InnovationRx: Respiratory Diseases Surge, Covid’s Connection To Heart Attacks And Genomics 3.0

InnovationRx is your weekly digest of healthcare news. To get it in your inbox, subscribe here . I t was around this time last year that Covid cases started taking off in the United States, and the CDC is already tracking a small uptick in Covid cases and hospitalizations right now.

But this year, Covid won’t be alone. The CDC has already warned about surging cases of flu and RSV, and is tracking a large increase in the number of children being hospitalized for these respiratory illnesses. As we move from Fall into Winter and of course the holiday travel season, we can probably expect more from what experts are calling a “tripledemic” of these respiratory illnesses.

Some southern hemisphere countries have already experienced serious flu outbreaks after two years of relatively low circulation, and while that doesn’t always translate into the same trends occurring in the northern hemisphere, it’s probably a good idea to keep your supply of masks handy before entering crowded spaces to reduce your risk of getting sick. Spatial biology company Resolve Biosciences is building up capital to accelerate its development of “Genomics 3. 0.

” Its technology uses a combination of digital technology and biotechnology to see the forest for the trees by better understanding what’s going on inside a patient. Read more here. Psychiatry: Alto Neuroscience announced this week that it has closed a $35 million series B round to accelerate clinical development of its lead candidates for major depressive disorder.

AI Screenings: Vara, which is developing AI tools for breast cancer screenings, announced a $4. 5 million extension to its series A this week. Primary Care On Your TV: Virtual primary care provider HealthTap announced a partnership with Samsung that would integrate its telehealth tools into smart TVs.

Researchers at Indiana University are studying whether music can be employed to reduce the incidence of delirium among ICU patients. Centene reported $738 million in profits for the 3rd quarter and raised its guidance for the rest of the year. The U.

K. ’s new prime minister has appointed Steve Barclay as the country’s new health secretary . Barclay had served in the role in the last two months of Boris Johnson’s administration as well.

R esearch out of the Smidt Heart Institute found a correlation between Covid-19 infections and heart attack deaths. A study found that heart attack deaths increased across all age groups during the pandemic, a reversal of the pre-pandemic trend. Interestingly, the increases tracked with surges of Covid-19 cases.

It was found that individuals within the age group of 25-44 were the most affected even though this age group is not typically considered high risk for heart attacks. Deaths increased by 14% between 2018-2019 and even persisted during the less deadly Omicron outbreak. Researchers believe this trend is caused by several factors.

One being that Covid may trigger underlying coronary artery disease amongst all age groups. Another reason is an increase in stress that leads to cardiac disease due to factors like job loss and other financial pressures. Either way, as we move into the winter and a possible resurgence of Covid, public health experts recommend getting one of the new bivalent booster shots and taking other precautions like masking when warranted.

President Joe Biden got his updated Covid-19 booster shot on Tuesday, reinvigorating the White House’s effort to encourage more Americans to get the updated shot as officials prepare for the virus to stage a comeback this winter. Read more here. The use of ventilation , filtration and ultraviolet C-radiation lights have been proven to slow the transmission of Covid-19.

For example, a study found that UVC lights reduced air concentration of pathogens by around 50% to 70%. A study found a change in the personalities of young adults — they’re less conscientious, open and agreeable as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. A new placebo-controlled, double-blind study finds that anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin is not an effective treatment for Covid-19.

. With the government stepping down from regulating the price of Covid vaccines , tests and medications, their prices have risen , Pfizer, for example, announced that its vaccine price would increase to as much as $130 a dose. Billionaire No More: Kanye West’s Antisemitism Obliterates His Net Worth As Adidas Cuts Ties A China-Based ByteDance Team Investigated TikTok’s Global Security Chief, Who Oversaw U.

S. Data Concerns Inside King Charles III’s $25 Billion Real Estate Empire Some People Really Are Mosquito Magnets, and They’re Stuck That Way (Scientific American) Cancer drugs are closing in on some of the deadliest mutations (Nature) Using herpes virus vectors, Paul Peter Tak and Carl June team up to solve the CAR-T solid tumor challenge (Endpoints News).