May 21, 2021 9:00 AM
(Salt Lake City) – When COVID-19 cases began to rise dramatically in Utah in November 2020, schools faced a difficult choice. They could maintain normal activities, giving students valuable in-person instruction and social interaction but risking spread of COVID-19. Or they could send students home, keeping them safe from disease but putting their education, emotional health and social well-being at risk.
With a goal of preserving the best of both worlds, Utah Department of Health (UDOH) implemented two COVID-19 testing programs in collaboration with local health departments and Utah schools. These programs helped students participate in extracurricular activities and stay in school while likely reducing spread of the virus.
Demand surges for COVID-19 vaccination appointments, as some 700,000 Utahns become eligible msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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A decision-support tool that could be accessed via mobile devices may help clinicians in lower-resource settings avoid unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions for children with diarrhoea, a study published today in
eLife shows.
The preliminary findings suggest that incorporating real-time environmental, epidemiologic, and clinical data into an easy-to-access, electronic tool could help clinicians appropriately treat children with diarrhoea even when testing is not available. This could help avoid the overuse of antibiotics, which contributes to the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria. Diarrhoea is a common condition among children in low-resource settings, explains lead author Benjamin Brintz, Research Associate at the Division of Epidemiology, University of Utah Health, Salt Lake City, US. Antibiotics are often prescribed for it, despite the fact these medications will not help patients who have diarrhoea caused by viruses. Helping clinicians determine if a case of di