I've just returned from a wonderful family week at the beach to a steaming suburban DC and an annoying surprise at home. I'll just bask in my vacation afterglow and belatedly compose this post.
Bugs cont'd
I didn't think it was possible, but there are more mosquitos around my house now than before I left for vacation. Right on schedule, West Nile Virus infections are starting to heat up.
Hot off the presses, you can also add Texas to the list. Remember that although West Nile Virus is feared for its neurologic manifestations, most infections are either asymptomatic or result in a nonspecific febrile illness. The neurologic cases are the tip of the iceberg.
Hepatitis C - We're Missing the Mark in Public Awareness
A recent publication noted a big gap in delivery of care for hepatitis C, summarized below. I really like their cool poster-type depiction, check out the bottom line (at the bottom, of course).
Once again, our wonderful technologic advances in medicine are clouded by a failure to have them reach those who need them most.
More on Neonatal ECHOvirus Infections
The World Health Organization reported more cases of neonatal ECHO-11 infections in newborns, originally in France as discussed in these pages on June 4. Now WHO reports new cases from Croatia, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and the UK. No evidence so far that these events in different countries are connected; this might just reflect enhanced surveillance given the initial alert from France. The link above has a nice discussion of various aspects of the cases. Again, keep severe enteroviral disease in mind with any sick newborn in whom bacterial etiologies are not revealing.
'Demic Doldrums
Remember wastewater monitoring? It's not the greatest tool in the US due to the fact that monitoring is voluntary and leaves much of the US with no data. However, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins has been blogging on this and is predicting we are about to see an uptick in southern states. She admits the data are iffy, we'll know eventually if she is full of hot air or not.
Some interesting data appeared regarding maternal covid vaccination and newborn antibody levels. This was a small but well-studied group of 76 mothers who received an mRNA vaccine during pregnancy. Higher maternal antibody levels were seen in mothers who had systemic symptoms following the second vaccine dose, though all had good responses. Maternal transfer of IgG to infants was highest in those vaccinated in the second trimester. Breast milk IgG and IgA antibody to SARS-CoV-2 persisted about 5-6 months, just in time for the infants to start their own vaccine series! There were no significant adverse events in mothers or infants. Bottom line: since we don't know what covid will do in the future, pregnant persons would be well advised to get that new vaccine dose during their second trimester.
The US Government Accounting Office published some further recommendations for pandemic preparedness. I'm very glad these are appearing, but public interest and funding have cooled dramatically.
Also, I was pleased to see an analysis of journalistic coverage of preprint publication before and during the pandemic appearing (where else) but on the well-known preprint site BioRxiv. This coverage hit the boiling point during the pandemic but applied only to covid preprints, not to other scientific reports. Next up I hope we see some analysis of how many of those preprints never appeared in a peer-reviewed publication; some have attempted chart this already, but we probably need to wait another 2-3 years before passing judgement. I continue to worry that too much attention was focused on preprint postings during the pandemic; the blame for this is shared by journalists, scientists, and the universities and other organizations where the work was performed.
Lest we forget about flu, things aren't too bad worldwide but WHO did report some close-to-home hot spots in Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.
My Astrologic Education
I always assumed the saying "dog days of summer" had something to do with a panting dog in the heat. I was barking up the wrong tree; now I've found out it originated with Hellinistic astrology. Officially, the dog days run from July 3 to August 11, according to the Farmer's Almanac.
I had a great time with my 3 sons and families at the beach, enough to keep me somewhat cool and calm after the thunderbolt of finding my air conditioner on the fritz when I returned home. Fortunately for my dog days, my house has 2 air conditioners. Until now, this was a complete mistake - our house could be handled by just one unit if only the ducts were all linked together. So, for now half the house is tolerable and I won't complain too much, at least until I get the bill from the air conditioning service.
Oh, and in case you haven't noticed, I've sprinkled weather- and temperature-related references and puns throughout this week's post. To keep your mind from sweating, see if you can find all of them. Answers in next week's post.