When a female patient received a pacemaker at the Frankel Cardiovascular Center at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and died shortly after with the brand-new and fully functioning device still in her chest, her grieving husband wondered whether the expensive and barely used technology could be donated to help someone else. Read more in […]
Medscape
Reconditioned Pacemakers Expand Access
Reconditioned pacemakers are as safe as new ones, and work just as well, preliminary results from the My Heart Your Heart trial show, which could help more people receive lifesaving devices. Read more in Medscape.
No HIV Infections After Twice-a-Year PrEP
Lenacapavir, a twice-yearly injectable HIV-1 capsid inhibitor, has shown 100% efficacy in preventing HIV in women at a high risk for infection, according to an interim analysis of the phase 3 PURPOSE 1 trial. The results were so promising that the independent data monitoring committee recommended that Gilead Sciences stop the blinded phase of the […]
New HIV Infections After Vampire Facials at Unlicensed Spa
At least three clients of an unlicensed spa in New Mexico contracted HIV after receiving platelet-rich plasma (PRP) microneedling facials, according to an investigation by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The investigation, spanning 5 years with parts of it still ongoing, has resulted in the closure of the spa and is […]
Inexperience Diagnosing Syphilis Adding to Higher Rates
With rates of syphilis rising quickly in the United States and elsewhere, clinicians are having to up their game when it comes to diagnosing and treating an infection that they may not be paying enough attention to. More than 200,000 cases of syphilis were reported in the United States in 2022, which is the highest […]
Doxy-PEP Cut STIs in San Francisco in Half
Syphilis and chlamydia infections were reduced by half among men who have sex with men and transgender women 1 year after San Francisco rolled out doxycycline postexposure prophylaxis (doxy-PEP), according to data presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Denver this week. Read more in Medscape.
No Longer a Death Sentence, HIV Diagnosis Still Hits Hard
Veronica Brady and her team at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston sat down with 37 people diagnosed with HIV or AIDS to ask them what that felt like. “The results were really eye-opening, and sad,” says Brady, PhD, RN, from the Cizik School of Nursing with UTHealth. Read more in Medscape.
New Recommendation Expands Antiretroviral Guidance for HIV
The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) is expanding its recommendation for antiretrovirals in HIV now that more options are available on the market. “With these new options we could potentially extend pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to a wider population,” says James Stevermer, MD, a member of the task force and a professor of family and […]
It’s Just a Superstition — but Is It Harmless?
Airports typically exclude Gate 13. Some buildings skip the 13th floor. And Friday the 13th is not known as a lucky day. The fear of the number 13 is a superstition with a complicated name — triskaidekaphobia. The idea the number 13 is unlucky isn’t rational, of course, and for most, any unease about the […]
Sanctions Against Russia Are Slowing Medical Progress
Many Western nations are severing ties with Russia in response to the war in Ukraine and it is hitting the scientific community hard. Economic sanctions against Russia have forced drug manufacturers to stop recruiting patients to clinical trials and launching new studies. Therapeutic areas with an ongoing or planned clinical trial with at least one […]