Flu

Pharmacy Times spoke with NACDS President and CEO Steven C. Anderson, FASAE, CAE, IOM, about the vital role pharmacists have in the upcoming influenza season and how they will be involved in distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine.

In populations with moderately high background levels of flu vaccination coverage, vaccine intervention programs were found to reduce influenza spread.

Pharmacists must raise awareness to dispel misinformation surrounding vaccines during a critical flu season.

Knowing the order in which the symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019 manifest can help physicians make a more accurate diagnosis.

Walgreens is now offering flu shots daily at all of its nearly 9100 pharmacies, with additional safety measures in place that follow the CDC’s recommendations for anyone over 6 months of age to get the flu shot.

The 2020 virtual Directions in Pharmacy® conference provided a comprehensive overview of influenza, including identifying at-risk patients and providing interventions to address vaccination misconceptions.

Flu vaccination will be particularly important in the 2020-2021 season to lessen the burden on the health care system and ensure adequate resources amid the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

Inflluenza treatment was a timely topic discussed during the 2020 virtual Directions in Pharmacy® conference.

The peptide, also known as Pept-ins, already proved to be a valuable approach to tackle bacterial pathogens or slow down tumor growth, according to the study authors.

Is there any scientific evidence that sliced onions help rid a home of influenza and other viruses?

A study showed that pharmacists in the state of Wisconsin are most likely to administer zoster and influenza vaccines to customers.

The latest update from the CDC incorporates evidence that informs the duration of isolation and precautions recommended to prevent transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) to others while limiting unnecessary prolonged isolation and unnecessary use of laboratory testing resources.

Seasonal influenza is usually active from October to May and is caused by A and B strains of the influenza virus.

Prepping for flu season in 2020: why the vaccine is more important than ever.

The findings indicate that front-line health care workers are at high risk for COVID-19 and that many health care workers with the virus may not have typical symptoms of a respiratory infection, according to the study authors.

The frequency of adverse events, such as headaches and nausea, was similar among those who received the drug (22.2%) and those who received placebos (20.5%) with no deaths in either group.

Researchers conducted an online study with 371 participants who viewed a COVID-19 screening session between a hotline agent, chatbot or human, and a user with mild or severe symptoms, according to a press release.

According to the researchers, N95 masks and surgical masks, along with vacuum cleaner filters that can be inserted into filter pockets in cloth masks are the next best options. The vacuum filters reduced infection risk by 83% for a 30-second exposure and 58% for 20-minute exposure.

According to a recent analysis published in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society, Black individuals are twice as likely as White individuals to test positive for COVID-19.

Ensuring equitable distribution of remdesivir in virus hot spots can help increase the capacity of intensive care unites.

Pharmacists must be able to identify populations that are at high risk for influenza complications.

Studying blood samples from critically ill patients at the London Health Sciences Center (LHSC), the researchers identified a unique pattern of 6 molecules that could be used as therapeutic targets to treat the virus, as reported in the Critical Care Explorations journal.

Vitamin C and zinc are among the adjuvant treatments being evaluated for patients with COVID-19 due to their various immune-enhancing properties and possible antiviral effects.

Antibodies isolatied from plasma donated from recovered COVID-19 patients fights the virus that causes COVID-19.

Although flu vaccines have been proven to reduce severe illness, evidence is lacking on the link between flu vaccination and antibiotic prescribing at the population level in the United States, according to the study authors.

Further, although the transmission of influenza and COVID-19 are similar, the incubation period is differentiated, with a range of 1 to 4 days for influenza and a range of 2 to 12 days for COVID-19.

Increasing education and recommendations is a crucial element of increasing maternal vaccination.

The widely available anti-parasitic drug ivermectin is capable of killing COVID-19 within 48 hours in a cell culture, according to a new study.

The new edge-computing platform may expand the arsenal of health surveillance tools used to forecast seasonal flu and other viral respiratory outbreaks, such as COVID-19 or severe acute respiratory syndrome.