Vaccine Resources for Your Practice or to Share With Your Adult Patients

For Educating Your Adult Patients

Every year tens of thousands of adults needlessly suffer, are hospitalized, and even die as a result of diseases that could be prevented by vaccines.

While adults believe immunization is important, a recent national survey showed that most adults are not aware that they need vaccines throughout their lives to protect against diseases like shingles, pertussis, and hepatitis.

Patients trust you to give them the best advice on how to protect their health. Use the resources below to educate your patients on recommended vaccines and help them make informed decisions about vaccinations.

READ MORE from medscape.com

The Pitfalls of Friend Doctor's Advice

Everyone Wants Free Advice

There are some situations for which medical school simply doesn't prepare you. Consider Thanksgiving dinner, when Aunt Myrtle buttonholes you about a recurring rash that's been bothering her. Or the sideline consult that one of the parents at your kid's football game wants to have, right after her son lands awkwardly trying to catch a pass.

When you're a physician, informal requests for information are simply part of the conversational landscape. Sometimes those requests are a quick and easy way to help someone out with a bit of information, a simple clarification, or a reassuring affirmation. Other times they can escalate and become annoyances: A simple question can result in a follow-up phone call and more requests. And, in a worst-case scenario, they can present ethical landmines that may tempt physicians to cross professional boundaries.

How do you address or deflect such requests? Unfortunately, there are no easy answers. It depends a lot on you, your boundaries, and the situation.

READ FULL ARTICLE to find out more from medscape.com

Consumer, be aware: Quality of health-related Internet searches varies

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — If you’re like most people, you’ve gone online to find out what’s causing that ringing in your ears or whether a gluten-free diet is worth considering. Be careful.

University of Florida researchers have found that, as with so much on the Internet, the quality of the information you dig up may depend on what you ask for and the results could be hazardous to your health.

The researchers discovered that Web searches related to the diagnosis and treatment of physical disease or injuries tend to yield higher-quality information than online searches for preventive health and social health information. The findings appeared in the January issue of the journal Decision Support Systems.

A search for the word “health” returned first-page results from well-respected health care providers, for example, while a search for “newborn vaccines” yielded hits for blogs and forums that discuss delaying or refusing medically recommended vaccinations. So when it comes to health information, search results may vary.

READ FULL ARTICLE to find out how to understand your search results fromthe  University of FloridaNewsUNIVERSITY of FLORIDA

Preeclampsia Pregnancies and benefits of Low-Dose Aspirin

Daily low-dose aspirin starting as early as the second trimester of pregnancy appears to prevent morbidity and mortality from preeclampsia among high-risk women, according to a systematic review published online April 8 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. However, potential rare or long-term harms could not be ruled out.

"Preeclampsia, which is characterized by hypertension and proteinuria during the second half of pregnancy, is a leading cause of maternal and perinatal death," write Jillian T. Henderson, PhD, MPH, from the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Oregon, and colleagues.

"Previous comprehensive systematic reviews have found antiplatelets (primarily low-dose aspirin) to be beneficial for the prevention of preeclampsia among women at heightened risk. We conducted this systematic review to support the US Preventive Services Task Force [USPSTF] in updating its 1996 recommendation, which is no longer active."

READ FULL ARTICLE to learn what to do from medscape.com

NSAIDs: Not as Safe as You May Think

A survey of over 9000 patients published in 2005 concluded that over-the-counter (OTC) analgesics, including nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), are widely used, frequently by patients who are generally unaware of the potential for dangerous adverse side effects.^[1] Given recent concerns about use of acetaminophen products, particularly products with 500 mg or more per tablet,^[2] and the potential that patients will turn to NSAIDs as an alternative, it is more important than ever that clinicians provide accurate education about their use. Medscape spoke with Bill H. McCarberg, MD, founder of the Chronic Pain Management Program at Kaiser Permanente in Escondido, California, and a board member of the Alliance for the Rational Use of NSAIDs, about the latest evidence regarding these ubiquitous products.

READ FULL ARTICLE for more detail about side affects for GI damage and CV events from medscape.com

Adolescent Carotenoid Intake Linked to Lower Risk of Benign Breast Disease

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Teenage girls who eat more colorful fruits and vegetables are less likely to develop benign breast disease as young adults, according to an observational study.

Benign breast disease, or a group of lumps that can develop during adolescence or young adulthood, is not in itself dangerous. But benign breast disease does increase the risk of breast cancer later in life, the authors of the new study write.

Seeing the same association between certain antioxidants and benign breast disease among teen girls as has been seen for breast cancer among adults is exciting, said Caroline E. Boeke who worked on the study at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

"Consumption of these vegetables might be a way to prevent benign breast disease," Boeke said. However, she noted that this is an observational study, and can't prove veggies ward off the disease.

READ FULL ARTICLE for more details about the links of which foods decrease risk of breast cancers from medscape.com

Paper Money and Coins as Potential Vectors of Transmissible Disease

Paper currency and coins may be a public health risk when associated with the simultaneous handling of food and could lead to the spread of nosocomial infections. Banknotes recovered from hospitals may be highly contaminated byStaphylococcus aureus. Salmonellaspecies, Escherichia coli and S. aureus are commonly isolated from banknotes from food outlets. Laboratory simulations revealed that methicillin-resistant S. aureus can easily survive on coins, whereas E. coli, Salmonella species and viruses, including human influenza virus, Norovirus, Rhinovirus, hepatitis A virus, and Rotavirus, can be transmitted through hand contact. Large-scale, 16S rRNA, metagenomic studies and culturomics have the capacity to dramatically expand the known diversity of bacteria and viruses on money and fomites. This review summarizes the latest research on the potential of paper currency and coins to serve as sources of pathogenic agents.

READ FULL ARTICLE to learn more from medscape.com

Old Antibiotic for Uncomplicated Urinary Tract Infection

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — In hospitalized patients with uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTIs), cure rates with oral fosfomycin, an old antibiotic, are excellent, even in those colonized with resistant organisms, a new study shows.

"Results from this project showed an 83% cure rate. Even in patients who did not achieve a clinical cure, only about 3% overtly failed therapy," said investigator Shauna Jacobson, PharmD, from the Orlando Regional Medical Center in Florida.

"We recently restricted fluoroquinolones at our hospital, and then we went on to restrict meropenem," she told Medscape Medical News. Although "fosfomycin has been studied pretty well in community patients, especially in patients with uncomplicated cystitis, it hasn't been well studied in hospitalized patients," she said. "We wanted to see how our patients did on it."

The study results were presented here at the 16th International Congress on Infectious Diseases.

READ FULL ARTICLE for use in low risk patients from medcape.com

Just 10 Minutes! Getting Older Patients to Exercise

Hi. I am David Brown, from the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). I am pleased to speak with you today, as part of the CDC Expert Commentary Series on Medscape, and I am here to talk to you about the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Older Adults.

The guidelines say that older adults need to do 2 types of physical activity each week to improve health: aerobic andmuscle-strengthening.

For aerobic physical activity, the guidelines recommend that adults 65 years and older do:

• 2.5 hours of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity per week; or

• 1 hour and 15 minutes of vigorous intensity aerobic physical activity; or

• An equivalent combination of moderate and vigorous intensity physical activity weekly.

There are even greater health benefits from doing more than 2.5 hours of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity every week. Activities should last at least 10 minutes at a time. Doing 10-minute sessions of physical activity 3 times a day counts as much as doing a single 30-minute session.

The guidelines also recommend:

• Muscle strengthening on 2 or more days a week, preferably not on consecutive days, for all major muscle groups; and

• Balance exercises at least 3 days per week for those at risk for falling.

READ FULL ARTICLE for more details from medscape.com

Vaccine Reduces Influenza Risk in Mothers and Newborns

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — When pregnant women receive the flu vaccine, their risk of developing influenza is halved, as is the risk to their newborns in the first 24 weeks of life, new research shows.

"This is the first randomized controlled study to actually confirm that vaccination is efficacious in pregnant women, and only the second randomized controlled trial to show protection of the infant," said Shabir Madhi, MD, PhD, professor of vaccinology at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.

"Our data support the recent WHO recommendation in terms of prioritizing pregnant women for influenza vaccination, not just for the protection of the mother, but protection of the infant as well," he told Medscape Medical News.

Dr. Madhi presented the results here at the 16th International Congress on Infectious Diseases.

READ FULL ARTICLE why pregnant women are more at risk from medscape.com