Healthwatch 16: COVID-19 and infertility wnep.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wnep.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Another local medical provider is offering an intravenous antibody therapy that may help COVID-19 patients avoid hospital stays and recover more quickly with fewer complications.
The Wright Center for Community Health is now operating a Scranton outpatient infusion clinic administering the monoclonal antibody bamlanivimab, which received emergency use authorization as a COVID-19 treatment in November.
âMonoclonal antibodies are laboratory-made proteins that mimic the immune systemâs ability to fight off harmful pathogens like viruses,â according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Developed by the pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly and Co., bamlanivimab is a monoclonal antibody specifically directed against the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Itâs âdesigned to block the virusâ attachment and entry into human cells,â according to the FDA.
The masking, the social distancing and all of the other steps people have taken in recent months to curb the spread of COVID-19 appear to have contributed to something else: an extraordinarily mild flu season so far.
Across Northeast Pennsylvania and the rest of the commonwealth, the state Department of Health categorizes influenza activity as low, with only 2,595 laboratory-confirmed cases and 35 flu-related hospitalizations statewide since the seasonâs start in late September.
During the 2019-2020 flu season, there were 2,241 confirmed flu cases in Lackawanna County. Luzerne County had 3,768.
Within the Geisinger Health System, there have been no flu-related hospitalizations or even any positive laboratory test results as of Friday, said Dr. Pragya Dhaubhadel, director of infection prevention and control for Geisingerâs northeast region.
(Photo : Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 29: James Harvey tends tends to the inventory of pre-sold caskets at a funeral home on April 29, 2020 in New York City. The funeral home, which serves a busy and diverse community in Queens, has been overwhelmed with the deceased from COVID-19. Most of the employees of the funeral home are working seven days a week to serve multiple daily funerals and a continual arrival of the deceased.
Geisinger Health System researchers created a computer algorithm that uses echocardiogram videos of the heart, which could help it predict a person s death chance within a year.