A novel decentralized clinical trial found that Paxlovid was ineffective in alleviating long COVID symptoms but underscored the importance of a patient-centered approach.

A new study suggests that people in their 50s and older have embraced the ability to send and receive secure medical messages with their doctors and other providers, through the digital patient portals that most health systems and medical offices now offer. The study also suggests that some older adults – including those with very low incomes – find themselves getting billed for these digital interactions.

The technology described uses a nanomechanical platform and tiny cantilevers to detect multiple HIV antigens at high sensitivity in a matter of minutes. These silicon cantilevers are cheap and easy to mass produce and can be readily equipped with a digital readout. Built into a solar-powered device, this technology could be taken to hard-to-reach parts of the world where early detection remains a challenge to deliver fast interventions to vulnerable populations without waiting for a lab.

Blood cancer patients who receive a type of anti-cancer therapy should continue to take the drug while having COVID-19 vaccinations, a new study published in the Lancet Haematology suggests.

Pregnancy may offer some protection from developing Long COVID, found a new study led by Weill Cornell Medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center, University of Utah Health and Louisiana Public Health Institute. Previous research has mostly focused on non-pregnant adults affected by Long COVID— a condition lasting for months after a person recovers from SARS-CoV-2 infection.

A new study published in The Lancet Public Health found that tuberculosis diagnoses plummeted as much as 100 percent in Central and North America in 2021, and nearly 87 percent in Western Europe in 2022 (compared to expected levels). This pattern was distinct from tuberculosis diagnoses among the general population, which experienced a decline in 2020, but generally began increasing again in subsequent years. Incarceration levels remained largely consistent from 2020-2022, suggesting that the reduction in reported TB cases was likely due to other factors, such as reduced capacity for prisons to test and diagnose TB during the unprecedented global crisis.

New research findings provide solid evidence that annual COVID-19 vaccine booster doses continue to be advisable for certain immunocompromised people, researchers at McGill University say.

The researchers looked at how often people with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) got COVID-19 despite having received at least three doses of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. IMIDs – including rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, inflammatory bowel disease and multiple sclerosis – affect more than seven million Canadians. The medications they take often weaken their vaccine responses, increasing their vulnerability to infection.

A new study in JAMA Pediatrics found that the spike in gun death rates during the first two years of the pandemic disproportionately affected adolescents ages 10-16, as well as adults over 30 years old. These increases lowered the peak risk of being a victim of a fatal shooting from 21 years old to 19 years old. The study also found that as adult gun death rates returned to pre-COVID levels in 2022 and 2023, gun homicide rates continued increasing for the 10-16 adolescent age group, doubling pre-pandemic rates.