ICYMI: Baby formula recall

Some Alimentum, EleCare, and Similac products have been recalled because of contamination that caused at least five infants to be hospitalized and one death.

The FDA has details on the lot numbers (and so does Abbott, the manufacturer).

Docs ignoring hypertension guidelines

There are guidelines for “the Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Management of High Blood Pressure in Adults.” One of those says that those with particularly high BP should receive combination therapy — at least two classes of antihypertensives.

Simple enough. And yet, a study out of Yale found that only half of those adults were prescribed that two-med combo. In fact, almost 30% didn’t have any BP drugs prescribed, and 20% only had one.

“Major opportunities exist,” the authors wrote, “for improving the guideline adherence of antihypertensive drug prescription in this population.” Indeed.

If you’re ready to lead, time’s running out

The deadline for applications for the GPhA Board of Directors is 11:59 pm EST this Thursday, March 3.

GPhA is looking to add to the team that will shape the future of pharmacy in Georgia. We’re accepting applications for the 2022-2023 GPhA Board of Directors. Serving on the board is the opportunity to make a difference in — and a lasting contribution to — the pharmacy profession in Georgia. Plus people genuflect to you at the convention.

We have two open positions:

1. One board member at large
2. One Academy of Independent Pharmacy (AIP) member

We encourage you to apply. Click here to see the details and the requirements, or drop a note to Governance Manager Lia Andros at landros@gpha.org if you have any questions.

How are the kids?

Data out of New York showed that, for kids 5–11, the Pfizer vaccine’s protection against Omicron infection dropped quickly (to about 12 percent), although it remained high for preventing hospitalization. And kids that age are rarely hospitalized anyway.

BUT WAIT! Data from the CDC are … different.

The CDC data, which comes from 10 states, show that protection for younger kids doesn’t drop like that, and is similar to the protection for 12-to-15 year olds*.

“When you look at the whole picture, we’re not seeing that signal that New York State is seeing,” as the CDC’s Ruth Link-Gelles put it. “Where they see the difference is between the unvaccinated and vaccinated.”

* Fair to middling against infection, very good against hospitalization

Jonathan Marquess shout-out

Between staff taking early retirement, leaving to avoid Covid, or seeking better pay, and more, there are longer waits at pharmacies. (You might be aware of this.)

Atlanta’s 11 Alive shared that news with its viewers, turning to GPhA’s Jonathan Marquess for some perspective.

For some customers, it’s been a nightmare:

“There was two cars in front of me and it took 20 minutes before they got to me,” said [11Alive viewer Rhonda] Nelson. “It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

This little piggie didn’t have Covid

“Covid toes” were (are?) one of the many many conditions blamed on the SARS-CoV-2 virus. But chilblains usually comes from cold, wet conditions — not a respiratory virus. So what’s with the sudden rise in cases?

Yale dermatologists, feeling left out of the whole Covid-research bonanza, now had themselves a project. And they found that no, you can’t blame every medical condition on Covid: “Our results do not support SARS-CoV-2 as the cause of the increased chilblain incidence.”

[O]nly 2 of the 21 patients (9.5%) with chilblain eruptions had evidence of a prior SARS-CoV-2 infection. None of the cases within households had evidence of infection. This number approximates regional seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 at the time […] indicating that that this outcome could have been expected by chance.

Thus they prefer to refer to the condition as “pandemic chilblains.”

Cat pictures won’t work

Got a patient who can’t take aspirin, acetaminophen, or other NSAIDS? Here’s an unexpected pain killer: nostalgia.

It won’t work for, say, a metal spike through a leg, but Chinese neuroscientists using fMRI scans found that, “Viewing nostalgic images reduced pain ratings compared to viewing control images, with the strongest effect on low intensity pain.”

How: Viewing nostalgic images “reduced activity in the left lingual gyrus and parahippocampal gyrus, two brain regions implicated in pain perception.” Why? Don’t know. Yet.

The double-edged metformin sword

Metformin is used for diabetes, but it’s showing a lot of promise as a cancer treatment, too. That’s because it’s an AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase) activator.

Oncologists and researchers are keen to try it on different kinds of cancer, but Canadian researchers are offering a warning. They built a computer model to test the effect of AMPK on cancer, and their results show that, well, it depends.

In brief, sometimes AMPK is a cancer suppressor, sometimes it’s a cancer promoter. “It depends on the cellular nutrient level,” they wrote, among other variables.

[D]oes AMPK promote or limit cancer cell proliferation and survival? This question is challenging to answer due to the complexity of the signalling pathways that regulate cell growth, which involve many positive and negative feedback loops.

Bottom line: Depending on the cancer, metformin may be as likely to hurt a patient as help.

Captain Obvious practices rewilding

A shocking study out of Northwestern finds that, when it comes to injecting cosmetics into your skin, YouTube videos “have ongoing problems with the quality of information provided.”

Videos produced by physicians are a better source of information than patient-based videos, according to the new research by American Society of Plastic Surgeons Member Surgeon Robert D. Galiano, MD.

You can also check out the study itself, “Websites or Videos: Which Offer Better Information for Patients?”