Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Research Roundup: Covid Vaccine In Pregnancy; Infection Reduction; Insomnia; Acute Flaccid Myelitis
A new study of almost 200,000 newborns in Sweden and Norway shows that maternal receipt of the COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy poses no risk to infants, and instead prevents babies from suffering serious complications. Moreover, the mortality rate for babies born to mothers who were vaccinated during pregnancy was half the rate of those whose mothers were unvaccinated. The study appeared yesterday in JAMA. The authors caution, however, that they were unable to explain why the mortality risk was so reduced among infants whose mothers were vaccinated. (Soucheray, 2/7)
A randomized clinical trial conducted in US and Canadian hospitals found that a skin antiseptic containing iodine reduced surgical-site infections in patients with fractured limbs by more than 25% compared with an antiseptic containing chlorhexidine gluconate, researchers reported last week in the New England Journal of Medicine. The investigators say the results could prompt changes in the type of antiseptic used in surgery to repair simple fractures. While some guidelines favor chlorhexidine gluconate, previous studies comparing the antiseptics in other surgical populations had provided conflicting results. (Dall, 2/5)
According to the results of a new survey given to Vietnamese patients and published in Frontiers in Public Health yesterday, 76% people who reported mild COVID-19 infections in the previous 6 months said they now experience insomnia, with 22.8% of those respondents saying their insomnia is severe. (Soucheray, 2/5)
In 2014, 2016, and 2018, the United States saw an uptick in enterovirus-D68 (EV-D68) infections and a subsequent rise in acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) cases, a severe neurologic condition that can result in paralysis. The pandemic likely disrupted the biannual pattern of infection in 2020, but an uptick in EV-D68 respiratory illnesses in 2022 did not lead to a matching increase in AFM cases, according to findings in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. AFM cases have remained low since 2018, for reasons unknown, the authors said. (Soucheray, 2/2)
