Infection Control News

Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has donated $1.1 million to the American Kidney Fund’s coronavirus emergency relief program, allowing for all patients currently on the waitlist to receive financial assistance.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had major impacts on many areas of kidney care. These impacts range from necessary changes in the way routine dialysis is provided to spiking rates of AKI among patients hospitalized with the virus.

The National Kidney Foundation and the American Society of Nephrology have written a letter to the Trump administration highlighting the “unique needs” of patients with kidney disease as the country re-opens amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

No one wants to continuously worry about the possibility of a crisis. However, they do happen, and as the report investigating the WHO’s response to the 2009 H1N1 pandemic concluded,“The world is ill prepared to respond to a severe influenza pandemic or to any similarly global, sustained and threatening public-health emergency.” That was more than 10 years ago.

A new National Kidney Foundation-Harris poll on COVID-19 and kidney health indicates less than one in five Americans are aware that kidneys can fail due to coronavirus.

CMS recently announced it would expand Medicare coverage to include a range of services through audio-only telehealth visits, one of many changes the agency made to adapt patient care amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Findings from two recently published articles point to a significant reduction in the number of overall solid-organ transplantation procedures performed, with the most notable decline seen in kidney transplantation.

In a published paper, researchers argued that undocumented immigrants with kidney failure are presented with unique risks during the COVID-19 pandemic as they attempt to obtain necessary dialysis treatments.

A study of patients admitted to New York hospitals with COVID-19 found acute kidney injury was common. Findings also suggested AKI developed in early stages of the disease and in conjunction with respiratory failure.

Healio Nephrology previously compiled a list of our top stories related to the safe delivery of dialysis treatments during the COVID-19 pandemic.