Healthcare & Laboratory News

HCPlive (1/21, Derman) reports, “A new study revealed antimicrobials, [vaccinations], and anti-inflammatories were associated with reduced dementia risk, whereas vitamins, supplements, and antipsychotics were associated with an increased risk.” Researchers found that “medications linked to an increased dementia risk were intended to treat conditions of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, neurodegenerative diseases, dementia symptoms, dyspepsia and gastroesophageal reflux disease, nausea and vertigo, laxatives, proton pump inhibitors, hypnotics and anxiolytics, analgesics, anticonvulsants, drugs used in substance abuse, and drugs for genito-urinary disorders.” The findings were published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions.

Infectious Disease Advisor (1/21, Basilio) reports, “Efforts to improve linkage to primary and HIV comprehensive care may reduce the risk of post-treatment mortality among survivors of tuberculosis (TB) infection in the United States, according to results of a study.” The researchers said, “Comprehensive care during and after treatment should also consider social determinants of health and co-existing illnesses, which might be more prevalent among US-born [people].” The findings were published in Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Bloomberg Law (1/21, Yasiejko, Subscription Publication) reports, “Public health advocates expressed outrage at the US government’s settlement of its lawsuit against Gilead Sciences Inc. over billions in profits tied to HIV drug patents, arguing the deal shortchanges taxpayers and sets a troubling precedent for government-funded innovation.” Last week’s agreement, “which ended a five-year legal battle, granted Gilead a license to key government-owned patents related to pre-exposure prophylaxis, known as PrEP, for preventing the transmission of HIV.”

Infectious Disease Advisor (1/21, Chan) reports, “Hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment initiation and viral clearance are substantially increased by peer-assisted HCV screening and telemedicine treatment (Peer TeleHCV) vs enhanced usual care, according to study findings.” The researchers said, “With federal support for expansion of models like peer-assisted telemedicine treatment, HCV elimination in the United States is indeed possible.” The findings were published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Healio (1/17, Stulpin) reported, “Patients with HIV [PWH] and hepatitis B coinfection are at an increased risk for hepatitis D, which is associated with an increased risk of liver-related complications and mortality, researchers found.” One investigator “concluded that PWH and [hepatitis B virus] coinfection remain at risk for hepatitis D virus ‘superinfection’ in the era of tenofovir-containing ART.” The findings were published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

MedPage Today (1/17, Robertson) reported, “Less than half of patients who were positive for high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) with negative cytologic findings were retested during the guideline-recommended time frame, a cohort study showed.” Researchers found that “during the first 16 months after an index positive HPV result, only 43.7% of patients received an initial surveillance test, of whom 18.2% had HPV-negative results and negative intraepithelial lesion or malignancy cytologic findings and 25.5% had abnormal results.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

The Hill (1/20, O'Connell-Domenech) reports, “President Trump issued an executive order Monday night withdrawing the United States from the” WHO. Approximately “a fifth of the WHO’s budget in 2023 — or roughly $1.28 billion — came from the” US.

The Hill (1/17, Kelly) reported Republican lawmakers are raising concern with “the State Department after learning that recipients of funding from the legacy program to curb HIV/AIDS across Africa, PEPFAR, performed abortions in violation of U.S. law.” Federal “officials told members of Congress that a review of PEPFAR-funded service providers in Mozambique had revealed that four nurses had performed 21 abortions since January 2021, Reuters reported.” Although “abortion is legal in that country, service providers across Africa that get funding through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) are barred under U.S. law from providing abortion services.” According to The Hill, “the discovery that some of the funding went to services that provided abortions is likely to add extra hurdles to the program’s long-term reauthorization.”

Reuters (1/16, Dausen) reports, “Tanzania’s government said no one in the country had tested positive for the Marburg virus after the World Health Organization (WHO) said at least eight people in the northwest were believed to have died from it.” Jenista Mhagama, the country’s health minister, said, “As of 15th January 2025, laboratory results for all suspected individuals were negative for Marburg virus.” During “a virtual press conference from Geneva on Thursday, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Tanzania should ‘send the samples it has collected to international reference laboratories and...collect additional samples in accordance with normal procedure.’”

Reuters (1/16, Douglas, Polansek, Aboulenein, Sunny) reports, “People hospitalized for flu should be tested for bird flu within 24 hours, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday, in an expansion of the agency’s efforts to tackle increasing infections in humans.” The CDC’s “advisory is intended to prevent delays in identifying human cases of avian influenza A viruses amid high levels of seasonal influenza.” Patients who are influenza A-positive, “particularly those in an intensive care unit, should be tested ideally within 24 hours of hospitalization to identify the viral subtype and determine whether they have bird flu, the agency said.” The Washington Post (1/16, Sun) reports, “Any hospitalized patients, especially those in intensive care units, with suspected seasonal influenza or bird flu should also be started on the antiviral treatment Tamiflu [oseltamivir phosphate] as soon as possible without waiting for results of influenza testing, the...advisory said.”