December 22, 2020
Rachel Lutz     HCP Live

​The investigators measured a 3.5-month period before and after a policy was implemented to preserve hospital resources.

Preserving hospital resources in the face of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has led to gaps in routine coverage, including screening and identifying patients with hepatitis C, according to a paper published in the Journal of Primary Care & Community Health.
A research team from Boston Medical Center said that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to modifications to their health care system, which were designed to preserve resources and decrease ambulatory in-person visits beginning March 16, 2020. The study authors also noted that telemedicine was incorporated into clinical workflows but preventative care, including hepatitis C testing, was not routinely performed.
Thus, the investigators wanted to determine what impact their COVID-19 restructuring response had on hepatitis C testing as well as identification hospital-wide and in ambulatory settings. To do so, they compared unique patient data tests for a period of 3.5 months before and after March 16.
Boston Medical Center described their testing process as utilizing reflex confirmatory testing for hepatitis C, and when a sample is Ab positive, it is automatically sent for RNA and genotype testing. They routinely screen for hepatitis C in the emergency department and their ambulatory clinics, aligned with the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) guidelines released in March and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines released in April.
Hepatitis C Ab testing and new hepatitis C RNA identification decreased hospital-wide and in the ambulatory clinics alone after the preservation of resources restructuring took affect on March 16.
TO CONTINUE READING:​https://www.hcplive.com/view/flu-vaccine-could-reduce-severity-covid-19

DEC 15, 2020 Tanya Albert Henry Contributing News Writer AMA

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A few countries in Europe in the 1980s tried something new to reduce the harms associated with the use of illicit drugs: A supervised, hygienic facility where people could consume pre-obtained drugs, be monitored for overdoses, have access to counseling, and get referrals to health care and social services, including drug treatment.

Today, about 120 legally sanctioned supervised consumption sites operate in 11 countries globally, including Canada, Germany and Switzerland. Now there’s a proposal for the first supervised consumption site to open in the United States, but the federal government filed a lawsuit to block it from opening in Philadelphia. They argue it violates a section of the Controlled Substances Act that was aimed at making it easier for police to arrest individuals who opened and used buildings to produce, sell, or use crack cocaine.

Medical experts disagree.

​In an amicus brief, the Litigation Center of the American Medical Association and State Medical Societies joined the Pennsylvania Medical Society, Philadelphia County Medical Society and about a dozen other organizations to provide information to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit that years of evidence show that these facilities provide evidenced-based medical and health interventions that help save lives, offer access to necessary services, and provide support to people who use drugs.

TO CONTINUE READING: https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/opioids/will-us-get-its-first-supervised-drug-consumption-site

By Elizabeth Elizalde     December 18, 2020 | 6:16pm | Updated NEW YORK POST

Drug overdose deaths have substantially increased in the U.S., and set a new record for fatalities in the year ending in May, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced.
The CDC’s Health Alert Network released a report Thursday saying 81,230 drug overdose deaths occurred during that time starting in June 2019.
“This represents a worsening of the drug overdose epidemic in the United States and is the largest number of drug overdoses for a 12-month period ever recorded,” the agency said.
The CDC noted that “after declining 4.1% from 2017 to 2018, the number of overdose deaths increased 18.2% from the 12-months ending in June 2019.”
Drug overdose fatalities were already on the rise before the start of 2020, but accelerated once the COVID-19 pandemic stuck, the CDC says.


Synthetic opioids have been the primary source of the increases in overdose deaths, the agency continued, and that, “The 12-month count of synthetic opioid deaths increased 38.4% from the 12-months ending in June 2019 compared with the 12-months ending in May 2020.”
The CDC recommends expanding the use of naloxone, a medication that treats overdoses during emergencies, and that people should take overdose prevention classes.

TO CONTINUE READING: https://nypost.com/2020/12/18/us-drug-overdoses-skyrocketing-cdc/?fbclid=IwAR19tSp2iA77WieBv-elmY4eoiAIpXnKElTzrf7zuLUtS3rlJyPc1Q2xU2o