PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

University of Louisville study dispels concerns about drive-thru flu clinics

2012-07-06
(Press-News.org) Critics have pointed to fainting risks and subsequent auto accidents as reasons for concern when using drive-thru influenza immunization clinics, according to Ruth Carrico, PhD, RN, FSHEA, CIC, associate professor, division of infectious diseases, University of Louisville School of Medicine.

A review conducted by Carrico and UofL faculty W. Paul McKinney, MD, FACP, Timothy Wiemkan, PhD, MPH, CIC and John Myers, PhD, MSPH found these fears to be unfounded. Since the beginning of an annual drive-thru immunization program initiated 1995 at the University of Louisville Hospital, more than 50,000 doses of the influenza vaccine have been administered, with no reports of fainting episodes or related auto accidents. The study, Drive-thru influenza immunization: Fifteen years of experience published recently in the Journal of Emergency Management.

"Some experts in the field have placed their fears about fainting risks ahead of fact, and we wanted to dispel the myths," Carrico said. "We have created safe drive-thru processes that we feel lead to safer communities."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) vaccine reference book, Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases mentions fainting as a risk of influenza inoculation. The CDC's information is probably focused on a more traditional setting and doesn't account for a drive-thru setting where recipients stay seated and are already in a familiar setting, the study notes.

Carrico and her team reviewed medical and legal literature and made statistical inferences about the likelihood of fainting following drive-thru immunizations.

"We found a person's chance of fainting during a drive-thru vaccination is less than the probability of being struck by lightning," she said.

This summer, Carrico plans to release a toolkit about how communities can develop drive-thru immunization clinics. It will include information on how to organize a clinic, how to train and orient staff, how to set-up the clinic and how to evaluate the success. The toolkit will point to experiences and lessons learned from the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic and will be available through the UofL Center for Health Hazards Preparedness website: www.publichealthtools.com

"We hope the toolkit will increase the capacity and infrastructure of the nation to administer immunization or other emergency countermeasures quickly, efficiently and safely," Carrico said.

INFORMATION:

This project is funded by the U. S. Department of Homeland Security, Science & Technology Directorate, through a technology development and deployment program managed by The National Institute for Hometown Security.

The article's abstract is available on-line: http://pnpcsw.pnpco.com/cadmus/testvol.asp?year=2012&journal=jem

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Scientists identify gene linked to facial, skull and cognitive impairment

2012-07-06
A gene whose mutation results in malformed faces and skulls as well as mental retardation has been found by scientists. They looked at patients with Potocki-Shaffer syndrome, a rare disorder that can result in significant abnormalities such as a small head and chin and intellectual disability, and found the gene PHF21A was mutated, said Dr. Hyung-Goo Kim, molecular geneticist at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University. The scientists confirmed PHF21A's role by suppressing it in zebrafish, which developed head and brain abnormalities similar ...

Higher but not lower doses of vitamin D are effective in fracture risk reduction in older adults

2012-07-06
BOSTON (July 5, 2012) – Based on the results of a pooled analysis of 11 unrelated randomized clinical trials investigating vitamin D supplementation and fracture risk in more than 31,000 older adults, Bess Dawson-Hughes, MD, director of the Bone Metabolism Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts University, says higher doses of Vitamin D may be the most beneficial in reducing bone fractures in this age group. As part of the study, published today in The New England Journal of Medicine, Dawson-Hughes and colleagues ...

Calling all truckers ... not!

2012-07-06
Researchers in India are developing a new technology that will prevent truck drivers and other road users from using their cell phones while driving. The technology based on RFIDs could also be integrated with police traffic monitoring. Abdul Shabeer of the Anna University of Technology in Tamilnadu, India, and colleagues point out that globally around 20% of fatal road accidents with trucks and other heavy vehicles involved the drivers of those vehicles using a cell phone in their hand at the time of the accident. "Dialing and holding a phone while steering can be an ...

Sharing data links in networks of cars

2012-07-06
Wi-Fi is coming to our cars. Ford Motor Co. has been equipping cars with Wi-Fi transmitters since 2010; according to an Agence France-Presse story last year, the company expects that by 2015, 80 percent of the cars it sells in North America will have Wi-Fi built in. The same article cites a host of other manufacturers worldwide that either offer Wi-Fi in some high-end vehicles or belong to standards organizations that are trying to develop recommendations for automotive Wi-Fi. Two Wi-Fi-equipped cars sitting at a stoplight could exchange information free of charge, but ...

First direct evidence that elemental fluorine occurs in nature

2012-07-06
Fluorine is the most reactive chemical element. That is why it is not found in nature in its elemental form, but only in compounds, such as fluorite – that was the accepted scientific doctrine so far. A special fluorite, the "fetid fluorite" or "antozonite", has been the subject of many discussions for nearly 200 years. This mineral emits an intensive odor when crushed. Now, for the first time, scientists from the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) and the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (LMU) have successfully identified natural elemental fluorine in this fluorspar. ...

Another M-class flare from Sunspot 1515

2012-07-06
Active Region 1515 has now spit out 12 M-class flares since July 3. Early in the morning of July 5, 2012 there was an M6.1 flare. It peaked at 7:44 AM EDT. This caused a moderate – classified as R2 on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's space weather scale – radio blackout that has since subsided. Radio blackouts occur when the X-rays or extreme UV light from a flare disturb the layer of Earth's atmosphere known as the ionosphere, through which radio waves travel. The constant changes in the ionosphere change the paths of the radio waves as they move, ...

NASA sees tropical fireworks in E. Pacific in newborn Tropical Storm Daniel

2012-07-06
Tropical "fireworks" happened in the eastern Pacific Ocean on July 4 as Tropical Depression 04E formed off western Mexico's coast and strengthened into Tropical Storm Daniel. NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite captured an image of TD 4E's rainfall and towering clouds as it passed overhead, and saw "hot towers" that suggested it would become a tropical storm. The TRMM satellite got a very good look at recently formed Tropical Depression 4E (TD 4E) at 1040 UTC (6:40 a.m. EDT) on July 4, 2012. The hot towering cumulonimbus clouds called "hot towers" ...

Nitrogen pollution changing Rocky Mountain National Park vegetation, says CU-Boulder-led study

2012-07-06
A new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder indicates air pollution in the form of nitrogen compounds emanating from power plants, automobiles and agriculture is changing the alpine vegetation in Rocky Mountain National Park. The emissions of nitrogen compounds to the atmosphere are being carried to remote areas of the park, altering sensitive ecosystems, said CU-Boulder Professor William Bowman, who directs CU-Boulder's Mountain Research Station west of Boulder and who led the study. "The changes are subtle, but important," he said. "They represent a first ...

NASA satellites examine powerful summer derecho

2012-07-06
VIDEO: This movie of the derecho that affected the Eastern United States in late June 2012 was created by imagery from NOAA's GOES -13 satellite. It begins on June 28 at... Click here for more information. As a powerful summertime derecho moved from Illinois to the Mid-Atlantic states on June 29, expanding and bringing destruction with it, NASA and other satellites provided a look at various factors involved in the event, its progression and its aftermath. According to ...

The key (proteins) to self-renewing skin

2012-07-06
In the July 6 issue of Cell Stem Cell, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine describe how human epidermal progenitor cells and stem cells control transcription factors to avoid premature differentiation, preserving their ability to produce new skin cells throughout life. The findings provide new insights into the role and importance of exosomes and their targeted gene transcripts, and may help point the way to new drugs or therapies for not just skin diseases, but other disorders in which stem and progenitor cell populations are affected. Stem ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

A graphene sandwich — deposited or transferred?

New light-powered motor fits inside a strand of hair

Oil rig study reveals vital role of tiny hoverflies

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia researchers boost widespread use of dental varnish across pediatric network

iRECODE: A new computational method that brings clarity to single-cell analysis

New NUS-MOH study: Singapore’s healthcare sector carbon emissions 18% lower than expected, a milestone in the city-state’s net zero journey

QUT scientists create material to turn waste heat into clean power

Major new report sets out how to tackle the ‘profound and lasting impact’ of COVID-19 on cardiovascular health

Cosmic crime scene: White dwarf found devouring Pluto-like icy world

Major report tackles Covid’s cardiovascular crisis head-on

A third of licensed GPs in England not working in NHS general practice

ChatGPT “thought on the fly” when put through Ancient Greek maths puzzle

Engineers uncover why tiny particles form clusters in turbulent air

GLP-1RA drugs dramatically reduce death and cardiovascular risk in psoriasis patients

Psoriasis linked to increased risk of vision-threatening eye disease, study finds

Reprogramming obesity: New drug from Italian biotech aims to treat the underlying causes of obesity

Type 2 diabetes may accelerate development of multiple chronic diseases, particularly in the early stages, UK Biobank study suggests

Resistance training may improve nerve health, slow aging process, study shows

Common and inexpensive medicine halves the risk of recurrence in patients with colorectal cancer

SwRI-built instruments to monitor, provide advanced warning of space weather events

Breakthrough advances sodium-based battery design

New targeted radiation therapy shows near-complete response in rare sarcoma patients

Does physical frailty contribute to dementia?

Soccer headers and brain health: Study finds changes within folds of the brain

Decoding plants’ language of light

UNC Greensboro study finds ticks carrying Lyme disease moving into western NC

New implant restores blood pressure balance after spinal cord injury

New York City's medical specialist advantage may be an illusion, new NYU Tandon research shows

Could a local anesthetic that doesn’t impair motor function be within reach?

1 in 8 Italian cetacean strandings show evidence of fishery interactions, with bottlenose and striped dolphins most commonly affected, according to analysis across four decades of data and more than 5

[Press-News.org] University of Louisville study dispels concerns about drive-thru flu clinics