Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Research Roundup: Lyme Disease; UTI; Arthroplasty; Mpox; HPV
CIDRAP: Americans Aged 51 To 60 File A Quarter Of Lyme Disease Health Claims
From 2018 to 2022, more Americans aged 51 to 60 years filed private health insurance claims for Lyme disease than any other age-group, according to a new infographic from the nonprofit FAIR Health. The 51-to-60 age-group made up 23.5% of Lyme disease claims, followed by those aged 41 to 50 (18.8%), 31 to 40 (14.1%), 19 to 30 (14.0%), 61 to 70 (13.9%), 0 to 18 (11.3%), and older than 70 (4.3%). (Van Beusekom, 10/17)
CIDRAP: COVID Can Worsen Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms In Men
Research in the Journal of Internal Medicine indicates that SARS-CoV-2 infections may worsen lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) in men, based on 18,000 men treated for LUTS in Hong Kong in 2021 and 2022. (Soucheray, 10/18)
Billings Gazette: Adding Vancomycin To Cefazolin Prophylaxis Does Not Prevent Surgical Site Infections
The addition of vancomycin to cefazolin prophylaxis is not superior to placebo for prevention of surgical site infections in patients undergoing arthroplasty, according to a study published in the Oct. 19 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. ... "In this pragmatic, randomized trial involving adult patients undergoing arthroplasty who had a low prevalence of MRSA colonization, the addition of vancomycin was not superior to surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis with cefazolin," the authors write. (Gotkine, 10/18)
CIDRAP: Studies: Undetected Mpox Unlikely, Household Spread Limited
A new study in Emerging Infectious Diseases describes two attempts by researchers to assess how many missed mpox cases were in San Francisco and the United States in general during the 2022 outbreak, while another study in The Journal of Infectious Diseases finds low household transmission of the virus among children. Because mpox is not endemic in the United States and the rash for the virus commonly appears on genitals, the researchers for the first paper hypothesized that clinicians may have misdiagnosed mpox as another sexually transmitted infection, such as herpes simplex virus infection or syphilis, or other conditions, including hand-foot-and-mouth disease, varicella zoster virus infection, and even spider bites. (Soucheray, 10/16)
CIDRAP: Study: 40% Of Young Women Had HPV Within 2 Years Of Starting New Relationships With Men
The Journal of Infectious Diseases has posted a prospective study showing that 40% of a group of college-aged women in Quebec had human papillomavirus (HPV) infections within 2 years of starting a heterosexual relationship. A McGill University-led research team tested vaginal samples from 502 women aged 18 to 24 years self-collected at six university clinic visits over 2 years for 36 types of HPV from 2005 to 2011. The women, who had begun a sexual relationship with a man within the past 6 months, also completed questionnaires on sociodemographic factors and sexual behavior. (Van Beusekom, 10/13)
