Bad news for cisplatin patients

One way the FDA was dealing with the cisplatin shortage was by allowing imports from China’s Qilu Pharmaceutical, even though the facility wasn’t FDA approved. That helped for a bit, but now the agency reports that the Qilu well has run dry: “All imported product has been distributed.”

The bit of good news is that other companies have some supply. Cisplatin from both Gland Pharma and HQ Specialty Pharma are “Available on allocation,” but the rest of the usual manufacturers have it on backorder at best.

The other news — neither good nor bad — is that Congress is hard at work on the issue: “Health subcommittee members at odds over drafted drug shortage legislation.”

Georgia boosters are hard to come by

The rollout of the season’s Covid boosters in Georgia has been a bit bumpy, which to be fair isn’t surprising considering it’s just started.

Vaccine makers have tripled the price of the shot, and some commercial insurers haven’t added it to their systems, so patients have to wait until they’re sure of coverage or pay out of pocket and deal with being reimbursed. Some pharmacies have the vaccines, some don’t, and some are already running short — as pharmacist and GPhA member Jonathan Hamrick told Atlanta’s channel 11, demand for the boosters is already huge.

People without insurance can use the federal government’s Bridge Access Program if they’re near a CVS, Walgreens, or participating independent pharmacy. The DPH is supposed to be getting vaccines for distribution by county health departments, but that’s still in progress.

Follow all that?

C. diff: The call is coming from inside the house!

Infections with Clostridioides difficile are a big problem for hospitals, and it even stringent hygiene procedures don’t stop it.

So University of Michigan microbiologists looked closer when they found the surprising reason that’s the case. They sampled the C. diff infections of 100 patients at Rush University Medical Center over 9 months. The surprise: Each patient had a different strain.

They didn’t transmit the C. diff to one another. They didn’t get it at the hospital. They brought it with them.

[ insert dramatic music here ]

“Something happened to these patients that we still don’t understand to trigger the transition from C. diff hanging out in the gut to the organism causing diarrhea and the other complications resulting from infection.”

Say it with me: More research is needed.

Captain Obvious sticks to the occasional half-caff

“Young adults’ simultaneous use of alcohol and marijuana linked to more negative consequences”

Covid quickies

The new normal

Now, after it killed more than 1.1 million Americans — and the remaining people have either survived the disease, been vaccinated, or both — Covid-19 has reached a new phase that physicians are learning to recognize. Gone are dry coughs and loss of the sense of smell; congestion and sneezing are now the more common signs.

There’s good news and bad. The good news is that for most people the disease is minor^*. The bad news is that the symptoms of the latest variants are at first similar to a cold, making identification tougher and increasing the risk if it turns into a severe case when it’s too late for Paxlovid to help.

^* Except for the risk of long Covid, which affects up to 30% of people who get mild cases

Easing long Covid

A Canadian team found that people suffering from long Covid might be helped by getting a(nother) Covid vaccine. The study was fairly small — 86 patients — but they found that a vast majority — 86% — reported fewer symptoms after the shot. (Interestingly, 8.3% reported more symptoms. Go figure.)

Based on blood tests, they think it’s because of the reduction in cytokines and chemokines, “a sign that inflammatory proteins were mitigated by vaccination.”

Universal flu vax: the latest

A phase 1 (‘does it work?’) test of a second universal flu vaccine is about to begin. It’s called FluMos-v2, and it was developed by the good folks at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Vaccine Research Center. NIAID’s FluMos-v1 is still in testing.

While the FluMos-v1 vaccine candidate displays HA [hemagglutinin] from four strains of influenza virus, FluMos-v2 displays HA from six: four influenza A viruses and two influenza B viruses. The researchers anticipate that this will further broaden vaccine recipients’ immunity, providing protection against a wider variety of influenza viruses.

Here comes the science: “FluMos-v2 is designed to induce antibodies against many different influenza virus strains by displaying part of the influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA) protein in repeating patterns on self-assembling nanoparticle scaffolds.”

Saving you a click

“This Simple Activity Lowers Stress Without Exercise or Meditation”

It’s coloring.