Preventive Medicine News

In the wake of record suicide numbers, primary care physicians are in a unique position to offer front-line mental health care, according to experts.

Major vaccine developments in 2023 included the approvals of the first two vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus, the first chikungunya vaccine, a new vaccine against malaria, and a move to new monovalent COVID-19 vaccines.

A recombinant influenza vaccine offered additional protection against PCR-confirmed influenza and community-acquired pneumonia hospitalization among adults aged 50 to 64 years compared with a standard-dose vaccine, study results showed.

Promising new devices and emerging drug classes may improve BP control for some patients with difficult-to-treat hypertension, but clinicians must first address the structural inequities that impact access to care, according to a speaker.

A hospital in California increased testing for chlamydia and gonorrhea among high-risk adolescents by nearly fivefold in its pediatric ED by implementing several interventions, including preselected order panels for physicians and nurses.

Last week, the CDC issued a health advisory to physicians in the United States about a more transmissible strain of mpox virus spreading in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and asked them to consider mpox when evaluating rashes.

Composite CVD risk factor control for U.S. adults with type 2 diabetes remains poor, but clinicians can use newer risk scores to better assess patients and prevent CV events with targeted therapies, according to a speaker.

The FDA has cleared BD MiniDraw, a capillary blood collection device developed by Babson Diagnostics and Becton, Dickinson and Company that allows clinicians to collect blood without a phlebotomist, according to a company press release.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has released a draft recommendation advising exercise for community-dwelling adults aged 65 years and older who are at risk for falls.

COVID-19 caused a surge in premature births in California that “fully disappeared” by 2022, likely because of vaccines, researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.