Annals of Family Medicine is a peer-reviewed, indexed research journal that provides a cross-disciplinary forum for new, evidence-based information affecting the primary care disciplines.

For the last seven years, researchers at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University have been developing and refining CRISPR-based gene-editing technology for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV) infection. Out of that effort has emerged a potentially revolutionizing therapy known as EBT-101, which thanks to recent acceptance as an Investigational New Drug (IND) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, could become the first functional cure for chronic HIV infection. The new IND approval for EBT-101 opens the way to the first Phase 1/2 clinical trials of a CRISPR-based therapy for HIV infection. The clinical trials will be initiated and managed by Excision BioTherapeutics, Inc., which has been a major collaborator with Temple on the development of CRISPR-based systems for the treatment of HIV.

Face masks and social distancing are both well-known ways to keep airborne pathogens, like COVID-19, at bay, but University of Central Florida researchers Michael Kinzel and Kareem Ahmed are working on a possible new one — a combination of food products that alters people’s saliva.

The European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology, EULAR, wishes to highlight increasing shortages of vital anti-inflammatory drugs used in the treatment of arthritis, vasculitis and other inflammatory RMDs.

Diagnostic tests developed in-house in hospital laboratories are not currently regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), unlike those sold by manufacturers. A new study suggests that temporary deviations from FDA policy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic offer a look at what regulation of these tests by the agency might look like. Findings from this study could inform legislation aimed at regulating lab-developed tests.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a wide range of consequences for children and adolescents when it comes to education, social interaction, socioemotional development, physical activity and psychological wellbeing. Many of them will be able to overcome these consequences. However, others will continue to feel the effects of the deficits in the medium and probably long term. With a view to counteracting this impact, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina has published the ad hoc statement “Children and adolescents in the COVID-19 pandemic: Psychosocial and educational challenges and opportunities”, now available in English, and recommends the development and expansion of support and educational structures. These should address current inequalities in education and development in a sustainable manner, thus going beyond the mitigation of disadvantages caused by the pandemic to improve the situation with reference to the pre-pandemic status quo.

Some women say their periods change after getting a covid-19 vaccination. In The BMJ today, Dr Victoria Male, a reproductive specialist at Imperial College London, says a link between menstrual changes after covid-19 vaccination is plausible and should be investigated.

As more people return to indoor settings for work and school, new research shows stricter policy restrictions on business operations and indoor mask-wearing reduced COVID-19 cases in Ontario during the first and second waves.

Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge along with 20 other hospitals from across the world and healthcare technology leader, NVIDIA, have used artificial intelligence (AI) to predict Covid patients’ oxygen needs on a global scale.