In rural America, drinking has become particularly deadly for many, a new government report shows. Deaths related to alcohol use in those regions rose 43% between 2006 and 2018, health officials reported. Over that time, the rate of deaths went from 11 per 100,000 people to 15 per 100,000. Also, the rate of deaths among women more than doubled, according to researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “I really want to highlight this health disparity, the fact that there is an increase in rural areas in recent years,” said lead researcher Merianne Spencer, from the division of analysis and epidemiology at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). “Hopefully, we can take it to the next step, and other researchers can delve into this question, because we are seeing this at the national level,” Spencer added. For the report, the researchers included deaths from alcohol-related medical conditions, such as cirrhosis of the liver, but not causes indirectly related to alcohol use, such as motor vehicle crashes or suicides, Spencer explained. “These increases in alcohol-related deaths may well be connected to the fairly recently described phenomenon of lowered life expectancy in the United States over the past few years, primarily in white individuals with lower educational achievement,” said Dr. J.C. Garbutt, an adjunct professor of psychiatry at the University of North…  read on >

Revealing some good news for minorities, a new study found similar survival rates for Hispanic, Black and white COVID-19 patients at a New York City hospital system. “It is well-documented that communities of color have shouldered the heaviest burden of COVID-19 in the United States, and there have been many explanations offered for why that is the case,” said Dr. Andrew Racine. He is system senior vice president and chief medical officer at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. “We discovered, somewhat surprisingly, that Black and Hispanic patients, when hospitalized, had similar or slightly better survival outcomes compared to white patients,” Racine said in a Montefiore news release. The study included more than 5,900 COVID-19 patients admitted to the medical center. As has been seen nationwide, black and Hispanic people were more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than white people, the findings showed. And Black and Hispanic people who were hospitalized were more likely to have two or more pre-existing conditions (38% and 43%, respectively) than white people (34%). However, survival rates among Black and Hispanic patients were at least as good as those for white patients after the researchers controlled for age, sex, income levels and pre-existing conditions, according to the study. The results were published online Sept. 25 in JAMA Network Open. Similar findings have been reported from other major health systems…  read on >

Falling leaves, pumpkins and apples are signs of fall. And so is asthma. Asthma attacks tend to increase in early autumn. During the coronavirus pandemic, it’s especially important for people with the disease to know how to prevent flare-ups, a lung expert says. “There are two different types of asthma flare-ups,” said Dr. Pushan Jani, an assistant professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. “First, you have those who suffer asthma year-round, and then there are some people who have seasonal asthma, which is triggered by different allergens and pollen in the air,” he said in a UTHealth news release. “This time of the year increases the attacks for seasonal asthma and can make those who suffer from persistent asthma control worse.” Every fall, Jani said he sees a significant increase in asthma-related hospitalizations as various types of pollen, such as ragweed, and mold fill the air. The combination of the COVID-19 pandemic, the start of the flu season and high pollen levels mean that people with asthma need to protect themselves so they don’t end up in the hospital. Stock up on any medications or inhalers needed to control flare-ups, Jani advised. Get an allergy test. “If you are unaware of what triggers these attacks, get tested. This will help pinpoint what you should…  read on >

A life support technique called ECMO has saved the lives of many critically ill COVID-19 patients, a new study shows. The ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) machine takes over the function of the lungs and heart. Blood is pumped from the body into equipment that adds oxygen to the blood before it’s returned to the body. This technique has saved lives in previous epidemics of lung-damaging viruses, but small studies published early in the coronavirus pandemic questioned its effectiveness. This international study included 1,035 COVID-19 patients at high risk of death because ventilators and other types of care couldn’t support their lungs. After being placed on ECMO, the death rate among these patients was less than 40%, according to the study authors. “These results from hospitals experienced in providing ECMO are similar to past reports of ECMO-supported patients, with other forms of acute respiratory distress syndrome or viral pneumonia,” said co-author Dr. Ryan Barbaro, of the University of Michigan. “The results support recommendations to consider ECMO in COVID-19 if the ventilator is failing. We hope these findings help hospitals make decisions about this resource-intensive option,” Barbaro said in a university news release. Most centers in this study did not need to use ECMO for COVID-19 very often, said study co-author Graeme MacLaren, of the National University Health System in Singapore. “By bringing data from over 200…  read on >

FRIDAY, Sept. 25, 2020 (Healthday News) — The U.S. coronavirus death toll passed 7 million on Friday, with California the hardest hit state so far in a pandemic that has crippled the country for more than six months. The United States has been averaging about 41,500 cases daily, down from the pandemic’s midsummer peak, but states in the Midwest and West are seeing case numbers climb, The New York Times reported. In California, the case count has now passed 800,000, the Times reported, but the figure does not capture the state’s current situation. Recently, California has been reporting a relatively low number of new cases daily, the newspaper said. It was less than a month ago that the United States reached 6 million cases, the Times reported. It took over three months for the country to record its first million cases. Despite those startling case counts, herd immunity is far from sight: The head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told a Senate committee on Wednesday that 90% of Americans are still at risk of contracting the virus. “The preliminary results in the first round [of a very large, ongoing CDC study] show that a majority of our nation, more than 90% of the population, remains susceptible,” Dr. Robert Redfield testified. “A majority of Americans are still susceptible to this virus.” At…  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 >

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 >

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 >

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 >

The loss of a pet may be a child’s first encounter with death, and new research suggests no one should underestimate the psychological trauma that the loss can bring. Previous studies have found that kids form deep emotional attachments to their pets and having a furry companion in your youth has been linked to greater empathy, self-esteem and social skills. “The effects of pet loss were unique,” said study co-author Erin Dunn, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Center for Genomic Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. To learn more, she and her hospital colleagues looked at a sample of more than 6,000 British children. Almost 9 out of 10 had owned a pet during their youth, and more than half had lost one during their first seven years of life. Information was collected as a part a long-term study of parents and kids in Britain. When kids were 8 years old, their mothers filled out questionnaires about their youngsters’ mental health symptoms. “For example, how often does your child feel sad, depressed or anxious — these are the kind of emotional and behavioral indicators that are used to identify and characterize children who might be experiencing some mental health-related challenges,” said Dunn. The research team found that kids who lost a pet were more likely to have poor mental health. And the…  read on >