A different morning-after pill

Not everyone thinks about pregnancy after a night of, you know, listening to Barry White with a friend. There’s also the issue of STIs, which usually are treated after they’re discovered, often with some discomfort involved.

But, just like with tick bites, taking a dose of doxycycline quickly enough can — per UC San Francisco researchers — prevent the infection from ever taking hold. Specifically, “Researchers discovered that taking the antibiotic doxycycline within 72 hours of unprotected sex slashed the risk of gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis by two-thirds.”

Pharmacy techs: Immunization training is a week away

The best immunization training you can get comes from the Georgia Pharmacy Association — and it’s the smart move to help your career and your bank account.

GPhA’s Immunization Delivery Training for Pharmacy Technicians is a six hour program (that’s 6.0 hours of CE) — 3 hours in the classroom, 3 hours of home study.

That live training is Saturday, April 15 in Sandy Springs, from 9:00 am till noon .

Space is limited. Don’t wait. Click the button (or go to GPhA.org/techimmunization) for the details and to register:

The best Covid protections, ranked

Covid vaccine, Covid infection, or both — which gives you the best protection against being seriously infected (or infected again)?

We all know this answer will change over time as more data come in (science!), but the latest — courtesy of Stanford research — says that getting infected with SARS-CoV-2 before you’re vaccinated reduces the vaccine’s effectiveness.

Their rankings, based on the results:

• Most killer T-cells: Vaccinated but never infected
• Next most: Vaccinated, then a breakthrough infection
• Third most: Infected, then vaccinated
• Fewest killer T-cells: Infected but not vaccinated

What’s different about this study is that it looked at the amount and strength of killer T-cells, rather than antibodies. It’s the T-cells that provide the long-term protection, which these days is probably more important.

The common cold and your brain

Here’s a scary thought: Could every time you catch a cold mean your risk of dementia increases? We wouldn’t ask unless someone with a lab asked the same question. And they did.

A Tulane/West Virginia University study found that, in mice at least…

…repeated, intermittent experiences with moderate inflammation, such as that caused by the flu or a seasonal head cold, caused impaired cognition and disrupted communication between neurons in those mice.

The Air You Breathe

A risk of dementia

Air pollution — specifically, the ultra-fine particles — seems to increase the risk of dementia. That’s what Harvard researchers found in a meta-analysis of more than 2,000 studies, 51 of which looked at the pollution-dementia connection.

The researchers found consistent evidence of an association between PM2.5 [fine particulate air pollutants] and dementia, even when annual exposure was less than the current EPA annual standard […] the researchers found a 17% increase in risk for developing dementia for every 2 μg/m3 increase in average annual exposure to PM2.5.

They also found evidence suggesting associations between dementia and nitrogen oxide and nitrogen dioxide “though the data was more limited.”

Pollution hurts vaccination

A new study out of Germany and Spain found that living where there are higher levels of air pollution made Covid vaccinations less effective.

[I]n uninfected individuals, pre-pandemic exposure to the tested pollutant was associated with a 5% to 10% reduction in vaccine-induced spike antibodies.

Interestingly, it had less of an effect on people who had been vaccinated and infected with Covid. On that finding, they suggested, “additional investigations should be done.”

Short Take

Makena is gone

The FDA has officially pulled Covis Pharma’s Makena from the market, following the advice last month of its advisory committee. Makena was given accelerated approval to help with pre-term births, but later studies found it had limited if any benefit.