Healthcare & Laboratory News

CNN (6/20, Orie) reported at least 28 individuals in northeastern England “have reported symptoms of botulism after receiving cosmetic procedures, the UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA) told CNN in a statement Friday.” The UKHSA “said the reactions reported have included symptoms of severe drooping of the upper eyelids, double vision, difficulty swallowing, slurred speech and lethargy.” Investigations into the cause of the cases are ongoing, but the UKHSA said that “evidence so far does not suggest that the product used has been contaminated. Symptoms are being reported a few days up to four weeks after injection.” Meanwhile, the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said it is investigating “allegations surrounding the illegal sale and supply of Botox-type products in the North-East, and want to reassure the public that we take such claims very seriously.”

Infectious Disease Advisor (6/20, Nye) reported an analysis found that “the 3-drug antiretroviral therapy (ART) regimen bictegravir/emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide is associated with low rates of viremic events among patients with HIV infection, especially for those with high-level treatment adherence.” The analysis “comprised patient data captured from 8 randomized controlled phase 3/3b trials.” The researchers identified “a total of 411 viremic events occurred among the study population” who initiated the 3-drug ART regimen. They noted that “of patients who experienced viremia, 75.5% had a single event, 16.9% had 2 events, and 7.6% had 3 or more events. The median time to first viremic event was 254 days. Further analysis of patients who experienced viremia indicated most (86.2%) subsequently achieved resuppression.” Overall, “the researchers observed significantly increased rates of high-level treatment adherence (<85%) among patients with vs without a viremic event recorded during the study period.” The study was published in Infectious Diseases and Therapy.

Reuters (6/20, Corey-Boule) reported that as sub-Saharan Africa “remains the epicenter of the AIDS pandemic,” President Trump’s “cuts have restricted the availability of drugs that millions of Africans have taken to prevent infection,” and “now, some of those who’ve lost access to the preventative medication because of U.S. cutbacks are already testing positive, according to 10 patients, health officials and activists.” Reuters “spoke to 23 health workers, PrEP users and activists, nearly all of whom said that the increase in HIV infections since the funding cuts was impossible to quantify because many organisations working with vulnerable populations have been defunded.” USAIDS previously said in March that the US had been funding nearly 45% of HIV prevention programming “in East and Southern Africa, the sub-region that accounts for more than half of all people living with HIV.”

HealthDay (6/20, Thompson) reported a new blood test “looks for a specific immune response to gluten within a person’s blood, and can detect celiac disease even if a person is on a gluten-free diet for their GI symptoms.” The researchers “developed the test based on an unexpected discovery in 2019, when a team found that the immune marker interleukin 2 spikes in the bloodstream of people with celiac disease after they eat gluten. Based on this, the researchers created a test that provokes this immune response by exposing blood samples to gluten in a test tube.” According to the study, “the test proved 90% accurate in identify people with celiac disease, and 97% accurate in ruling out folks who don’t have the disorder.” Researchers concluded, “This new test promises to simplify and speed up accurate diagnosis, while also avoiding the suffering that comes with eating gluten for extended periods to reactivate celiac disease.” The study was published in Gastroenterology.

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The New York Times (6/18, Mandavilli) reports the FDA “on Wednesday approved a twice-yearly injection that provided a near-perfect shield against H.I.V. infection in clinical trials.” Lenacapavir, which is set to be marketed as Yeztugio, is the second long-acting option for HIV prevention. Reuters (6/18, Beasley, Steenhuysen) reports, “Lenacapavir, part of a class of drugs known as capsid inhibitors, proved nearly 100% effective at preventing HIV in large trials last year, raising new hope of interrupting transmission of the virus that infects 1.3 million people a year.” The AP (6/18, Neergaard) reports that lenacapavir’s “six-month protection makes it the longest-lasting type, an option that could attract people wary of more frequent doctor visits or stigma from daily pills.”

The Hill (6/18, Udasin) reports a study published Wednesday in PLOS Climate suggests that “wildfire-induced declines in air quality have led to a substantial surge in indoor activities, creating prime conditions for the transmission of respiratory illnesses such as COVID-19 and the flu.” The researchers analyzed “air quality data for particularly hard-hit counties in Oregon and Washington from July through November 2020.” They were able to “model indoor and outdoor activity patterns by acquiring records from a mobile phone database that tracks user visits to more than 4.6 million points of interest nationwide.” They observed that “increased indoor activity significantly impacted disease spread, with that effect decreasing with illnesses that have a longer generation time – the time between a primary case infection and the development of secondary cases.” For diseases with generation times of less than one week, such as COVID-19 and influenza, the authors identified “a notable increase in relative peak incidence.”

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