(Press-News.org) Australian researchers have come up with two key recommendations from studies of the annual influenza season - one highlighting the benefits of antivirals in reducing repeat hospitalisation, and the other to watch for underlying cardiovascular disease.
While the world focuses on the rising COVID-19 death toll, seasonal influenza continues to cause significant mortality and poses a significant economic burden every year.
The South Australian study, conducted at two major metropolitan training hospitals between January 2016 and March 2020, collected data from 1,828 adult patients (average age around 66) who were hospitalised with influenza A and B.
Researchers compared outcomes for patients who did and did not take the antiviral Oseltamivir within 48 hours of admission to the hospital..
The study in International Journal of Infectious Diseases describes how early administration of Oseltamivir appears to reduce 30-day readmissions and also reduce the length of hospital stay, although it did not reduce 30-day mortality.
"Our study builds a strong case for the use of this treatment in suspected influenza patients as early as possible ," says lead researcher Dr Yogesh Sharma.
In 2017 there were 29,000 influenza-related hospitalisations, and 745 deaths due to influenza in Australia. However, social distancing and other regulations with COVID-19 has probably helped to reduce the burden on the hospital system last winter.
Flinders researcher Dr Yogesh Sharma, who is a senior Flinders Medical Centre consultant and senior lecturer in Flinders University, says another study of the data, recently published in another international journal IJC Heart & Vasculature, could direct future management of influenza patients in another way.
"Our study of influenza-related hospitalisations was also useful in analysing whether patients presenting with this respiratory illness were at higher risk of dying within 30 days if they had underlying cardiovascular disease issues," Dr Sharma says.
Comparing flu patients' high-sensitive-troponins (hsTnT) [the specific markers of myocardial damage] upon admission, the study pointed to there being a case for using acutely high or chronic hsTnT levels to predict mortality risk within 30 days of discharge.
Of the 1,828 patients, troponin results were available for 617 (47.7%) patients. Of these, 62 (10%) had acute myocardial injury and 232 (37.6%) had chronic hsTnT elevation.
"Both inpatient and 30-day mortality were significantly higher among patients with acute (P < 0.001) and chronic hsTnT (P < 0.001) when compared to other groups," the study found.
"When compared to patients with negative hsTnT, acute but not chronic hsTnT elevation was significantly associated with 30-day mortality after adjustment for various co-variates (HR 8.30, 1.80-17.84, P value = 0.013)."
As one of the largest studies of its kind in the world, these results could be used to improve health outcomes in hospitals around the world, Dr Sharma says.
While flu is often mild to moderate in its symptoms, it may cause severe illness leading to hospitalisation and even death.
Worldwide, seasonal influenza may cause between 291,243 - 645,832 (4.0-8.8 per 100,000 individuals) respiratory-related deaths annually, with two-thirds of the total mortality in individuals over 65 years of age.
INFORMATION:
'Effectiveness of Oseltamivir in reducing 30-day readmissions and mortality among patients with severe seasonal influenza in Australian hospitalized patients' (2021) by Y Sharma, C Horwood, P Hakendorf and C Thompson will appear in International Journal of Infectious Diseases Vol 104, March 2021, Pages 232-238 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijid.2021.01.011
The study, 'Prognostic impact of high sensitive Troponin in predicting 30-day mortality among patients admitted to hospital with influenza' (2020) by Y Sharma, C Horwood, A Chua, P Hakendorf, and C Thompson was published online in IJC Heart & Vasculature. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijcha.2020.100682
On February 19, the world's second-largest greenhouse gas emitter, the United-States, will rejoin the Paris Agreement. This will kickstart a year of intensifying policy activity ahead of the United Nations Climate Change conference (COP26) in November, when countries will re-commit to their emissions reduction goals.
"The early signs are that 2021 could be the most important year for action on climate change since 2015," says Aengus Collins, deputy director of EPFL's International Risk Governance Center (IRGC). "A growing number of countries and organisations are committing to ambitious decarbonisation goals. The pace is picking up and it is crucial not to let progress be derailed."
The most pressing ...
LOS ANGELES -- Some 15% of couples struggle with infertility. When couples fail to conceive, guidelines recommend both the man and woman undergo a tandem fertility evaluation.
For men, this includes providing at least one semen sample, which is analyzed to determine if there are factors reducing the sperms' chances of fertilizing an egg.
The current gold standard of sperm fertility evaluation requires men to provide a sperm sample in a lab or clinic, which is then examined within an hour. After an hour, the sperm begin to die, and the results are no longer accurate.
However, a new END ...
One of the most abundant bats in Europe may be attracted to wind turbines, a new study shows.
The activity of common pipistrelle bats was monitored at 23 British wind farms and similar "control" locations close by without turbines.
Activity was around a third higher at turbines than at control locations, and two thirds of occasions with high activity were recorded at turbines rather than the controls.
The reasons for this are not clear. Possibilities include attraction to the turbines themselves, or the presence of more of the bats' insect prey around turbines.
"Either way it means the risk of fatality at wind turbines is increased, and probably explains the high fatalities of common ...
DALLAS - Feb. 11, 2021 - A study led by UT Southwestern has identified a mechanism that controls the activity of proteins known as chaperones, which guide proteins to fold into the right shapes. The findings, published online today in Nature Communications, could shed light on hundreds of degenerative and neurodegenerative diseases caused by protein misfolding, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Huntington's, potentially leading to new treatments for these devastating conditions.
Every protein in the body is originally produced in a linear chain, with amino acid building blocks strung together one after another. But to fulfill their roles in cells, explains study leader Lukasz Joachimiak, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Center ...
DALLAS, February 11, 2021 -- Structural racism is a public health crisis in the U.S. and worldwide. The scientific publishing community can improve our understanding and address the significant health impacts of structural racism in racial and ethnic disparities research, according to a new statement, "The Groundwater of Racial and Ethnic Disparities Research: A Statement from Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes," published today in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, an American Heart Association journal, from the journal's editors.
It is critical to acknowledge the societal structures - the groundwater, as it is called in "The Groundwater Approach: Building ...
HIV self-testing could reduce the time between HIV infection and HIV diagnosis amongst trans people when compared to standard testing services, suggests new research in EClinicalMedicine.
The project was a collaboration between the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), University College London (UCL), and the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit. It involved more than 100 trans men and trans women in England and Wales, and is the largest HIV self-testing trial in this community to be reported.
Participants were first randomised into two groups, ...
Variants of nine genes increase the risk of developing Addison's disease, a rare disease in which the immune system attacks the adrenal glands. That is according to the largest genetic study to date on patients with Addison's disease. The findings help increase knowledge about what causes the disease. The study was conducted by researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, and Bergen University, Norway, and is published in the journal Nature Communications.
"By studying the single largest collection of samples from patients with Addison's disease, we've been able to carry out the first genetic ...
The strange social structure of tiny fish called emerald coral gobies may be explained by family loyalty, new research shows.
Coral goby groups contain a single breeding male and female and - as "sequential hermaphrodites" - the subordinate gobies can take over either role if one of the breeders dies.
The puzzle for biologists is why breeders tolerate the smaller non-breeders sharing their space and competing for food.
One explanation is "kin selection" (favouring related individuals).
Reef fish are often assumed to disperse at random after hatching, meaning groups of adults should not be closely related, but the new study finds "positive relatedness" ...
Pigs will probably never be able to fly, but new research is revealing that some species within the genus Sus may possess a remarkable level of behavioral and mental flexibility. A study published in END ...
Peer reviewed / Review and opinion
First comprehensive assessment of damage to health inflicted by former President Trump cites decades of policy failures made worse by the Trump administration, resulting in 461,000 unnecessary US deaths annually before the COVID-19 pandemic, and tens of thousands of unnecessary COVID-19 and pollution-related deaths attributable to his actions.
Lancet Commission calls for immediate rollback of Trump's health-harming policies and additional sweeping reforms to reverse the deteriorating health of the US population: "The path away from Trump's politics of anger and despair cannot lead through past policies."
The first comprehensive assessment of the health effects of Donald Trump's presidency is published today ...
