr. Sunal Makadia, health director of sports cardiology at LifeBridge Health in Baltimore. The prevalence of heart damage in milder cases of COVID-19 is unknown. Still, experts worry about the potential for serious heart complications from engaging in vigorous exercise while infected with the virus. The American College of Cardiology’s Sports and Exercise Council recommends that people get a COVID-19 test and heart screening before playing sports or exercising. Even if they show no symptoms, those who test positive for COVID-19 should avoid exercise for at least two weeks, Makadia recommended. “After this, you can return to activity after being evaluated by a medical professional or cardiologist,” he said in a health system news release. Symptoms such as shortness of breath, chest pain, a fluttering or a rapid heartbeat, lightheadedness, leg swelling, muscle pains and unexplained fatigue may indicate a severe heart problem. “We’re still learning more, but those with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, and previous heart issues such as coronary artery disease, stents or coronary bypass surgery and heart failure are susceptible to the most severe complications of COVID-19,” Makadia said. Experts suggest exercising outdoors rather… read on >

Researchers say a new test can tell which patients with gonorrhea will benefit from treatment with the antibiotic ciprofloxacin. The low-cost drug has been out of use amid concern that the bacterium that causes gonorrhea was becoming resistant to it. In this study, 106 patients identified as having a gonorrhea strain called wild-type gyrA serine were cured with a single dose of ciprofloxacin. A test to screen for that strain has been available for three years, but this is the first time it has been systematically studied in humans, researchers said. “Gonorrhea is one of the most common drug-resistant infections worldwide and is becoming harder to treat. Current treatment methods require an antibiotic injection, which is expensive and painful,” said lead author Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. “This new test could make it easier and safer to treat gonorrhea with different antibiotics, including one pill given by mouth. Using a pill instead of a shot would also make it easier and faster to treat sex partners of patients with gonorrhea,” he added in a UCLA news release. The DNA test that researchers developed identifies a genetic mutation that makes the gonorrhea bacterium resistant to ciprofloxacin. Ciprofloxacin works against infections without that mutation. In 2007, the U.S. Centers for Disease… read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Hospitals Full, Doctors Treated Her Severe COVID-19 at Home

Trump May Block Citizens From Re-Entry if COVID Infection Suspected

Blood Test Might Spot Most Dangerous COVID-19 Cases

Is It Really ‘Whole Grain’? Food Labels Often Misleading

As Schools Reopen, Report Shows 97,000 U.S. Kids Infected With COVID in Late July

Is Your Home Workstation Hurting You?

What Parents Need to Know About Teens and Concussions

Men’s Genital Bacteria Help Predict Partners’ Risk for Vaginal Infection: Study

What Athletes Should Know About COVID-19, Heart Damage and Working Out

Will a Cheap Pill Cure Gonorrhea? New Test Can Tell