Research Roundup: Covid; Clarithromycin; Outpatient Antibiotics
Each week, KHN compiles a selection of recently released health policy studies and briefs.
New England Journal of Medicine:
Efficacy And Safety Of The MRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine
This phase 3 randomized, observer-blinded, placebo-controlled trial was conducted at 99 centers across the United States. Persons at high risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection or its complications were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive two intramuscular injections of mRNA-1273 (100 μg) or placebo 28 days apart. The primary end point was prevention of Covid-19 illness with onset at least 14 days after the second injection in participants who had not previously been infected with SARS-CoV-2. (Baden et al, 12/30)
American Academy Of Pediatrics:
COVID-19 Transmission In US Child Care Programs
Central to the debate over school and child care reopening is whether children are efficient coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) transmitters and are likely to increase community spread when programs reopen. We compared COVID-19 outcomes in child care providers who continued to provide direct in-person child care during the first 3 months of the US COVID-19 pandemic with outcomes in those who did not. (Gilliam et al, 1/01)
JAMA Network:
Risk Factors Associated With All-Cause 30-Day Mortality In Nursing Home Residents With COVID-19
In this cohort study of 5256 US nursing home residents with COVID-19, increased age, male sex, and impaired cognitive and physical function were independent risk factors for all-cause 30-day mortality. (Panagiotou et al, 1/4)
Also —
CIDRAP:
Study: Clarithromycin Safe Alternative For Cesarean Deliveries
During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, azithromycin was one of the virus' unproven, potential treatments, and the resulting shortage forced US doctors to rely on the substitute drug clarithromycin as an adjunct surgical prophylaxis for preventing endometritis in non-elective cesarean deliveries. Now, new research findings reveal that the option is a safe alternative. In a recent study published by PLOS One, 4.5% of healthy women who were given clarithromycin and needed cesarean deliveries developed endometritis compared with 11.2% of those who didn't receive any adjunct macrolide prophylaxis (crude analysis, p = 0.025). (McLernon, 12/30)
CIDRAP:
CDC Study Finds Sharp Drop In Outpatient Antibiotics In First Half Of 2020
A new study by researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows a substantial decrease in the number of outpatients who received antibiotic prescriptions during the first 5 months of 2020 compared with previous years. In the study, published last week in Clinical Infectious Diseases, CDC researchers looked at data from the IQVIA Total Patient Tracker to estimate the monthly number of patients dispensed prescriptions for commonly used antibiotics from retail pharmacies from January 2017 through May 2020. They averaged estimates from 2017 through 2019 to create a baseline, and defined the percent change from January through May in each year as the seasonally expected change. They then calculated the percent change in January through May 2020 and compared it to the previous years. (1/4)
