Pharmacists can prescribe Pfizers antiviral therapy paxlovid; COVID-19 ranks behind only heart disease, canc – cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio The FDA says pharmacists can prescribe Pfizers antiviral therapy paxlovid, COVID-19 is now the third-leading cause of death behind heart disease and cancer, repeated COVID-19 infection increases risk of complications, and a new vaccine may protect against future coronavirus variants.

Cleveland.com has the latest coronavirus research for Friday July 8, 2022.

Pharmacists allowed to prescribe COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid, says FDA

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will now allow pharmacists to prescribe the drug Paxlovid to eligible patients with COVID-19. Previously the drug could only be obtained with a doctors prescription. However, the FDA revised its usage authorization this week as a way provide patients with easier access.

The FDA recognizes the important role pharmacists have played and continue to play in combatting this pandemic, Since Paxlovid must be taken within five days after symptoms begin, authorizing state-licensed pharmacists to prescribe Paxlovid could expand access to timely treatment for some patients who are eligible to receive this drug for the treatment of COVID-19,said Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni, director for the FDAs Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

COVID-19 third leading cause of death in the United States

An analysis of national death certificate data by researchers at the National Cancer Institute shows that COVID-19 was the third-leading cause of death in the United States from March 2020 to October 2021, accounting for 1-in-8 deaths.

Heart disease was the No. 1 cause of death, followed by cancer. Accidents and stroke were the fourth and fifth leading causes of death. In every age group 15 years and older, COVID-19 was one of the top five causes of death.

The study appeared July 5 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

When data from 2020 and 2021 were analyzed separately for different age groups, the researchers found that the likelihood of death from COVID-19 increased in those aged 35-44 and 45-54 from the the fourth- and fifth-leading cause of death to the first- and second-leading cause of death. Among those 85 and older, COVID-19 was the second-leading cause of death in 2020, but dropped to third in 2021, likely because of targeted vaccination efforts in this age group, the researchers postulate.

Other causes of death, including heart disease, accidents, stroke, Alzheimers disease, and diabetes increased from 2019 to 2020, possibly because people were reluctant to seek medical care for fear of catching COVID-19.

The authors said that additional impacts of the pandemic on other causes of death may emerge in the years to come, such as increased cancer diagnoses or deaths because the pandemic prevented many people from getting the necessary screenings.

Complication risks increase with COVID-19 reinfection

Its increasingly common to become infected with COVID-19 more than once. And some early research suggests that individuals may become sicker with each subsequent reinfection.

The research examined the medical records from more than 5 million American veterans. What they found was that each subsequent reinfection came with increased risks.

The risk of cardiovascular disorders, problems with blood-clotting, diabetes, fatigue, gastrointestinal and kidney disorders, mental health problems, musculoskeletal disorders and neurologic damage all increased with reinfection. For example, the likelihood of heart and clotting problems, fatigue and lung damage roughly doubled each time you catch COVID.

The study, which has not yet been published, is under review by the journal Nature.

Its still unclear say the authors, whether the effects are real or coincidental. Many of the patients who experienced multiple COVID-19 infections were also older, and had more pre-existing health conditions to start.

Vaccine Could Protect Against Future Covid-19 Variants

A team of scientists from Caltech say they have developed a new type of vaccine that is capable of detecting a wide variety of betacoronaviruses, including those that cause COVID-19. The vaccine, called Mosaic-8 is a hybrid of a nanoparticle joined to spike proteins from the SARS CoV2 virus, as well as seven other proteins from betacoronaviruses.

Animals vaccinated with the mosaic-8 nanoparticles elicited antibodies that recognized virtually every SARS-like betacoronavirus strain we evaluated, says Alexander Cohen, Caltech post-doc and co-first author on the new study. Some of these viruses could be related to the strain that causes the next SARS-like betacoronavirus outbreak, so what we really want would be something that targets this entre group of viruses. We believe we have that.

The research appears in the journal Science on July 5.

Small NIH study reveals how immune response triggered by COVID-19 may damage the brain

A study from the National Institutes of Health describes the immune response triggered by COVID-19 infection that damages the brains blood vessels and may lead to short- and long-term neurological symptoms.

The scientists examined brain changes in nine people who died suddenly after contracting the virus and observed the presence of immune complexes molecules formed when antibodies bind to foreign substances on the surface of cells lining the blood vessels in the brains of COVID-19 patients.

The scientists believe that antibodies, produced in response to COVID-19, may mistakenly target cells crucial to the blood-brain barrier forming the immune complexes, which in turn leads to inflammation and tissue damage.

Tightly packed endothelial cells help form the blood-brain barrier, which keeps harmful substances from reaching the brain while allowing necessary substances to pass through. Damage to endothelial cells in blood vessels in the brain can lead to leakage of proteins from the blood. This causes bleeds and clots in some COVID-19 patients and can increase the risk of stroke.

The study was published in the journal Brain.

Understanding how SARS-CoV-2 can trigger brain damage may help inform development of therapies for COVID-19 patients who have lingering neurological symptoms, the authors say.

It is quite possible that this same immune response persists in Long COVID patients resulting in neuronal injury, said Dr. Avindra Nath, the studys lead author. There could be a small indolent immune response that is continuing, which means that immune-modulating therapies might help these patients. So these findings have very important therapeutic implications.

Continue reading here:

Pharmacists can prescribe Pfizers antiviral therapy paxlovid; COVID-19 ranks behind only heart disease, canc - cleveland.com