HPV vaccination recommendation expanded
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in August recommended that females and males through the age of 26 who failed to get vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV) by age 11 or 12 receive a “catch-up” vaccination. It’s a change: Catch-up vaccination has been recommended since 2006 for females through age 26 years, and since 2011 for males through age 21 years and certain special populations through age 26 years. (For adults aged 27 through 45 years, CDC regards the public health benefit of HPV vaccination to be minimal; shared clinical decision-making is recommended because some persons who are not adequately vaccinated might benefit.).
Lights out
Sleeping with a TV or light on in the room may be a risk factor for gaining weight or developing obesity, according to scientists at the National Institutes of Health. The research, which was published online June 10 in JAMA Internal Medicine, is the first to find an association between any exposure to artificial light at night while sleeping and weight gain in women. The results of a questionnaire submitted by 43,722 women suggest that cutting off lights at bedtime could reduce women’s chances of becoming obese. The results varied with the level of artificial light at night exposure. For example, using a small nightlight was not associated with weight gain, whereas women who slept with a light or television on were 17% more likely to have gained 5 kilograms, approximately 11 pounds, or more over the follow-up period. The association with having light coming from outside the room was more modest. Scientists cautioned that this is a basic research finding, and wondered if not getting enough rest factored into the findings.
Emergency hypoglycemia treatment OK’d
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in July approved Baqsimi nasal powder, the first glucagon (hormone) therapy approved for the emergency treatment of severe hypoglycemia that can be administered without an injection. Severe hypoglycemia occurs when a patient’s blood sugar levels fall to a point where he or she becomes confused or unconscious or suffers from other symptoms that require assistance from another person to treat. Typically, severe hypoglycemia occurs in people with diabetes who are using insulin treatment. Baqsimi is approved to treat severe hypoglycemia in patients with diabetes ages four and older.
Pregnant women and group B strep
Most babies born to women who test positive for group B strep (GBS) bacteria do not need treatment if their mother received antibiotics during labor. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) recommend women get tested for GBS bacteria when they are 36 through 37 weeks pregnant. To administer the test, clinicians use a sterile swab to collect a sample from the vagina and the rectum. Women who test positive for GBS are not sick. However, they are at increased risk for passing the bacteria to their babies during birth. Babies born to women with GBS who receive antibiotics have about a one-in-4,000 chance of developing GBS disease; but babies born to women who fail to get antibiotics have a one-in-200 chance of doing so.
Blood pressure control may be good for the brain
Intensive blood-pressure control may slow age-related brain damage, report researchers in a National Institutes of Health study. Researchers using magnetic resonance imaging to scan the brains of hundreds of participants in the National Institutes of Health’s Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT) found that intensively controlling a person’s blood pressure was more effective at slowing the accumulation of white matter lesions than standard treatment of high blood pressure. The results complement a previous study published by the same research group that showed that intensive treatment of BP significantly lowered the chances that participants developed mild cognitive impairment. Several studies have suggested that people who have hypertension have a greater chance of accumulating white matter lesions and also of experiencing cognitive disorders and dementia later in life.
Pregnancy and hepatitis B screening
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force in July published a final recommendation statement on screening for hepatitis B virus infection in pregnant women. The Task Force recommended that all pregnant women be screened for hepatitis B infection at their first prenatal visit to prevent infection in newborns. (Hepatitis B is a viral infection of the liver that can cause chronic conditions such as liver disease or liver cancer. When babies become infected with hepatitis B from their mothers, they have a 90 percent chance of developing these lifelong chronic infections.) Although babies are now routinely vaccinated for hepatitis B virus shortly after birth, rates of maternal hepatitis B virus infection have increased by more than 5 percent each year since 1998, the Task Force noted. This is why it is important to screen all pregnant people.
Pivot point for low-dose aspirin
Medical consensus once supported daily use of low-dose aspirin to prevent heart attack and stroke in people at increased risk for cardiovascular disease. But in 2018, three major clinical trials cast doubt on that conventional wisdom, finding few benefits and consistent bleeding risks associated with daily aspirin use, according to Harvard Medical School. Taken together, the findings led the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology to change clinical practice guidelines earlier this year, recommending against the routine use of aspirin in people older than 70 years or people with increased bleeding risk who do not have existing cardiovascular disease. “Our findings show a tremendous need for health care practitioners to ask their patients about ongoing aspirin use and to advise them about the importance of balancing the benefits and harms, especially among older adults and those with prior peptic ulcer disease,” said lead author Colin O’Brien, Harvard Medical School clinical fellow in medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess.