In a study published in Pediatric Blood & Cancer, researchers reported that caregivers of childhood cancer survivors expressed high rates of vaccine hesitancy, especially if they lacked confidence in governmental COVID response.
The researchers conducted a survey of 130 caregivers of childhood cancer survivors, 21% of caregivers expressed hesitancy to vaccinate themselves and 29% expressed hesitancy to vaccinate their children who had survived cancer.
Caregivers who expressed confidence in the US government’s response to COVID were six times more likely to express willingness to self-vaccinate and were three times more likely to express willingness to vaccinate their children.
Caregivers who reported that they were hesitant to vaccinate cited concerns about the speed of COVID vaccine development and a lack of safety and efficacy data in children, particularly children with cancer.
“Results suggest that COVID vaccination outreach to hesitant caregivers might be more effective when delivered by non-governmental organisations, including paediatric oncology care teams,” said senior author Kyle Walsh, PhD, of the Duke Cancer Institute. “Such providers are well-positioned to discuss potential risks and benefits of vaccination and to update families as longer-term outcomes data emerge from vaccine trials and registries.”
Instead of being negatively impacted when looking in the mirror, it may in fact help positively alter behaviour in individuals with obesity, according to an analysis published in the Journal of Clinical Nursing.
The analysis examined the results of five studies that included 16 to 941 participants each. The results indicated that the mirror can be used to decrease anxiety and body dissatisfaction. Furthermore, investigators noted that when individuals spend a few minutes gazing at themselves in a therapeutic environment, they may attain self‐awareness that will elicit a positive change in their behaviour.
“Self-assessment and reflection are key to overall wellbeing. Our review hopes to introduce the mirror as a healthcare tool to combat obesity,” said lead author Harriet Omondi, MSN, FNP-C, of Texas Woman’s University.
Researchers have shown that smartphone pictures of post-surgical wounds taken by patients and then assessed by clinicians help spot infections early on.
These ‘surgery selfies’ were associated with a reduced number of GP visits and improved access to advice among patients who took them. This practice could help manage surgical patients’ care while they recover.
Death within 30 days of surgery is the third largest cause of mortality globally. More than a third of postoperative deaths are associated with surgical wound infections.
In the study, published in NPJ Digital Medicine, University of Edinburgh researchers conducted a randomised clinical trial involving 492 emergency abdominal surgery patients to determine if photos from smartphones and questions on symptoms of infection could be used to diagnose wound infections early.
One group of 223 patients were contacted on days three, seven and 15 after surgery and directed to an online survey, where they were asked about their wound and any symptoms they were experiencing. Then they were asked to take a picture of their wound and upload it.
A surgical team member assessed the photographs and patients’ responses were assessed for signs of wound infection. They followed up with patients 30 days after surgery to find out if they had been subsequently diagnosed with an infection.
A second group of 269 received standard care and were contacted 30 days after surgery to find out if they had been diagnosed with an infection.
No significant difference between groups was seen in the overall time it took to diagnose wound infections in the 30-days after surgery.
However, the smartphone group was nearly four times more likely to have their wound infection diagnosed within seven days of their surgery compared to the routine care group. They also had fewer GP visits and reported a better experience of trying to access post-operative care.
The research team is now conducting a follow-up study to determine how this can be best put into practice for surgical patients around the country. Artificial intelligence will also be used to help the clinical team in assessing the possibility of wound infection.
Professor Ewen Harrison, Professor of Surgery and Data Science, who led the research said: “Our study shows the benefits of using mobile technology for follow-up after surgery. Recovery can be an anxious time for everybody. These approaches provide reassurance – after all, most of us don’t know what a normally healing wound looks like a few weeks after surgery. We hope that picking up wound problems early can result in treatments that limit complications.”
Dr. Kenneth McLean, who co-led the research said: “Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, there have been big changes in how care after surgery is delivered. Patients and staff have become used to having remote consultations, and we’ve shown we can effectively and safely monitor wounds after surgery while patients recover at home – this is likely to become the new normal.”
Researchers have found that exercise increases endocannabinoids, helping reduce inflammation and could potentially help treat certain conditions such as arthritis, cancer and heart disease.
A new study, published in Gut Microbes, found that exercise intervention in people with arthritis, in addition to reducing pain, also lowered the levels of inflammatory cytokines. It also increased levels of endocannabinoids, cannabis-like substances produced by the body. Interestingly, exercise caused these changes through an unusual mechanism: altering the gut microbes.
Exercise is known to reduce chronic inflammation, which is linked to a number of diseases including cancer, arthritis and heart disease. However, little is known as to exactly how exercise reduces inflammation.
Researchers tested 78 people with arthritis. Thirty-eight of them carried out 15 minutes of muscle strengthening exercises every day for six weeks, and 40 did nothing.
At the end of the study, those in the exercise intervention group had not only reduced their pain, but they also had more gut microbes that produce anti-inflammatory substances, lower levels of cytokines and higher levels of endocannabinoids.
The increase in endocannabinoids was strongly linked to changes in the gut microbes and anti-inflammatory substances produced by gut microbes called SCFAS. At least a third of the anti-inflammatory effects of the gut microbiome was attributable to the increase in endocannabinoids.
“Our study clearly shows that exercise increases the body’s own cannabis-type substances. Which can have a positive impact on many conditions. As interest in cannabidiol oil and other supplements increases, it is important to know that simple lifestyle interventions like exercise can modulate endocannabinoids,” said Doctor Amrita Vijay, a Research Fellow in the School of Medicine and first author of the paper
A fourth wave of infections is likely for South Africa but its impact probably won’t be as severe as during earlier surges, as shown by new modelling, according to BusinessTech.
Factoring in sero-prevalence surveys and other data, it appears that an estimated 60% to 70% of the population has already contracted COVID, which along with vaccinations will provide protection from severe disease, the South African COVID-19 Modelling Consortium said in an online presentation on Wednesday.
Even in its worst-case scenario, deaths and hospitalisations during a fourth wave were projected to be substantially lower than during previous surges.
Though current caseload for the country is “incredibly low”, it is still “very hard to commit to say South Africa is over the worst” of the COVID pandemic, said Harry Moultrie, a senior epidemiologist at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, which coordinated the modelling.
“It’s going to be a bumpy ride,” he said. “We don’t know where this virus is going to take us. We will still be seeing hospital admissions and deaths related to Covid for years to come.”
South Africa;s seven-day rolling average of new infections has fallen below 300, much reduced from a third-wave peak which hit nearly 20 000 in July.
To date, South Africa has had 2.93 million confirmed cases of COVID, with 89 504 deaths, although excess death numbers indicate the true toll may be much higher. About 34% of the nation’s 39.8 million adults have been fully vaccinated.
While some countries in the northern hemisphere such as Germany are seeing severe fourth and even fifth waves of infection driven by the spread of the delta variant, that’s not a good indicator South Africa will follow a similar path because the strain has already spread widely in the country, explained Gesine Meyer-Rath, a member of the modelling consortium. “We have paid in a way with high deaths and a lot of destruction” during previous waves, Meyer-Rath said. “We don’t think we will have a super-fast case increase again” unless a highly transmissible new variant emerges, she said.
While the outlook for the fourth wave is brighter, the past few weeks has seen a sharp rise of influenza cases, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) reported.
A high number of cases had been seen from the beginning of the month, including influenza-like illness and pneumonia hospitalised cases at surveillance sentinel sites.
The NICD added that there had been clusters of influenza cases reported in schools and workplaces.
The NICD’s Cheryl Cohen said: “The increase in influenza this summer, which is not the typical time for the influenza season in South Africa, is likely the result of the relaxation of non-pharmaceutical interventions to control COVID combined with other factors such as reduced immunity because flu has not circulated since 2020 and 2021.”
